How to Fish — Beginner Guide
Crash, eat clams, buy a knife, bait the crab, take the boat keys.
How to Fish drops you on a lighthouse rock after a drunk boat crash. You are not managing a tension meter from a calm fishing RPG. You pick clams, feed a seadog, buy a ridiculous rod, reel angry seafood onto land, and beat it to death. This page is the first hour through Patch 1.0.10. When the boat keys are in hand, switch to the Walkthrough for Forest through Volcano.
The Steam store still describes 1–4 player online co-op. Patch 1.0.4 allows lobbies up to eight. Solo is fine. Easy mode from Patch 1.0.9 is a gift if the crab’s claws dump you. Full binds: Controls.
Minute one
Eat a clam if the hunger prompt is yelling. Feed extra clams to the Lighthouse Keeper for cash (about $3 each). Do not blow the first dollars on Beer. Buy the Crab Fishing Rod (~$3) and start the Ham / Hot Dog pool: Brown Crab, Shrimp, Rock Crab, Lobster. Sell by feeding the keeper. That is the shop.
Gear before the crab
Bare fists into Spider Crab is a common wipe. Buy Brass Knuckles ($24) or the Knife ($45) and sharpen on the anvil if you can. Then buy Beer (~$12), give the full can to the keeper, and keep the Empty Beer Can. Equip that empty can as bait. A full beer in the water is the wrong item.
Spider Crab, keys, Radar
Cast, wait, then respect the charge. When stars sit over its head, hit from behind and leave before it turns. Pick up the Spider Crab Shell — not only the meat — and hand the shell to the keeper. Boat Keys are the reward. Buy the Radar for $10 before you sail or you will not see Island 2. Patch 1.0.5 will not let you point the boat at the Volcano yet.
What the first hour is not
It is not a trick-shot coin printer. Bounce shots exist and they are funny; they are not required to leave the rock. It is not a code-redemption game — cosmetics come from Drip creatures and the Reel of Fortune. It is not a flying-boat tutorial; dynamite is an Island 2 shop item for I’m the bird now.
Talk to everyone. The keeper’s beer quest is Who stole my beer. After the keys, you can still farm Drip crabs for melee skins, but the better cabinets are later. Difficulty, private lobbies, and Steam Relay debug are in the pause / main menus after 1.0.5–1.0.9. If the game will not save, use Save, Main Menu, or Quit — Patch 1.0.6 stopped crash-saves and 1.0.9 tried to fix corruption. Troubleshooting has the ugly cases.
First upgrades after you leave
Island 2 sells dynamite, a shotgun, Beginner Lures, and a cheap engine. The forest lady wants three ground leeches, not fish. From there the story is Giant Piranha → Desert Pufferfish → Rocks Albatross → Volcano whale. Boss baits never get replaced by a bigger rifle. When you are ready to fight on purpose, open Boss Fights.
Play with friends if you can. Extra knives make the crab trivial and extra pockets make quest trophies harder to sell by accident. Set difficulty together. Then go catch something with legs.
Related pages
- Walkthrough — five-island route
- Island Guide — shops and unlocks
- Fish Locations — Ham and Hot Dog table
- Co-op Guide — invites and eight-player lobbies