To get Handyman in Dazed Games’ Steam game How to Fish, weaken the final boss, the lava whale, with weapons and land only the finishing blow with your bare hands.
How to Fish is Dazed Games’ physics-based co-op fishing game on Steam, and despite the name it hands you guns and boss fights alongside the rod. Handyman is one of its trickier achievements to pop, mostly because of a misread in the wording, and the fix is a single well-timed punch at the end of the last fight.
What Handyman actually asks of you
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Achievement | Handyman |
| Requirement | Defeat the final boss with your bare hands |
| Final boss | The lava whale |
| Key rule | Only the final blow must be a punch — the rest of the fight can use weapons |
Key The achievement description says to defeat the final boss with your bare hands, and that line trips up most players who read it as a whole fight fought unarmed. It isn’t. You are free to shoot the lava whale down with your usual loadout for the entire encounter, right up until the end. The only part that has to be a punch is the killing blow — the very last hit that empties its health bar.
Reach the lava whale
Progress to the final boss encounter and start the fight as normal.
Whittle down its health
Use a normal weapon such as the assault rifle to drop the boss’s health bar as low as you dare.
Stop before the last sliver
Ease off the trigger while a thin sliver of health remains — you are eyeballing this, so leave yourself a margin.
Switch to your fists
Swap off your weapon and equip your bare hands before you move in.
Land the finishing punch
Punch the lava whale to remove that final sliver, and Handyman pops on the kill.
You’re judging that last sliver by eye, so expect to overshoot and finish the boss with the rifle a few times before it clicks. There’s no penalty for that beyond the reset — just re-run the fight and stop a little earlier on the next attempt.
Leave a bigger health cushion than feels necessary — it’s far better to punch twice than to overshoot with the gun and burn a whole run.
Setting up the punch in co-op
Co-op also softens the failed attempts, since teammates can revive each other instead of losing the run outright. None of this is required — a solo player can land the punch just fine — but if you have a friend on hand, it turns a fiddly bit of timing into a much calmer setup.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Handyman achievement in How to Fish?
Handyman requires you to defeat the final boss with your bare hands in How to Fish by Dazed Games on Steam.
Do you have to fight the whole final boss unarmed for Handyman?
No. Only the killing blow has to be a punch.
How do you make Handyman easier?
Shoot the lava whale with your assault rifle until its health bar is nearly empty, then switch to fists and punch it for the final hit.
Why might Handyman take multiple attempts?
You have to judge the final sliver of health manually, so it is easy to accidentally finish the lava whale with the rifle and need to re-run the fight.
Is Handyman easier in co-op?
Yes. In co-op, one player can keep the boss’s attention while another lands the punch, and players can revive each other instead of losing the run.
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