Full How to Fish guide and how to complete every island

This How to Fish guide serves as a complete walkthrough for the bizarre co-op fishing game, showing you how to complete all five islands in the game. The objectives on each one are usually very simple, requiring you to get some sort of special bait that you can use to catch or summon a boss. Kill the boss, provide proof of said kill to a nearby NPC, and you're off to the next island on your boat. It's therefore not a very long game but can be a bit tricky at points, so if you're really stuck, this walkthrough will show guide you through exactly what to do in How to Fish.

Full walkthrough for How to Fish

As mentioned, How to Fish features five islands for you to complete, each one with their own objectives, bosses, and shop equipment. You'll need money to buy crucial items like lures and weapons, so this walkthrough assumes that you'll be doing lots of fishing between steps and feeding your catches to the appropriate NPC to build up cash. To make the most money, use the best lures available to you as you'll catch the most valuable fish – for example, on island 3, you should be using Standard Lures rather than Beginner Lures.

Furthermore, as soon as you reach a new island, make sure you buy the Extra Inventory Slot straight away. Use those extra slots to store more fish to sell or eat, and you should be eating regularly to keep your hunger bar as full as possible. This bar serves as a reserve health bar, letting you heal over time, but if it empties, you'll start taking damage! If you're inventory is also full of equipment, you can sell what you don't need, such as guns that aren't very effective anymore, to get a bit of cash back.

With all that out the way, here's how you complete all five islands in How to Fish:

Island 1

Island 1 introduces the basics, featuring a Crab-Fishing Rod, melee weapons, and Hot Dog Bait. Nothing fancy here – just get fishing:

1. Buy the Crab-Fishing Rod, start fishing for crustaceans, and feed what you catch to the lighthouse keeper to get money. You can also buy Hot Dog bait to catch more valuable creatures.
2. Buy and upgrade the knife.
3. Buy the can of beer and feed it to the lighthouse keeper then take the empty can he hands back.
4. Equip the empty can as bait on your fishing rod and use it to catch the Spider Crab.
5. Kill the How to Fish Spider Crab boss then feed the crab's shell to the Lighthouse Keeper and take the keys to the boat he hands you.
6. Buy the radar tablet next to him for $10 then get in the wooden motorboat.
7. Check the radar for the green dot and sail over to it to reach island 2.

Island 2

The second island in How to Fish introduces guns, specifically the pistol and shotgun, as well as Beginner-level lures and dynamite. This is also where trickshot mechanics are introduced, so you can get stylish with your fishing to increase the value of each catch:

1. Buy the Fishing Rod and start catching some proper fish. You should also use Dynamite to blow up multiple fish at once.
2. Buy and upgrade the shotgun.
3. Collect three How to Fish Leeches and feed them to the woman. She'll give you Leech Bait in return.
4. Equip the Leech Bait and go fishing with it to reel in the Giant Piranha boss.
5. Kill the How to Fish Piranha boss, then feed the Piranha Skeleton to the woman. She'll update your radar with the location of island 3, the yellow dot.
6. Buy the Big Motor upgrade for the boat.
7. Sail over to the next island, following the yellow dot.

Island 3

Upon reaching the desert island, you'll notice a substantially larger shop offering an SMG, more gun attachments, Standard lures, and the Boat Radar upgrade, the latter of which you should definitely buy before leaving. It's also where you'll find the grill master and his extinguished grill. Reigniting it is an optional objective, but I'd say it's worth doing to help you make more money and improve the healing you gain from food for tougher boss fights ahead:

1. Buy and upgrade the SMG. Do not get rid of this gun once you've completed this island.
2. Buy a Standard Boss Lure and use it to catch a Blue Shark miniboss.
3. Kill the How to Fish Shark, then feed it to the grill master. Take the lighter he gives you in return to light the grill, letting you cook your catches to a nice golden-brown to increase their value.
4. Buy a Standard Lure, catch an "endangered" fish, and feed it to the tourist on the beach to get carrot bait. Needlefish, Bowlfish, and Seahorses count as endangered fish.
5. Use the carrot bait to catch the Pufferfish boss.
6. Kill the How to Fish Pufferfish and feed the Pufferfish Fin to the tourist. He'll hand you the coordinates for island 4.
7. Follow the red dot on your boat radar to reach island 4.

Island 4

The fourth How to Fish island has Professional lures in the main shop and a separate gun shop with a sniper rifle and more attachments for sale. You'll also find a grill on the beach and there's a casino with a roulette table that you can use to gamble your catches, but I personally found this a bit pointless as regular fishing is very lucrative at this point. There's a lot to buy on this island so here's what you need to do:

1. Buy and upgrade the sniper rifle and upgrade your SMG from island 3 as well.
2. Buy a Professional Boss Lure and use it to catch and kill a How to Fish Tuna.
3. Drop the dead Tuna on the grassy patch in the middle of the island to summon the Albatross boss.
4. Kill the Albatross and give its head to the man hiding in the shop. He'll give you the location of the fifth island.
5. Hop in your boat and sail over to the magenta dot on your radar to reach island 5.

Island 5

The fifth and final island of How to Fish is a large volcano with lava flows that replace the grill as a cooking method – drop fish into the lava to instantly cook them! There's also a well-stocked military camp on the island that has an assault rifle for sale. You'll need it to fight some very tough bosses and finish the game:

1. Buy and upgrade the assault rifle and upgrade your sniper rifle from island 4. You can now sell your SMG as the assault rifle is better.
2. Catch any five fish and feed them to the scientist to get Fish Bucket bait. The best option for getting the fish quickly is to use dynamite.
3. Collect the Fish Bucket bait and use it to reel in the Bowhead Whale boss.
4. Kill the Bowhead Whale boss. I advise using your assault rifle, sniper rifle, and any dynamite if possible. Also watch out for when it flies into the air then belly flops back down as this can almost kill you in a single hit.
5. Pick up the whale's corpse then climb to the summit of the volcano. There's a wooden plank not too far from the military encampment on the island that shows where the ascent starts, then it's a case of following the path and jumping across gaps.
6. Throw the whale into the volcano, to summon the Mutated Bowhead Whale, then jump back down the encampment.
7. Kill the Mutated Bowhead Whale boss. The same strategy as before applies, only this time the whale spits lava blobs so you need to be extra careful.
8. Feed the Whale Fin to the scientist then collect the keys to the black boat.
9. Hop in the black boat and follow the button prompt to go back to the mainland.

And with that, you've completed How to Fish! If you didn't catch every fish or unlock every skin during your time playing, don't worry, as you can continue playing the same save file after the credits roll to catch 'em all.

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