Are there only 12 slaughterfish in this whole dang game?

[DeerTrivia]

I'm doing the quest to gather 12 slaughterfish scales. Got the first 11 just fine, but the 12th fish's body sank through the ground and I can't loot it. "No problem," I thought, "I'll just go find another." But I've been looking for an hour, and haven't found a single slaughterfish anywhere. Am I boned? Or is there some other area where they spawn naturally?

[Carador]

There is no other area. But there are definitely more than 12. I found 13 or 14 before I finished the quest. Try to do something else for a while, clear a dungeon or so, leave the area, give the game a chance to spawn new fish.

[DeerTrivia]

Gave it another hour, still couldn't find another one, so I just looked up the console command to spawn one of those scales into the player's inventory. In case anyone else gets into trouble with this quest, just use this!

player.additem 00185FE2 1

[Eekiki]

Yeah I swam around that lake for over an hour before I finally gave in and used the console to add the rest of the scales I need. Just bear in mind that using the console will disable achievements for your save. Fortunately there's a mod for that.

(Off topic, but someone please tell Todd it's really pointless to disable achievements for using mods or console commands. This is an offline single player game.)

[Team Triss]

I actually had better luck in the evening, as they sort of shimmer on the surface where they're hanging around. The game does also point you to the next batch, but you need to find the last one at a location before it will move.

I was searching for a good while for the first one because it was stuck under the dock.

[Malus Lupus]

Some of these quests or minigames I hate so I just grabbed the mod from the nexus that gives you 12 for killing one. Right before accepting the quest I enable it, then do the quest. After the quest is done I disable the mod until my next character.

[Ammikaameri]

The quest marker should point to a new fish few seconds after you kill the last one. If it did not update just go hit the previous fish again a few times. Or go away for 3 days and try again.

Detect life spell helps a lot to find extra fish.

[Eekiki]

Originally posted by Ammikaameri:

The quest marker should point to a new fish few seconds after you kill the last one. If it did not update just go hit the previous fish again a few times. Or go away for 3 days and try again.

Detect life spell helps a lot to find extra fish.

Yeah I read that on the UESP wiki. It didn't work for me. The quest marker isn't directly on a fish, but I think it's a fish's spawn location. And I think in my case the fish just glitched through the bottom of the lake and was forever out of reach. Either that or it simply never spawned, but the game thought it did.

[Sylveonica]

All I did was leave and do other quests/exploring and came back later to do the rest.
A lot more fish had spawned along the shore of the lake.

Just be sure not to loot more than the 12 scales needed for the quest. Otherwise the quest can break if you go over 12, and then you won't be able to turn it in.

[Jackal]

yeah bro ive found 5 after like 45 minutes... even with detect life and water breathing going back and forth across the lake

edit: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3471332439

found one wasnt even in the water lol

[(J)]

Originally posted by DeerTrivia:

Gave it another hour, still couldn't find another one, so I just looked up the console command to spawn one of those scales into the player's inventory. In case anyone else gets into trouble with this quest, just use this!

player.additem 00185FE2 1

While I don't personally care about achievements at all, keep in mind that using console commands does disable them.

[Jerome Powell]

sewers spawn them in the basin

[incoming]

Stoopid fish.

[Cryptic]

I did this quest today. Took me about 20 minutes. Check the ENTIRE LAKE.

[Saturn830]

Originally posted by Eekiki:

(Off topic, but someone please tell Todd it's really pointless to disable achievements for using mods or console commands. This is an offline single player game.)

People can publically compare achievements, so for them to have any meaning at all it sort of makes sense to try and block their acquisition through cheats. The problem is that in a game as buggy as a Bethesda release, console commands and mods are often a necessity.

Originally posted by Cryptic:

I did this quest today. Took me about 20 minutes. Check the ENTIRE LAKE.

When I went well beyond the area designated by the quest markers they slaugterfish were no longer dropping quest-related scales but just generic 'scales'.

[Axetwin]

I've done several laps around the entire lake and haven't found a single slaughterfish. Even at the place where the marker points me to. I'm not being hyperbolic here, literally zero slaughterfish found.