How to Fish Upgrades Guide: What to Buy First and What to Skip

Buy weapon damage first, then inventory slots, then the $10 radar, then attachments, and leave the boat for last. Damage converts into faster boss kills and safer high-value catches; speed and storage convert into nothing you can sell. Two facts matter first: the radar costs $10 and unlocks every coordinate an NPC hands you, and the final damage tier on every weapon is priced as a trap — the last Assault Rifle step costs $5,800 for five damage, and the last Pistol step costs $9,100.

• Inventory and hotbar slots carry more cooked fish, which is healing mid-fight
• Attachments only pay off on a gun you plan to keep
• Boat parts are comfort purchases and never raise the sale price of a fish

The Five Upgrade Systems in How to Fish

Upgrades live in five separate systems, and players burn money by treating them as one list. Each has a different payback period.

Weapon damage is the only category that raises the rate you earn, because faster kills mean fewer wasted casts.

Weapon Damage Upgrades: Where the Money Actually Goes

Every weapon has its own damage ladder, and the game files give the exact damage and fee for each step. Maximum damage is not the interesting number — total cost per point of damage is:

The table produces two conclusions most players get backwards. The Sniper Rifle is the best damage-per-dollar investment in the game at $79 per point once maxed, despite the $3,800 sticker price. The Knife and Brass Knuckles are the worst: a maxed knife costs $76,777 for 120 damage.

The Marginal Cost Cliff

Early tiers are nearly free and the last three carry the entire bill:

A weapon at 60 percent of its maximum damage is already about 80 percent of the way to useful, and the remaining tiers cost ten times more per point. Stop before the price per point passes what a boss fight is worth to you.

Official source: How to Fish patch notes on Steam — the 1.0.11 entry confirms the iron sight purchase option was removed. The official store page lists the base game at $7.99, and the SteamDB build history is the fastest way to confirm which patch your shop screen reflects.

Island Caps: Why You Cannot Max Anything on Island 1

Each island opens more of every ladder, and once you hit the current ceiling the shop tells you the weapon is Maxed for this island — the tiers do not exist yet at that shop. So do not park money in a ladder on Lighthouse or the Forest; those coins buy a Shotgun or an SMG that changes what you can fight. Revisiting shops is free once you have the boat. The weapons unlock guide lists which shop sells which gun, and the best weapon guide ranks them by island.

Inventory and Hotbar Slots: The Upgrade Nobody Talks About

Extra inventory and hotbar slots never show up in a damage table, which is why most upgrade lists skip them. They are still the second-best purchase, because healing in How to Fish is food: a hotbar full of cooked fish is a health bar you can refill mid-fight.

One caveat: the game files contain weapon ladders and bait tables but no price for slot upgrades, so any figure you read is a community quote rather than a verified number.

The Radar and Tools

The radar is the cheapest real upgrade at $10, and it sits on the ground next to the Lighthouse Keeper on Island 1. Most players sail past it because it looks like scenery rather than a purchase. Without it, coordinate rewards cannot be read, which stalls the main chain almost immediately. Later it can be mounted permanently on the boat, freeing the equipment slot it occupied — a boat-shop feature covered in the radar and coordinates guide. Other tools are sparse: the grill unlocks through the Island 3 grillmaster party, and dynamite at $25 per stick is a consumable.

Attachments: Cheap, but Only for Guns You Keep

Attachments are the cheapest way to make a mid-tier weapon behave and the most common way to waste $900. You must hold the gun when you buy the part, prices differ by weapon, and not every attachment fits every gun. Four are broadly useful: laser sight from Island 2, then red dot sight, extended mag and compensator from Island 3, with the sniper scope and suppressor on Island 4 — the weapon attachments guide lists every slot. The compensator moderately reduces recoil while the suppressor significantly reduces recoil, so the suppressor is the stronger pick for the SMG that carries most players through the mid-game — and it is the one that cannot be swapped down afterward. The Fully Equipped achievement wants every compatible attachment on one gun; the cheapest route is a Pistol with laser sight, red dot, compensator and extended mag for roughly $900 in community-measured prices.

Boat Upgrades: Last, and Only for Comfort

Boat parts are the clearest case of money that does not earn. Engine upgrades are community-measured at $230 at the small hut beside the old man on Island 2, and Dual Motors are community-measured at $860 on Island 4. Neither is verified shop data, and neither raises the sale value of a single fish — what they buy is time. Buy boat speed only when sailing itself has become the bottleneck, and check the dedicated boat upgrades guide for the two parts worth buying before the endgame.

What Not to Buy

When to Buy: A Practical Timeline

Payback: Which Island Earns the Upgrade Back

Upgrade costs only make sense next to catch values. The headline creatures carry base sale prices of $10,000 for a Spider Crab, $11,000 for a Giant Piranha, $12,000 for a Pufferfish, $13,000 for an Albatross and $15,000 for the Mutated Bowhead Whale. Ordinary high-value catches sit lower: Stonefish and Anglerfish at $1,500, Oarfish at $1,450, Blobfish at $1,360 and the Superdwarf Fish at $1,700.

That gives a simple benchmark. A maxed SMG costs $22,119 including the gun, roughly one and a half Albatross sales at base value — and sale value is multiplied by weight, which varies from 0.25 to 1.75 around a mean of 1.0, plus a 1.5 multiplier when cooked. A single cooked Albatross is worth about $19,500 and pays for most of the SMG ladder alone; the money farming guide covers the multiplier math.

FAQ

What should I upgrade first in How to Fish?

The $10 radar beside the Lighthouse Keeper, because it unlocks NPC coordinates, then weapon damage. The Shotgun at $150 is the first upgrade that changes what you can fight.

How much does it cost to max a weapon?

From the game files: a Sniper Rifle costs $39,549 total, a Pistol $26,905, an SMG $22,119 and an Assault Rifle $50,550. Melee is worst — a maxed Knife totals $76,777 for 120 damage.

Are boat upgrades worth it?

Only for travel time. Engine and Dual Motors are community-measured at $230 and $860, and neither increases the value of anything you sell.

What does the radar upgrade do?

It displays the coordinates NPCs give you as quest rewards, and later it can be mounted permanently on the boat so it stops occupying an equipment slot.

Is upgrading the Pistol worth it?

Partly. Early Pistol tiers are the cheapest damage in the game at $5 per point, but the 100 → 160 stretch costs $15,400. If you own an SMG or an Assault Rifle, spend there instead.

Related Guides

• Boat Upgrades Guide — the full boat tree and why it always comes last
• Best Weapon Guide — which gun deserves your upgrade money
• Weapons Unlock Guide — which island shop sells which weapon
• Money Farming Guide — cooking multipliers and payback math
• Radar and Coordinates Guide — the $10 pickup and every route it unlocks