To get a maxed assault rifle in How to Fish, farm high-value fish on the later islands, use cooking and trick-shot value multipliers to build cash, buy the assault rifle, then fill its attachment slots and damage upgrades before the volcano boss route.
How to Fish is Dazed Games’ physics-based co-op fishing game on Steam, and despite the name it is also a shooter — you kill sea creatures with guns, upgrade your boat, and fight bosses across five islands. The assault rifle is the game’s top-tier weapon, and a fully kitted one is what carries you through the final boss on the volcano. Getting there is almost entirely a money problem, so this guide handles the cash first, then the purchase and the attachments.
What a maxed assault rifle needs
| Part | What to get |
|---|---|
| Base weapon | Assault rifle ($20,000) |
| Damage | Bullet upgrades |
| Magazine | Extended mag |
| Sight | Laser sight |
| Optic | Red dot sight |
| Muzzle | Suppressor |
Key A “maxed” assault rifle is the assault rifle itself plus its damage (bullet) upgrades and a full set of attachments filling all four slots. Weapons in this game have exactly four attachment slots, and applying a full set to one weapon is what unlocks the Fully equipped achievement. The recommended late-game loadout is an extended mag, a laser sight, a red dot sight, and a suppressor — the setup you want ready before the whale and lava whale fights.
Build your bankroll before the rifle
Everything before the volcano is about arriving with a working weapon and a lure that pays. You climb the same ladder you would for any late-game gear, just cheaper.
Knife the first island’s crabs
Add a hot dog as bait to raise your per-fish value, then sell the knives once you reach Volcano Island.
Pick up a shotgun as your bridge weapon
The shotgun runs $150; upgrade its bullet damage for cleaner kills and easy trick-shot multipliers.
Work up the lure ladder
Move from Beginner ($3) to Standard ($15) to Professional ($50) and then Scientific ($500) lures as your income grows.
Cook fish once you reach the grill
Press F to inspect an item, watch the value climb, and pull it at 1.5x before selling — this also works on guns you plan to sell.
Buy extra inventory and hotbar slots
More slots means more cooked fish on deck, which is what actually decides the late boss fights.
Before you save and quit, pick up every item off the ground — anything left lying there despawns, and quitting is the fastest way to check how much time you have left before a boss run.
Farm Volcano Island for cash and upgrades
Volcano Island is where the assault rifle actually becomes affordable, because the fish here are worth far more and the lava cooks at a flat 1.5x with no timing risk at all. This is the loop you repeat until the rifle and its upgrades are paid off.
Buy dynamite on arrival
Lava-cook everything you sell
The lava sits at exactly 1.5x with zero timing risk, so build a large pile of cooked fish rather than selling raw.
Move into Professional then Scientific lures
Fling the lure toward the fish and shoot for a multiplier; jumpshots and no-scopes add value fast.
Push your gun’s damage toward 100 per shot
Keep upgrading bullet damage so kills stay quick and the loop keeps moving.
Repeat until you can afford the rifle
The assault rifle costs $20,000, so bank steadily before you buy.
Keep farming for the upgrades
Budget roughly $54,250 for the full set of bullet, extended mag, laser sight, red dot sight, and suppressor.
One co-op route worth flagging: some players tried luring the boss to a red-blip casino island for the fight, but that stopped working in later runs, so don’t build your plan around it. Take the fight on Volcano Island itself — the army tent makes solid cover, and hip-firing with a laser and suppressor puts out excellent damage.
Fill all four attachment slots
| Slot | Recommended pick |
|---|---|
| Magazine | Extended mag |
| Sight | Laser sight |
| Optic | Red dot sight |
| Muzzle | Suppressor |
Once the rifle is in hand, the upgrades are a shopping list, not a puzzle — but the four slots do force a couple of choices, so you can’t stack every attachment the game offers at once. Each weapon holds four attachments total, and “maxing” the rifle means filling all four plus buying the bullet-damage upgrades. If you have to prioritize, the laser sight and suppressor are the two you want first on an assault rifle.
The optic slot is a choice between a red dot sight and a sniper scope, and the muzzle slot is a choice between a compensator and a suppressor — so the recommended full build below picks one per slot rather than trying to run both.
Take the maxed rifle into endgame fights
The maxed assault rifle is a late-game power spike more than an everyday tool. It exists for the whale and the lava whale — the lava whale being the final boss and the one genuinely challenging fight in the game, with meteorite volleys and a far more aggressive second phase. Carry as many lava-cooked fish as you can hold going into that route, because eating them is how you heal between dodges.
After the credits you wake up back on island 1 with everything you own and all five islands open, which is where the rifle shines for cleanup. Beer-fish up the island 1 spider crab and mag-dump it, and you’ll drop a boss inside ten seconds for the Easy achievement.
Related How to Fish guides
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you unlock Fully equipped before the final island?
Technically yes — a fully kitted assault rifle is possible as early as island 3, so the achievement isn’t gated to the volcano. In practice it’s cheaper to wait, because fish are worth so much more on Volcano Island that you’ll finish paying for the attachments there anyway.
Do you need a maxed assault rifle to finish the game?
For the final boss, effectively yes. The lava whale is the one fight that demands real firepower, and a fully attached assault rifle plus a deep stack of lava-cooked fish is the intended loadout for it. Earlier bosses fall to cheaper weapons like an upgraded shotgun or Uzi.
What should you do if you cannot afford all upgrades yet?
Buy the rifle and get at least the laser sight and suppressor on it first, since those two do the most for an assault rifle. Keep two Scientific lures in reserve for safety and run the Volcano Island loop a while longer — the remaining attachments and bullet upgrades come quickly once the money engine is going.
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