Once Human has a built-in survival guide to clarify many of its varied, and sometimes confusing, mechanics. But even after reading the entry on fishing, new players might still feel unenlightened. It seems simple enough, but once you get your hands on a fishing pole, you might find that the question remains: how do you actually fish in Once Human?
Fishing in Once Human
Get yourself a fishing pole
This is the simplest step, as you’ll probably already have the mats required. Go to the Supplies Workbench, where you can craft your own fishing rod almost right away. You just need 20 Logs and 10 Copper Ingots.
Make or buy fishing bait
Hopefully, as you’ve run around Once Human’s post-apocalyptic, Stardust-polluted world, you’ve picked every bit of corn you came across. At the Supplies Workbench, you can make 1 Dough Fish Bait using 1 Corn.
If you’ve made it to Meyer’s Market, the second zone in Once Human, you can also buy bait. There are docks on the south side of the settlement, where a lady named Margerie sells Bait for 50 Energy Links, as well as Formula: Bait so you can learn how to make your own at the Supplies Workbench for 3 Rubber.
During fishing events, Margerie also sells other types of bait, and you’ll find vendors with different stock as you progress further into the world. Upgrading your Cradle will also unlock better bait recipes and fishing poles.
How to catch fish
Drag your newly crafted fishing pole to the hotbar, then find yourself a body of water big enough to house fish. Hit the hotkey to equip your fishing pole and press R to open the bait menu. Every fish you hook, whether it’s successfully caught or escapes, uses one Bait, so make sure you have plenty.
Bait selected, hold down the left mouse button. Just clicking the mouse button will give you an error message that you “cannot fish here.” Some players (not me) will believe the message and run around to different water holes, trying to fish and growing increasingly frustrated. So, hold down LMB.
A green circle indicates where you’ll cast your line; it turns red if you’re over a non-fishable area. Move the circle to an ideal location and release LMB to start fishing.
Once you cast your line, two new indicators appear on the screen. The one in the bottom center represents the fishhook’s location on the water’s surface. Once it bobs downward and the icon turns blue, click and hold LMB to begin reeling in your fish. You only have five seconds to click, or the fish will get away.
The indicator on the right side of the screen shows two gauges: Escaped vs. Hooked and Break vs. Slack. You want the Escaped/Hooked bar to fill up; the Break/Slack bar will ideally remain in the middle. If this second bar empties, the fish escapes.
To successfully reel in a fish, rotate the camera in the direction opposite to the way the fish is swimming. Then hit F to take it off the line.
What to do with caught fish
Fish decays over time, like other perishable foods in Once Human. At the beginning of the game, you’ll have a basic recipe to grill it up on the Stove, but it will still go bad in 24 hours. To preserve it, you can dry it out with Salt on the Meat Drier or keep it cool in the Refrigerator once you’ve unlocked those facilities.
Other uses for fish include:
- Put one in a Fish Tank (Cradle > Building > Display Facilities)
- Use special catches as currency at certain vendors like Margerie
- Make melee weapons with certain species
Now that you know how to fish, you have a readily available food supply as you combat the Stardust pollution in Once Human and work to heal the land.
