The One Fish Lobbies and Troubleshooting

Week one of The One Fish Early Access produced a very specific kind of wipe: the run that never started. Friends sat on the main menu, Friends Only lobbies failed, versions drifted, and loads spun forever. re:try answered with HOTFIX 1, HOTFIX 3, and a note that a UI warning for version mismatch is coming in a later update.

This page is the pre-cast checklist for online co-op. Read it before you rewrite How to Play because “the game is broken.” Sometimes the game is waiting for you to read the number in the top right of the main menu.

Rule zero: same version, spoken out loud

HOTFIX 3 is blunt: if you cannot enter a friend’s game, compare versions in the top-right corner of the main menu. If they differ, someone still has an old depot. Steam → right-click The One Fish → Properties → Installed Files → Verify. Then restart the client, not just the game. The hotfix also boots you back to the main menu when versions differ, instead of leaving you in infinite loading. That boot is success, not a crash—read it as “go update.”

Until the promised UI warning ships, the human warning is your host. Put the version string in the Discord topic. If someone joins late, they paste their number before they ask “invite me.”

Friends Only in main mode and Chill Mode

HOTFIX 3 fixed Friends Only lobbies in the main and chill mode. If your group still cannot see the lobby:

1. Confirm everyone is on the same version.
2. Toggle Friends Only off and on once after the hotfix.
3. Try a public-to-friends flow: host creates, friends join, then restrict if needed.
4. Test a Chill Mode lobby separately—the fix covered both, but Steam overlay privacy settings can still hide you.

If Steam friends lists are stuck offline, that is a Steam issue, not a fish issue. Wait, restart Steam, then retry. Do not buy a second copy from a key shop; see Codes.

Microphone and push-to-talk

HOTFIX 1 made push-to-talk enable/disable work properly. If your mute state was cursed on August 12, reopen settings, toggle PTT once, and test in a two-person Chill Mode island before a six-stack feed. In-game chat exists; it does not replace a working mic for bomb-fish calls. Bind notes belong on Controls.

Fish vanished from the ship basket

HOTFIX 1 fixed fish sometimes disappearing from the ship basket. If it still happens, screenshot, note party size, and post on Steam discussions with the version string. Locally, haul to feed sooner rather than treating the basket as a chest. How to Feed wants food in the creature, not in a buggy crate.

Infinite load, camera in body, weird scale

If load still spins after HOTFIX 3, you are probably mismatched anyway—or a friend is mid-update. For camera inside the body, player scale not resetting after Big or Small, and Big Big Fish scaling forever, those were HOTFIX 2 / 8.13.26 items. Details sit on Size Modes and Hotfixes. Do not “play through” a camera inside a skull; it trains bad movement for the next clean lobby.

Join order that actually works

1. Host verifies files and states version.
2. Host opens a Friends Only (or friends-visible) lobby in the mode you intend—main feed or chill.
3. Friends verify files, match version, then join.
4. Host confirms PTT.
5. Thirty-second Controls check.
6. Then and only then, start the appetite loop.

Skip steps 1–4 and you will spend the session on this page instead of on Hot Zones.

Party size is a balance setting now

After 8.13.26, maximum spawned enemies scale with party size. A six-player comedy stack is louder and denser. If troubleshooting a “too many enemies” complaint, check headcount before you check GPU. Shop and Upgrades and System Requirements are related: more bodies means more effects and more broadband.

When to stop troubleshooting and go chill

If two verification passes fail, park the feed. Run Chill Mode or stop for the night. Early Access is allowed to be messy; your friendships are not a debug sacrifice. Log what you tried on the Launch Checklist so Friday’s content update (August 21) does not repeat the same thread.

Lobbies are the real tutorial. The One Fish cannot get hungry if the menu never lets you fish.