Regions

Reel’s sea is split into four regions, each farther from the harbor than the last and home to bigger, rarer fish: the Sheltered Bay, Coral Reach, Storm & Ember Waters and the Outer Waters. Each region is made of named waters, and each has its own weather, which rotates between clear skies, rain, fog and storms. The weather changes which fish bite more often and how far you can see into the water: shallow water is clear to the bottom, deep water only a little way down, and in a storm almost not at all. Tide streams, fast lanes across the sea, carry boats out to the far regions much quicker.

Where you can fish follows the boat you’re on. Any boat can fish the Sheltered Bay, and your boat’s passages on the boat tree open the other regions one after another: the Reef Passage for Coral Reach, the Storm Passage for Storm & Ember Waters and the Outer Passage for the Outer Waters. Riding on another captain’s boat, you can fish wherever their boat can. Your rod decides how big a fish you can land, so a fish too heavy for it will snap the line however good your boat is.

Sheltered Bay

Warm shallows, rocky coves and your first great catches.

The Sheltered Bay is home: the sea around the harbor, where every captain starts. Its water is warm and clear, turquoise over white sand near the harbor and green-gold over swaying kelp farther out, and its islands are sandbars, driftwood beaches, mossy rocks and kelp-fringed isles. It has two waters, Sunlit Shallows and Kelpwood.

The weather is mostly clear, with spells of rain or fog and only the odd storm. You don’t need a passage here: every boat, your starter included, can fish the whole bay and sail into its island rings, which have no barrier. The nearest islands are a short sail from the harbor and the farthest not much longer, so the bay is the place to learn the fight, fill your fishbowl and save up for the Reef Passage on the boat tree.

Fish: 16 species. See them all.

Coral Reach

Crystal reefs conceal sharp fins and living armor.

Coral Reach lies beyond the bay, a longer sail from the harbor. It is the brightest part of the sea: clear cyan and sapphire water over coral of every colour, a glassy lagoon under a waterfall, sandbanks of giant seashells, fast violet shoals full of sea fans, and a reef that glows blue-white at night. Its waters are Rainbow Reef, Sapphire Lagoon, Shell Banks, Fan Shoals and Moonglow Reef.

The weather is mostly clear or rainy; fog and storms are uncommon. To fish anywhere in Coral Reach your boat needs the Reef Passage from the boat tree. Without it you can still sail through its open sea, but you can’t fish there, and a strong reef current pushes your boat back from every island ring.

Fish: 18 species. See them all.

Storm & Ember Waters

Electric storms roll over obsidian reefs.

Storm & Ember Waters is the third region, far out from the harbor. The sea turns dark and rough: steel-grey water under a thunderhead, a volcanic sea glowing orange from the vents below, ash falling like snow, a trench of near-black water around obsidian spires, and a fog-bound graveyard of wrecked ships. Its waters are Thunder Straits, Cinder Sea, Ashen Sea, Darkwater Trench and Wreck Waters.

Storms roll through here more often than anywhere else, rain is common and clear spells are rare. The water is murky, so fish are hard to see below the surface, and in a storm it is nearly opaque. Your boat needs the Storm Passage from the boat tree to fish here, and a storm wall turns back boats without it at every island ring.

Fish: 18 species. See them all.

Outer Waters

Ancient giants and luminous creatures haunt the outer sea.

The Outer Waters are the farthest and strangest part of the sea, and home to its biggest fish. The near Outer waters are Starfall Deep, Whisperdeep Abyss, Glasswater and Frost Shelf: a starry sea of temple ruins, a bottomless rift, water as clear as glass over crystal fields, and an icy shelf under the aurora. Past them, at the far western edge of the map, lie the three far waters: Leviathan Bones, the Sunken Kingdom and World’s Edge, where the ocean pours off the end of the world.

Fog and storms are common out here. Your boat needs the Outer Passage, the last passage on the boat tree, and a whirlpool guards every island ring against boats without it. The Outer Passage also lets your boat ride the deep currents, dark glowing streams that run from the harbor out to the far waters much faster than any tide stream; to other boats they look grey and still. Even with the passage, only the strongest rods can land the giants that live here.

Fish: 21 species. See them all.