fish takes like 5 min to get a stack if you target an area where you see a lot of them swimming. The tuna at 4 a pop fill your bag in a hurry, and the new 5x cooker has them done in no time with less hassle. Are tuna hard to find early game, though? I dunno if they spawn off harder zones or just deeper waters? I have a coast full of them near my home.

Deer are no harder but no easier: you rarely find 10 deer in one place, unlike fish, you have to go looking, and they eat arrows ... if you gonna complain about bait (very cheap item), you have to mention the arrows (even wood ones require farming wood and crafting time, and IMHO more annoying than bait).

I don't like the -5 min issue, that is the deal breaker if choosing which to make. Seems like something to report as a balance issue/bug.

The harpoon is endless utility, from dragging animals around to killing birds without arrows. Make one whether you use it on serpent or not.

Originally posted by stormbringer_1966:

Early fish not even worth it now!
It takes a lot more effort to find the trader, raid dungeons etc to get the coin to buy the fishing rod and bait than it does to kill a dear, find some blueberry and plant a few carrots. Yet, the fish you catch yield 5 min less time than the Deer stew.. go figure... thought the foods were going to be based on level of difficulty to obtain? sure fish Wraps are the bomb in late game.. and yes i know how to make fish traps np "= time consuming, upside is your swimming skill will rock after you die many times lol" anyhow, hope they fix it.

I use a mod made to parody the fishing problem in Valheim. It's called Fishy Fishy! It's just spam the G key when around fish and they'll magically fly into your inventory while your character does a funny animation with voice over.

It's very good early game food but not good enough to be necessary to spend the time getting it. For fishing to be attractive, I at least expect to have a chance at hooking Odin's ring and the one to rule them all, type of action happening.

Fishing is still a nice way to kill the last couple hours of daylight, if you RP sleeping every night as I do.

there is so much to do in those hours. go get wood, sort inventory, cook food etc.

i rarely sleep because i'm usually early out for night sailing looking for serpents to kill. all you need for that is a rested buff, finewood bow, a karve and flint arrows.

Originally posted by That guy with the Spoon:

there are designs to get fish without the fishing rod.

but yea, i agree. once you're out of the black forest and get your hands on sausages and turnips fish is pretty much obsolete other than maybe a alternative way to obtain charcoal. but even then i much rather hoard all my coins for a fancy vault filled with piles of riches. so unless i passively obtain beached fish somewhere there is no reason to bother with it either.

i have a row of more than 10 racks and intentionally burn neck tails for some quick extra charcoal. they find some use for minced sauce but I'm not using too much of it either so just turn the majority of the tails into charcoal. you'll need again and again as fuel throughout the game.

Correct, there are many ways to get fish. After Hearth and Home update I chose to start some fresh Characters on new seeds so i did not have stock piles :). Getting the Fishing rod used to be a goal along with the belt of course as you had to sometimes travel very far and grind a lot to get it. So in the end you were rewarded with a great meal. I think they have done a pretty good job balancing foods to be honest, however the "Cooked Fish" vs early game foods makes no sense as it actually yields the same health and stamina as Deer Stew but you have 5 less minutes lol. in less that 15 minutes you can have all the ingredients to make deer stew vs all the work to get the fish...

Originally posted by stvlepore:

Fishing is still a nice way to kill the last couple hours of daylight, if you RP sleeping every night as I do.

Yes I do agree on this. I actually fish a lot in the rain and at night also lol.. However, I normally end most of my sessions in Valheim buy winding down from killing to fishing for about 15 minutes as it is relaxing "Until you get attacked by a lvl 2 troll and 50 greydwarf lol"

Originally posted by That guy with the Spoon:

there is so much to do in those hours. go get wood, sort inventory, cook food etc.

i rarely sleep because i'm usually early out for night sailing looking for serpents to kill. all you need for that is a rested buff, finewood bow, a karve and flint arrows.

Ah yes, over 2,000 hrs in this game lol and the only thing i have not done is serpent fishing. In fact maybe my luck, I have only seen 3 serpents the entire time and they were in very early game when i new i had no chance :).. I play 99% solo, i will have to make a new character to attempt that..

Originally posted by stormbringer_1966:

I have only seen 3 serpents the entire time

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2624068415
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2624068441

Disclamer: modded game

Originally posted by Nameless:

Originally posted by stormbringer_1966:

I have only seen 3 serpents the entire time

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2624068415
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2624068441

Disclamer: modded game

Good one.. 3 at once and a lvl 3 wow.. I play the vanilla game.. I tried some of the texture mods, however for some reason the original style appeals to me as an Artist myself.. I think it is the awesome lighting that makes the game.

Hmm , cooked fish gives the same stats as deer stew so use both is nice until you can make sausages
U can reach these 400 coins pretty fast killing trolls and exploring burial chambers , is not that hard
Anyway i use them as a work food to not waste much ingredients because i preffer minced meat sause because gives 3 hp regen and have 25m duration , but -5 hp

Originally posted by blankitosonic:

Hmm , cooked fish gives the same stats as deer stew so use both is nice until you can make sausages
U can reach these 400 coins pretty fast killing trolls and exploring burial chambers , is not that hard
Anyway i use them as a work food to not waste much ingredients because i preffer minced meat sause because gives 3 hp regen and have 25m duration , but -5 hp

Wile i agree with the ease of getting the coin, it's finding the trader himself that can be a pain "Yes i know about the valheim map" just pointing out that that the balancing between to the two really makes no sense. they both get the same health and stamina however fish gets 5 min less when the devs said based on difficulty. Not saying it is super hard, however it is harder. just thinking if anything the Fish should be the one getting the extra 5 mins is all. Guessing "As i know someone will mention" devs are assuming well you have to have the Cauldron to make the stew, which can take a little work..

The problem of these meals are the carrots , in that part of the game you still are farming and not have much of them , you need 5 carrots for deer stew, minced sausce and carrot soup
While you are fishing you can get a fish that gives x2 or x4 pieces, you can fish while gather other resources if you found a fish bank

Oh and fish wraps are not a top plains food anymore , their duration is 25 mins and lox pie and serpent stew gived more hp and duration
So the only use of fish is in black forest/swamp if you want

Update lol... they update the game daily now.. ok so Deer stew gets 3hp and fish gets 2hp, with the stew getting 5 more min. I can assume they made that decision based on getting the Cauldron as we all stated you can either randomly find fish "Rare", make a fish trap. so my early food choices are the stew, boar jerky and jam or carrot soup. Now, the current character i have however i started near a mountain biome Soooooooo they apparently nerfed the Wolf or I'm got considerably better at the game as he is eating Wolf meat, Stew and or Boar jerky and at moment capturing a Draugr village to trap some endless sausage :)

Originally posted by stormbringer_1966:

Ah yes, over 2,000 hrs in this game lol and the only thing i have not done is serpent fishing. In fact maybe my luck, I have only seen 3 serpents the entire time and they were in very early game when i new i had no chance :).. I play 99% solo, i will have to make a new character to attempt that..

i guess it's that habit to sleep away every night and not heading out to sea unless it's early in the day and there is no thunderstorm either. if you stay near the shore at night you won't get to see any serpents as they only spawn in ocean biome.

it's worth just sailing out at night with a karve on medium speed. make sure the minimap says ocean and then just keep looking around.
once you found one you could mark the location. it seems to me that there are spawn points for night serpents and thunderstorm serpents. so depending on the weather or time of day the points maybe need a certain requirement met in order to spawn the serpent.

in my first play through with friends i killed 3 serpents in one night. before H&S they did flee when low on health. now they seem to stay close and just let you easily bow them to death. so it's easier than ever to hunt them for food.

Originally posted by That guy with the Spoon:

Originally posted by stormbringer_1966:

Ah yes, over 2,000 hrs in this game lol and the only thing i have not done is serpent fishing. In fact maybe my luck, I have only seen 3 serpents the entire time and they were in very early game when i new i had no chance :).. I play 99% solo, i will have to make a new character to attempt that..

i guess it's that habit to sleep away every night and not heading out to sea unless it's early in the day and there is no thunderstorm either. if you stay near the shore at night you won't get to see any serpents as they only spawn in ocean biome.

it's worth just sailing out at night with a karve on medium speed. make sure the minimap says ocean and then just keep looking around.
once you found one you could mark the location. it seems to me that there are spawn points for night serpents and thunderstorm serpents. so depending on the weather or time of day the points maybe need a certain requirement met in order to spawn the serpent.

in my first play through with friends i killed 3 serpents in one night. before H&S they did flee when low on health. now they seem to stay close and just let you easily bow them to death. so it's easier than ever to hunt them for food.

ok cool will have to do that.. so no need for the Harpoon then? just bow them? do the scales go to the bottom of the ocean as i have read or do you get them now also?

Scales still sunk
And in a karve and low bow and bow skill your boat will get wreck , the best are the long boat and draugr bow with ice arrows . serpents die in 3 shots

there are designs to get fish without the fishing rod.

but yea, i agree. once you're out of the black forest and get your hands on sausages and turnips fish is pretty much obsolete other than maybe a alternative way to obtain charcoal. but even then i much rather hoard all my coins for a fancy vault filled with piles of riches. so unless i passively obtain beached fish somewhere there is no reason to bother with it either.

i have a row of more than 10 racks and intentionally burn neck tails for some quick extra charcoal. they find some use for minced sauce but I'm not using too much of it either so just turn the majority of the tails into charcoal. you'll need again and again as fuel throughout the game.