Treasure is a fishing-adjacent pickup found from the boat. The first one is a Seafaring quest near the Oil Rig, daytime only, and the icon just changed.
Nivalis Nights Treasure: First Treasure and Where to Find It
Treasure is not a separate treasure hunt system. It is a second kind of fishing spot, found the same way you find fish, and the game confirmed it exists by patching its icon three days ago. The first one is not random: it belongs to the early quest named Seafaring, sits near the Oil Rig, and only appears in daylight. Everything past that point is undocumented.
The one official sentence about treasure
Update #2 shipped on 2 October 2026 with this line in its patch notes:
"Replaced the treasure fishing spots icon to make it less confusing" Official source: Nivalis Nights - Update #2 - patch notes, 2 October 2026.
That is the entire official record. The same patch also shipped "Improved stability of fishing rod physics", which is the other reason treasure fishing has been unreliable this week. No 505 source, store page, FAQ entry or achievement describes what treasure is, where it spawns, what it is worth, or what consumes it.
The word does not appear on the Steam store page, in the official FAQ, in the 36-item news feed or in the 120-achievement list. Verified 4 October 2026 against each.
The 24 officially named catches on Steam each have a "Find and catch [name]" achievement. Treasure has none. Our full 120-achievement breakdown shows the whole water category, and treasure is absent from it. Do not expect a treasure counter, a treasure rank, or a completion reward.
The first treasure belongs to the Seafaring quest
Players report an early quest literally named Seafaring with two objectives: find the first treasure near the Oil Rig, then fish it up. That second checkbox is where most people get stuck, so here is what the forum actually established.
From the Steam discussion thread Seafaring quest bugged. (2 October 2026, nine replies, link):
- It is not at the Oil Rig itself. One player: "It's not the Oil Rig location; there are further oil rig structures a little further to the south/south east where the first fishing location marker is."
- Approach it from the Docks and look left. "Well.. the fishing treasure spot was somewhere to the left and behind of the oilrig as you sail towards it from the docks."
- Go during the day. The player who finally solved it wrote: "That spot was not there during night time curfew." Ava also surfaces a quest prompt near the Oil Rig in daylight, which is a useful confirmation you are in the right place.
This is the single most common reason players think the quest is bugged. The marker is absent at night, so a night fishing session at the Oil Rig looks identical to a broken quest. Sailing out in daylight costs you the better night rates; that is the trade the game is asking for.
All of the above is community-reported, dated 2 October 2026, and may change in a future patch. It is not an official walkthrough.
Treasure spots and fish spots look different
The confusion behind the icon change is real and players can describe it precisely. One regular explains it in the thread Fishing feels super awful:
"Those are treasure spots. Not normaly fishy spots. Fishy spots are actual streams of fish, more intense streams of fish are shown on the radar in various colors in relation to their species. Ive fished up one treasure that was worth 300 creds.. and ancient chips im holding on to, because apparently maybe later some quest/char/vendor will pay good money for them!"
So there are two readings of the same radar: colour-coded density for fish shoals, and a separate marker for treasure. The single most-upvoted review in our 999-review sample puts the problem the other way round — "Fishing requires you to follow a sonar to fishing points, or places you can get treasure. Though a lot of the time you're unsure what you're doing wrong. I fish in a holographic circle that has a fishing rod icon above it... I get nothing." — 635 upvotes, 582 hours.
What treasure actually is, according to players
No official list exists. What players have pulled out of spots, all from Steam forum threads on 2 and 3 October 2026:
| Reported item | Where the claim comes from |
|---|---|
| Plasteel junk | The thread Treasure fishing spots only have junk? — "Every random treasure fishing spot I've tried has given me just one item - plasteel junk - and then the marker disappears." |
| Assorted junk | Same thread: "The one exception is the permanent marker closest to the Docks, which seems to give assorted junk." |
| Ancient chips | A player holding them "because apparently maybe later some quest/char/vendor will pay good money for them" |
| Wreckage (quest item) | The Lost At Sea quest asks you to "Fish for Wreckage" after locating the wreck of the Annabel Lee |
There is a fixed marker near the Docks, distinct from the random spots. That is worth knowing before you assume you did something wrong.
Two known bugs worth planning around
The Seafaring checkbox that will not complete. The original poster had "Find the first treasure near the oil rig" ticked but not "fish for the first treasure", and reported that resting, save-loading, quitting and re-fishing in the same spot all failed. Two other players confirmed the same dead state three days later. Nobody has an official fix; the developer's known issues thread lists only dialogue fixes.
Lost At Sea is not completable right now. A quest thread from 3 October 2026 reads: "Find the Shipwreck near the Oil Rigs: Done, this leaves a quest marker floating above the water. Nothing visible in the water except the occasional wandering fish. Fish for Wreckage: Nothing all comes up but the random fish wandering by. I've tried reloading the zone, the ship, the game, multiple different days (marker is gone at night)." Zero replies as of 4 October 2026.
The forum's best diagnosis is that treasure and fish share one spot system, and the treasure half of it is the fragile half. Update #2's two changes — a new icon and better rod physics — are the developer's response to exactly this confusion, shipped on 2 October. Neither bug was listed as known at the time of writing.
Treasure and the 24 fish are different objects
Worth stating plainly, because the two systems sit on top of each other. Our fishing guide covers the 24 achievement-named catches, the fact that fishing is not random, and the fact that there is no Angler or Master Fisher milestone. Treasure has none of that structure: no achievement, no ladder, no official count, and no published spawn table.
What treasure does share with fishing is the boat, and therefore fuel. The boats guide covers the fuel economics that make a long search trip expensive — which is the real reason to follow markers rather than explore.
What has never been published
- What treasure is used for: no recipe, no quest, no commission or no vendor is named in any official source
- How many spots exist, or how often a random one appears
- Whether treasure rots, sells, or must be kept
- Whether a boat upgrade widens the search radius
- The name of the fixed spot near the Docks
The closest official statement remains the March 2026 Q&A's promise that "Fishing itself expands over time as well, letting you discover new spots and species with your boat." Treasure is not named there, and no source ties it to boat progression.
FAQ
How do you get the first treasure in Nivalis Nights? Take the boat to the Oil Rig in daylight and follow the marker past the older rig structures, a little left when approaching from the Docks. The spot is not present at night. This is community-reported from the official Steam forum, not a published guide.
Can you fish for treasure at night? Random treasure spots do appear at night; the Seafaring quest marker does not. Several players fish at night for income and only discovered the daylight rule after assuming the quest was broken.
Is treasure the same as rare fish? No. Fish are individually simulated creatures with one achievement per species. Treasure has no achievement, no species and no published behaviour. Our fishing guide has the fish list.
Why did the treasure icon change? Because players could not tell treasure spots from fish shoals on the radar. Update #2 replaced the icon on 2 October 2026 to "make it less confusing", and improved fishing rod physics in the same patch.
Is the Lost At Sea quest worth starting now? Not until it is confirmed fixed. As of 3 October 2026 the wreck is findable near the Oil Rigs but the follow-up fishing step cannot be completed, and the developer has not acknowledged it.
Related
Method: patch notes read from the official news feed on 4 October 2026; player reports quoted from Steam discussion threads dated 2 and 3 October 2026; absence of the word treasure confirmed against the store page, the official FAQ, the 36-item news feed and the achievement list the same day.
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