How to fish in Valheim

Stage 1: Start collecting coins. If you’re new to the game or don’t have a lot of money, you’ll need to pick up some currency in preparation. Around 400 to 500 coins should be enough to equip yourself for fishing. You can find coins by exploring and trading.

Step 2: Find the merchant Haldor. The only merchant in Valheim that reliably sells fishing rods and bait is Haldor. The problem is that Haldor is not easy to find, especially for newcomers. It spawns randomly in the Black Forest biomes in Valheim, so the best way to find it is to search every Black Forest you come across.

This part can take a while if you’re unlucky, so you may need to be patient. Combine Haldor’s quest with coin collecting, and you’ll easily have enough until you find him, as the Black Forest is full of ores to mine, burial chambers to explore, and more.

Step 3: Buy your rod and as much bait as you want to get started.

Step 4: Find some water. You can fish any notable body of water, so an ocean or river will work well. Ideally you should be close to the water and not too high above it as this can get in the way while you fish. Equip your rod and bait.

Step 5: Experiment with casting your line using Left click. The longer you hold before clicking, the longer you’ll throw. You don’t really have to cast very far to start fishing, but find a length that works for you.

Step 6: Now use yours Right click to start slowly winding the line. The goal is to keep the line and its bait active without reeling in too quickly, so Click-pause-click tends to work best.

Step 7: When the water around the line starts to spray and the beaver disappears, you’ve got a bite. Strike quickly Right click again. If the time is correct, then you will see a small “pinned” notification. Now comes the hard part: You have to carefully roll the fish Right clickbut avoid right-clicking too much when the fish is struggling or you’ll rip the hook.

Step 8: After unloading the fish, you can pick it up to get raw fish in your inventory. Small fish like perch will give you one raw fish. Larger fish will give you two and the largest fish like tuna will give you four raw fish.

You can collect as much raw fish as you want…but it’s not very useful unless you’re crafting with it. You can find or make a cooking station on a campfire or hearth and cook the fish to get Boiled Fish. Don’t let the fish overcook or you’ll just end up charred. About 25 seconds will cook all types of meat properly, including fish.

By itself, cooked fish will give you health, stamina, and health regeneration for an extended period of time. But if you also have barley flour and a cooking cauldron, you can combine four barley flours and two cooked fish to make fish wraps that are significantly more powerful.

Step 9: Keep in mind that if you’re not getting any bites in a particular body of water, you may have maxed out the number of fish you can catch there. The fish will eventually respawn, but it’s a good idea to rotate your fishing spots if you’re there for a long time.

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