Don’t Sleep With The Fishes Achievements Guide

Don’t Sleep With The Fishes plunges players into a tense survival experience set on a drifting boat. Managing resources like food, crew morale, and vessel integrity while navigating unpredictable events makes every moment critical. Mastering this balance is essential for reaching the varied endings and achievements that define the game’s replay value.

The game incorporates random elements which influence event timing, so expect variability across playthroughs. Achieving a full completion requires multiple runs, as the right items and choices must align with the game’s randomized scenarios.

Which Difficulty Should You Play?

The game offers three distinct difficulty settings that affect survival dynamics and achievement accessibility.

Adventure

Adventure Mode is ideal for your first expedition. It helps familiarize you with the mechanics of resource management, crew roles, and item utility without overwhelming you.

Use this mode to build foundational skills before pushing for more challenging achievements on higher difficulties.

Calm

Calm Mode balances the game to extend survivability by regenerating health each night and slowing hunger buildup.

This setting is advantageous for many achievements and is particularly useful when aiming to reach Day 50 for the A Long Sail achievement.

Drowning

Drowning Mode serves players seeking the toughest challenge, necessary for the Still Standing achievement.

Due to its difficulty, reserve this mode for when you’ve mastered the game’s survival systems and want a demanding final test.

What To Grab At The Start?

Upon commencing, you get a limited window before the Dorothy sinks to gather crucial supplies.

About 45 seconds are available to snag essential gear and optionally recruit a crewmate.

Prioritize collecting these items to maximize survival potential:

• 3–4 cans of food
• At least 2 Baits
• Flashlight or Flare Gun
• Anchor, Bucket, Umbrella, or Fishnet
• Compass or Map
• Scuba Diving Kit

The Flashlight and Flare Gun are vital for signaling rescue vessels and fending off threats during perilous moments.

Using a Compass or Map prevents wandering into hazardous waters, which can abruptly end your run.

The Scuba Diving Kit unlocks the ability to explore underwater for extra bait and chests, a key factor for the game’s true ending.

Items like the Telescope or Duct Tape are more accessible later or can be crafted, so don’t stress if you miss them initially.

Survival Tips

Bait is as crucial as food. Fishing and diving should be your go-to actions whenever conditions are safe, especially early on to build a resource buffer.

Interestingly, avoid eating unnecessarily in the first few days to conserve food and wait until hunger approaches critical levels. This maximizes your resources.

Your crewmates’ hunger follows the same principle—avoid premature eating but steer clear of letting anyone starve.

If your Scuba Diving Kit gets damaged, reloading your save can help you retry for a better outcome without loss.

Conserve vital single-use items by opting for cheaper solutions first; for instance, repair small boat holes with a Bucket instead of wasting Duct Tape.

Crewmates and Their Bonuses

Laurel

Laurel offers a morale boost and specializes in survival enhancements.

Her key contributions include:

• Adding sea salt to increase food satiety.
• Transforming food items into bait to support fishing.
• Locating and crafting Fishnets.

Her drawback is a slight reduction in fishing luck, which may affect catch rates.

Row

Row stands out as one of the top crewmates for reaching the game’s true ending.

He excels at repairing without draining Energy, can protect the crew while sleeping, and harvest multiple fish with his firearm.

His signature gift, the Heart of the Sea, is central to completing the true ending questline.

Frederik

Frederik is a versatile survivalist whose abilities enhance resource acquisition and management.

With just 1 Energy, he guarantees a catch by using the remaining bait and can convert food into bait himself.

His knack for crafting and fishing makes him excellent for resource-heavy play styles.

Captain Whiskers

Captain Whiskers contributes a subtle but consistent 1% fishing luck bonus, which can gradually improve outcomes over multiple fishing attempts.

Though minor, any advantage counts when chasing rare catches like the Swordfish achievement.

Don’t Sleep With The Fishes Achievements

Sleeping With Scraps

Achievement: Sink with Dorothy.

For one of the simplest achievements, just stand still at the beginning and let the boat go down without collecting anything.

Sleeping With The Fishes

Achievement: Get killed by neglecting the boat.

Abandon repair duties and allow the boat’s condition to worsen until it ultimately sinks during a night event.

Maintaining your crew’s survival otherwise isn’t necessary—letting the boat deteriorate is all it takes.

Eating With The Fishes

Achievement: Die from starvation.

Simply forgo eating throughout your run, keeping the boat intact to ensure the starvation death triggers.

Gradually, your character’s health will fail from lack of food, fulfilling this grim accomplishment.

Catch a Swordfish

Achievement: Catch a Swordfish.

This rare catch depends on luck. Consistently use bait and fish until the Swordfish appears.

Perseverance is key as this may require multiple attempts.

Rescue Ending Achievements

Rescue-related endings hinge on intercepting specific night events. Their timing varies, but they usually emerge around certain days.

Back to the Company – Airplane

The Airplane event typically triggers after Day 20.

An airplane appears on the horizon during night. Using the Flare Gun is the most reliable way to signal it and initiate the rescue sequence.

A Flashlight can also signal, but is slower and less dependable, making the Flare Gun preferable.

Following the plane’s arrival, a company helicopter will appear. Use the Flashlight to complete the rescue.

Successfully completing this event unlocks the Back to the Company achievement.

Sailing to Safety – Cargo Ship

Back to the Company
Get rescued.

Sailing to Safety – Cargo Ship

The Cargo Ship event becomes available post Day 18.

Spotting the ship, you must signal it with either the Flashlight or Flare Gun to begin a multi-day rescue process.

After about 10 to 15 days, another vessel approaches and needs signaling again with one of the two light sources.

Completing this sequence earns you the Sailing to Safety achievement.

Other Endings

If you ignore signaling the airplane and cargo ship, your journey shifts to survival-focused endings.

Stick to surviving as long as possible, particularly on Calm difficulty to prolong life until at least Day 50, when this ending unlocks.

Bloody Moon – Heart of the Sea (True Ending)

Don’t Sleep With The Fishes Bloody Moon event with red sky and sea.

When the moon and sea turn crimson, use the Bucket or Fishnet to retrieve the legendary Heart of the Sea.

This item is essential for unlocking the game’s true ending, so prioritizing this event on your path to 100% completion is critical.

Because its appearance depends on random chance, persistence in fishing and surviving is key to catching the Bloody Moon event during your voyages.

The Heart of the Sea is required for the true ending, so don’t miss this event if you are working toward 100% completion.

Because event timing is RNG-based, keep fishing and surviving until you see the bloody moon.