How to Fish 1.0.4: Eight-Player Lobbies and Two Boss Nerfs
Dazed Games shipped patch 1.0.4 the day after launch, on 21 August 2026. It is the first major How to Fish update and it went straight at the three loudest complaints: lobby size, the difficulty of two bosses, and black screens on startup.
Eight players in the boat
The headline change is the lobby cap raised to eight players. Co-op is what pulled the game into the viral clips of its first days, and eight people in one session is less “invite a friend” and more full-blown chaos. How lobbies, private sessions and connecting work is covered in the co-op guide.
Two bosses were nerfed
The developers weakened:
- the pufferfish — the third island’s boss, the one with two phases;
- the bowhead whale — the game’s final boss.
The size of the nerf is not stated in the patch notes, so we are not quoting one. The fights themselves are broken down in the pufferfish guide and the final boss guide.
The same patch also made the path to the final island clearer — before it, a share of players simply did not know where to go next.
Technical fixes
| What was fixed |
|---|
| Black and grey screens instead of the game |
| The bare-hands final boss achievement was not being granted |
| Servers failed to create if the name contained a special character |
The achievement in question is Handyman (“defeat the final boss with your bare hands”). As of 31 August 2026 it sits at 3.4% of players in Steam’s global statistics.
What came next
1.0.4 turned out to be the rule rather than the exception: at least seven patches shipped in the first week, including the difficulty modes in 1.0.9 and what was then the biggest update, 1.0.10. The full “symptom → the version that fixed it” table is in our troubleshooting guide.
Frequently asked questions
How many players fit in one lobby now?
Eight. Before patch 1.0.4 the cap was lower.
Which bosses were nerfed?
Two: the pufferfish on the third island and the final bowhead whale.
What was fixed technically?
Black and grey screens instead of the game, and servers failing to be created when the name contained a special character.
When did patch 1.0.4 release?
21 August 2026 — the day after the game launched.