How To Rounds

How To Rounds transforms How to Fish into a fast competitive multiplayer mode inspired by ROUNDS. Every player starts with the same simple loadout, then builds a unique character by collecting stackable upgrade cards between rounds.

Join the community, find players, report problems, and share feedback on our Discord server.

How to play

1. Every player must install the same version of How To Rounds and its dependencies.
2. Open HOW TO ROUNDS from the main menu.
3. One player creates a Steam room and shares the five-character room code.
4. The other players select JOIN WITH CODE and enter that code.
5. The host starts the match once everyone is in the lobby.
6. Before combat, players take turns choosing one card from their own random four-card draft.
7. After the last choice, a synchronized three-second countdown starts the round.
8. The last surviving player wins the round. Every losing player drafts another upgrade before the next fight.
9. The first player to win 10 rounds wins the match. The host may then begin another race to 10 while keeping all upgrades, or reset upgrades and scores for a fresh match.

The mod randomly selects Arena03, Arena04, or Arena05 each round when possible. All clients load the same arena selected by the host.

Combat rules

• Every player begins each round at full health with a vanilla Pistol and Knife.
• The starting Pistol has a three-round magazine, making ammunition upgrades especially valuable.
• Hunger and food-based regeneration are disabled. Healing comes only from upgrade effects.
• Weapons do not drop when a player dies, and eliminated players cannot revive during combat.
• Dead players enter a free-moving spectator camera until the round ends.
• Projectiles travel in dodgeable ballistic arcs, and higher-damage bullets have larger visuals, hit areas, and knockback.
• Explosions deal area damage, can hurt the shooter, and push nearby players.

Upgrade draft and stacking

Each player receives a different random selection of four cards. Draft choices are synchronized so everyone can see which player is choosing and which upgrade they take.

Cards are permanent for the current match and can be selected more than once. Unless a card says otherwise, each additional copy applies its effect again. Percentage bonuses and penalties generally stack multiplicatively, while flat values such as ammunition, health, jumps, bounces, projectiles, and knockback stack additively.

Current upgrades

• More More — Adds 2 bullets to the magazine and increases projectile speed by 10% per stack.
• Double Jump — Adds one extra airborne jump per stack.
• Faster Than Me — Increases movement speed by 20% per stack.
• Faster Charge — Cuts reload time in half per stack.
• Ricochet — Adds one bullet bounce per stack.
• Explosive Bullets — Bullets explode on impact, dealing 50% of projectile damage per stack in an area. The blast can damage and push the shooter too.
• Big Bullets — Increases bullet size by 50% and damage by 25%, but reduces projectile speed by 20% per stack.
• Quick Shot — Increases fire rate by 35%, but reduces bullet damage by 15% per stack.
• Glass Cannon — Increases movement speed by 40%, but halves maximum health per stack.
• Tank — Adds 50 maximum health, but reduces movement speed by 20% per stack.
• Lifesteal — Restores health equal to 30% of damage dealt per stack, up to maximum health.
• Healing Reload — Restores 20 health after completing a reload per stack.
• Poison Bullet — Turns bullets purple and deals 30% of projectile damage per second for three seconds per stack.
• Homing — Makes bullets seek nearby enemies. Additional stacks increase tracking strength and range.
• Grow — Reduces initial projectile speed by 20% per stack. For every second in flight, each stack increases bullet damage by 20% and size by 25%.
• Miniature — Reduces player size by 20%, increases movement speed by 20%, and removes 20 maximum health per stack.
• Impulse — Adds 3 projectile knockback per stack. Large bullets amplify the final push further.
• More Health — Adds 50 maximum health per stack.
• Quick Reload — Increases reload speed by 35% per stack.
• Heavy Hitter — Increases bullet damage by 30%, but increases weapon spread by 40% per stack.
• Tight Spread — Reduces weapon spread by 50% per stack.
• Double Shot — Adds one projectile and one ammunition cost to every shot per stack.
• Bullet Storm — Adds 12 bullets to the magazine, enables rapid fully automatic fire, and reduces bullet damage by 30% per stack.

Multiplayer requirements

• How To Rounds uses the game's native Steam networking and supports remote online play.
• Every player must use the same How to Fish game version and the same How To Rounds mod version.
• Room-code discovery uses a public worldwide Steam lobby listing.
• For the fairest result, let the host start only after every player appears in the waiting room.

Installation

1. Install BepInEx for How to Fish.
2. Extract this package into the game folder while preserving its BepInEx/plugins/HowToRounds structure.
3. Launch the game through Steam.

r2modman / Thunderstore Mod Manager

Install How To Rounds from the How to Fish community and select Start modded inside the manager. BepInExPack is declared as a required dependency and is installed automatically. Make sure both How To Rounds and BepInExPack are enabled in the same profile.

If the button does not appear:

1. Confirm that the selected r2modman game is How to Fish, not another game community.
2. Launch with Start modded, not directly from Steam.
3. Confirm that the manager points to the same game installation used by Steam.
4. Create a fresh profile containing only BepInExPack and How To Rounds.
5. If it still fails, share BepInEx/LogOutput.log; it shows whether BepInEx started and whether the plugin loaded.

The normal game world remains loaded underneath as the networking foundation. How To Rounds is an experimental community mod and may require updates when the base game changes.