Palworld 1.0 Guide: How to Catch Skutlass and Wield the Fish Sword
Wielding a literal fish as a high-damage katana's exactly the kind of unhinged survival crafting madness I love to see.
When the Palworld 1.0 trailer dropped, it showed off plenty of new gimmicks, but nothing grabbed my attention quite like the Fish Sword. It turns out this weapon's tied entirely to a new Water-type Pal named Skutlass. Instead of crafting a permanent blade you've got to constantly repair, you just pull this fish out of its sphere, snap it straight, and start swinging. While you're busy swapping out your best early game Pals for mid-game heavy hitters, you definitely want to add this living weapon to your rotation.
Tracking Down Skutlass
Before you can swing a fish around, you actually have to catch it. You'll find Skutlass flopping around the coastlines near the Twilight Dunes. If you're having trouble pinning the location down, just look near the Anubis boss spawn area. They hover around level 30 in the wild, so don't show up with basic hardware. Bring a stack of Giga Spheres if you want any real chance of securing a catch.
Here are the base stats and drops you can expect from your new aquatic blade.
Wielding the Fish Fillet Ability
Skutlass comes with the Fish Fillet partner skill, which transforms it into a katana. Toss Skutlass out, press F on your PC keyboard, and it drops to the ground. Pick up its spine, and you've suddenly got a massive sword capable of a fast four-hit combo that deals a staggering 2600 damage per impact right at level 1. If you've figured out the best stats to upgrade on your character early on, you can melt through mid-game bosses with this thing.
The Five Second Rule
Before you go wildly hacking away at everything in sight, you need to manage a massive drawback. If you keep the katana active for more than five seconds, or if you trigger its special laigiri attack, Skutlass instantly becomes incapacitated. You've got to press F again to deactivate the weapon before that five-second window closes. Doing so puts the Fish Fillet ability on a 60-second cooldown, but it keeps your Pal alive so you can actually use it again during a long fight. I highly recommend counting out loud while you swing.
Skutlass Ignis: The Fire Alternative
If raw physical damage isn't cutting it for your current boss fight, look for the alternate version called Skutlass Ignis. This fiery variant comes with the Seared Fish Fillet ability. It trades out the standard damage for fire damage, hitting for an even heavier 2900 damage per strike. The exact same five-second rule applies here. You still have to disengage the weapon manually, or you'll be dragging an incapacitated burnt fish back to your Palbox.
Upgrading the Timer
Five seconds feels incredibly short when a boss is rushing you. Thankfully, you can extend your swinging time by taking Skutlass to the Pal Essence Condenser. Feeding extra copies of the fish into the condenser increases its overall rank. Pushing that skill level higher extends the time limit before incapacitation kicks in, and it buffs the weapon's damage output. You'll definitely want to farm some ancient technology points to keep your base hardware upgraded so you can push your Skutlass to maximum rank as soon as possible.
