How to fish in Valheim

Wondering how to fish in Valheim? When you're not slaying Odin's enemies in the Norse underworld, it makes perfect sense to kick back with a relaxing bit of fishing. And if you've spent time on a raft or ship, or even just wandered close to a body of water, you've probably already seen a few fish swimming around. But how do you catch them? Don't worry, it's not hard, but you'll need a little bit of gear and a lot of stamina.

Valheim fishing rod: How to get it

It's a bit unfortunate that in a world where you craft all your own gear, you can't craft a fishing rod. But at least there's Haldor, the vendor you'll (eventually) find in the black forest.

Haldor sells fishing rods for 350 coins, and sells 20 pieces of basic bait for 10 coins.

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If you haven't found Haldor already, you can check our guide on how to increase your Valheim inventory size for a few tips on locating Valheim's NPC vendor.

If you're a real gambler, you can attempt to find a fishing rod out in the world. They are very rarely found as loot in frost caves in the mountains biome. I'd probably stick with buying one from Haldor, though: I've got over 150 hours in Valheim and I've never found a fishing rod in a frost cave.

How to fish in Valheim

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Fishing is stamina based: you'll need to spend stamina to reel your fish in, so prepare yourself as you would going into battle: by eating enough food to give you a full stamina bar and by bringing some stamina meads with you.

With the rod equipped and the bait selected in your inventory (by right-clicking it), press mouse 1 (or your attack button) to cast your line into the water. When a fish swims near and nibbles—your bobbin will be tugged—click mouse 2 (or your block button). That will instantly hook your fish.

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To reel in your fish, hold down mouse 2: that will drain your stamina while reeling in the fish. If you run out of stamina before you finish reeling it in, the fish will escape.

When the fish is close to you, you'll be able to target it with your crosshairs and press E (or your use button) to pick it up.

Fishing tips

(Image credit: Coffee Stain Publishing)

• Fish are physical entities that spawn into the world, so if you don't see any fish in the water nearby, you're not going to catch anything.
• To find fish, run along the edge of the water and try to spot them swimming around, then aim your cast there.
• You can also take a boat out into the water to look for groups of fish. Just watch out for sea serpents, which are a little too big to land with a fishing rod.
• You can craft bait from fish you catch using the food preparation table. The food preparation table can be made with 5 iron, 15 leather scraps, and 20 finewood.
• Make sure you have spare room in your inventory for your catches!
• You can also catch fish by hand if you're fast enough. They sometimes wash up on beaches, too.
• There's a fishing hat you'll learn to craft by catching at least one of every different fish in Valheim. It gives you a +20 to your fishing skill.