How to Unlock Guns in How to Fish: Every Weapon, Price and Island

How to Fish gates its entire arsenal behind island progression, and the game never tells you what unlocks where. If you are here to find out when a gun becomes available and where to buy it, this is the page: every weapon, its unlock island, its exact price, and its full upgrade ladder. Looking for the verdict on which gun is actually worth buying? That decision lives on our best weapon guide — here we cover the schedule and the costs, there we make the call.

Every Gun and Where to Unlock It

Searches for "unlock" land on this page because every guide, this one included, uses the word. The mechanic is a purchase. How to Fish has no unlock tree, no level requirement and no quest that hands you a firearm: you reach the island, walk to the shop, and pay. The only thing genuinely gated is island access, and because each shop stocks its own tier plus every tier before it, a gun you skipped is never gone forever.

The short version, for anyone sitting on Island 1 with no gun in the shop:

1. Finish the island you are on. The Lighthouse stocks zero firearms by design; a sharpened knife and the Spider Crab's stun windows are the intended solution.
2. Sail to the next island. Island access is the real unlock — the Forest shop is where the first two guns appear.
3. Pay in full, in the same visit as your ammo and attachments. Nothing sells out permanently and nothing is missable, so the only way to get this wrong is to arrive short of cash and sail back.

Official source: How to Fish on Steam — weapon and equipment families as published by Dazed Games; the prices above come from the in-game shops and the unpacked game files.

The Unlock Map

All prices corroborated across TposeGaming's gun guide ($50/$150/$650/$20,000), Destructoid's items breakdown (dynamite $25) and Maingamers' purchase-priority notes.

Exact Weapon Upgrade Ladders

Every gun's damage per upgrade level, exactly as it appears in-game. Upgrade costs are in dollars; level 0 is the purchase price tier.

Sniper Rifle ($3,800 base)

Assault Rifle ($20,000 base)

SMG ($650 base)

Pistol ($50 base)

Knife ($45 base, full melee tree)

The boss kill calculator applies these ladders to real boss HP pools — pick a boss and a weapon level to see the exact shot count and upgrade cost.

The ladders reveal the real economy: most guns are only worth taking to level 4–6 — the last three tiers on the Sniper (350→400→500) cost $5,600→$8,500→$10,000 for a gun you will use on two fights. The knife, by contrast, has 16 total tiers and its true endgame form (level 13+, 80–120 damage) is a legit alternative to the $20,000 Assault Rifle for pure DPS on the final whale fights — at a fraction of the cost.

Island 1: No Guns, By Design

The Lighthouse sells zero firearms. Melee carries the whole island:

• Knife ($45) + its anvil ladder: three early sharpenings ($14 / $28 / $36) lift it from 16 base damage to 22; the full tree ends at 120
• Brass knuckles ($24) are the slot-free alternative, scaling 5 → 60 across 16 tiers
• The Spider Crab dies to max-sharpened melee through its self-stun punish windows

The knife is also disposable — sell it before sailing if the shotgun fund needs the boost. Guns replace melee completely from the next island onward.

Island 2: Pistol and Shotgun

The Forest's shop introduces firearms. The correct read of its two options:

• Shotgun ($150): buy immediately. Wide spread catches fast approaches, burst damage punishes the Giant Piranha, and it remains serviceable into mid-game
• Pistol ($50): skip on any normal run — per TposeGaming, it costs a third of the shotgun and hits far softer. Its one niche is co-op speedruns where one player pours upgrades into it as a hand-off weapon

Island 3: The SMG Tier

The Desert adds the SMG ($650) — the workhorse for Islands 3 and 4 including the Pufferfish fight. Critical caveat from every guide that tested it bare: recoil is rough, so a compensator or suppressor is close to mandatory before boss work. Fit attachments when you buy the gun, not after losing a fight to spray.

This island's shop is also where attachment categories (laser, red-dot, compensator/suppressor, extended magazine) become the real upgrade path — stability first, magazine second.

Two patch details change how you should plan that build. Patch 1.0.11 removed the iron sight purchase entry, and a suppressor can no longer be downgraded back into a compensator once it is fitted, so pick the muzzle attachment you actually want the first time. The same patch added toggle-aim, toggle-sprint and hold-to-attack input options, which are worth testing against the SMG's recoil before you commit money to attachments (official patch notes).

Island 4: Sniper Rifle

The Rocks tier brings the precision option:

• Highest per-shot damage and the game's largest trick-shot multipliers
• Built for the Terrorizing Bird's vertical movement
• Turns mid-air kills into the most profitable action available at this stage

Late: The $20,000 Assault Rifle

The endgame tax. Per TposeGaming, you need the assault rifle "fully attached before the lava whale" — partial kits extend the final fight toward the white escape bar's limit. Start saving when Island 4 opens; the price does not negotiate.

Dynamite: The Off-Books Option

$25 per stick from early shops onward. Not ammo-efficient against bosses, but per Destructoid it is "one of the laziest and most effective ways to fish" — clustered shallows clear instantly, and it doubles as an emergency phase-resetter during bad fights.

What Unlocks First: The Progression Timeline

Because each island's shop stocks its tier plus everything from earlier islands, the unlock order matters for planning, not just discovery:

1. Island 1 (Lighthouse) — melee only, no guns. Knife and brass knuckles.
2. Island 2 (Forest) — Pistol ($50) and Shotgun ($150) join the shop.
3. Island 3 (Desert) — SMG ($650) tier appears.
4. Island 4 (Rocks) — Sniper Rifle ($3,800) unlocks.
5. Late (Volcano) — Assault Rifle ($20,000) becomes available.

The practical consequence: a Desert player who skipped the shotgun still finds it in stock — every shop carries its tier plus all previous tiers, so you never lose access to an earlier gun. For the buying order that maximizes your run, see the purchase priorities on our best weapon guide.

Ammo Economics Per Weapon

Purchase price is only the down payment; each gun carries its own supply curve:

Upgrade ladders compound this: pushing the sniper to its 500-damage ceiling costs $10,000 across all steps on top of the $3,800 gun, while the assault rifle's full 40→100 path runs just $5,800 on top of $20,000 — making the rifle's upgrades the cheapest endgame damage per dollar.

Budget-minded runners track ammo like bait: count what the last session actually spent and buy forward from there. The players who run dry mid-boss are almost always the ones who bought exactly enough for the attempt rather than the attempt plus its mistakes.

What About the Fists?

Pure-fist runs are a real community challenge — viable through Island 1, heroic through the Forest, and functionally a different game afterward. The brass-knuckles-only Spider Crab kill remains a popular speedrun constraint. For everyone else, melee's retirement at Island 2 is permanent; the shops exist because fists stop scaling there.

Reading Shop Stock Like a Pro

Island shops stock progressively, and knowing the pattern prevents both panic buys and missed windows:

• Each island's shop carries its tier plus previous tiers — the Desert still sells shotguns if yours broke
• Attachments appear alongside their weapons — buying the SMG without checking attachment stock means a return trip
• Ammo restocks everywhere guns do — but prices assume you buy in bulk, not in emergencies

One habit separates efficient runs from chaotic ones: visit every new shop fully before spending anywhere. The Desert player who buys the SMG immediately often discovers the attachment shelf ten minutes later and pays for a second trip's worth of regret.

FAQ

When do guns unlock in How to Fish?

Island 2 — the Forest. Island 1 has no gun shop at all; melee carries the entire tutorial rock.

What is the best weapon order to buy?

Shotgun → SMG with attachments → Sniper (for the bird tier) → fully-attached Assault Rifle. Skip the pistol unless speedrunning.

How much is the best weapon?

The Assault Rifle at $20,000, required fully attached for the final boss. It is the single largest purchase in the game.