The clearing is open, and the fish are biting: CDU's new chat room and Pond Fishing

You may have noticed little Minecraft characters wandering around the website lately. That was the start of something. Today we're officially opening the clearing, and with it, CDU Pond Fishing.

The clearing: a little corner of CDU

craftdownunder.co/chat-room

The clearing is a live 3D campsite where everyone browsing the site shows up as their own Minecraft skin. Walk around, gather at the campfire, chat, throw an emote, and see who else is about, whether they're in the clearing with you or just browsing another page of the site (they'll be snoozing by the fire).

• Walk by clicking or tapping the ground, or with WASD / the arrow keys. There's a thumbstick on phones.

• Chat with Enter. What you say floats above your head for everyone in the room.

• Emote with B: say hello, show off, or take a break.

• Hover over anyone's name to see their player card: ranks, stats, wishlist and now their angler level.

You need to be signed in with your Minecraft account linked to enter. Everything runs in the browser, nothing to install.

CDU Pond Fishing

At the edge of the clearing is a pond, and it's full. Walk up to it (or press F) to take one of the eight spots on the bank, then:

1. Cast. Hold Cast (or Space) to build power and let go. The further you cast, the longer the wait.

2. Watch the bobber. Ignore the nibbles. When the ! pops, hook it fast. A quick hook gives you a head start on the fight.

3. Fight. Hold to reel, let go to ease off, and keep the fish inside the catch bar until the meter fills. Different fish fight differently: some glide, some dart, some sink, some float, and the rare ones do things you'll have to see for yourself.

4. Land it. Everyone in the clearing sees what you pulled up, and the big ones get announced across the whole site.

It's a real skill game. Luck decides what's on the hook; whether it ends up in your tackle box is down to you.

What's in the pond

Everything a Minecraft fishing rod can pull up, with real textures:

• Fish: cod, salmon, pufferfish and all 22 kinds of tropical fish, from Clownfish to the Cotton Candy Betta.

• Treasure: bows, enchanted books, name tags, nautilus shells, saddles and enchanted rods.

• Junk: lily pads, bowls, boots, bones, sticks and the rest. Yes, you can catch a Water Bottle.

• Treasure chests sometimes turn up mid-fight. Snag it while you reel for bonus emeralds and a treasure item.

Every fish has a size, from Tiddler to Whopper, and a tier: Plain, Gleaming, Prismarine, Amethyst, Gilded, or the almost mythical Aurora. On top of that there are thirteen modifiers (Glowing, Enchanted, Colossal, Runt, Twin, Charged, Spectral, Starlit, Sunkissed and more) that change how a catch looks, how it fights and what it's worth. A Gilded Colossal Salmon at 140 cm is the kind of thing people will talk about.

Bait

Every cast uses one bait. You get a fresh daily allowance at midnight UTC (24 casts to start, more as you level), and every vote for CDU adds two more, up to 24 bonus casts a day. So if you've been meaning to vote, this is your reason: craftdownunder.co/vote.

Emeralds earned from catches buy special baits and rod enchantments, but never casts. Bait comes from showing up and voting, not from grinding.

Levels, enchants and the tackle box

Every catch (and every escape) earns XP. Fifty levels, from Greenhorn to Old Salt to Master Angler, each one making the catch bar a little bigger and your reel a little stronger. Along the way you unlock:

• Rod enchants: Lure (shorter waits), Luck of the Sea (better tiers), Unbreaking (a chance your bait isn't spent) and Mending (bonus XP).

• Special baits: Spider Eye, Glow Berries, Sea Pickle Chum and Prismarine Crystals, each tilting the odds a different way.

• The tackle box (press T): your collection of all 42 catches with your best size and tier of each, your catch history, and the Record Book of the biggest of every species ever landed on CDU.

• Milestones and awards for filling the tackle box, including Reef Keeper, Completionist Angler and Grand Angler.

Leaderboards

Angler Points, Biggest Catch, Rarest Haul, Tackle Box and Angler Level, all-time and weekly. The top three each week win emeralds, and the top ten get a share. There's also a Hall of Legends for the catches that deserve it.

Three prizes in the water

Every single cast, no matter your level, luck or bait, has the same tiny chance of hooking one of three legendary items. They fight like nothing else, and you have to land them.

• The Tidecaller's Heart (1 in 1,000): a brand new in-game chat prefix, Tidecaller, for every server on the network.

• Message in a Bottle (1 in 10,000): a 5% off coupon for the whole store, good for 24 hours.

• The Nether Star (1 in 1,000,000): a Paragon rank, for you or as a gift to anyone, on any server.

Hook one and lose it, and the whole clearing will hear about the one that got away.

Go fish

Head to the clearing, walk to the pond and cast. Your angler card also lives on your profile, and your level shows on your player card everywhere on the site.

Found a bug, or landed something ridiculous? Post it below. We'd love to see your first Aurora.