How to Fish Guides & Tips
How To Fish Speedrun
There is no official How to Fish speedrun route — the scene lives entirely in the community. The fastest solo runs we could document on video sit around 16 minutes: a 15:59.133 solo run recorded on Patch 1.0.4 and a 17:04 solo FWR run beside it. There is also a parallel "casual speedrun" scene built around the Bean 1-hour achievement, with a dedicated Steam guide for the 1.0.5 route.
The Documented Runs
Two solo full-game runs surfaced during research. The quicker one is titled "How to Fish Speedrun (15:59.133 Solo) — Patch 1.0.4" by the runner Sparla, which pins the time to a specific game version. The second is "How To Fish Speedrun (17:04) Solo FWR" by Chocler, using the FWR format label.
Neither video had usable subtitles in our collection, so we cannot break down their splits move by move — any detailed route reconstruction is unconfirmed until you watch the runs themselves. What the titles do confirm is that sub-20-minute solo clears exist on recent patches. Treat those times as documented video results, not as official world records.
The Bean One-Hour Route
The most accessible speedrun target is the Bean 1-hour achievement, and it has its own community guide: "Bean 1.0.5 Guide (Solo)" in the Steam community guides. The guide exists specifically because the challenge is bounded — you are racing one hour of play, not fifteen minutes. That makes it the natural entry point for new runners.
We could not collect the guide's internal route from the search results, so its step-by-step plan is unconfirmed until you open it on Steam. What is clear from the guide ecosystem is that the 1-hour route overlaps heavily with the normal beginner path: boat unlock, first boss, quest hand-offs. Speed comes from cutting fat off that route, not from glitches documented anywhere we found.
Why Every Patch Reshuffles the Routes
The developers ship gameplay-affecting patches through the Steam announcements page, and the patch history already includes changes to progression skipping, difficulty, and multiplayer behavior. Patch 1.0.4 alone added 8-player lobbies and adjusted difficulty, and the 1.0.5 Bean guide implies further tuning. A route optimized for one patch can die on the next.
This is why serious runs pin their patch version in the title, like the 15:59.133 run does. If you are running seriously, lock your game version if you can and note it with every time you post. Casual runners should simply update and re-learn.
Core Skills Every Route Needs
The speedrun-adjacent guides all circle the same fundamentals. You need the boss order down cold — Spider Crab, Giant Piranha, Pufferfish, then the later two — because each boss gates the next island through its quest drop. You need clean bait prep, from the beer-for-bait trade on island one to the three-leech task on Island 2.
And above all you need the discipline to hand in quest drops immediately, because a sold skeleton means re-fighting a boss. Those habits are the whole difference between a 40-minute clear and a 16-minute one. The money you would grind for is rarely on the critical path.
Where to Follow the Scene
The scene concentrates in three places: the Steam community guides section for written routes, YouTube for the actual runs, and the announcements page for patch intel. The fan wiki also tracks progression content like "All 5 islands in order" that route-builders reuse. We found no dedicated leaderboard for the game in this research pass, so verified record times are unconfirmed.
If you want in, start with the Bean 1-hour guide, watch the 15:59.133 run for the shape of an optimized clear, and join the Steam discussions to ask about the current patch. Then post your own time — at this stage of the game's life, records do not survive long.
What We Know About the Two Runs
The 15:59.133 run is the better documented of the two because its title pins the patch: 1.0.4. A run time tied to a version is repeatable context — you know exactly what ruleset produced the number. The 17:04 FWR run labels a format rather than a patch, which matters for comparison.
Neither video offered subtitles in our collection, so their route internals are unconfirmed from written sources alone. Watch the runs directly if you want the splits. As documents, they prove the game can be cleared solo in under twenty minutes on a recent patch.
The Bean Route Is the Real Starting Line
For new runners, the Bean 1-hour guide is the community's front door. One hour is enough time to see the whole route — boat, first boss, quest chain — while still demanding optimization. The guide is versioned (the 1.0.5 edition), which tells you it is being maintained.
Treat it as your first category even if you eventually chase the 16-minute clears. The fundamentals transfer wholesale: bait prep, boss order, hand-in discipline. Only the execution speed changes.
Patch History That Reshaped Running
The announcements page is the runner's newspaper. Patch 1.0.4 added 8-player lobbies and adjusted difficulty, and the announcement archive references progression and co-op changes across patches. Any of those can invalidate a route overnight.
This is why serious submissions pin versions and why casual runners should simply stay current. A "record" without a patch label is a rumor. The 15:59.133 title does it right.
How to Start Running It Yourself
The stack: read the Bean guide, watch the 15:59.133 run once end to end, then run the Bean route yourself without pausing to set a baseline. Log your time against your own baseline, not against the videos. Improve one segment per run.
Post times and questions in the Steam discussions, where the guide authors hang out. No leaderboard for the game surfaced in our research, so the community hub is the scoreboard for now. At this stage of the game's life, your next run could be the one to beat.
Watching for the Next Record
Records in a young game fall in clusters: one video proves a time is possible, and imitators shave it down within weeks. The 17:04 and 15:59.133 runs sit close enough together to suggest exactly that pattern is underway. The next drop likely comes from a route change around quest skips or boss burst damage.
The announcements page is the early-warning system, because every route-breaking change lands there first. A patch that touches progression speed will reshuffle times the day it ships. If you care about the numbers, read the patch notes before the record board.