How to Fish updates & patch notes

Sept 30 · Drip Gar and Fisherman plush (news, not a patch)

The developers say the game has been out for a month and they are celebrating with plushies made with Makeship: a Drip Gar and a Fisherman. Players can register interest by pledging $2 on a petition for each plush, and the $2 counts towards the final price if an official campaign goes live. The team says it is going back to bugfixing and other improvements. Nothing here changes gameplay, and the Drip Gar is named only as a plush subject. See Drip creatures.

Sept 29 · Patch 1.1.3 · Fishipedia bait names

One change, made "to make it easier to hunt for drip creatures": the Fishipedia now displays the name of the bait to catch a creature, shown after you have killed it once. Guide: Drip creatures, Fishipedia & wishbone.

Sept 29 · Patch 1.1.2 · Small bugfixing patch

• New: rebinding for reload; two new skins for the bow.
• Changes: new bait spawn on the new mini island raised from 2 to 3; shiny fishing rod skins made shinier; pricing for wishbone upgrades adjusted; mini island dots on the radar made bigger; the option to downgrade to the ironsight added again.
• Fixed: Tench could not spawn from the new bait; triangles faced the wrong direction on the new mini-boss.

Guides: map and mini islands, euros and the bow.

Patch 1.1.1

We did not find a separate announcement for 1.1.1; Steam's update list goes from 1.1.0 to 1.1.2. A Steam guide written on September 29 says it was made on version 1.1.1, so that build reached players. A community guide says the game version is shown at the bottom right of the main menu.

Sept 28 · The Islet Update 1.1.0 · Mini islands, new creatures and a new weapon

The first content update. New: a bundle with PEAK; a new weapon; multiple mini islands; more creatures; a new mini-boss; more items; a new bait; a new NPC; new achievements; a new outfit. Changes: the volume of some sound effects; the distance between each island.

What the notes leave out: the names of the weapon, bait, NPC and mini-boss, where the mini islands are, and what unlocks them. Steam's achievement list now shows the three new achievements (Bilingual, Money in a bottle, Hobin Rood), and the 1.1.2 notes name the bow and the Tench. Community guides fill in the rest; see euros and the bow and the map, and read them as player reports.

Sept 4 · Patch 1.0.12 · Steam Cloud support

Called "probably the last bugfix patch before starting to work on content updates".

• New: save files are stored through Steam Cloud. Play and exit on the PC that holds your saves once to upload them.
• Changes: piranha rebalanced; tuna nerfed slightly; velocity on items limited so they are harder to lose; MetaVoice updated to 4.3 for voice chat.
• Fixed: FishNet no longer overrides your max fps when joining a lobby; music is preloaded so buying the first radio does not lag; the final boss now takes damage from explosives even when landing on its tail.

Guide: Steam Cloud.

Sept 1 · Patch 1.0.11 · Steam Deck Verified, GeForce NOW

• New: playable through GeForce NOW; fully Steam Deck Verified; options for toggle aim, toggle sprint, hold to attack and nametags.
• Changes: saves are checked for corruption before loading and now have backups; the roulette table on "island 6" was moved slightly; item dots recoloured (weapons orange, dead players turquoise); you now die from your own explosives even with friendly fire off; iron sight removed as a purchasable; you can no longer downgrade from suppressor to compensator.
• Fixed: an inventory bug on join that made players invisible; items must be held once before selling; drip parrotfish not being cooked; hands sometimes teleporting to a picked-up item.

See platforms.

Aug 27 · Patch 1.0.10 · Fanart and saving items on the ground

• New: weapons and tools get cleaned from cooking when dipped in water; items dropped on the ground are saved between sessions (up to 64, prioritising weapons, tools, quest items and creatures); a fanart channel on the community Discord.
• Changes: anglerfish nerfed slightly.
• Fixed: dying to a tuna, spawning an albatross and being unable to respawn; rich text in chat removed because of griefers; explosion velocity limited; several roulette bugs; longer time allowed to connect; the X marker for your last death was removed from the radar because it was confusing.

Aug 24 · Patch 1.0.9 · Difficulty settings

• New: a difficulty option in the main menu and in game. Default is unchanged. Easy: all creatures have 25% less health and do 50% less damage. Hard: all creatures have 25% more health and do 25% more damage.
• New: a short Steam connection debug in the main menu. If the Steam relay text turns red, the notes point to the #common-bugs channel in the community Discord.
• Fixed: hopefully fixed save corruption.

The difficulty numbers matter for boss fights.

Aug 24 · Patch 1.0.8 and Aug 23 · Patch 1.0.6

1.0.8 corrected PlayStation controller glyphs and linked the fire sizzling sound to the FX volume slider. 1.0.6 made the game check a save file before loading, which stopped fake servers named "Game Name" appearing; saves are now written when you press Save, Main Menu or Quit, plus an autosave every minute.

Aug 22 · Patch 1.0.5 · Inverted look axis and private lobbies

• New: invert look axis options; a private lobby that is only joinable by invite; changing session type in server settings in game (needs a restart).
• Changes: minimum locked fps 50 → 30.
• Fixed: you could travel to any island without unlocking it ("sorry speedrunners"); slot machine skins invisible at 4K; the all-drip-creatures achievement not unlocking until one more drip; griefers instantly ending the game when joining.

See multiplayer, the map and achievements.

Aug 21 · Patch 1.0.4 · Increased player count support

• Changes: support for up to 8 player lobbies; Pufferfish nerfed; Whale nerfed; the intended path up to the final island made easier to see.
• Fixed: black screen when joining a lobby; grey screen on start; a permanent boss timer; special characters in server names breaking saves; the achievement to kill the final boss with bare hands now works for everyone.

Aug 20–23 · Release and one million players

The game was released on August 20 at a 38% launch discount for one week. On August 23 the developers announced that How to Fish had reached one million players in two days and promised more content and bug fixes.

Sources & context