Crate Ship Games

The Last Fisherman: Beginner's Guide

By the Crate Ship Games team · Updated October 15, 2026

The Last Fisherman is a first-person fishing adventure set on the island of Greyhaven. You play Jim. The story starts with a call from Mara: the family needs supper. This guide covers everything you need for the first few voyages.

Starting out

From the main menu you can start the story or choose Explore the Island, which drops you on Greyhaven without any fishing goal so you can walk the harbor, the village square, the woodland paths and the lighthouse first. When you are ready, board the old wooden boat at the pier.

Your first job is Mara's supper run: bring 8 kg of fish home before sunset, within a 600-second voyage. It pays 180 coins. The next order, 10 kg for the town smokehouse in 720 seconds, pays 480 coins. Those coins buy your first real upgrades.

Controls

Keyboard and mouse

Phone and tablet

Play in landscape. Use the move pad to walk and steer, and drag the open part of the screen to look. Hold FISH to charge, release to cast, tap to hook, then hold to reel and let go to ease the tension. INTERACT docks, boards, trades and reads signs.

Controllers

Xbox, PlayStation and other controllers your browser recognises work too: left stick to move, right stick to look, the right trigger to fish, A or Cross to interact, and Menu or Options to pause. Pair the controller with your device first, then press a button so the browser detects it. Custom button mapping is in the game's controller setup.

Catching fish without losing them

Every fight is a balance between reeling and line tension:

  1. Charge and cast. A longer charge throws further.
  2. Hook on the bite. Click or tap as soon as the bite cue appears.
  3. Reel in bursts. Holding reel pulls the fish closer but raises tension. Let go before the gauge reaches red or the line breaks.
  4. Read the fish. Watch for run and head-shake cues and ease off while the fish fights. When it surfaces, that is your best moment to reel.
  5. Don't leave it slack. If the line stays slack for eight seconds, the fish escapes.

Fish tire only when you keep useful pressure on them, so steady short pulls beat one long hold. King Crabs grip the bottom: release briefly to make them let go, then reel again.

Nets are an alternative to the rod for small schooling fish like mackerel and herring. Nets and cancelled casts don't use up bait.

Getting home and getting paid

Press H at sea to point the GPS at your home berth. Slow down beside the pier, stow your line with R (or finish a net haul), then press E to dock. The voyage clock pauses while you are ashore, and an unfinished voyage resumes when you board again.

Coins come from delivering orders and selling extra fish. Reaching a voyage's weight target by itself pays nothing: you have to bring the catch to Mara or the fish market. When you sell surplus at the market, the game protects the fish your current order still needs, so you can't accidentally sell your delivery.

The ten chapters

After the two supper runs, the fish market asks for bigger and more varied deliveries:

  1. Family Supper (180 coins): 8 kg for Mara before sunset.
  2. Town Supper (480 coins): 10 kg for the town smokehouse.
  3. Smokehouse Stock (700 coins): a varied catch for the smokehouse reserve.
  4. Salt and Ice (950 coins): two kinds of fish for the preservation order.
  5. First Frost (1,200 coins): three kinds of fish for the first winter reserve.
  6. Gray Swell (1,500 coins): a varied delivery over a longer fishing day.
  7. Storm Larder (1,800 coins): fill the storm reserve.
  8. Ice Wind (2,200 coins): four kinds of fish for the larger town order.
  9. Last Light (2,700 coins): four kinds for the second-to-last reserve.
  10. Longest Night (3,400 coins): five kinds of fish for the final reserve.

Later chapters ask for several species, so check the journal (J) for what you have caught and where. New species appear as the story goes on. Halibut, King Crab and Lantern Shoalfish only start showing up in later chapters. After the tenth delivery, free fishing stays open with every species available.

Saving your progress

Progress is saved in your browser on the device you play on. Play in one tab at a time, because a second tab can't start a voyage while the first is open. To move to another device, or to protect against clearing your browser data, use the game's save backup option to export your save and import it elsewhere.

Next steps

Once you've earned your first few hundred coins, read the fish, boats and gear reference to plan your upgrades.