How to Fish Join a Friend with Session ID Fix

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Goal: Get into the same How to Fish lobby when Steam Join Game or invite dumps your friend on the title screen. Players treat a visible Session ID from a regular public session as the backup path. Invites often fail after the host loads a save; the ID only shows in a regular session.

What to Decide First

Choice	Use it when	Tradeoff
Invite-only	You only want Steam friends	After loading a save, invites often send people back to the menu. Session ID is not shown.
Regular / public	Invite failed, Deck stuck at menu, or you need the ID	Friends can Join Game from Steam and you can copy the Session ID. Randoms can find it; close it when the test is done.

Pick public if the invite already failed. That is the path that makes the Session ID appear. Everyone must be on the same patch. Mixed builds refuse the session. Restart Steam after updating, then make a new lobby.

1Host: Make an ID That Actually Works

1
Everyone exits the game.
Leave a long-running lobby; stale sessions black-screen on join.
2
Restart Steam on host and guests.
Red Relay text on the main menu means Steam networking did not init. Restart Steam, not just the game.
3
Confirm the same version string on every machine.
4
Host from the main menu and create a session.
5
Set session type to regular / public, not invite-only.
If you change type in a running session, restart the game or the switch does not apply.
6
Use a plain name (letters and numbers only).
Special characters have broken saves.
7
Load the save after you are fully in the session.
Finish the tutorial on every account first; players report incomplete tutorials block joins.
8
Copy the visible Session ID and send it in chat.
Do not send an old ID from a previous lobby.
9
Keep the lobby open until your friend is in.
Then switch back to invite-only later if you want, and restart after changing type.

If you cannot host at all, swap host. That is the fastest way to see if it is one PC, not the group.

2Friend: Join With That Session ID

1
Same patch, Steam restarted, Relay not red.
2
First try: Steam Friends, right-click host, Join Game.
This only appears if the host is public. Invite-only hides Join Game.
3
If that fails or you are on Deck and land on the menu, use the ID the host just copied.
Stay on the main menu. Paste the current Session ID into the join-by-ID field. Join once. If you black-screen with audio still playing, leave and have the host make a fresh public lobby.
4
Overlay invite path (keyboard): host is in the lobby, Shift + Tab, invite from Steam overlay.
Still requires matching builds. Overlay and sprint on the same bind is a common self-own.
5
Test one guest first. Add the rest after one clean spawn.

Steam Deck: Invite often launches the game and leaves you on the left menu. Compare a fresh invite vs the copied public Session ID. If the ID works and the invite does not, it is the invite handoff, not "Deck can't play MP." Do not stack Proton experiments on the first test.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

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Sending an invite-only lobby and expecting a Session ID. It is not shown there.
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Changing public to invite-only without restarting. The switch does not apply.
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Joining a lobby that has been up for hours. Stale sessions black-screen on join.
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One player still on an old patch or Steam still downloading. Mixed builds refuse the session.
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VPN or proxy on any machine. Kills the relay connection.
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Special characters in the server name. Have broken saves.
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Hosting from a mid-session crash instead of Save to Main Menu to new lobby.
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Leaving a public diagnostic lobby open after your friend is in. Shared money; anyone can walk in.

What to Decide First

1Host: Make an ID That Actually Works

2Friend: Join With That Session ID

Common Mistakes to Avoid

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