Fishing keeps your restaurant fridges stocked and pays on the market. All 24 fish that have a catch achievement, with real unlock rates.
Nivalis Nights Fishing: All 24 Fish and What Fishing Is For
Fishing does two things: it keeps your kitchens supplied and it earns money on the market. It is also the only activity where fish are real simulated creatures rather than a random roll. Twenty-four have their own Steam catch achievement. Where they are, what they take and what they sell for are documented nowhere 505 has published.
What fishing is actually for
505 gave fishing its own question in the official community FAQ, headed "How does fishing impact your day-to-day life in Nivalis Nights?" The answer names two purposes. The first is stock: "Fishing plays an important role in managing your restaurants and their ingredients. Keeping your fridges and freezers stocked is an important part of making them a success in the city of Nivalis." The second is income: "Fishing is also a good way to earn extra money by selling it on the market."
That is the entire official description, and it is why the water is a supply route rather than a side activity. The 29 September launch announcement states the split directly: "Source your ingredients from marketplaces or by growing or fishing for your own." Where to buy ingredients maps all three routes. Greenhouse and market are the two 505 documents best, so if the docks are proving slow, the greenhouse is the better-documented fix.
A third use is progression, and it is why the boat matters. The 31 March 2026 community Q&A says: "Fishing itself expands over time as well, letting you discover new spots and species with your boat." That is also why nobody can hand you a verified spot list today. On the money side, the business and money guide covers venues and debt; no official source publishes a fish price list, so neither page can give you one.
The fish are simulated, not rolled
Every other fishing guide describes a minigame. The developer described something else, in a May 2026 optimisation devlog:
"Fishing is not based on random chance. Instead, every fish has a physical representation, with hundreds appearing simultaneously. Each fish is individually simulated to follow others or your bait, forming colorful shoals that move in mesmerizing patterns. This means the specific salmon you catch is the same one you saw in the water just moments before." Official source: May 2026 Development Update: Optimization
The scale is stated in the same post: the team built it "to ensure we can simulate over 1,000 fish while sparing CPU cycles for other background elements". Each one also emits light, rendered at one-fourth resolution so the glow costs almost no fill rate.
So watching the water is information: the fish in front of you are the fish that are there, and shoal behaviour is the mechanic. What it does not tell you is where shoals spawn, which is why verified coordinates do not exist yet.
Because each fish is an individual entity that responds to bait, the shoals in front of you are the population. Cast where a group is already moving. No spot guide can substitute for that.
The boat is the only vehicle you drive
The transport answer in the FAQ is the shortest possible reply to "where does the boat come from": "In Nivalis Nights, you can't drive a car directly, but you travel between districts using taxis that connect the entire city. You can steer a boat, though!"
That makes it the only drivable vehicle in the game and the only route to open water. The same FAQ sets the scope: you can "explore different areas of the city and the ocean on your boat", while the city "isn't fully 'open world'" because "other parts of the world are background environments". The launch announcement describes the loop from the other end, telling players to cruise "the canals on your boat as you find a quiet spot to fish".
None of that gives you a starting point. The achievements confirm the Docks as a named place you visit, with a postcard collectible nearby, but both are location achievements, not fishing ones. The map and districts page covers the 19 locations the game officially names.
All 24 fish that have a catch achievement
These are every fish named by an achievement in the official Steam list whose description reads "Find and catch [name]". Steam titles each achievement with the fish name and publishes nothing else, so this is the full set of officially named catches, sorted by how many players hold one. Snapshot 30 September 2026; these move hourly.
| Fish | Unlocked by |
|---|---|
| Burbot | 10.0% |
| Pike | 10.0% |
| Stickleback | 9.9% |
| Whitefish | 1.1% |
| Volga Zander | 0.3% |
| Zope | 0.3% |
| Zander | 0.3% |
| Taimen | 0.3% |
| Tench | 0.2% |
| Rudd | 0.1% |
| Crucian | 0.1% |
| Ide | 0.1% |
| Carp | 0.1% |
| Lake Trout | 0.1% |
| Bream | 0.1% |
| Brook Trout | 0.1% |
| Dace | 0.1% |
| Grayling | 0.1% |
| Perch | 0.1% |
| Roach | 0.1% |
| Ruffe | 0.1% |
| Sabrefish | 0.1% |
| Rainbow Trout | 0.1% |
| Salmon | 0.1% |
The names are the game's own, not an angler's book. Several invite mistakes: Zander and Volga Zander are separate achievements, as are Zope and Sabrefish. If a guide tells you there are 22 fish, it dropped two.
What the unlock rates tell you
The distribution is stark. Three fish sit near 10%, then the list collapses: Whitefish at 1.1%, a cluster of four at 0.3%, and everything else at the 0.1% floor. Fifteen of the twenty-four have been caught by essentially nobody.
The achievement list explains why. Farming has a full ladder with a completion rung: Harvester for 5 unique crops, Farmer for 10, Serial Farmer for 20, and Farming Specialist for "a diverse garden from all available crop types". Fishing has no equivalent. None of the 120 achievements rewards catching all 24, or any number, and there is no Angler or Master Fisher milestone. The one other water-themed entry, Seafarer at 31.3%, has no published description at all.
Nobody is pulling you toward the tail of that table. The game gives no reward and no official route for all 24, and 0.1% may mean those locations sit behind boat progression you have not unlocked. The full 120-achievement breakdown shows where fishing sits against every other category.
For the kitchen side, "fish and seafood" is one of nine dish categories in the 14 August menu announcement, so a catch is not a decorative collectible. The cooking page covers the gaps there.
What 505 has not published
No official answer exists for any of these, so any guide offering one is guessing:
- Where any of the 24 fish spawn, by waterway, depth or district
- Whether bait types exist, and which fish prefer which
- Whether time of day or weather changes what bites
- What any fish sells for, or the price gap between fresh and market
- Whether a rod or tackle must be bought, upgraded or found first
- Whether fish can be gifted, and to whom
- Whether an in-game logbook or collection screen tracks catches
The one structural promise that is official is expansion: new spots and species open up as you progress with the boat. Treat any current spot list as one player's snapshot, not a verified map.
Official source: 505's official community FAQ - the fishing, transport and open-world answers, last edited 29 September 2026; the official 120-achievement list - fish names and the unlock rates above, read 30 September 2026; Nivalis Nights on Steam - store description and Features. Devlog quotes are from the May 2026 Development Update in the same news feed.
FAQ
Do I need a boat to fish? 505 confirms you can steer one and the launch announcement describes finding quiet water from it, but no official text says fishing is impossible without a boat. The Docks are the confirmed access point; what sits between them and the ocean is undocumented.
How many fish are there? Twenty-four have a catch achievement in the official Steam list as of 30 September 2026. That is the count of officially named catches, not a stated species total, since no official source gives one.
Is fishing random? No, and this is explicit. The May 2026 devlog says fishing "is not based on random chance" and each fish is individually simulated, so the fish you catch is the one you saw.
Can I sell fish without opening a restaurant? Yes. The FAQ says fishing "is also a good way to earn extra money by selling it on the market", separate from stocking fridges. No official source describes the market interface or prices.
Related
- Nivalis Nights: Where to Buy Ingredients, Furniture and Gear
- Nivalis Nights Greenhouse: Crop Milestones and What Farming Gives You
- Nivalis Nights Business Guide: Starting Debt, Venues and Revenue
- Nivalis Nights Cooking: 9 Dish Categories, Confirmed Recipes and Gaps
- Nivalis Nights: All 120 Achievements and How Rare Each One Is
- Nivalis Nights Map: Every Named District in the Game
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