Guide coverage: patches through 1.0.12

How to Fish: All 28 Achievements

There are 28 achievements. Complete the story first, then return for the optional objectives. Bean requires finishing the game within one hour, so it is better attempted on a separate speedrun.

Eat a mini-boss (often searched as “mini bus”): kill Old Pike, Blue Shark, Tuna, or Goblin Shark and eat the whole body.
Bare hands: finish the mutated whale with empty hands (Handyman / 拳王). Unequip guns and melee first.
Make the boat fly: put dynamite under the hull and detonate it (I’m the bird now). Reload if the boat is lost.
Drip (Traditional Chinese: 真・潮系): a rare reskin of a normal catch, about 1% when hooked.
All in, GOLD GOLD GOLD, and skins

Achievement	How to get it	Note
01 Getting started	Kill your first creature.	—
02 Let me go	Get picked up by a seagull.	This requires the seagull to pick up your dead body, not a creature you are holding. Die to an aggressive creature (or any other damage source) and stay dead instead of respawning. Leave your corpse on the ground and wait for a seagull to fly over and grab it.
03 Who stole my beer	Find and kill the culprit, and bring it to the lighthouse keeper.	This is the Spider Crab, the island 1 story boss. After defeating it, give the Spider Crab Shell to the lighthouse keeper to receive the boat keys.
04 Noob	Get a kill with no kill score multiplier.	The Noob bonus (×1.01) only appears when a kill earns no other bonus at all. Hip-firing normally triggers No Scope, and quick-scoping triggers Quick Scope, so avoid both. Aim down sights and hold for more than 0.5 seconds before firing, so you are neither No Scope nor Quick Scope. Also avoid headshots, long shots (25 m or more), point-blank shots (under 2 m), airborne targets, one-shot kills, overkill, and multikills. A plain scoped body shot on a grounded creature is the most reliable.
05 Drip	Kill a drip creature.	Drip is the in-game name for a rare alternate-skin variant. Traditional Chinese calls it 真・潮系; Steam’s Chinese achievement name is 極品. About 1% of hooked non-boss creatures appear as Drip. The hooked prompt uses rainbow text. Killing any Drip creature unlocks this achievement. Extra copies can be thrown into the Reel of Fortune for skins.
06 I'm the bird now	Make the boat fly.	This is the “make the boat fly” achievement. Unlock the boat after the lighthouse boss. Sail to the forest island and buy $25 Dynamite from the shop. Park close to shore and leave the driver’s seat. Hold the Dynamite beside the bow or hull, press the primary-action button (left mouse by default) to light the fuse, then immediately press Q to throw it underneath or directly against the boat and move away. The boat’s visible model must reach world height y ≥ 10; a small hop from a wave is usually not enough. If it only flips, place the next Dynamite closer to the centre of the hull. After the achievement appears, reload the latest save if the boat flew away or got stuck.
07 Getting an upgrade	Upgrade the engine on the boat.	The first engine upgrade is sold at the docks from the forest island onward. Buy the first-tier engine (Big Motor) after you own the boat.
08 Dinnertime	Catch dinner for the lady in the forest.	This is the Giant Piranha, the island 2 story boss. Defeat it and give the Giant Piranha Skeleton to the woman.
09 Yummy in my tummy	Eat a burnt creature.	Unlock the grill first (see Grillmaster). Grill a creature until it is blackened (cookness ≥ 1.5), then eat it.
10 Competitive eating	Eat a mini-boss.	Searches for “mini bus” are this achievement: eat a mini-boss, not a vehicle. The four mini-bosses are the Old Pike, Blue Shark, Tuna, and Goblin Shark. Kill any one of them and eat the whole body.
11 Impressive	Get a 5x killscore multiplier.	Trigger at least five qualifying bonuses on the same kill; this adds Impressive ×2. The final multiplied total must still reach 5×. See the detailed method below.
12 360 no scope	Kill a creature with a 360 no scope.	Turn your view by at least 320° in one continuous motion; the game counts 320° as a full spin. After the spin, land the killing shot within 1 second. The killing shot must be hip-fired. If you aimed recently, release aim and wait at least 0.25 seconds first. Use a weak creature so the killing shot lands while the spin bonus is still active.
13 Vacation	Help the tourist swim on his vacation.	This is the Pufferfish, the island 3 story boss. Defeat it and give the Pufferfish Fin to the seated tourist.
14 Grillmaster	Start the grill.	On the desert island, catch a Blue Shark with the Standard Boss Lure (or rarely with the Standard Lure). Hand the whole shark, not a meat chunk, to the person beside the grill to receive the lighter. The Goblin Shark is also a valid quest item, but it is only available on the later volcano island.
15 Rich! Millionaire	Sell something worth 100,000 or more.	The final value of a single item must reach 100,000 or more. The most effective route is the rocks island roulette: betting green multiplies that item’s value by 35. Use a high-value creature as the bet, and add grilling or Killscore bonuses first for extra margin.
16 Collector	Find and kill all the creatures.	You must kill every creature in the journal; simply catching one is not enough. Shore creatures that need no bait (crab, shrimp, gar, mackerel) also count. Press Tab to open the journal and check which creatures you are missing.
17 All in	Bet on green and win at roulette.	The roulette wheel is in the rocks island casino. Bet on green and win; green pays 35×. Any bet amount counts, so a small wager is enough.
18 GOLD GOLD GOLD	Unlock a legendary skin from the slot machine.	The slot machine is in the rocks island casino. Each roll unlocks a random skin with common, rare, or legendary rarity. The achievement unlocks when you roll a legendary skin.
19 Fully equipped	Apply all attachments to a single weapon.	One gun must have all five of these at the same time: a sight (Red Dot or Sniper Scope), a barrel attachment (Compensator or Suppressor), the Laser Sight, the Extended Mag, and at least one bullet-damage upgrade. The shotgun cannot unlock it because it has no Extended Mag slot.
20 Terrorizing bird	Defend the scared islanders from the terrorizing bird.	This is the Albatross, the island 4 story boss. Defeat it and give the Albatross Head to the person inside the shop.
21 Deadliest catch	Help the military defeat the big creature they located.	This is the Bowhead Whale, the island 5 story boss. After the mutated whale fight, give the Whale Fin to the research NPC to receive the military boat keys.
22 Everyone's dream	Kill a seagull with dynamite.	Buy $25 Dynamite from the forest island shop. Place a dead fish or creature in an open area to attract seagulls. Press the primary-action button (left mouse by default) to light the fuse, then press Q to throw it at a seagull. The explosion must kill it directly.
23 Fishipedia	Find and kill all drip creatures.	Kill the Drip (rare alternate-skin) variant of every non-boss creature. Drip appears at about a 1% rate when a non-boss creature is hooked, and looks different from the normal version. Press Tab to open the journal and check each species’ Drip entry. Bosses and mini-bosses have no Drip version. Patch 1.0.5 fixed a bug that missed counting one Drip creature.
24 I am speed	Buy the best engine for the boat.	Buy the top-tier engine (Dual Motors) at the docks from the rocks island onward. Engines must be bought in order, so purchase Big Motor first.
25 We are so back	Finish the game.	After defeating the mutated whale, give the Whale Fin to the research NPC. Take the military boat keys and sail back to the mainland.
26 Easy	Kill a boss within 10 seconds.	Only a main story boss counts (Spider Crab, Giant Piranha, Pufferfish, Albatross, or Bowhead Whale). Optional lure bosses do not. The timer starts when the boss fight begins, so the kill must land within 10 seconds of its spawn. Use a fully upgraded weapon, get into position before summoning, and focus fire as soon as the boss appears.
27 Bean	Finish the game within 1 hour.	The timer uses the current world save’s total playtime, which must be under one hour when the ending plays. Start a fresh save on Easy difficulty so creatures have lower health. Go straight for the story objectives and skip collections, upgrades, and money farming. Route: lighthouse (Spider Crab) → forest (Giant Piranha) → desert (Pufferfish) → rocks (Albatross) → volcano (Bowhead Whale and mutated whale).
28 Handyman	Defeat the final boss with your bare hands.	This is the bare-hands / unarmed final-boss achievement. You do not need to fight unarmed the whole time; only the final hit must deal less than 5 damage. Use a weapon to bring the mutated whale to low health, then unequip it and finish with a punch.

Impressive: reliable 5× method

Reliable setup: equip a Sniper Rifle with a Laser Sight, find a seagull that is still flying, keep the scope lowered, and fire one high-damage shot at its head. The shot should satisfy the five conditions below at the same time.

Required condition	Multiplier	How to trigger it
No Scope	1.2×	Do not aim down sights. If you previously aimed, release aim and wait at least 0.25 seconds before the killing shot.
Headshot	1.25×	The killing shot must hit the target’s head region.
Fly Fishing	1.25×	The target must be airborne, with no ground detected within 1.5 metres directly below it. A seagull that is still flying is the easiest target.
One Shot One Kill	1.25×	Kill the target from full health with one shot. Do not damage the seagull beforehand.
Overkill	1.25×	On a non-boss target, the final shot must deal more than its remaining health plus 70 damage. A Sniper Rifle easily clears this threshold on a seagull.

These five bonuses multiply to 2.93×. Triggering five bonuses automatically adds Impressive ×2, producing about 5.86× and unlocking the achievement.

Useful backups: Longshot ×1.3 requires at least 25 metres; 360 ×1.5 requires turning at least 320° and killing within one second; Last Bullet ×1.25 requires the killing shot to empty the magazine. Any of these can add margin, but five low-value conditions are not guaranteed to reach 5×.

Community method references: Destructoid · Nerds Chalk

Icons, achievement names, and descriptions come from Steam’s official achievement page. The unlock notes explain the condition in plain terms.

Quick answers

How many achievements does How to Fish have?

28 on Steam. The table lists every achievement with its unlock condition and a note for the ones players ask about most.

Which achievement is the one called “mini bus”?

The achievement players search as mini bus is Competitive eating — it is tied to the mini-boss, not to a vehicle.

How do I make the boat fly?

“I’m the bird now” comes from launching the boat with dynamite under the hull. The stuck page covers the safe setup and how to reload if the boat flips.