Fishing
Fishing in Nivalis is not a side activity you do for relaxation between business meetings, though it can serve that purpose too. It is a core part of the supply chain that feeds your restaurants, stalls, and bars. The fish and aquatic ingredients you pull from the water go straight into your dishes and onto your menus, making fishing trips a direct investment in your business success. It also is one of the game's primary exploration mechanics, giving you access to parts of the city that are difficult or impossible to reach on foot.
Your Personal Boat
Early in the game, you gain access to a personal boat docked near the city's lower levels. This boat is your ticket to the waterways that run between and beneath the massive support pillars holding Nivalis above the sea. The boat is not fast or flashy. It is a working vessel, small enough to navigate the cramped passages that larger craft cannot enter.
You pilot the boat yourself in first person, steering through narrow channels, under bridges, and past the industrial underbelly of the city. The waterways are not just functional paths to fishing spots. They are their own explorable environment, full of details that tell you about life at the lowest level of a vertical city. Rusted infrastructure, makeshift docks, graffiti on the support columns, and the occasional other boat passing by all contribute to the atmosphere.
Your boat stays docked wherever you leave it. If you park at a fishing spot and take a stairway up into a nearby district on foot, the boat will still be there when you come back. This persistent positioning means you can use the boat as a staging point for exploring the lower city, docking at different locations and returning to it later rather than always having to start from the same home dock.
How Fishing Works
When you reach a fishing spot, you can drop a line and wait for a bite. The mechanics are straightforward but not mindless. Different areas of the waterways hold different catches, and the time of day and weather conditions can influence what shows up. You will not find the same selection of fish in every channel, which encourages you to explore new routes and revisit old ones under different conditions.
Caught fish go into your inventory as raw ingredients. From there, you can bring them back to your kitchen and turn them into dishes using the cooking system. Fresh fish is a high-value ingredient. Dishes featuring freshly caught seafood command better prices on your menu and tend to get stronger customer reactions than those made with store-bought equivalents.
Fishing and Business
The connection between fishing and business management is direct. The fish you catch can be cooked into dishes that stock your restaurant fridges and freezers. If you are running a seafood-focused menu, regular fishing trips become a necessary part of your routine. Running out of fresh fish means pulling items from your menu or substituting with lower-quality store-bought alternatives, both of which affect customer satisfaction.
There is an economic calculation to fishing as well. Time spent on the water is time not spent managing your businesses, cooking, or building relationships. A short fishing trip that nets a few high-value catches is more efficient than a long expedition that fills your hold with common fish. Learning which spots produce the best returns for your time is part of mastering the system.
Exploration
Beyond the practical benefits, fishing trips double as exploration. The waterways give you access to parts of the city you cannot easily reach on foot or by train. Some of the 19 explorable areas in the city are best accessed by boat, and the canals themselves contain points of interest that reward curiosity. Navigating the water at different times of day reveals different sights: the neon reflections at night, the fog rolling in during early morning, the rain hammering the surface during storms.
All water levels in the city are explorable. You are not limited to a single canal or a predetermined route. The waterways branch, loop, and descend, and following them to their edges can reveal hidden spots that most residents of the city never see. The persistent boat parking system supports this: dock your boat at an unfamiliar pier, explore on foot, and come back to the boat later to continue your journey by water.
The Ocean and Its Mysteries
The city of Nivalis sits above the ocean, and the waters below hold more than just fish. Salt Pete, a character associated with the Calypso Island port area, has his own views on what lives beneath the surface. According to Salt Pete, the ocean contains "sentient slime, junk HOVAs and ancient, God-like AIs dreaming dark dreams." How much of that is tall tales from an old sailor and how much is rooted in the setting's lore is part of the mystery.
The Cloudpunk games established that the world beyond the city is vast and largely unknown. The ocean in particular was hinted at as containing remnants of older technology and possibly older forms of intelligence. Whether Nivalis will let you encounter any of these deep-sea elements directly or keep them as atmospheric flavor remains to be seen, but the ocean is clearly more than just a source of fish. It is part of the larger world-building that connects Nivalis to the Cloudpunk universe.
A Moment of Calm
There is a meditative quality to the fishing gameplay that stands in contrast to the bustle of running a business. The waterways are quieter than the streets. The pace slows down. It is the game giving you permission to take a breath, even while you are technically still working. Many players will find that fishing trips become one of their favorite parts of the daily routine. The combination of first-person boat navigation, atmospheric sound design, and the visual beauty of the lower city's water-level views makes fishing something you might do even when your fridges are already full.