In Dazed Games’ Steam game How to Fish, dynamite is a $25 Island 2 item you can throw into the water to blast up fish, then collect, cook, and sell or keep them for healing.
How to Fish is Dazed Games’ physics-based fishing game on Steam, and despite the name it’s also a shooter where you kill sea creatures, upgrade a boat, and fight island bosses. Dynamite is the game’s cheapest shortcut to a pile of fish: you throw a stick into the water, the blast kills whatever’s swimming nearby, and the bodies float to the surface for you to grab. It’s a great early-game fish faucet and a reliable way to stock food before a fight, but it was never meant to be your long-term income.
What dynamite fishing gets you
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Unlocks on | Island 2 |
| Price | $25 per stick |
| Main use | Blast up Beginner fish fast for food and quick cash |
| Main drawback | Slower money than proper rod-and-lure fishing |
Key Dynamite becomes available once you reach Island 2, and it’s the cheapest problem-solver in the game. You’re not aiming a cast or fighting a rod here — you’re lobbing an explosive into the water and scooping up the results. That makes it perfect for the early stretch when you just need Beginner fish in your pockets and don’t yet own a rod, lures, or a gun worth using. Treat it as a food source and a starter income rather than a farming loop, because grinding cash this way is slower than fishing properly once you have the gear for it.
How to fish with dynamite in How to Fish
Buy dynamite on Island 2
Pick up a stick for $25 from the island’s shop.
Throw it into the water
Aim for a spot where fish are swimming and toss the stick in.
Wait for the blast
The dynamite detonates on its own and kills the fish caught in the radius.
Collect the floating fish
Grab the 4-5 fish that surface — a single stick usually blows up a small cluster.
Cook, sell, or store them
Decide whether to cook the haul for value and healing, sell it, or keep it on you as food.
Cook every dynamite fish before you sell it — cooking pushes an item’s value to 1.5x, and that multiplier is pure profit on a catch you already got for the price of one stick.
Cooking and selling your blasted fish
Raw fish sells, but cooked fish is worth more and heals you better, so it’s almost always worth the extra step. Cooking opens up once you clear Island 3: the grill master there asks you to bring him a shark, and after you deliver it he lets you use the grill. From then on the grill is your main money multiplier — hold a fish over the flame and its value climbs from 1x to a peak of 1.5x, then collapses to nothing if you leave it on too long. Press F to inspect an item and watch the cooking multiplier live so you can pull the fish right at 1.5x; a fish left until it turns solid black is burnt and worthless, restoring almost no health, so only ever ruin one on purpose for the achievement.
When to keep using dynamite and when to switch
| Situation | Best approach |
|---|---|
| Early fish supply | Dynamite — quick Beginner fish before you own a rod |
| Money farming | Rod, lures, and gun trick shots |
| Emergency food | Dynamite, cooked and carried |
| Quest fish gathering | Dynamite for a fast batch |
| Combat | Guns — never dynamite |
Dynamite earns its $25 for a few specific jobs: getting Beginner fish quickly, keeping emergency food on hand, and grabbing a fast batch of fish for a quest. Where it falls off is money and progression — once you can afford a fishing rod and lures, proper fishing pulls in far more valuable fish and better multipliers, so cash farming with explosives stops making sense. Think of the switch as a best-use call rather than a hard cutoff: many runs stop dynamite fishing right after the Beginner-fish stage, but it stays handy for quick supply runs deeper into the game, right up to the volcano.
The clearest late example is the final island. The scientist there wants five fish — any fish — before he’ll hand over the whale bait that starts the boss chain, and dropping dynamite in the water is the fastest way to produce them. That’s dynamite doing exactly what it’s good at: turning $25 into a batch of fish on demand, no rod required.
Dynamite mistakes that get you killed
The biggest one is treating dynamite like a weapon. It is not a combat tool — if you throw it at creatures near yourself, the blast will kill you, and even clearing swarms of small enemies with explosives isn’t worth the self-damage. Bring a gun and your fists to fights, and keep dynamite for the water.
Watch your loot, too. Any items left on the ground will despawn, so don’t blast up a big haul and wander off — collect the fish and either cook or pocket them. When you’re prepping for a boss, that means filling your inventory with cooked fish and carrying it rather than leaving everything loose on the shore where it can vanish before the fight starts.
Side uses for spare dynamite
Dynamite does a couple of things outside of fishing that are worth knowing. Drop a single bundle under your boat while it’s in the water and detonate it to make the boat fly — it doesn’t destroy the boat, and it pops the “I’m the bird now” achievement. You can also shoot dynamite to set it off instead of waiting for the fuse: put a stick on the ground with a fish beside it as bait, back off far enough to survive the blast, and shoot the dynamite when a seagull swoops in for the fish. That’s the “Everyone’s dream” achievement, and since the bait pulls in several birds at once you can catch more than one. Both are fun detours, not part of the fishing loop — if you die lining up the seagull shot, it’s just a $25 retry.
Related How to Fish guides
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you get Dynamite in How to Fish?
Dynamite unlocks on island 2 in How to Fish by Dazed Games on Steam, and it costs $25.
How do you use Dynamite for fishing?
Throw Dynamite in the water, then collect the fish that float up after it explodes.
Is Dynamite a good way to make money?
Dynamite is useful for getting Beginner fishes and food, but it is slower for farming cash than fishing properly.
Can Dynamite help with the whale quest?
Yes. On island 5, Dynamite in the water is the fastest way to get the 5 fish you give the scientist for the whale bait.
How do you use Dynamite for the Everyone’s dream achievement?
Put one stick of Dynamite on the ground, place a fish next to it as bait, back away, and shoot the Dynamite when a seagull comes down for the fish.
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