You cannot buy a gun on the first island. Guns unlock on island 2, and the shotgun at $150 is the one worth saving for. Everything before that dies to brass knuckles or a knife. At the other end sits the assault rifle at $20,000, which you need fully attached before the lava whale.
| Gun | Cost | Island | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pistol | $50 | 2 | Skip it on a normal run |
| Shotgun | $150 | 2 | Your first real weapon |
| SMG | $650 | 3 | Islands 3 and 4 |
| Sniper Rifle | — | 4 | The bird fight and trick shots |
| Assault Rifle | $20,000 | Late | The lava whale |
Money is shared in co-op and painfully tight for the first hour. I burned a lot of it on the wrong things before I worked out what mattered.
Jump to a Section:
Where to Get Your First Gun in How to Fish
Island 1 has no guns at all. Your first catches die to your fists, which is slow and a little miserable. Buy brass knuckles for around $24 as soon as you have the cash, or a knife.
Knife sharpening is the cheapest damage in the game:
| Sharpen | Cost |
|---|---|
| First | $14 |
| Second | $28 |
| Third | $36 |
The spider crab guards island 1 and it charges straight at you. Max sharpness on the brass knuckles handles it. Dodge behind the crab as it commits to the charge, then hit it during the stun window. No gun required.
The knife is disposable. Sell it before you move on if you need the money.
Every Gun in How to Fish and What It Costs
Five guns total, and you will not want all of them at once. Here is how they stack up in the order you actually run into them.
Pistol ($50)
Your first available gun, and the one I would skip on a normal run. It costs a third of the shotgun but hits far softer, so the money is better spent waiting. It does have a place in a co-op speedrun, where one player pours upgrades and a compensator into it while the other farms with lures, then hands it off on the way to the assault rifle.
Shotgun ($150)
This is the purchase that changes the game. Cheap, available on island 2, and it makes the giant piranha fight straightforward.
I want to be honest about the ceiling though. A fully upgraded shotgun still took me three shots to the face to kill a goldfish, and the creatures from island 3 onward soak up far more. Treat it as a bridge, not a keeper.
SMG ($650)
The step up, sold on island 3. Recoil is rough on a bare SMG, so a compensator or suppressor is close to mandatory before a boss fight. Upgraded, it handles most of what islands 3 and 4 throw at you, including the pufferfish. If you are still working out how to reach island 3 in the first place, our full How to Fish walkthrough covers the islands and bosses in order.
Sniper Rifle
My answer when SMG recoil ruined the island 4 bird fight. Single shots land clean at range, and the 360 no-scope multiplier pairs with it better than any other gun.
Assault Rifle ($20,000)
The final purchase and a real grind. The lava whale on the volcano island is the one fight that demands it, fully kitted. Do not start saving until the shotgun genuinely stops carrying you.
How to Upgrade Your Gun in How to Fish
Bullet upgrades apply per weapon and climb quickly.
| Upgrade | Cost |
|---|---|
| First | $20 |
| Second | $30 |
| Third | $40 |
Those opening tiers are pocket change for how much faster they kill, so buy them the moment they appear. Later tiers on the bigger guns cost many times that. These are multiplayer prices, and weapon upgrades come out cheaper in solo.
All Gun Attachments and the Fully Equipped Achievement
Every gun has four attachment slots. Two are fixed and two are a choice between a pair:
- Extended mag
- Laser sight ($100)
- Red dot or sniper scope
- Compensator or suppressor
You only need one from each pair, so there is no reason to buy both a red dot and a sniper scope for the same weapon. Fully equipped pops when one weapon has all four slots filled at the same time. It does not care which weapon, but the assault rifle is the obvious choice since you were going to kit that one out anyway.
How to Make More Money With Trick Shots in How to Fish
Kills are worth more when you make them ridiculous. The killscore multipliers stack:
| Trick shot | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| 360 | 1.5x |
| Headshot | 1.25x |
| Last bullet | 1.25x |
| No scope | 1.2x |
| Point blank | 1.1x |
Cook the fish afterwards for another 1.5x on top. A 360 no-scope on a cooked fish is worth roughly double a plain kill, which is how the shotgun pays for itself inside a few runs. Cooked fish also heals you mid-fight, so carry a stack into every boss.
Can You Share Guns in How to Fish Co-Op?
Yes, and this caught our group out completely. Guns drop on the ground and anyone can pick them up. The upgrades sit on the weapon itself rather than the player who bought them, so a maxed shotgun stays maxed when it changes hands. One person can buy it and the whole party takes turns with it.
Be careful where you put it down. Items left on the ground despawn, and we lost a shotgun exactly that way.
What to Skip in How to Fish
- The pistol on a normal playthrough
- Dynamite as a weapon. It is $25, brilliant for pulling quest fish out of the water in bulk, and the self-damage will kill you if you throw it at something standing next to you
- Boat upgrades before you own a real gun
- Extra bullet tiers on a weapon you are about to retire
None of these purchases are wasted exactly, they just slow you down. Save for the shotgun first and ride it as long as it lasts. Now let the rest of your loadout catch up as the islands get harder.
