Your island route

The five How to Fish islands are arranged in a fixed linear path that begins at the tutorial hub and ends at the Volcano finale. The progression hub list, in order, is:

1. Lighthouse Island — tutorial hub, gate Boss is the Spider Crab.
2. Forest Island — second hub, gate Boss is the Giant Piranha.
3. Desert Island — third hub, gate Boss is the Pufferfish; this island also has the worst seagull interference.
4. Rocks Island — fourth hub, gate Boss is the Albatross (Terrorizing Bird).
5. Volcano Island — final hub, with the Bowhead Whale and the Mutated Bowhead Whale two-phase finale.

This is the progression order described on the Steam store page for AppID 4001890 and corroborated by the ingamenews and gamingpromax reviews, and the per-island Boss names line up with the public walkthroughs at how2fish.wiki, howtofish.pro, allthings.how, and nerdschalk.com. You cannot skip ahead to the Volcano finale without clearing each gate Boss along the way, and the weapon tier progression is gated the same way.

Each island follows the same loop: arrive at the dock, fish the surrounding water for a fixed set of catches, slam or trick shot the fish for cash, and bring that cash to the next weapon upgrade. Once the weapon tier has been upgraded and the island's catch list is complete, the gate Boss spawns at the dock. Defeating the Boss unlocks the boat to the next hub.

The shared loop between islands looks like this:

• Cast with the active weapon to spawn a fish.
• Yank and slam the fish for cash and trick shot bonuses.
• Spend cash on the next weapon tier at the island shop.
• Clear the island catch list to spawn the gate Boss.
• Beat the Boss to unlock the next island's boat.

This shared loop is what makes How to Fish feel cohesive across five visually distinct hubs. You are repeating the same rhythm on Lighthouse, Forest, Desert, Rocks, and Volcano, but each new island introduces fresh water conditions, fresh visual hazards like seagulls, and a new Boss that forces you to use the latest weapon tier effectively.

The five How to Fish islands also map onto the weapon upgrade path from fists through knife, gun, sniper, and explosives. You start with fists on Lighthouse Island, pick up the knife partway through, and trade your way up the tier path as you clear Forest, Desert, Rocks, and Volcano in order. By the time you reach the Volcano finale, you need the explosives tier to deal with the final Boss in a reasonable window, which is why the Volcano gate doubles as the weapon-progression final exam.

The five Bosses themselves are documented on the dedicated How to Fish Boss fights reference, which lists the per-island gate Boss and the recommended weapon tier for each. The Lighthouse walkthrough on the Lighthouse Island page covers the very first island in detail, and the Forest, Desert, Rocks, and Volcano walkthroughs are linked from the related pages below.

A few island-progression details get asked a lot but are not announced as of 2026-09-01:

• Specific per-island reward tables beyond the published catch and weapon tier unlocks.
• Whether any new island hubs will be added after Volcano Island as part of post-game content.
• Exact cash thresholds needed to unlock the next weapon tier.
• Hidden NPC names or side-quest content beyond what is shown on the Steam store page description.

If you want to confirm a specific island fact, the Steam store page description and the ingamenews and gamingpromax reviews are the source-backed references as of 2026-09-01.