Start How to Fish by buying the Crab Fishing Rod, defeating and selling early catches, then following the Lighthouse Keeper’s Empty Beer Can → Spider Crab → shell hand-in route. Collect boat access and use the Radar for the next island. Keep dollars for starter gear; euros fund the Bow and Wishbone on optional Islet trips.
01Know which game this guide covers
This wiki covers How to Fish by Dazed Games, released for Windows on Steam on August 20, 2026 under App ID 4001890. It is now Steam Deck Verified and playable through GeForce NOW. It is a physics-based action fishing simulator with solo play and official co-op lobbies for up to eight players—not a real-world fishing tutorial and not a guide for Roblox Fisch or other similarly named games.
Starting point
A boating crash leaves the crew on a small island with no useful loadout. The goal is to earn the equipment needed to work toward home.
Play alone or together
The Steam store summary still says one to four players, but the newer official Patch 1.0.4 added support for lobbies of up to eight players.
Patch 1.0.9 adds difficulty selection in the main menu and during a session. Easy mode gives creatures 25% less health and 50% less damage; Hard mode gives them 25% more health and 25% more damage. The default setting matches the earlier released build.
Patch 1.0.10 saves up to 64 dropped ground items between sessions, prioritizing weapons, tools, quest items and creatures. Patch 1.0.11 also checks saves before loading and creates backups if a save becomes corrupt, while Patch 1.0.12 adds Steam Cloud support after you play and exit on the PC holding the save. Keep important hand-ins in your inventory and complete the quest rather than relying on a dropped-item slot, backup or cloud sync.
02Finish the Lighthouse route before your first voyage
Buy one catching tool and one weapon you can use, then earn money by defeating and selling ordinary catches. The opening route uses the Crab Fishing Rod. Check the bait label when collecting: Ham is the free crab bait, while the later Fishing Rod uses Fry as its free bait in the reviewed 1.1.3 Fishipedia screenshots.
- 1Buy the starter fishing tool
Use the shop’s Crab Fishing Rod purchase prompt. Catch an ordinary creature, defeat it and sell it to build your first gear budget.
- 2Follow the Keeper’s request
Use the Empty Beer Can quest route for Spider Crab. Buying another gun does not replace the bait or active quest step.
- 3Finish the fight and keep the shell
Prepare a usable weapon and recovery items, then defeat Spider Crab. Keep its quest shell for the return rather than treating it as an ordinary sale item.
- 4Complete the hand-in, then navigate
Return the shell, collect boat access and check the Radar for the next objective before setting sail.
03Follow quests and boss gates
Quests and boss fights are not side decoration: the official store page identifies them as the way to progress to new islands. Those later islands contain more dangerous creatures and stronger gear. When a route stops moving, check the current quest objective and the exact hand-in item before assuming that more grinding is required.
Route before grind
Open the island progression map when you are unsure which objective advances the campaign.
Track distinct hand-ins
Keep distinct boss return items until the relevant quest giver accepts them; the kill and the hand-in are different steps.
04Separate dollar gear from euro Islet purchases
Ordinary early catches fund dollar-priced equipment. The Bow, arrow and quiver upgrades, and Wishbone use euros in the reviewed Islet routes. Check the $ or € symbol before comparing your wallet with a purchase; a larger dollar balance does not pay a euro offer.
Earn euros on an optional trip
Find Money in a Bottle beside the single palm on a tiny sand island, or collect Crab Carcass from three sandy patches with bones. Sell euro loot to a merchant before returning to the equipment you want.
Buy for your next collection goal
For an arrow kill, find the Bow shop at the archery targets and round stone wall. For repeated Drip hunts, find Wishbone on the rock-pillar jumping islet and inspect your Fishipedia chance display.
Steam lists 31 achievements in the reviewed record. Keep the first-euro, bottle discovery and arrow-kill goals separate. For a Drip hunt on 1.1.3, kill the base creature once to reveal its bait in the game’s Fishipedia, then return with that bait for the missing variant. These are optional collection routes alongside the main island progression.
05Use a simple first-run checklist
- Buy and use the starter rod, then defeat and sell ordinary catches for opening gear.
- Follow the Empty Beer Can route, keep the Spider Crab shell and finish its hand-in.
- Confirm boat access and the next Radar objective before buying travel upgrades.
- Check the $ or € symbol before spending on a weapon, Bow upgrade or Wishbone.
- Use the first-kill bait hint when returning for a Drip creature; record the kill separately.
- In co-op, agree on the active objective and who is carrying the return item before sailing.
06Sources and review scope
Official Steam records support the game loop, difficulty and lobby options, save changes and achievement conditions. The 1.1.2 notes support the radar, equipment and Wishbone pricing changes; 1.1.3 supports the post-kill bait hint. The Lighthouse sequence and Islet landmarks are attributed community routes, cross-checked on October 16, 2026. This review checks records and screenshots and does not claim an independent gameplay test.