Valheim: Deep Waters

A fishing overhaul for Valheim. Fish swim up to your bait, nibble, and then bite, just like vanilla, but now you play the fight with line tension, drag, and stamina. There are rods for every era, hook sizes, bait you gather from the world, buffs, trophies, and a catch log.

Requires BepInEx 5 and Jötunn 2.30 or newer. Built for Valheim 1.0.20.

Features

• All 12 vanilla fish plus 31 new ones, including 10 legendaries, each with its own biomes, depth, favourite bait, time of day and weather
• Fish you can see swim up to your bait, nibble the float, then bite. Strike too early and you spook them; make noise and they flee
• A real fight: line tension, drag on the mouse wheel, sideways runs, leaps and snapped lines
• Twelve rods, one for each era plus special ones, that wear out with use and upgrade to level 4, and hooks in eight kinds
• Bait from the world: worms, grubs, flies, leeches and baitfish
• A tackle panel under the inventory (drag it anywhere) with slots for your rod, bait, hook, weight and leader; the rod in its slot takes no inventory space
• Weights and leaders: every fish feeds at its own depth, so set your leader to fish the depth you want, or fish the bottom with a weight, a Texas rig or a Carolina rig. Light weights get dragged about by waves and storms
• Tackle boxes in four tiers: carry your tackle in your hand, open it anywhere, set it down as a chest
• Lures you cast far and retrieve (spoons, spinners, crankbaits, jigs, soft baits, swimbaits, poppers and flies), with trailers, and seven boss lures
• A Fishing Boat you row, with a passenger seat and a bow holdfast
• Fishing meads, chum, totems, rare relics and a Fisherman's armour set
• Seven boss fish you summon with boss lures, each with its own weather, music and fight
• Angler ranks, species mastery with Gold Trophy Plaques, and rare golden and albino catches
• A Fish Cleaning Table, fish materials, dishes and feasts, and traders who each buy their own catch
• An endgame: the Allfather's Rod and Njord's Regalia, earned by landing every boss fish
• Size classes, a trophy mount, cooking, selling, a catch log with rewards, and Valheim's Fishing skill
• In multiplayer, players nearby see your line, the fish you're fighting and the catch

How to fish

1. Craft a Wooden Fishing Rod (workbench) and some Tiny hooks, and dig up worms from wriggling soil in the forest.
2. Put bait and a hook in your tackle slots under the inventory (or right-click them there).
3. Face the water, hold left click to charge, and release to cast.
4. Fish come to the bait and nibble the float with small dips. Don't strike yet.
5. On the real bite (FISH ON!, a big dip), right click to set the hook.
6. Hold right click to reel and use the mouse wheel to set the drag. Tighter drag reels faster and tires the fish quicker, but risks snapping the line. Reeling costs stamina.

Bait is only used up once a fish is hooked.

Action	Input
Cast	Hold and release left click
Set the hook	Right click on the bite
Reel in early	Right click while waiting
Reel	Hold right click
Drag	Mouse wheel (configurable)
Reel speed	Alt + mouse wheel (configurable; Shift: full speed)
Twitch a lure	Left click while retrieving
Pull back on a fish	Hold left click
Next bait / next hook	B / H
Catch log	J

Rods

Each rod is better than the last. Every rod lists its stats in its tooltip: cast distance, line, line strength, reel speed, power, hook bonus, stamina use and durability.

Rod	Station	Materials
Wooden	Workbench 1	Wood 10, Leather scraps 4
Copper	Forge 1	Wood 6, Copper 5, Deer hide 2
Finewood	Forge 2	Fine wood 10, Bronze 4, Troll hide 2
Ancient Bark	Forge 2	Ancient bark 10, Iron 4, Guck 3
Silver	Forge 3	Fine wood 6, Silver 6, Wolf pelt 2
Black Metal	Forge 5	Fine wood 6, Black metal 6, Linen thread 6
Yggdrasil	Black forge 1	Yggdrasil wood 10, Carapace 4, Eitr 2
Ashwood	Black forge 2	Blackwood 10, Flametal 4, Asksvin hide 2
Frostwood	Black forge 3	Timberwood 10, Frostcore 3, Moose sinew 4
Leviathan	Black forge 2	Two materials from each of the seven boss fish, Yggdrasil wood 10, Flametal 6
Allfather's Rod	Black forge 3	The Leviathan Rod and three materials from each boss fish; shows once you've landed every boss fish
Haldor's Gilded Rod	Haldor only	6000 coins

Rods wear while a fish is on the line, faster with heavy fish and high tension. A broken rod loses the fish and must be repaired where it was crafted.

Upgrading rods

Every rod upgrades to level 4 at its crafting station, like vanilla gear. Each level adds cast distance, line, line strength, reel speed, power, hook bonus and durability, and eases reeling stamina; a fully upgraded rod sits about halfway to the next one. Upgrades cost fish materials (see below), the line of the rod's era (leather scraps, deer hide, linen, jute, morgen sinew, moose sinew) and some of each biome's oddments: greydwarf eyes, obsidian, tar, deathsquito needles, sap, charred bone, celestial feathers. The last level also needs a Trophy Fin. The tooltip shows the rod's stats at its level.

Fish materials

Clean a catch at the Fish Cleaning Table for its material. Bigger fish give more: a Trophy-size fish gives four times what a Small one does. The table (hammer, near a workbench: 10 wood, 4 flint, 4 resin) cleans the common fish; its three add-ons, built beside it, let it handle the rarer ones:

Level	Add-on	Cleans for	Prepares	Cost
1	Fish Cleaning Table	Fish Scales, Fish Oil		10 wood, 4 flint, 4 resin
2	Filleting Knife Rack	Spiny Fins, Fish Roe	Fish Fillets (from any fish)	4 fine wood, 2 bronze, 10 Fish Scales
3	Brining Barrel	Abyssal Ink, Legendary Scales	Brined Roe (3 roe, 1 oil)	6 fine wood, 2 iron, 10 Fish Oil
4	Drying Line	Cinder Scales, Rime Scales	Dried Fish (3 fillets)	6 fine wood, 3 red jute, 10 Abyssal Ink

Cleaning fish raises your Fishing skill.

The materials go into rod upgrades, every lure (the boss lures take three of their biome's material), the crafted baits, the meads, chum, the Rune of Njord and the totems.

Fish dishes

Made from the cleaning table's prepared ingredients at Valheim's own food stations:

Dish	Where	Ingredients	Health / Stamina / Eitr
Grilled Fish Fillet	Cooking station	A Fish Fillet	25 / 22
Fisherman's Stew	Cauldron 1	Fish Fillets, Fish Oil, 2 carrots	35 / 40
Spiny Fin Soup	Cauldron 2	Fish Fillets, 2 Spiny Fins, 2 onions	50 / 45
Roe Flatbread	Cauldron 3	Bread, 2 Brined Roe, 2 cloudberries	40 / 75
Ink-Black Noodles	Cauldron 4	Fish Fillets, Abyssal Ink, 2 jotun puffs	45 / 30 / 75
Ember-Grilled Fillet	Cauldron 5	2 Fish Fillets, Cinder Scales, 2 vineberries	85 / 50
Rime-Cured Salmon	Food preparation table	2 Fish Fillets, Rime Scales, 2 lingonberries	80 / 70 / 30
Fisherman's Rations	Food preparation table	2 Dried Fish, 2 cloudberries, honey	35 / 35, lasts an hour

Material	From
Fish Scales	Perch, Bluegill, Trout, Largemouth Bass, Greydwarf Goby, Pike
Fish Oil	Trollfish, Channel Catfish, Mackerel, Sea Bass, Giant Herring, Surtling Sardine
Spiny Fins	Tetra, Frost Char, Coral Cod, Pufferfish, Serpentfin
Fish Roe	Tuna, Grouper, Halibut, Lingcod
Abyssal Ink	Anglerfish, Mistfin, Bonemaw, Jotunn Perch
Cinder Scales	Magmafish
Rime Scales	Northern Salmon, Rimejaw Cod, Glacier Grayling, Frost Sculpin
Legendary Scale	Any legendary or boss fish

Landing a Trophy-size fish of any kind also gives a Trophy Fin.

Hooks

You need a hook to cast, and each size suits a range of fish weights.

Hook	Suits	Station	Recipe (makes)
Tiny #12	0–1.5 kg	Workbench 1	Flint 1, Resin 1 (5)
Small #6	0.5–5 kg	Forge 1	Copper 1 (5)
Medium #2	2–15 kg	Forge 1	Bronze 1 (5)
Large 2/0	8–40 kg	Forge 2	Iron 1 (4)
Heavy 5/0	25–100 kg	Forge 3	Iron 1, Silver 1 (3)
Giant 8/0	60–250 kg	Forge 5	Black metal 2 (3)
Fimbul 12/0	25–300 kg, never bends, kept half the time the line breaks	Forge 5	Rimefrost Fin 1, Silver 2 (1)
Golden 10/0	Any fish (0–300 kg), never bends, kept three times in four when the line breaks, +5% hook chance and +15% hook window	Can't be crafted	A relic: very rarely inside a legendary fish

• Too big for the fish: much harder to hook.
• Too small: a big fish can straighten it mid-fight, and a fish far too big won't bite at all.

You lose the hook if the line snaps, the rod breaks or the hook straightens.

Vanilla fish

All 12 vanilla fish can be caught with Deep Waters rods: Perch, Pike, Tuna, Tetra, Trollfish, Giant Herring, Grouper, Coral Cod, Pufferfish, Anglerfish, Northern Salmon and Magmafish. They live where vanilla spawns them, and landing one gives the normal vanilla item, so vanilla cooking, recipes and food all work. They also get a weight and size class, plus any extra drops vanilla gives. They bite Deep Waters bait like every other fish. The vanilla fishing rod and vanilla fishing baits are taken out of the game: no one sells them and they can't be crafted.

Deep Waters fish

28 new fish to catch and eat, plus 3 bait fish. Weights are each species' maximum. Ocean and deep-ocean fish bite in any sea; fresh-water fish only in their biomes.

Fresh water

Fish	Water	Biomes	Max
Bluegill	Lake	Meadows	0.6 kg
Greydwarf Goby	Lake	Black Forest	1.5 kg
Trout	River	Meadows, Black Forest, Mountain	4 kg
Largemouth Bass	Lake	Meadows, Black Forest	5 kg
Frost Char	Lake	Mountain, Deep North	6 kg
Mistfin	Lake	Swamp, Mistlands	12 kg
Channel Catfish	Lake, river	Black Forest, Swamp	20 kg
Glacier Grayling	River	Deep North	3 kg
Frost Sculpin	Lake	Deep North	4 kg

Ocean

Fish	Max
Surtling Sardine	2 kg
Mackerel	3 kg
Sea Bass	9 kg
Serpentfin	28 kg
Rimejaw Cod (Deep North coasts and deep lakes)	18 kg

Deep ocean (15 m of water or more)

Fish	Max
Lingcod	25 kg
Halibut	45 kg
Jotunn Perch	55 kg
Bonemaw	70 kg

Legendary (rare, and they fight hard)

Fish	Water	Max
Eikthyr Elver	Meadows river	12 kg
Elder Bass	Black Forest lake	60 kg
Bonemass Catfish	Swamp lake	85 kg
Fenringfin	Ocean	35 kg
Thor's Hammerhead	Ocean	140 kg
Odin's Eye	Deep ocean	25 kg
Queen Eel	Deep ocean	50 kg
Yagluth Gill	Deep ocean	100 kg
Moder Scale Fish	Deep ocean	180 kg
Fimbul Salmon	Deep North river	250 kg

Bait fish (land as bait instead of food; use a Tiny hook)

Fish	Water	Gives
Minnow	River	Live Minnow
Baitfish	Any	Large Live Baitfish
Sea Shrimp	Ocean	Shrimp Bait

Boss fish

Seven legendaries are named after Valheim's bosses, and they're boss fights. They never bite by chance: you summon one with a lure carved from that boss's trophy (or, for Kall Fimbulbringer, his Crown Jewel), cast in the right water at the right time.

Boss fish	Lure	Where	When
Eikthyr Elver	Antler Lure (Eikthyr trophy)	Meadows river	Thunderstorm
Elder Bass	Root Lure (The Elder trophy)	Black Forest lake	Night
Bonemass Catfish	Ooze Lure (Bonemass trophy)	Swamp water	Rain
Moder Scale Fish	Wyrm Lure (Moder trophy)	Sea off the Deep North	Storm or snow
Yagluth Gill	Ember Lure (Yagluth trophy)	Deep sea off the Plains	Night
Queen Eel	Chitin Lure (The Queen trophy)	Deep sea off the Mistlands	Any time
Fimbul Salmon	Crown Lure (Kall Fimbulbringer's Crown Jewel, black forge)	Deep North river or lake	Night

Cast the lure in the right place and an omen begins: the water goes still, a dark swirl spreads around the float, a sign appears, bubbles rise and the float shudders - then it strikes. You get twice the usual time to set the hook. Reeling in during the omen calls it off and keeps the lure; it's only used up once the fish is hooked. In the wrong place nothing answers, and you're told where it hunts.

From the omen to the end of the fight the boss brings its namesake boss's weather - Eikthyr's storm, the Elder's mist, Bonemass's rot, Moder's blizzard, Yagluth's embers, the Queen's gloom. Everyone within about 150 m sees it and hears the boss music, so friends can come and watch.

The Queen Eel fights like a sea serpent: a 7.5 m monster that circles you, its back humping through the waves; once enraged it charges straight at you - reel hard to keep the line tight - and rears out of the water before crashing down. Pull back while it's reared up: that's when it tires fastest.

The fight brings up a boss bar with its name - its stamina, which drains faster the harder you fight it (tight drag, high tension) and recovers if you give it slack, so no two fights are alike. It plays its boss's music and goes through phases: at two thirds it's enraged (pulls harder, leaps more), at one third desperate (dives that tear line off the reel). An empty bar means it's beaten; then reel it in. Landing one drops its trophy the first time and a boss material every time, and tells the whole server. Two materials from each of the seven string the Leviathan Rod (black forge).

The endgame:

• Boss lures cost more each time you land their boss: every ingredient but the boss part needs one more per landing, up to three times the first cost, and the Bog Witch's price rises the same way. It's per character.
• Allfather's Rod: once you've landed every boss fish, remake the Leviathan Rod with three materials from each - the best rod there is.
• Njord's Regalia: once you've landed every boss fish three times, set the Pearl, the Scale, the Horn and the Golden Hook in one crown (they're used up), with two materials from each boss: every relic's blessing in one helm.
• The catch log's sidebar shows how many boss fish you've landed and what the next unlock needs.

Fenringfin, Thor's Hammerhead and Odin's Eye are mini-bosses: they still bite by luck and fight the same way (phases and all), with no bar, music or messages, and drop their trophy the first time.

Bait

Bait	Where to get it
Worms	Dig up wriggling soil in forests where red mushrooms grow (it regrows), usually 1 worm and sometimes 2 or 3. When it rains, worms come up out of the ground around you
Grubs	Sometimes found when you chop up a log
Flies	Swarms along rivers, lakes and the coast in dry weather (fireflies at night); walk up and use one to catch it
Leeches	Dropped by swamp leeches
Minnows, Large Baitfish, Shrimp, Live Bluegill	Catch them as small fish with worms, grubs or flies on a Tiny hook; they swim in schools where they live (bluegill in Meadows lakes, on worms and grubs)
Abyssal, Frost and Runed bait	Crafted at the cauldron or forge
Northern Bait	Crafted at the cauldron (seal blubber and lingonberries); the Deep North's fish want it

Wriggling soil only grows in parts of the world generated after installing the mod.

Each bait goes for a few fish, so pick it for the fish you're after; anything else takes it only now and then. A bait's tooltip lists what it catches (species you haven't caught show as ???), the catch log shows each species' bait, and a cast tells you when nothing in that water goes for yours. You need bait (or a lure) to cast.

Bait	Catches
Worm	Perch, Bluegill, Greydwarf Goby, Catfish
Grub	Trout, Bass, Perch, Bluegill
Fly	Trout, Frost Char, Glacier Grayling, Tetra
Minnow	Pike, Bass, Mackerel, Sea Bass
Large Baitfish	Tuna, Lingcod, Serpentfin, Grouper
Live Bluegill	Catfish, Bass, Pike
Leech	Catfish, Mistfin, Trollfish, Pike
Stinkbait	Catfish, Trollfish, Mistfin
Shrimp	Coral Cod, Herring, Pufferfish, Sea Bass, Halibut
Abyssal Bait	Anglerfish, Bonemaw, Jotunn Perch, Magmafish, Halibut
Frost Bait	Tetra, Frost Char, Salmon, Fenringfin
Northern Bait	Salmon, Rimejaw Cod, Glacier Grayling, Frost Sculpin
Runed Bait	Odin's Eye, Thor's Hammerhead, Moder Scale Fish, Yagluth Gill, Fenringfin

Deep Waters replaces vanilla fishing: the vanilla rod and baits aren't sold or crafted, and the vanilla rod can't be used.

Lures and trailers

A lure goes in the hook slot and needs no hook or bait. The bait slot then takes an optional trailer. With a lure there's no float: cast it further than bait, then work it back in. Fish only strike while the lure is moving; a lure left sitting draws nothing. Each kind of lure draws its own fish and mostly gets ignored by the rest.

Retrieves. How you work the lure is a retrieve, and the HUD names the one you're doing (green when it suits the lure):

Retrieve	How	Suits	Draws
Slow Roll	Hold right click at a low reel speed	Spinners, soft baits, Texas rigs, swimbaits, flies	Perch, trout, char, grouper, halibut
Steady	Hold right click at a medium speed	Spoons, spinners, crankbaits, swimbaits	Trout, salmon, herring, tetra
Burn	High reel speed, or hold Shift	Spoons, crankbaits	Pike, mackerel, tuna, salmon
Stop & Go	Reel, pause, reel, pause	Spoons, crankbaits, soft baits, poppers, flies	Pike, trollfish, mistfin, lingcod
Twitch	Tap left click while reeling	Poppers, flies, jigs	Trout, tetra, mackerel, trollfish
Hop	Tap left click with pauses, without reeling	Jigs, Texas rigs, soft baits	Coral cod, lingcod, halibut, grouper, pufferfish

The right retrieve brings the fish it draws more often and makes them likelier to strike; with the wrong one, fish follow the lure and turn away. Alt + mouse wheel sets the reel speed (also in a fight, where a slower reel strains the line less); Shift reels at full speed.

Lure	Kind	Fish	Made at, with
Feather Fly	Fly	Trout, char, grayling (0.05–3 kg)	Forge 2, Small Hook
Flint Spinner	Spinner, takes a trailer	Perch, trout, pike (0.1–4 kg)	Forge 2, Large Hook
Leather Grub	Soft bait	Perch, trout, gobies (0.1–5 kg)	Forge 2, Large Hook
Bronze Spoon	Spoon	Pike, trout, salmon, mackerel (0.3–10 kg)	Forge 2, Large Hook
Finewood Crankbait	Crankbait	Pike, perch, trollfish (0.5–12 kg)	Forge 3, Large Hook
Guck Crawler	Texas rig	Trollfish, pike, mistfin (0.5–15 kg)	Forge 3, Large Hook
Bone Jig	Jig, takes a trailer	Lingcod, halibut, grouper (1–30 kg)	Forge 3, Large Hook
Silver Swimbait	Swimbait	Big pike, tuna, grouper, halibut (2–40 kg)	Forge 4, Heavy Hook
Linen Popper	Topwater	Pike, trollfish, mackerel (0.5–20 kg)	Forge 4, Heavy Hook
Ice Spoon	Spoon	Salmon, grayling, char (0.5–20 kg)	Forge 4, Heavy Hook
Frostcore Jig	Jig, takes a trailer	Rimejaw cod, sculpin (1–60 kg)	Black forge 2, Giant Hook

A trailer (Curly Tail, Boar Rind, Feather Skirt) brings fish of its own and makes the lure's fish keener. Lures are mid-game tackle: each is made at the forge with a hook in the recipe. Lures and trailers are only used up when a fish is hooked. The boss lures work the same way (they need a hook too), but only their boss answers them.

Fishing Boat

A small rowing boat built with the hammer at a workbench (24 wood, 8 resin, 4 deer hide). Use the bench to row (forward and back only; it has no sail, so the wind doesn't move it). It has a passenger seat at the stern, a holdfast in the bow to stand braced in rough water, and a ladder on the side to climb in from the water. Fish you land while aboard any ship go straight into your inventory.

Tackle slots

The tackle panel under your inventory has five slots: Rod, Bait, Hook, Weight and Leader. To fill them, drag items in, or right-click or Ctrl+click them in your inventory (Ctrl+click a slot to take it back out). Drag the panel by its wood to put it anywhere on the screen; double-click it to put it back.

• Rod: a rod in the rod slot takes no inventory space. Right-click the slot, or press Alt+F, to take it in hand or put it away. It repairs and upgrades from the slot (upgrading moves it into your inventory first). The panel shows its level, line, cast and wear.
• Bait and hook: while holding the rod, B / H swaps in the next bait or hook you're carrying. A slot refills from your inventory, then from the tackle box you're wearing, when it runs out.
• Weight and leader: see Weights, leaders and depth below.

Tackle is saved with your character and goes into your tombstone when you die.

Weights, leaders and depth

Every fish feeds at its own depth (near the surface, mid-water, or on the bottom), and a fish is about twice as likely to take a bait at its depth - much less far from it. Your rig decides how deep the bait sits:

Rig	On the line	The bait sits
Float	bait + hook	about 1 m down (in shallow water that reaches the bottom)
Float and leader	+ Leader Line	as deep as your leader (0.5-40 m, set with - and + on the tackle panel)
Bottom rig	+ any weight, no float	on the bottom; the cast goes further
Carolina rig	Egg Sinker + Leader Line	just off the bottom; fish take it more readily
Texas rig	Bullet Weight + a soft lure	the lure works along the bottom

With a weight there's no float: nibbles show as taps on the rod tip. Weights: Split Shot (tin), Bullet Weight (copper), Egg Sinker (bronze) and Pyramid Sinker (iron); the Leader Line is made at the workbench. They're only lost when the line snaps. The water moves a weight that's too light for it: waves, wind and storms drag it along the bottom, and nothing bites while it's dragged - only a Pyramid Sinker holds at sea, and only a storm shifts that.

Tackle boxes

A tackle box holds tackle - bait, lures, hooks, weights, leaders and floats - and keeps it inside wherever the box goes: your inventory, a chest, your grave. It weighs what's in it.

Box	Made at	Slots
Tackle Box	Workbench 2	8
Iron-Bound Tackle Box	Forge 2	12
Silver Tackle Box	Forge 4	16
Dvergr Tackle Box	Black Forge	24

Wear it in the utility slot: it's carried by its handle in your right hand when that hand is free, at your hip otherwise. Press K to open it, and Shift+K to set it down as a chest whose lid opens for anyone using it; E opens a set-down box and Shift+E picks it up with everything inside. Your tackle slots refill from the box you're wearing.

Fishing buffs

Tiered items that unlock as you progress:

• Meads (cauldron): Angler's Mead (faster bites), Steady-Hand Tonic (easier hookset), Troll-Grip Mead (reel speed and stamina).

• Lingonberry Angler's Mead (cauldron 5): a strong all-rounder for the Deep North - faster bites, easier hookset and longer fights.

• Rune of Njord (forge, worn as a belt): bigger fish, more legendaries.

• Chum (cauldron): set the bucket down on the bank to draw more, less picky fish to the water around it for 5 minutes, for anyone fishing there. Blubber Chum (seal blubber, lingonberries) is the strongest and lasts 6 minutes.

• Totems (hammer): the Fisherman's Totem and Shrine of Njord buff anyone fishing nearby.

• Relics (can't be crafted, and each takes a slot of its own - they don't stack). Each comes from one place:

  Relic	Where it comes from
  Horn of Ægir	Hildir's prize for your 15th fishing bounty
  Pearl of Njord	Logging every species in the catch log
  Golden Hook	Very rarely (about 1 in 50) found inside a legendary fish you land
  Jörmungandr's Scale	Very rarely (about 1 in 33) dropped by a sea serpent you kill

  The Hook and the Scale can turn up again; Hildir buys spares.

The Bog Witch

Her wares go into fishing:

Her ware	Goes into
Pungent Pebbles	Stinkbait (cauldron): catfish, trollfish, pike, mistfin and bass love it
Fresh Seaweed	Seaweed Chum (cauldron 2): more, keener fish for 6 minutes
Candle Wick	Lantern Float (workbench 2): use it and your line wears a candle-lit float for 20 minutes; fish bite 50% sooner at night
Love Potion	Spawning Musk (cauldron 3): legendary fish 50% more likely for 10 minutes
Powdered Dragon Eggshell	Major Steady-Hand Tonic
Toadstool	Major Troll-Grip Mead
Her herb blends	The fish feasts

Fish feasts are made in the cauldron and set down with her Serving Tray, like vanilla feasts, for everyone to eat from:

Feast	Cauldron	Herbs	Health / Stamina / Eitr
Lakeside Fish Fry	2	Woodland Herb Blend	40 / 40
Fin and Onion Hotpot	3	Mountain Peak Pepper Powder	55 / 50
Sea-Fish Spread	3	Seafarer's Herbs	50 / 60
Roe and Barley Platter	4	Grasslands Herbalist Harvest	60 / 70
Abyssal Ink Banquet	5	Herbs of the Hidden Hills	60 / 45 / 70
Ember Fish Platter	5	Fiery Spice Powder	85 / 60
Rime Fish Smorgasbord	5	the Deep North spice	90 / 75 / 35

She also sells Stinkbait, Lantern Floats and (after Bonemass) Spawning Musk, and each boss lure once you've beaten that boss, so a failed summoning doesn't mean hunting a new trophy.

Floats

Some items are floats: use one like a mead and your line wears that float instead of the usual one until it runs out. There's no slot to fill, and only one float at a time. The Lantern Float is the first; its candle lights up after dark.

Hildir

Fishing bounties. Hildir posts one bounty a day for a species you've caught: at least so heavy, sometimes caught in the rain, at night or Trophy-size. Hand the fish in from the trade panel for coins and bait. Your 5th, 15th and 30th bounties earn a Yule Hat, the Horn of Ægir and Megingjord, with a Thunder Stone at 10 and a Dverger Circlet at 20.

Lost tackle boxes. Three of Hildir's tackle boxes turn up in dungeon chests. Give one back (use it on her, or from the trade panel) and her shop gains more:

Box	Found in	Hildir starts selling
Mossy Tackle Box	Sunken Crypts	Bog-Dyed Fisherman's gear, Guck Crawlers, Leather Grubs
Frosted Tackle Box	Frost Caves	Frost-Dyed Fisherman's gear, Silver Swimbaits, Frost Bait
Dvergr-Mended Tackle Box	Mistlands dvergr ruins	Mist-Dyed Fisherman's gear, Bone Jigs, Abyssal Bait

The dyed gear is bought, not crafted, but repairs at the workbench (level 2) like the rest of the set.

Fisherman's gear

A light armour set made at the workbench (level 2): the Sou'wester, Oilskin Coat (worn as a cape), Striped Fisher's Shirt and Oilskin Overalls with rubber boots. Wearing all four keeps the rain off (you never get Wet) and makes reeling cheaper and the hookset window longer.

Your catch

• Size class: each fish is Small, Medium, Large or Trophy, with its weight and catcher in the tooltip.

• Rare variants: any ordinary species can come up golden (about 1 in 300) or albino (about 1 in 150), its icon and model tinted to match. They never stack with ordinary fish, earn rank points (+10 golden, +5 albino), sell for more (Haldor 5x / 3x, Hildir 6x / 4x) and each species' card in the catch log marks which you've caught.

• Trophy Mount (hammer: fine wood, resin): hang a fish on the wall.

• Cook and sell: cook fish on a cooking station, and sell your catch to the traders. Each buys their own kind:

  Trader	Buys
  Haldor	Raw and cooked fish, at their value
  Hildir	Trophy-size fish (2.5x) and legendary fish (1.5x) for her collection, and spare relics (400)
  Bog Witch	Roe, fish oil, abyssal ink, brined roe, leeches, and swamp, Mistlands and eel-like fish (1.4x)

  Your catch sells from the Sell your catch panel beside the store window (it works alongside trader UI mods); click a row to pick what to sell, or Sell all. The store's own sell button sells vanilla valuables, as in vanilla.

• Catch log (J): records every species you catch, with your angler rank, the reward ladder and biome sets in a sidebar and each species as a card (its bait, mastery and record). The mouse is free while it's open: click a biome to filter, the arrows or the wheel to turn pages, Close (or J / Escape) to shut it.

  • Rewards every 5 species (hooks, meads, chum, a Lantern Float, a Trophy Fin, coins) and the Pearl of Njord for all of them.
  • Biome sets: catch every non-legendary fish of a biome in that biome for 10 of its bait, some coins and 25 rank points. A fish that lives in two biomes (pike: Black Forest and Swamp) has to be caught in each to count for both.
  • Finds: now and then a catch has a valuable inside (amber, amber pearls, rubies, silver necklaces, by where you fish): rarely in small, common fish, more often in big or rare ones.
  • Personal best: +5 rank points. Each angler rank comes with a small gift.

• Species mastery: catch enough of one species and it gets easier for you. Each tier also gives angler rank points (10 / 20 / 40), and the catch log shows a bronze, silver or gold mark and the count to the next tier.

  Tier	Catches (legendary / boss)	For that species
  Bronze	10 (1)	It comes to your bait more often and takes it more readily
  Silver	25 (3)	It pulls and lasts 10% less
  Gold	50 (5)	It runs bigger, and you can build its Gold Trophy Plaque with the hammer (fine wood, bronze, resin)

  Baitfish only go to Bronze. A plaque is a wall piece with a gold-plated fish of that species mounted on it and its name on a gold nameplate (a boss fish is mounted at 80% of its true size on a board grown to fit it, for 10 fine wood, 3 bronze and 5 resin); turn it to face out from the wall.

• Angler ranks: ten ranks, shown at the top of the catch log with a bar to the next rank and what it unlocks. Points: 10 per new species (40 for a legendary), 1 per fish landed, 5 per Trophy-size catch, 1 per 10 kg landed and 10 / 20 / 40 for each species' mastery tiers. The top rods, lures and Fish Cleaning Table recipes stay hidden from the crafting list until you reach their rank. (The Bog Witch still sells boss lures to anyone.)

  Rank	Points	Unlocks
  Thrall of the Shallows	0	-
  Minnow-Karl	40	Antler Lure
  Net-Weaver	100	Root Lure, Silver Swimbait
  Riverwarden	200	Silver Fishing Rod, Ooze Lure, Brined Roe
  Fjord-Farer	350	Wyrm Lure, Linen Popper, Ice Spoon, cleaning for Legendary Scales
  Skerry-Reaver	550	Black Metal Fishing Rod, Dried Fish
  Wave-Jarl	800	Yggdrasil Fishing Rod, Ember Lure
  Serpent-Slayer	1,100	Ashwood Fishing Rod, Chitin Lure, Frostcore Jig, cleaning for Cinder Scales
  Ægir's Hand	1,500	Frostwood Fishing Rod, cleaning for Rime Scales
  Chosen of Njord	2,000	Crown Lure

• Fishing skill: Valheim's Fishing skill rises as you reel and land fish. It makes reeling cheaper and faster and setting the hook easier.

Settings

The config is BepInEx/config/valheimdeepwaters.cfg.

Setting	Default
Show Fishing HUD / HUD Scale	on / 0.85	The bait, tension, line and drag display
Reel Sound Volume	0.5
Rod Wear	1	0 = rods never wear out
Spawn Swimming Fish / Swimming Fish Density	on / 1	Deep Waters fish in the world
Spawn Worm Mounds / Worm Mound Density	on / 0.5	Compared to red mushrooms; new areas only
Rain Worms	on
Spawn Flies	on
Cycle Bait / Cycle Hook / Catch Log keys	B / H / J
Rod Key	Alt + F	Takes the rod in your rod slot in hand, or puts it away
Tackle Box Key / Set Down Key	K / Shift + K	Opens the tackle box you're wearing / sets it down as a chest
Tackle Panel Position	(under the inventory)	Set by dragging the panel; empty puts it back
Drag Control / Reel Speed Control	Mouse Wheel / Alt + Mouse Wheel	Either can be the mouse wheel, Alt + mouse wheel or the mouse side buttons (Mouse 5 up, Mouse 4 down)

Console commands (server admins)

These need devcommands, like Valheim's own spawn command.

• vdw_give <item> [amount]: gives an item, for example rod_copper, hook_small, tackle_egg_sinker, tacklebox_t2, buff_angler_minor, worm or a fish id.
• vdw_debug catch <fish id>: the next cast brings that fish straight to the bait (for trying a fish out).
• vdw_debug bite: the next cast gets a bite straight away.
• vdw_debug listrods | listhooks | listbait | listfish | listbuffs: lists the item ids.
• vdw_debug resetlog: clears your catch log.
• vdw_debug tokens: exports the mod's text for translating (see Translations below).

Customising

Fish, bait, rods, hooks and buffs

These are defined in Fish.json, Baits.json, Rods.json, Hooks.json, Tackle.json (weights and leaders) and Buffs.json in BepInEx/config/ValheimDeepWaters/. They're created on first run, and your edits are never overwritten. When an update adds new fish, bait, rods, hooks or buffs, they're added to your files automatically (each one only once, so an entry you delete stays deleted). Delete a whole file to get its defaults back.

Custom models

The mod's own models ship in a Models folder beside its DLL in BepInEx/plugins. To use your own, put model files in BepInEx/config/ValheimDeepWaters/Models/ (create the folder); a file there replaces the shipped one of the same name:

Name	Model for
rod or rod_<id>	Rods (one shared model, or one per rod)
bobber	The float
bait_<id> / hook_<id> / fish_<id>	That item (fish models also swim in the world)
pickable_worm	Wriggling soil
fly	Flies (without one, Valheim's own flies effect is used)

The mod looks for each model in this order:

1. <name>.bundle
2. A prefab called <name> inside any .bundle in the folder, so all your baits can share one bundle
3. <name>.obj with an optional <name>.png texture

Build bundles with Unity 6000.0 and turn on Read/Write for the model.

Sizing: every model is used at exactly its size in Unity - 1 unit = 1 metre, the mesh times every transform in its prefab (the root included). Nothing is resized, so build each model at the size you want it in game: model in metres in Blender (Metric, Unit Scale 1), apply all transforms, export FBX with Apply Scalings "FBX All", -Z Forward, Y Up and Apply Transform, and import in Unity with Scale Factor 1 and Convert Units on. Face models forward along +Z. With debug logging on (see Troubleshooting), the log shows each model's final size in metres.

Icons:

• A <name>_icon.png in the folder becomes that item's icon.
• Otherwise the icon is rendered from the model.

Animated fish

A fish model can be rigged and animated instead of static. Make it a prefab in a bundle, like any other model, with:

• a skinned mesh (an armature: a spine chain of 4-6 bones from head to tail, plus fins if you like), modelled at real size and facing forward along +Z
• an Animator (Rig: Generic) whose controller has states named Swim (default, looping), Thrash (looping) and optionally Flop, and optionally a float parameter Speed that scales them. A legacy Animation component with clips of those names works too.

The mod then uses the whole prefab: it swims in the world (faster as it moves), darts at your bait when it nibbles, thrashes when it runs and leaps on the line and swims slowly when it rests, flops when dropped on land, and holds still as a trophy. Missing clips fall back to Swim, and static models keep working as before, so fish can be animated one at a time. Model it at its real size: it is used exactly as big as it is in Unity.

Rigged rods

A rod model can have a skeleton so it bends and its reel turns. Make it a prefab in rod.bundle (or rod_<id>.bundle) with a skinned mesh and these bones (any you leave out just don't move):

• Rod.1 .. Rod.N: a chain up the blank from just above the reel to the tip. Most of the bend goes to the top segments, like a real blank.
• Rod.Tip: where the line leaves the rod. The line follows it as the rod bends.
• Rod.BendDir: a marker beside the tip, on the side the rod bends toward (the guide side).
• Reel.Spool: the part of the reel that turns (the crank and drum), and Reel.Axis, a marker along its axle.

No Animator is needed: the mod poses the bones itself. The rod bends toward the line, harder as a fish pulls toward the breaking point. It flexes back as you wind up a cast, whips forward on release and springs back when the line snaps. The reel winds in while you reel and spins backward as line pays out.

Translations

Run vdw_debug tokens, translate the file it writes, and save it as Translations/<Language>/vdw.json inside the mod's folder in BepInEx/plugins (any folder named Translations there works).

Multiplayer

Every player needs the mod, the same version as the server (the game checks when you join).

• Server rules: the gameplay settings (marked "Set by the server" in the config) come from the server, so everyone plays by the same rules. HUD, sound and keys stay each player's own.
• Shared: caught fish, worm mounds, totems and trophy mounts are normal world objects that everyone sees.
• Watching others fish: players within 90 m see your line, float or lure, the fish on your hook (running, leaping, thrashing - a boss too, the Queen Eel's humps, rearing and tail slaps included), the splashes and bites, and hear your reel. A fish you land is news for players within 50 m; a boss fish is announced to the whole server.
• Per player: the fight HUD, flies and rain worms only show for the player who has them.

Troubleshooting

The mod writes a few lines to the BepInEx log when it starts, plus warnings if something is missing. For a detailed log (every model loaded, and more), add Debug to LogLevels under [Logging.Disk] in BepInEx/config/BepInEx.cfg.

Credits

Several fish are built on models from Sketchfab, used under their licences:

Fish	Model	Author	Licence
Bonemaw	Pacific Viperfish	redsonder1000	CC BY
Frost Char	White-spotted Charr	ffish.asia / floraZia.com	CC0
Frost Sculpin	Roughskin Sculpin	ffish.asia / floraZia.com	CC0
Greydwarf Goby	Freshwater Goby No.1	Thomas Flynn	CC BY
Halibut	Bastard Halibut	ffish.asia / floraZia.com	CC0
Jotunn Perch	European Perch	doublesob	CC BY-NC
Mackerel	Atlantic Mackerel	NewViStudios	CC BY
Odin's Eye	Opah fish	Batton	CC BY
Serpentfin	Oarfish	TheoBaldeteBRID	CC BY
Surtling Sardine	Sardine	Drake	CC BY
Thor's Hammerhead	Scalloped Hammerhead Juvenile	sharkingaround	CC BY
Trout	Rainbow Trout - Redband	eb78	CC BY
Largemouth Bass	Model 67A - Largemouth Bass	DigitalLife3D	CC BY-NC
Bluegill	Model 70A - Bluegill	DigitalLife3D	CC BY-NC
Sea Bass	Perch Weever Sea Bass Fish	boxgizmo	Sketchfab Standard

Other models used:

Item	Model	Author	Licence
Filleting Knife Rack (blades)	Kitchen Knife Set - Asset Pack	Falxxx	CC BY
Dried Fish	Hanged Dried Fish	CGTrader	Royalty Free
Earthworm bait	Earth_ Worm	mj.artsi	CC BY
Fly bait	Low Poly House Fly (Diptera)	Glowbox 3D	CC BY
Shrimp bait	Shrimp (Low Poly)	Fecalis	CC BY
Chum buckets	Bucket	dmitryartist	CC BY
Horn of Ægir	Viking Horns	Vetech82	CC BY
Allfather's Rod textures	Metal007, Wood018, Fabric022, Rope001	ambientCG	CC0

The models were rigged, retextured and restyled for Valheim. Licences: CC BY 4.0, CC BY-NC 4.0, CC0.