All Weapons & Attachments Guide
Fishing rods bring in the money, but weapons keep you alive. How to Fish ships with a compact arsenal of melee, ranged, and explosive tools, and each boss encounter in the archipelago is tuned around a specific loadout. This page covers every weapon, when to buy it, and how to kit out a single gun for the Fully equipped achievement.
Complete Weapon List
| Weapon | Type | How to Unlock | Damage Profile | Best Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bare Fists | Melee (default) | Available from the start | Very low per hit | Emergency self-defense and the secret Handyman achievement |
| Knife | Melee | Starter loadout | Low, fast swing | Subduing reeled-in catches and finishing staggered bosses at close range |
| Harpoon Gun | Ranged | Purchased after the first boat key ($200) | 45 per shot | The workhorse ranged option for mid-game bosses and aggressive fish |
| Rifle | Ranged | Late-game shop unlock | High per shot, slow reload | Long-range burst damage during boss stagger windows |
| Titanium Harpoon | Ranged (upgrade) | Endgame upgrade of the Harpoon Gun | Highest sustained ranged DPS | Deep Trench bosses and the Magma Whale finale |
| Dynamite | Explosive (consumable) | Crafted at cooking/crafting stations | Area of effect, one-time use | Clearing fish swarms and the Everyone's dream seagull achievement |
What to Buy First
Early gold is scarce, so the purchase order matters. Save for the Harpoon Gun ($200) as your first major weapon purchase — it single-handedly makes the Spider Crab and Pufferfish fights manageable by letting you deal damage from outside claw and spike range. Skip the Rifle until you have already invested in a Deep-Sea Rod and Hull Armor Tier 1: without survivability you will not live long enough to benefit from the higher per-shot damage. The Titanium Harpoon upgrade is a pure endgame purchase and should only come after your boat can reliably reach the Deep Trench.
- 1. Harpoon Gun — 45 damage per shot at range; carries you through every mid-game boss fight.
- 2. Hull Armor Tier 1 ($350) — not a weapon, but it halves incoming spike and claw damage so your weapons get more uptime.
- 3. Rifle — long-range burst for the dive-bomb and airborne boss phases where the harpoon reload is too slow.
- 4. Titanium Harpoon — the final ranged upgrade; mandatory DPS for the Magma Whale finale.
Fully Equipped Achievement: All Attachments on One Weapon
The Fully equipped achievement (49.8% of players) asks you to apply all attachments to a single weapon — not to own every weapon in the game. Attachments unlock progressively at shops as you defeat bosses, and each one must be installed on the same gun. The Harpoon Gun is the cheapest platform to complete: its scope, reinforced line, and reel attachments are all purchasable by the time you clear the Pufferfish, so you can unlock this mid-game instead of waiting for the endgame rifle attachments.
Boss Loadout Cheatsheet
| Boss | Recommended Weapons | Why It Works |
|---|---|---|
| Spider Crab | Knife + Harpoon Gun | Harpoon the legs from range, knife the soft body during shell-slam staggers. |
| Pufferfish | Harpoon Gun + Knife | Harpoon the mouth during dive-bomb stuns; knife the dorsal fin between spike waves. |
| Giant Piranha | Harpoon Gun + Dynamite | Dynamite clears the leech swarms; harpoon the boss during its escape-bar rests. |
| Magma Whale | Titanium Harpoon + Rifle, then Bare Fists | Burn the whale down with the Titanium Harpoon and Rifle, then finish at minimum HP with bare fists for the Handyman achievement. |
For the bait side of the loadout equation, see the lures & baits guide, and for crew-based weapon role assignments check the 4-player co-op guide.
Sources & Verification
- Steam Community Achievements — How to Fish — Fully equipped description and global unlock rate
- How to Fish on Steam — Official store page and game description
Data on this page is re-verified against the sources above after each official patch. See our editorial policy for how we source and correct game data.