How Much Damage Does Dynamite Do in How to Fish?

Answer: 200 explosion damage per stick. One stick detonates for a single flat hit of 200, applied to every creature inside the blast radius — the full 200 or nothing, depending only on whether the body is inside the radius when the fuse runs out. Each stick costs $25, which works out to about eight damage points per dollar.

That number does not move. Dynamite has no upgrade ladder, no charge bonus and no damage scaling: the stick you throw on Lighthouse Island is the same 200-damage stick you throw at the volcano. This page breaks down what 200 damage actually kills, how it compares shot-for-shot with every gun in the shop, how many sticks each boss's health pool absorbs, and the patch 1.0.11 rule that turned the blast back on you.

How the 200 Damage Applies

The blast is one event, not a damage-over-time effect:

• One detonation, one hit. Each creature inside the radius takes 200 damage in that single frame. There is no lingering burn and no second tick.
• Radius decides everything. Inside the blast radius creatures take the full 200; outside, they take nothing. You are picking a landing spot, not painting a target.
• It hits the whole cluster at once. Per Sportskeeda's dynamite walkthrough, a single well-placed stick routinely surfaces "four to five different fish" — because every one of them took the same 200 at the same moment.
• You can shoot the stick to trigger it. Sportskeeda also notes you can shoot the explosive from a distance to detonate it instantly, which turns the throw into a controllable burst-damage button instead of a timed fuse.
• It bypasses every fishing stat. No bait tier, no line tension, no rod requirement — the damage is delivered by the explosive, not by the fishing mini-game the rest of the loop runs on.

That combination — a flat number that cannot miss, cannot be resisted and hits everything at once — is why dynamite keeps showing up in efficiency routes even after guns enter the inventory. The full throwing loop (hold length, arc, collection) is covered in the dynamite guide; this page is only about the damage.

200 Damage Next to Every Other Weapon

At stock values, one stick hits harder than anything you can buy before the Sniper Rifle — but it fires exactly once:

Two readings of that table, and both are honest:

1. Per trigger pull, dynamite wins early. A $25 stick out-damages a stock pistol by 8×, a stock SMG by more than 8×, and a base shotgun pellet by about 66× — with zero aim required.
2. Per dollar over time, guns win. The stick is consumed; the gun is not. Eight damage points per dollar looks cheap until you notice the pistol's 160 maxed damage costs nothing per shot after the purchase.

So the 200 is real damage, but it is rented damage — which is exactly why the next two sections matter more than the headline number.

How Many Sticks Each Target Takes

Dividing real health pools by the flat 200 gives the only arithmetic that matters in the field — and, since each stick costs $25, the cost column writes itself:

The honest read: no boss is a dynamite kill. Ninety sticks for the Pufferfish costs $2,250 — a $650 SMG out-damages that total on a single health bar and stays in your inventory afterwards (see the best weapon guide for the actual DPS ladder). The table's real use is the low end: four or five sticks delete the early bosses' first phase, and anything small enough to die in one 200-damage hit is where the tool quietly shines.

What the tables cannot show is hit quality. Dynamite damage cannot crit, cannot trigger a trick-shot multiplier and cannot be aimed at the one body you needed alive — which is the subject of the trick-shot economy and of the section below.

What Your 200 Damage Is Worth at the Shop

The damage number is fixed; the payout is not. Three modifiers sit between the detonation and your wallet:

• Blasted fish sell for less. Per Destructoid's items guide, "blasting the fish reduces their sell value" — the same 200 damage that kills a fish through the rod earns less than a hooked, played-out catch would.
• Grilling buys the margin back. The same Destructoid guide notes you can grill blasted catches to get a price modifier, which is why efficiency routes cook every floater before selling. See the cooking guide for the state multipliers.
• Style kills pay more than explosive ones. Gameshub's beginner tips point out that dynamite bypasses "the stylish kill opportunities that can dramatically increase an individual creature's value" — mid-air, no-scope and trick-shot multipliers never get a chance to apply.

So 200 damage converts to income at a worse rate than 200 damage from a shotgun shell, because the shell at least leaves the multiplier system intact. Dynamite wins on consistency per minute — no aim, no miss, no reload — and loses on ceiling per kill. It is volume-farming capital, not a money strategy: the money guide covers what to do instead once the wallet stabilizes.

Patch 1.0.11: The Blast Comes for You

The 200 damage rule got one revision after launch, and it is the only dynamite mechanic that has ever changed:

• Before 1.0.11: your own sticks were only dangerous if friendly fire was enabled — crews could turn the setting off and throw at each other's feet with impunity.
• Since 1.0.11 (2026-09-01): "You will now die from your own explosives even with friendly fire disabled." The blast applies its damage to you unconditionally.

Note what did not change: the damage value itself. Friendly fire, self-damage and patch passes have all left the stick at 200 — there is no stealth nerf hiding in the notes, and no upgrade in any shop raises it either. If a source quotes a different number, it is either pre-launch speculation or a misreading of a weapon table.

FAQ

How much damage does dynamite do in How to Fish?

200 explosion damage per stick, applied as one flat hit to every creature inside the blast radius. The value has never been changed by a patch.

Can dynamite one-shot a boss?

No. The cheapest boss kill by explosives is the Spider Crab at 4 sticks ($100); the Pufferfish takes 90 sticks ($2,250). Dynamite is cluster damage, not boss damage.

Does dynamite damage scale or upgrade?

No. There is no dynamite upgrade ladder — 200 is the number at Island 1 and at the volcano. Guns scale through 13-tier ladders; the stick does not.

Can your own dynamite kill you?

Yes. Since patch 1.0.11 (2026-09-01) you die to your own explosives even with friendly fire disabled. Before that patch, self-damage only applied when friendly fire was on.

Is 200 damage worth $25?

For clustered shallows and emergency resets, yes — it is roughly eight damage per dollar with zero aim required. Against any real health bar, no: a $650 SMG out-damages $2,250 of explosives on a single Pufferfish and keeps working afterwards.

Official Sources

• How to Fish on Steam — official store page, weapon and item catalog
• Official patch notes hub — where the 1.0.11 friendly-fire change was published
• Destructoid: best items and upgrades — $25 pricing, sell-value reduction and grilling modifier
• Sportskeeda: how to use dynamite — throw force, shoot-to-detonate and multi-kill yields
• Gameshub: 17 things to know — explosives bypassing stylish-kill value multipliers