How to Fish Islands: Unlock All 5 Islands Guide

Every island in How to Fish follows the same three-step pattern to unlock the next one. First, complete the local NPC’s request — usually gathering a specific item like Leeches, an endangered fish, or a set number of fish — to receive the correct bait for that island’s boss. Second, use that bait to summon and defeat the boss, since most bosses in this game won’t appear without it. See our boss guide for fight-by-fight strategy.

Third, return the boss’s trophy or remains to the NPC who sent you after it, which is what actually unlocks the next coordinates on your Radar rather than the kill itself. Skipping straight to farming money without following this loop won’t get you off the current island, no matter how much gear you buy.

Lighthouse Island is the starting island and doesn’t need to be unlocked — you begin here with a lighthouse and an NPC on a bench who teaches the basics of fishing. Buy a Knife for $45 and consider upgrading it at the Anvil (the first upgrade costs $12, the second $28), then buy a Beer Can for $12 and hold onto it until you’re geared up.

Hand the full Beer Can to the Lighthouse Keeper for an Empty Can, then use that can as bait to reel in the Spider Crab and fight it with your upgraded knife, punishing it while it’s stunned. Defeat it, hand in its meat for the boat keys, then buy the Radar for $10 and follow the green marker to Forest Island. Full fight tips are in our Spider Crab boss guide.

Forest Island is where the woman by the lake needs help preparing a meal for her father by catching a large fish. Catch local fish for cash and visit the shop to buy the Pistol and Shotgun ($150 combined) with maxed ammo, then collect three to five Leeches around the island and hand them over for Leech Bait.

Use the Leech Bait to summon the Giant Piranha and defeat it with your guns — see our Giant Piranha strategy for the small-piranha resource loop. The small piranhas that spawn during the fight can be sold for extra cash, which is worth stacking toward the $230 Big Motor upgrade before you leave. Turn in the Giant Piranha’s skeleton for the orange-marker coordinates to Desert Island.

Desert Island has a stranded tourist in an orange life vest who wants proof of an exciting trip in the form of a rare fish. Catch an endangered species — a Needlefish, Seahorse, or Bowlfish all qualify — and trade it in for Carrot Bait, while upgrading your weapons at the local shop (the Uzi is worth maxing here).

Attach the Carrot Bait to summon the Pufferfish, and consider planting a stack of Dynamite in the island’s center beforehand to detonate the moment it appears for a big head start on its health — more detail is in our Pufferfish boss guide. After the fight, hand in a piece of the Pufferfish to the tourist for the red-marker coordinates to Rocks Island.

Rocks Island is a gear check: the goal is to stockpile enough money for the island’s aerial boss. Buy the Professional Lure for $50 and start cooking or grilling every fish before selling it to maximize profit, then save toward the $3,800 Sniper Rifle from the merchant near the casino and the $1,200 Professional Boss Lure.

Use the boss lure to catch and defeat a Tuna mini-boss, then place its raw meat in the center of the island to draw out the Albatross. Since it circles overhead and dives to attack, take cover inside the vendor shed and snipe it from there — our Albatross guide covers the full pattern. Deliver the Albatross head to the vendor for the pink-marker coordinates to Volcano Island.

Volcano Island is the fifth and final island, where a team of stranded scientists needs your help. Speak with the head scientist and turn in five fish for a Fish Bucket, and visit the nearby military merchant to buy the Assault Rifle, which raises the damage cap across your whole arsenal.

Use the Fish Bucket to summon the Bowhead Whale boss; after defeating it, carry its remains up to the mountain peak and throw them into the lava to trigger the Mutated Bowhead Whale, the true final fight (strategy in our whale boss guide). Defeating the mutated whale hands you the keys needed to complete the story and sail back to the mainland.

Both major guides agree on most of the Radar marker colors between islands, which makes it easy to confirm you’re headed the right way. Lighthouse to Forest is marked in green, Desert to Rocks is marked in red, and Rocks to Volcano is marked in pink across both sources.

The only discrepancy is the marker between Forest and Desert Island — one guide calls it yellow, another calls it orange — so treat that one color as approximate rather than exact (待确认 on the precise shade).

Gear costs climb steeply as you move through the islands, based on the prices one full walkthrough recorded: the starting Knife runs $45, with Anvil upgrades at $12 and $28, while the first Beer Can and the Radar are $12 and $10. On Forest Island, the Pistol and Shotgun together cost $150, and the optional Big Motor speed upgrade is $230.

Later islands get considerably more expensive: the Professional Lure on Rocks Island is $50, but the Sniper Rifle runs $3,800 and the Professional Boss Lure needed to summon the Tuna costs $1,200. Selling fish steadily and cooking your catch before selling — confirmed to boost its value — helps offset these later costs.

Not every guide agrees on naming the islands. IGN’s walkthrough simply numbers them Island 1 through Island 5 without giving names, while a detailed Steam community boss guide notes the game itself has no official island names and refers to them by their Radar marker color instead.

The Lighthouse, Forest, Desert, Rocks, and Volcano names used in this guide come from a separate community wiki source; treat them as widely used community shorthand rather than confirmed in-game labels. Whichever names you see across guides, the islands themselves and their unlock order stay identical.