Lobbies, voice and safety
Reel is always played online. Every captain is in a lobby of up to ten captains who share the same harbor and sea, see each other, fish together and hear each other.
Your lobby
Section titled “Your lobby”When you start the game, you join a public lobby with room for you automatically. There’s no single-player mode, but you can join a quiet lobby of your own with a code (below).
The Lobby tab in the captain’s log shows which lobby you’re in, how many captains are in it, and a row for each of them.
Joining friends
Section titled “Joining friends”Lobbies are changed at the lobby station, a ship’s wheelhouse console on the harbor plaza. Poke its keys with a fingertip.
- Lobby code: type a short code of letters and digits and press JOIN. Everyone who types the same code ends up in the same lobby, so agree on a code with your friends. If nobody’s there yet, the lobby opens for you.
- Join public: press JOIN PUBLIC to join a public lobby that has room.
Put your rod away before you switch. You can’t switch lobbies in the middle of a trade or a boss fight. A short fade covers the switch, and you stay where you are, at the station.
Your captain name
Section titled “Your captain name”At the lobby station, choose NAME, type a name of letters and digits and press SAVE NAME. Your name shows on the tag over your head, on the Lobby page, at the Trading Post and on the boards. Name tags also show your captain level.
Voice chat
Section titled “Voice chat”Reel has proximity voice chat. Each lobby shares one voice channel, and each captain’s voice comes from their head: loud up close, fading as they get farther away.
- The game asks to use your microphone once you’re in a lobby.
- The mic button on the Lobby page and in Settings turns your microphone on and off. It also shows the state of voice chat, and if voice is off it says why.
- Your mic mutes while the game is paused or the headset is off your head.
Mute, block and report
Section titled “Mute, block and report”Open the Lobby page and pick a captain to see their options:
- MUTE VOICE silences their voice for you, until you close the game.
- MUTE NOTICES hides the game’s catch notices about them.
- BLOCK CAPTAIN hides them, their boat and their name tag from you, silences their voice and keeps them off your boat. Captains you’ve blocked stay in the list so you can unblock them.
- REPORT A PROBLEM lets you choose a reason, review the report and submit it to the developers.
Muting and blocking only change what you see and hear. Notice mutes and blocks last while you’re in that lobby.
Meta’s Report button
Section titled “Meta’s Report button”You can also press Report in Meta’s own menu while the game is running. If there are other captains in your lobby, the game opens its report flow with a list of them to choose from. If there’s nobody else around, Meta’s own report flow opens instead.
Personal space
Section titled “Personal space”If another captain’s head or hands come very close to your face, they fade out of your view and fade back in as they move away. Nobody is pushed or blocked; only your view changes. You can turn this off in Settings › PERSONAL SPACE.
Terms and Privacy Policy
Section titled “Terms and Privacy Policy”The first time you play, and again whenever they’re updated, the loading room shows Reel’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy before you reach the harbor. Use either thumbstick to scroll, and hold any button until the bar fills to accept. You join a lobby only after you’ve accepted.