In Dazed Games’ Steam game How to Fish, lava-cooking means dropping fish into the lava on Volcano Island to lock the full 1.5x cooking value with none of the grill’s timing risk, which makes it the best way to prep fish for selling or for boss healing.
How to Fish is a physics-based fishing game from Dazed Games on Steam, and once you sail into the late game its cooking mechanic stops being a nice-to-have and becomes the thing that funds your runs. On Volcano Island, the fifth and final island, you don’t need a grill at all. The lava itself does the cooking, and it does it perfectly every time.
What lava-cooking does on Volcano Island
Volcano Island is island 5, the last stop before the ending, and it changes how you handle fish. The lava flows there cook anything you drop in them to exactly 1.5x value — the same ceiling the grill can reach, but without any of the downside.
Key The reason that matters is timing. On earlier islands, cooking a fish means babysitting it and pulling it at the right moment or losing everything. The lava has no such behavior: it takes fish straight to the full multiplier and holds them there. So the moment you land on Volcano Island, every fish you plan to sell should go through the lava first.
Get fish on Volcano Island
Use dynamite in the water or your lures to pull up a batch of fish around the island.
Drop them in the lava
Place the fish in the lava flows around the military camp or the volcano area and let the lava do the work.
Let the multiplier apply
The lava cooks each fish to the full 1.5x value on its own — there’s no window to watch and no moment you can miss.
Pick them up and use them
Grab the cooked fish back off the ground for selling, or pile them up nearby as healing for the fights ahead.
Check the value if you want
Press F on a fish to read its Value and Cooking multiplier — a handy confirmation, not a required timing step.
The second you arrive on Volcano Island, lava-cook everything you intend to sell — fish are worth far more here, and the lava adds a flat 1.5x with zero risk of ruining one.
Best uses for lava-cooked fish
| Use | What |
|---|---|
| Making money | Lava-cook every fish you plan to sell for the flat 1.5x value bump during late-game farming. |
| Boss preparation | Stock your inventory with cooked fish and leave a large pile on the ground near the military camp to heal through the whale and lava whale fights. |
Cooked fish pull double duty in the endgame. The first use is money: a lava-cooked fish sells for 1.5x what the raw one would, and since Volcano Island fish are the most valuable in the game, that multiplier stacks into serious cash during late-game farming. The second use is survival. Both of the island’s boss fights — the regular whale and the lava whale that follows — burn through healing, and cooked fish are what you eat to stay alive.
The rule of thumb is simple: build a large pile of cooked fish before either boss fight, and fill your inventory on top of that. You genuinely cannot over-prepare for the ending, so cook more than you think you’ll need and leave the extras on the ground near where you’ll be fighting.
How lava-cooking differs from grill cooking
| Cooking method | How it behaves |
|---|---|
| Island 3 grill | Climbs from 1x to 1.5x, then drops to 0 and burns the item black if left too long. |
| Volcano Island lava | Cooks to exactly 1.5x with no timing risk — you can’t burn a fish in it. |
If you’ve already used the grill back on island 3, the lava will feel familiar but safer. Grill cooking climbs from 1x up toward 1.5x and then collapses to 0 if you leave the fish on too long — a burnt fish turns solid black and becomes worthless. The lava skips that danger entirely, cooking at a flat 1.5x with no way to overcook.
Late-game farming loop using lava-cooked fish
Once you’re on Volcano Island, the whole late-game rhythm settles into a tidy loop. Pull fish out of the water — dynamite is the fastest way to fill up on a batch, and your lures work for targeted catches — then run them through the lava to lock the 1.5x value.
From there it splits by what each fish is worth. Sell the lower-value cooked fish to keep funding lures and upgrades, and hold onto the stronger cooked fish as healing for the fights. Before you trigger the whale and lava whale sequence, cook and stockpile more than you expect to burn through — the ending is the one genuinely demanding stretch of the game, and having a wall of cooked fish waiting is what carries you through it.
Related How to Fish guides
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you cook things other than fish in the lava?
Yes. The 1.5x cooking bonus isn’t limited to fish — it applies to guns and other items too. If you’re about to sell a weapon, cooking it first bumps its value the same way, so it’s worth doing before any sale.
Should you sell every lava-cooked fish or save some for the bosses?
Split them. Cook everything you intend to sell so you’re always getting the full 1.5x, but hold back a healthy reserve of your stronger cooked fish specifically for the whale and lava whale fights, where you’ll eat them to heal. Cook more than you think you need — leftover healing is never wasted, but running dry mid-fight can cost you the run.
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