Fishing

Overview

Fishing is a mini-game in Outbound, the cozy open-world camper van game from Square Glade Games. It was not part of the 1.0 launch build. The studio added it in Patch 1.1, the Fishing Update, which went live on June 23, 2026 as the first major content drop on the post-launch roadmap. It is the realized form of the Summer update that the seasonal plan had promised.

One detail matters up front: in Outbound, fish are decorative collectibles, not food. You catch them to fill a journal and to display them in fish tanks, not to cook or eat them. That fits the game's core design, where no animal is ever killed or harvested. There is no hunting, no fishing quota, and no penalty for ignoring the activity entirely. Like everything else in the game, fishing is optional.

How Fishing Works

Fishing is available at every body of water in the world. All lakes and rivers, plus the sea on The Coast, now hold fish that can be caught. You need a fishing rod to fish, and the rod you carry determines where you can fish.

A fishing-themed painting was also added as one more collectible to track down. The individual species names, per-rod recipes, and the exact catch rates have not been published by the studio, so they are left out here rather than guessed at; this page will list them once they are documented.

Where To Get Your First Rod

You can start fishing on an existing save or a fresh one. The first fishing rod is found on the first map at the fishing hut beside the lake with the pier, in the starting biome. Picking it up also gives you your first couple of buildable fish tanks. The next rods and more tanks are acquired on the second and fourth maps.

Three new structures were added to support the activity: a fisherman's hut in the first biome, a second fisherman's hut in the second biome, and a fisherman's cabin in the fourth biome. They are worth exploring for the rods and the atmosphere alike, and they join the wider set of landmarks scattered across the world.

Why Fish Are Not Food

Outbound has no combat, no enemies, and no mechanic that rewards harming wildlife. The developers describe it as a survival game about trying your best to live rather than one about desperately trying not to die. Animals such as the game's signature bunnies can be fed, petted, and observed, but never hurt; the camper van will not even let you run them over. Fishing slots into that same philosophy. Rather than turning fish into a protein source for the cooking system, the feature treats them as living decorations to admire. Food in Outbound comes from farming, foraging, and beekeeping instead.

Kickstarter Stretch Goal History

Although fishing did not ship at launch, it has been on the wishlist since the crowdfunding campaign. It was added to the plan after backers of the Kickstarter campaign pushed funding well beyond the original 30,000 EUR goal. The campaign closed with 265,679 EUR raised from 5,197 backers, nearly nine times the initial target, and every publicly revealed stretch goal was unlocked.

The stretch goals were revealed and unlocked in this order during the August and September 2024 campaign:

So fishing was the fourth stretch goal unlocked. The corresponding backer update framed it as a proper fishing mini-game rather than a passive button press, and stressed that it would be built in a way consistent with the studio's peaceful, no-combat values. That promise is what the Summer update is set to deliver.

Where You Fish

Water is everywhere in Outbound's four-biome world, so every region gives you somewhere to cast. Rivers and lakes were added to the interactive world map back in alpha, which means you can spot the water and plan a route there as part of the exploration loop.

A Calm, Optional Activity

Fishing is built as a low-pressure pastime rather than a survival chore. Outbound supports up to four players in Multiplayer and Co-Op sessions, and fishing fits that group context well: friends can set up camp along the same shoreline and pass the in-game time together while the world drifts by. Because there is no PvP and no hostile encounter, any competition is entirely player-invented. The activity sits in the same relaxed category as shared cooking, kite flying, and sitting around a campfire.

A practical note on completion: the Fishing Update added no new achievements, so players who had already earned every achievement keep their completionist status. Fishing is tracked through the journal instead. For broader guidance on getting started, see the beginner's guide and the general tips and tricks page.