How to Fish Patch Notes & Updates
Official Steam notes from launch through PATCH 1.0.12.
How to Fish launched on Steam on August 20, 2026. Dazed Games has shipped a dense first-week patch train. This hub summarizes official community announcements. Always restart Steam if a listed feature is missing. The live game version is also printed in player.log as of Patch 1.0.10.
Launch week peaked near 373,971 concurrent players on August 26, 2026 (SteamDB). The store still describes a 1–4 player physics fishing sim; Patch 1.0.4 added lobbies up to eight. Reviews remain overwhelmingly positive. For combat tuning added later, read Difficulty Settings. For the island lock that killed the volcano skip, stay on the Walkthrough.
PATCH 1.0.12 (September 4, 2026)
Dazed Games published Patch 1.0.12 on September 4, adding official Steam Cloud support, Piranha rebalancing, a Tuna nerf, item velocity limits, MetaVoice 4.3 updates, and fixes for the multiplayer FPS cap, first-Radio lag spike, and final-boss tail damage.
New
- Steam Cloud — saves now sync through Steam Cloud. Existing saves upload after one launch and exit on the source device.
Changes
- Piranha rebalanced — no published health, damage, or spawn values.
- Tuna slightly nerfed — retest the Island 4 encounter.
- Item velocity limited — dropped items should stay in the world more reliably.
- MetaVoice updated to 4.3 — voice chat improvements.
Fixes
- Multiplayer FPS cap fixed — FishNet no longer overrides Max FPS when joining a lobby.
- Radio music preloads — no more lag spike when buying the first Radio.
- Final-boss explosives — explosives now damage the whale even when landing on its tail.
The September 5 wiki scan also notes that content-update work starts the week of September 8. No new island or release date is announced yet. For save migration, see the Steam Cloud Save Sync guide.
PATCH 1.0.11 (September 2, 2026)
New
- Steam Deck Verified — the game now carries the Verified badge on Steam Deck.
- GeForce NOW support added.
- Aim toggle, sprint toggle, hold-to-attack option, and nametag toggle added to settings.
Fixes
- Save corruption checks and backups — saves are checked before loading and have automatic backups.
- Self-damage from explosives kept active even with Friendly Fire disabled — your own TNT is still lethal to you.
- Iron Sight removed from the shop (was inadvertently added).
- Suppressor to Compensator downgrade blocked.
- Inventory-on-join fix attempted.
- Held-once selling rule clarified.
- Drip Parrotfish cooking fix.
- Hand pickup animation fix.
The Island 6 roulette table was also moved slightly because its former position made betting awkward.
FANART & PATCH 1.0.10 (August 27, 2026)
Dazed Games called this the biggest patch yet and opened a fanart channel on the Community Discord.
New
- Weapons and tools clean cooking residue when dipped in water.
- Items dropped on the ground save between sessions, up to 64 total, prioritizing weapons, tools, quest items, and creatures.
Changes
- Anglerfish nerfed slightly (too much health).
Fixes
- Beer no longer bleeds when punched.
- Dying to Tuna, spawning Albatross, and being unable to respawn.
- Last played time stored in UTC now converts to local time.
- Rich text removed from chat after griefer exploits.
- Explosion velocity capped so items do not fly out of the world.
- Seagull and player grabbing the same item at once no longer breaks things.
- Roulette infinite ticking at high values; ball clipping the wheel.
- Game version printed in player.log.
- Longer connect window to reduce instant disconnects.
- Leaving mid-roulette no longer breaks the next session.
- Items spawning far away when equipped from inventory.
- Item dots hidden on the end-game screen.
- X marker removed from the Radar (it was last death location and confused people).
- Items falling through the level on load or lobby join.
Ground stashes mean you can leave a cook pile at the military camp and find it after a quit, within the 64-item cap.
PATCH 1.0.9 (August 24, 2026)
New
- Difficulty in the main menu and in-game when creating a lobby. Default matches the previous game.
- Easy: all creatures have 25% less health and deal 50% less damage.
- Hard: all creatures have 25% more health and deal 25% more damage.
- Main-menu Steam connection debug. If Steam Relay text turns red, use Community Discord #common-bugs.
Fixes
- Save corruption hopefully fixed. If loads still fail or equipping weapons crashes, Discord documents how to remove bad saves.
Restart Steam to receive the update.
PATCH 1.0.8 (August 24, 2026)
PlayStation controller glyphs display correctly. Fire sizzling sound now follows the FX volume slider.
PATCH 1.0.6 (August 23, 2026)
The game checks the save before loading, which stopped fake servers named “Game Name.” It no longer writes a save on crash. It saves on Save, Main Menu, and Quit, plus autosave about every minute.
PATCH 1.0.5 (August 22, 2026)
New: invert look on X and Y; private invite-only lobbies; change session type in server settings (requires restart).
Changes: minimum locked FPS 50 → 30.
Fixes: travel to locked islands removed (sorry speedrunners); 4K Reel of Fortune skins visible while rolling; Fishipedia no longer needs every Drip plus one extra; griefers cannot instantly end the game on join.
PATCH 1.0.4 (August 21, 2026)
Changes: lobbies up to 8 players; Pufferfish nerf; Whale nerf; clearer path to the final island.
Fixes: black screen on lobby join and gray screen on boot (no forced fullscreen) hopefully resolved; stuck boss timer; underwater main-menu effects; revive text; special characters banned from server names because they broke saves; Handyman achievement fixed for everyone.
Launch (August 20, 2026)
Windows Steam release at a launch discount. Physics fishing, guns, five-island quest chain, gambling, and 28 achievements. The developers later celebrated one million fishermen in two days and promised more content plus bug fixes.
Related pages
- Difficulty Settings — Easy / Normal / Hard math
- Troubleshooting — saves, Relay, black screen
- Skins — Reel of Fortune after the 4K fix
- Co-op Guide — 8-player lobbies and private invites
- Speedrun Guide — version-split records and category rules
- Roulette & Casino — roulette bugs and casino tips
- Steam Cloud Save Sync — upload existing saves and sync between devices