How to Fish Wiki: Every Creature, Boss, Weapon and Bait

There is no official How to Fish wiki. Dazed Games shipped the game with no encyclopedia and no stat screen, so the numbers players search for only exist inside the build. This is our stand-in for patch 1.0.12, checked on 2026-09-22: 54 creature entries, 12 boss stat blocks, 7 weapons, 18 baits, 5 islands.

Official source: How to Fish on Steam, SteamDB, Steam news and dazed.games.

Creature Database: All 43 Regular Species

Sorted by base sell value. HP is damage absorbed, base sell is the pre-multiplier price, contact damage is what it deals to you.

Three patterns matter. The value curve is a cliff: five regular species clear $1,000, the next drops to $380, and 17 sit under $20. Cheap is not harmless — the 5 HP Piranha deals 15 contact damage and the $5 Gar deals 8 — and Clam, Leech and Foot Snail carry no HP because they are pickups, not fights. Endangered status ignores price too: Bowlfish, Seahorse and Needlefish all carry the flag.

Boss Database: All 12 Boss-Tier Fights

The files flag 11 creatures as boss type. Bing Bong is the twelfth boss-tier fight: it carries the ordinary endangered flag, yet has 2,000 HP, a 300-second timer and the hardest contact hit in the game. Story bosses gate islands; side bosses patrol open water.

The story chain spans 50.7x HP, from the Spider Crab's 750 to the whale's 38,000, but payout does not follow it: the Spider Crab returns $13.33 per HP, the Pufferfish $0.67 and the whale $0.39. All twelve bosses hold 107,350 HP; the five gate bosses are 67,050 of it.

Weapon Database: All 7 Weapons

Prices are purchase cost, resale is shop payout, cost to max includes every upgrade.

Shotgun damage is per pellet, so its 3 base and 28 final figures multiply by the spread. Shops refund roughly half of what you paid — 45% on the Assault Rifle, 47% on the Sniper, but only 17% on Brass Knuckles, whose upgrade tree is the second priciest in the game. Per point of final damage the Sniper is the cheapest endgame buy at about $79, against $505 for the Assault Rifle and $1,072 for Brass Knuckles. Per-island stock: weapons unlock guide; verdicts: best weapon guide.

Bait Database: All 18 Entries

Bite window is how long a catch takes once something commits. A 100% pool is that bait's only possible creature, which makes it a summon key rather than fishing gear.

The two bottom rows are internal entries: casting with nothing equipped lands a Cod, and Testing is a leftover that instantly produces a Dripper. Ham, French Fry and Hot Dog are edible items that double as lines, so the $1 Hot Dog is the cheapest reliable crab bait. Regular tiers lose less bait as they climb (40% on Hot Dogs, then 35/30/25/20%), while boss baits are consumed every use. Full per-species weights: bait guide.

Boss Summon Key: Which Bait Forces Which Boss

Ten of the twelve sit in a boss-lure pool: eight have a guaranteed 100% line, while the Sunfish and The Old Pike share one coin flip. The Albatross and Mutated Bowhead Whale have no lure entry and come from the story chain. Mechanics: boss guide.

Island Unlock Chain: All 5 Islands

Each island's shop tier unlocks with the previous island's trophy hand-in, so weapon and map progression are one chain, with no skip. Routing is in the all islands guide and the boat keys in the radar guide.

The data holds no per-island spawn assignments, so a species-by-island list here would be a guess. Water-level coverage: fish locations guide.

Endangered Species: The 9 Flagged Entries

Endangered status is a completion flag, not a price tier: three of the nine sell for $150 or less and the cheapest is $60, so selling one costs a quest step rather than a paycheck. Locations and hand-ins: endangered creatures page; completion route: Fishipedia checklist.

How Sell Value Is Actually Calculated

Payout is base value times a weight roll, times the cook multiplier, times any bet and kill-score multipliers. The weight roll is Gaussian, centred on 1.0, with a standard deviation of 0.15 and a 0.25-1.75 clamp.

So a heavy cooked catch pays 2.625x base and a light burnt one 0.025x — a 105x spread on the same fish. Hence the grill focus in the money farming guide, and the weight and cook-state fields in the fish value calculator.

Achievements, Quests and Completion

Progress lives in the achievements guide, the quests and missions guide and the Fishipedia checklist, which logs all 54 entries. Colour variants: rare fish variants.

FAQ

Is there an official How to Fish wiki?

No. Dazed Games published none, and the two fan Fandom wikis are empty shells. This page is our substitute.

How many fish are in How to Fish?

54 entries: 43 regular species, 11 boss-flagged creatures and Bing Bong as a twelfth boss-tier fight. Nine carry the endangered flag.

What is the most expensive fish in How to Fish?

The Pufferfish at $12,000 is the highest-value catchable creature. The Albatross ($13,000) and Mutated Bowhead Whale ($15,000) sell higher but exist only as boss fights.

What bait summons each boss?

See the summon key above: Leech Bait at $1 is the cheapest, the Scientific Boss Lure at $5,800 the priciest shop bait, and the Fish Bucket is quest-only.

Is the Sunfish worth fighting?

No: 1,500 HP for $50 is 3 cents of value per point of damage. Catch one for the log, then stop.

Related Guides

• All Fish Locations — species coverage by water and bait
• Weapons Unlock Guide — which island sells which gun
• Bait Guide: All Tiers — full catch-weight tables
• Boss Guide — mechanics and trophy hand-ins
• Fishipedia Checklist — the 54-entry tracker
• Endangered Creatures — the nine flagged species