How to Fish — Five-Island Walkthrough
The intended route after Patch 1.0.5: quest, bait, boss, trophy, next coordinates.
How to Fish looks like an open sandbox the moment you crash, but the story is a tight chain. Each island hands you a request, that request produces a unique bait, the bait summons a boss, and only the distinctive trophy — not ordinary meat — unlocks the next coordinates on the Radar. Fishing more, buying a bigger gun, or sailing toward the Volcano early will not skip the chain. Patch 1.0.5 closed the old shortcut that let players travel to locked islands, so this walkthrough is the current story route through Patch 1.0.10.
Use Easy, Normal, or Hard from the Difficulty Settings page if you want a gentler or tougher combat layer. Bait, trophies, and island order stay the same on every mode. Keep quest pieces in inventory; Patch 1.0.10 now also saves up to 64 ground items between sessions, with weapons, tools, quest items, and creatures prioritized.
Route at a glance
| Stage | Island | Story bait | Boss | Hand-in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start | Lighthouse | Empty Beer Can | Spider Crab | Shell → Boat Keys |
| Island 2 | Forest | Modified Leech | Giant Piranha | Skeleton → Island 3 |
| Island 3 | Desert | Carrot | Pufferfish | Fin / tail → Island 4 |
| Island 4 | Rocks | Tuna (from Professional Boss Lure) | Albatross | Head → Volcano route |
| Island 5 | Volcano | Fish Bucket → Bowhead Whale | Mutated Bowhead Whale | Fin → military boat keys |
Optional mini-bosses (Sunfish, Old Pike, Blue Shark, Tuna, Goblin Shark) sit beside this path. They help money, Grillmaster, or collections, but they do not replace the story trophies. Full bait tables live on the Boss Fights Guide and the Fish Locations encyclopedia.
Lighthouse — boat keys
Pick clams, eat one if you are hungry, and feed extras to the Lighthouse Keeper for starting cash. Buy the Crab Fishing Rod for about $3 and a melee weapon before you pick a fight: Brass Knuckles around $24 or the Knife around $45, then sharpen on the anvil if you can afford it. Ham and Hot Dog cover the early Brown Crab, Shrimp, Rock Crab, and Lobster pool.
Buy Beer, give the full can to the keeper, and keep the Empty Beer Can he returns. Equip that empty can, cast, and let the Spider Crab commit to a charge. When stars appear over its head, hit from behind, then back off. Do not sell the Spider Crab Shell. Hand the shell to the keeper for Boat Keys, buy the Radar for $10, and only then load the boat. Details: Getting Started.
Forest — Giant Piranha
Sail to Island 2. Buy a ranged weapon when you can — the Shotgun is a common pick — and a Beginner Lure for the regular pool (Mackerel, Gar, Pike, Cod, Piranha, and the rest). The lady by the lake wants three Leeches. They are small ground pickups around vegetation and paths, not underwater fish. If a session is missing spawns, search the area once instead of assuming the shoreline will refill them.
Return the three Leeches for Modified Leech bait. Cast it to start the Giant Piranha. The fight sheds smaller piranhas; clear only the ones that block movement or a reload, keep circling, and eat cooked or raw catches to stay alive. Carry the Giant Piranha Skeleton back to the lake NPC. That hand-in, not the kill alone, writes Island 3 onto the Radar.
Desert — Pufferfish and the grill
Island 3 uses the Standard Lure for almost every normal Fishipedia entry. Catch a Needlefish (Bowl Fish and Seahorse also count as endangered in many runs) and give it to the Tourist under the tree. He returns a Carrot. That Carrot is the Pufferfish bait; a shop lure will not substitute.
The Pufferfish rolls like a wrecking ball and grows as the fight lasts. Sidestep rather than backpedal. At about half health a purple poison trail follows it — do not cut through the path it just took. After the kill, keep the distinctive fin or tail trophy and return it to the Tourist for Island 4 coordinates.
In parallel, the Blue Shark (Standard Boss Lure) is the usual key to start the grill. Cooked fish is your heal. Lava cooking on later islands is faster (about 1.5×) with no timing window. Patch 1.0.10 lets you dip weapons and tools in water to clean cooking residue. See the Cooking Guide.
Rocks — Tuna into Albatross
Buy the Professional Lure for the regular Rocks pool and the Professional Boss Lure for Tuna. Defeat the Tuna, drop the body on the ground, and wait for the Albatross (the Terrorizing Bird) to take it. Kill the bird, keep the head, and hand it to the Island 4 NPC. That unlocks the military / Volcano coordinates. Do not sell the Tuna before the bird shows up.
Volcano — whale, lava, home
Bring Scientific Lures for Stonefish, Blobfish, Anglerfish, Oarfish, and Superdwarf Fish. Patch 1.0.10 slightly nerfed Anglerfish health. Feed five volcano-native catches to the hazmat scientist for the Fish Bucket. Summon and kill the regular Bowhead Whale, carry the whole carcass up the planks, and throw it into the crater. That spawn is the Mutated Bowhead Whale.
Fight on the flat military ground, not halfway across the map — pulling the boss too far can reset it. A fully attached Assault Rifle is the usual damage plan; cooked lava fish is the heal. When it dies, loot the Whale Fin, give it to the scientist, take the military boat keys, and sail toward the mainland. Reaching home completes the story and the We are so back achievement.
The Goblin Shark (Scientific Boss Lure, expensive) is optional for Collector. Handyman is a last-hit rule: guns are allowed until a sliver of health remains, then unequip everything including brass knuckles and punch. Bean is a one-hour finish with no island skip after Patch 1.0.5. Those runs live on the Achievements Guide.
Related pages
- Boss Fights — tells, baits, and co-op roles
- Fish Locations — every species and lure
- Island Guide — shops and travel
- Updates Hub — Patch 1.0.5 lock, 1.0.9 difficulty, 1.0.10 stashes