The Pufferfish is the boss that gates progress on the Desert Island in How to Fish, the physics-based co-op shooter from Dazed Games. It does not appear on its own. You summon it with a specific bait, and the moment it hooks it turns hostile, rolling at you like a spiked wrecking ball and, later, poisoning the ground around it.
Quick answer: Give an endangered fish to the Tourist to get the Carrot, cast it to spawn the Pufferfish, then keep a palm tree between you and the boss while firing a maxed SMG during its recovery. At half health it grows and leaves a purple poison trail, so widen your spacing and never move through the poison. After the kill, grab the Pufferfish Tail and hand it to the Tourist for the next island’s coordinates.
Get the Carrot bait from the Tourist
Standard bait and leech bait will not draw out the Pufferfish. The only trigger is the Carrot, and you earn it by finishing the Tourist’s request on the Desert Island. You reach this point after defeating the Blue Shark miniboss, which activates the Grill and lets you cook fish for healing.
Note: The Carrot is consumed the moment you cast it. If you fail the fight, you have to catch another endangered creature and trade it again for a replacement, so do not waste it on an unprepared attempt.
What to bring before you cast the Carrot
Pistols barely scratch the Pufferfish. This is a durable, fast boss, and the fights this deep in the game are decided as much by your healing stock as by your gun. Prepare on land first, then summon.
| Item | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Maxed SMG (Uzi) | High fire rate keeps steady damage on the boss between dodges. |
| Compensator | Controls recoil so more of the magazine actually lands. |
| Extended magazine | Fewer reloads means fewer dangerous openings mid-fight. |
| Cooked fish | Your main healing source; cook raw fish on the Grill near its peak. |
| Extra inventory/hotbar slots | Let you carry more cooked fish into the fight. |
An upgraded SMG paired with a Compensator and Extended Magazine is the cleanest loadout here. It is not strictly mandatory, and another upgraded ranged weapon like the Shotgun can still finish the job, but recoil is the real problem. If your shots drift off target once the boss starts moving, buy recoil control before you buy raw damage. Enter fed and topped up, since starting hungry forces you to fix two meters at once during combat.
Summon and read the escape timer
Equip the Carrot and cast it into the water around the Desert Island. The Pufferfish spawns instantly, so be moving toward a palm tree before it appears. Watch the white bar beneath the boss’s health, which is the escape timer. If it empties before you kill the Pufferfish, the boss flees and you start the whole setup over.
Kite the Pufferfish around the palm trees
The Pufferfish’s main attack is a straight-line rolling charge. Fighting it in open ground gives it a clean path to crush you, so use the island’s palm trees as physical blockers instead of just cover.
A repeatable, boring loop beats improvising a new direction on every pass. Watch your footing, because the coconut palms that block the boss can also box in your own dodge if you back into one.
Phase 2: the poison trail at half health
When the Pufferfish drops to half health, it transforms. The boss grows noticeably larger and starts leaving a purple poison trail behind it as it moves. Touching that liquid is the single biggest killer in the fight.
Keep using the trees for cover, but widen your circle to account for the bigger body. Distances that felt safe early will clip you now. Never dodge or cut through the purple cloud to reach a shot; go around the boss instead. Keep chipping away from safe angles until the health bar empties, and do not rush a nearly dead Pufferfish into melee range, since a single late hit can still end the attempt.
Take the Pufferfish Tail, not the meat chunks
Killing the boss is not the end of the step. The Pufferfish bursts into pieces, and among the ordinary meat chunks is the Pufferfish Tail, the trophy that looks like a fish remnant with an exposed bone. This is the quest item, and the Tourist will not accept plain meat chunks in its place.
Grab the Tail before you cook, sell, or wander off. Seagulls swoop in and steal loose drops on these islands, and if a bird carries off the trophy you may have to redo the entire Carrot trade and the fight. Once you hand the Tail to the Tourist, he gives you the coordinates for Island 4 (delivered as a flash drive). If the Pufferfish is dead but the Tourist will not advance, the missing Tail is the first thing to check.
Common mistakes that cost the run
| Mistake | Fix |
|---|---|
| Running through the purple cloud | Route around the boss in phase 2; never cross its poison trail. |
| Getting boxed in by trees or terrain | Circle in open loops and keep an escape lane clear before you dodge. |
| Entering with no cooked fish | Stockpile cooked fish and buy extra slots to carry more. |
| Panic-healing too late | Eat early and often so one hit never finishes you. |
| Spending the Carrot unprepared | Fix your food, weapon, and recoil before casting; a failure means earning a new Carrot. |
Fighting the Pufferfish in co-op
How to Fish supports 1 to 4 players, and the Pufferfish has no special co-op mechanic. Solo, you run the whole dodge-shoot-heal loop yourself, which makes your cooked-fish stockpile and spacing matter more. With a team, the player the boss is targeting runs the tree circuit while the others fire from separate angles, so the Pufferfish never rolls through the whole group on one charge. Call out aggro swaps immediately, and remember that teammates can revive each other, so more guns simply means the boss drops faster.
Handle the Tail hand-in and you are clear to sail on. With the Island 4 coordinates in hand, the Desert Island’s boss sequence is finished and the Terrorizing Bird waits at the next stop.
