In Dazed Games’ Steam game How to Fish, the fastest money route is to move beyond basic catches, use higher-value lures, boost killscore with stylish kills, cook every sale item to the 1.5x peak, and reserve risky roulette bets for valuable late-game fish.
How to Fish is a physics-based co-op game on Steam from Dazed Games, and most of your income comes from shooting sea creatures and selling them rather than casting a line. The money route follows one simple loop, with better gear making it faster and more profitable at every stage of the run.
- How the money loop actually works
- Best money moves by island stage
- Early cash before you own gear
- Scaling income with lures and weapons
- Cook everything to 1.5x before selling
- Trick shots that raise a fish’s value
- Roulette gambling for six-figure payouts
- Money mistakes that stall your progress
- Frequently Asked Questions
How the money loop actually works
The core cycle never changes: catch or summon a creature, kill it cleanly or stylishly, cook it before you sell, and pour the profit back into lures, weapons, inventory slots, and boat upgrades. Each upgrade speeds up the next lap — better lures pull higher-value fish, stronger guns kill them before they escape, and grill or lava access adds a flat multiplier to every sale.
Key Nearly every earnings boost comes from reinvestment, so use early cash as seed money for gear instead of hoarding it as a score. Climb out of punching crabs and into lure-and-gun farming as quickly as possible to make the money compound.
Best money moves by island stage
| Stage | Best money move |
|---|---|
| Early island | Grab free clams and knife basic fish with hot dog bait, then buy brass knuckles to speed up kills. |
| Mid-game (dynamite + grill) | Blow up fish clusters with dynamite and cook everything on the grill for 1.5x before selling. |
| Volcano / late-game | Farm duos with a Scientific lure, lava-cook the catch, and roll profit into stronger guns. |
| Post-game | Bet high-value cooked island 5 fish on roulette green and sell everything below the threshold. |
Find your current stage in the table and run the method on that row. Move to the next method as soon as you can afford its required gear. Dynamite and the grill are the two major income upgrades, and each one changes the farming route the moment you reach the island that unlocks it.
Early cash before you own gear
Pick up free clams
Clams sit in the shallows and cost nothing — press E to pocket them, then sell them for a steady stream of starter cash.
Fish the basic creatures
Reel in crabs, shrimp and lobsters, drop them on the pier, and kill them by hand before a seagull steals the catch.
Bait with a hot dog
Use the $1 hot dog as bait to raise the money earned per fish. It pays for itself quickly.
Buy a melee upgrade
A knife or brass knuckles ($24) kills catches much faster than bare fists, increasing the number of fish you can process per minute.
Sell and reinvest
Cash out your catches and knives when you move on, then funnel the money directly into your first meaningful gear upgrades.
This island 1 route produces roughly $46-$57 — enough for a melee upgrade plus the bait or beer can needed to start the first boss fight. The goal here is simple: build the bankroll required to reach the next island.
Scaling income with lures and weapons
Better lures and stronger weapons are the main income multipliers. A higher-tier lure pulls in more valuable creatures and summons mini-bosses and bosses on demand, while enough gun damage kills them before they thrash free and swim away — every escaped fish is wasted time. On the volcano, run a two-player loop where one player flings a lure toward a fish duo and both players shoot. Keep upgrading the pistol toward roughly 100 damage per shot, then graduate to an assault rifle with a laser and suppressor.
Lures climb in cost and power — start with a Professional lure, then move to the Scientific lure around $500, which can repay its cost in one or two catches. Carry a small buffer because durability matters: regular and mini-boss lures can break and vanish on use, while island boss lures are consumed every single time you fish one up. These prices come from multiplayer: weapon upgrades cost a little less solo, while lure and gun prices remain the same in either mode.
Cook everything to 1.5x before selling
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Inspect with F | Shows value, cooking multiplier, weight and killscore, updating live over the flame. |
| Cook to 1.5x | Value peaks at 1.5x — pull the item there for the maximum sale price. |
| Avoid burning | Left until solid black, the item drops to 0 value and restores almost no health. |
| Cook items too | Guns and other items also gain the 1.5x, so cook them before you cash out. |
Once you unlock grill access on island 3 and later reach the volcano’s lava, cooking becomes your main money multiplier. Press F to inspect an item and view its live value and cooking multiplier. Hold a fish over the flame and watch the number rise from 1x to a peak of 1.5x. Pull it immediately at 1.5x, because its value collapses to 0 the instant it turns solid black.
Only burn something black when pursuing the eating achievement — in every other situation, a burnt catch is dead weight.
Cook every fish, gun and item to the 1.5x peak before selling — inspect with F and pull it the second it reaches the multiplier. This single habit provides the biggest passive income boost in the game.
Trick shots that raise a fish’s value
Stylish kills earn more money because a creature’s killscore feeds directly into its sale price. A jumpshot, a noscope, a headshot on a flying seagull, or a point-blank hit raises the value before the sale. The modifiers stack — Killsteal, Overkill, Last Bullet, Point Blank and the rest multiply together, allowing one well-prepared kill to climb well beyond a 5x multiplier.
This is the foundation of shotgun money farming: instead of mag-dumping a fish on the ground for nothing, prepare the flashiest kill available and sell the inflated result. The extra showmanship adds profit without slowing the farming loop into a chore.
Roulette gambling for six-figure payouts
Roulette is a high-risk endgame method, not an early money route. At the island 5 Reel of Fortune, betting on green pays 35x the value of the wagered item and gives you an item to sell. To cash a 100,000 payout, bet a fish worth at least 2,858 (100,000 ÷ 35). That requires a raw catch worth around 1,906 or more before the 1.5x lava cook — target about 3,200 after cooking so an imperfect catch does not leave you short.
Green occupies one pocket in 37, making every attempt a real gamble; it can hit in five spins or ninety. Fish on island 5, lava-cook everything, and inspect each value with F. Bet anything at or above the threshold on green, then sell everything below it normally to fund more lures and attempts. There is no bet cap, so one high-value fish is enough when green finally lands.
Money mistakes that stall your progress
Several habits quietly drain your income. Burning a fish black wipes its value to zero, so watch the multiplier throughout cooking. Using dynamite as a combat weapon usually kills you instead of the enemy — use it as a food-and-fish tool, not a gun. Betting low-value catches at roulette wastes money that should be sold normally. Chasing fiddly cleanup achievements during the story also burns attempts that become easy in the post-game, when you crash back onto island 1 with all your gear and every island open.
Budget before you splurge. For collection runs, the island 5 optional mini-boss requires the Scientific Boss Lure ($5,800), so reserve that amount before spending your endgame fortune. Ignore the old shortcut involving the roofed-casino red-blip island — the route was patched out and no longer works as a money method.
Related How to Fish guides
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the basic way to make money fast in How to Fish?
In Dazed Games’ Steam game How to Fish, catch creatures, kill them, and sell them for money. Better gear, weapons, bait, and lures increase the value and speed of your catches while opening access to more profitable islands.
Do trick shots increase money?
Yes, trick shots raise a creature’s value before you sell it. Trick shots earn more money, and stacked killscore multipliers can push the value well beyond 5x.
Does cooking increase the value of fish?
Yes, cooking raises a fish’s value to 1.5x before it collapses to 0. Pull the fish at 1.5x, because a solid black burnt fish is worthless.
Is dynamite good for quick money?
Yes, dynamite produces strong returns on Volcano Island when it destroys several fish, especially when you cook them before selling. On island 2, dynamite is a food source rather than a cash strategy because proper fishing makes money faster.
Can gambling make a lot of money?
Yes, gambling can produce huge payouts, and roulette green pays 35x the value of the item you bet. Bet a high-value cooked fish on green, then sell the resulting item to earn the Rich! Millionaire achievement.
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