How to Fish: How to Unlock Every Island (Forest, Desert, Rocks, Volcano)

Sailing anywhere in How to Fish is gated behind a single repeating loop, and it trips up a lot of players. You start at the Lighthouse, and four more locations sit out in the water waiting for coordinates. Killing the boss that guards each step is only half of the work.

Quick answer: Beat the island’s boss, pick up the body part or item it drops, and hand that item to the NPC who gave you the quest. The next island appears on your radar as a colored dot the moment the hand-in registers.

The unlock rule: boss kill, then trophy hand-in

Every location follows the same chain. An NPC asks for something, that request produces the bait for a boss, and the boss drops a named item. That item is the proof. Until it is in the NPC’s hands, your radar stays exactly as it was.

So if a boss is dead and nothing has changed, open your inventory and look for a part with its own name and description. That is almost always what you are still holding.

One more thing worth knowing before any of this matters: watch the white bar under a boss’s health pool. If it runs out, the boss escapes and you have to bait it again from scratch.

Every location and what unlocks it

Counting the Lighthouse, there are five places to visit. The four islands are usually referred to by their terrain, since the numbering shifts depending on whether you count the starting area.

Location	What unlocks it	Radar marker
Lighthouse	Unlocked by default	Starting point
Forest island	Feed Spider Crab meat to the Lighthouse Keeper, then buy the radar	Green dot, northwest of the Lighthouse
Desert island	Give the Giant Piranha skeleton to the lady by the lake	Yellow dot, west of the Forest island
Rocks island	Give the Pufferfish fin to the tourist under the tree	Red dot, west of the Desert island
Volcano	Feed the Albatross head to the NPC in the shop	Pink dot, directly north of the Rocks island

How to unlock each island in order

At the Lighthouse, earn enough cash to buy the Beer Can and feed it to the Lighthouse Keeper. He hands back the empty can, which works as the lure that pulls the Spider Crab out of the water. Bait its charge, sidestep, and hit it while it is stunned.

Feed the Spider Crab meat to the Lighthouse Keeper to close out the first quest. He gives you the boat keys as a reward. Buy the radar from him for $10 before you leave, because without it you cannot see the coordinates you are about to receive.

Get on the boat and steer for the green dot northwest of the Lighthouse. That is the Forest island, a small swampy area with better lures and your first weapons on sale. The Shotgun is the purchase worth saving for.

Find the lady sitting by the lake and feed her three leeches. She returns a modified lure, and casting it starts the Giant Piranha fight. The boss brings minions, so clear them first.

Pick up the Giant Piranha skeleton and take it back to the lady. She responds with the coordinates for the Desert island, marked by a yellow dot to the west.

On the Desert island, look for the tourist sitting under a tree who refuses to go into the water. He is scared of a specific fish, and catching a Needlefish and handing it over gets you a Carrot in return.

Use the Carrot as bait to summon the Pufferfish. It rolls at you like a wrecking ball, so fire two shots and immediately move in the opposite direction rather than trying to stand your ground.

Take the Pufferfish fin to the tourist. He hands over the coordinates for the Rocks island, which shows up as a red dot further west.

At the Rocks island, talk to the NPC in the shop, who warns you about a large bird. Buy the Professional Boss Lure and use it to catch a Tuna, dodging its jump and finishing it with the Shotgun.

Lay the dead Tuna on the ground and wait a few seconds for the Albatross to arrive. It fires from long range, so bring the Uzi or the Sniper Rifle instead of the Shotgun, and stay under cover while its poop attack is in the air.

Carry the Albatross head back to the shop NPC. The Volcano coordinates unlock, and the island sits directly north as a pink dot. It is the last location, and the one where the route to the mainland opens up.

Tip: before you sail to the Rocks island, pick up the radar upgrade for your boat. It mounts the radar in a fixed spot on the deck so you no longer have to equip it every time you want to check your heading.

How to confirm an island actually unlocked

The confirmation is visual. After a successful hand-in, the NPC gives you coordinates and a new colored dot appears on the radar in a place it was not before. Green, yellow, red, and pink each correspond to one destination, and they do not overlap.

If the radar looks unchanged, one of these is usually the reason:

The boss is dead but its drop is still sitting in your inventory or on the ground.
You never bought the radar from the Lighthouse Keeper, so there is nothing to display the coordinates on.
The leech count on the Forest island is not at 3/3, so the Giant Piranha bait was never made.
The boss escaped when its white timer bar expired, meaning it was never actually killed.

Once the credits roll, the gating stops mattering. You wake back up at the first location with your endgame gear intact and free movement between all five destinations, which is when collection cleanup becomes practical.