🗺️ How to Fish Island Order - Full Progression Route
The complete island progression route: five islands in unlock order, what to prepare for each, and the boss-loot hand-ins that reveal the next coordinates.
Quick Answer: The Island Order
The How to Fish islands unlock in a fixed sequence: Lighthouse (Island 1) → Forest (Island 2) → Desert (Island 3) → Rocks (Island 4) → Volcano (Island 5). You progress by fishing and selling, completing each island's quest, then killing its boss and handing the special loot to the right NPC — the Radar only marks the next island after the hand-in. The order is identical across the Easy, default and Hard settings.
The Five Islands and Their Tickets
The "ticket" to each island is a task item or award from the previous stage. Defeating a boss is only half the battle — the loot must reach the NPC's hands for the map to update.
| Stage | Island | Unlock Key | Boss / Trigger | Item to Retain | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lighthouse | Default at the beginning | Empty Beer Can → Spider Crab | Spider Crab meat / trophy | Ship key + $10 Radar |
| 2 | Forest | Ship + Radar → northwest green dot | 3/3 Leeches → Modified Leech → Giant Piranha | Giant Piranha Skeleton | Island 3 coordinates |
| 3 | Desert | Previous stage coordinates | Needlefish → Carrot → Puffer Fish (+ Blue Shark unlocks the Grill) | Pufferfish Fin / Trophy | Island 4 coordinates |
| 4 | Rocks | Previous stage coordinates | Professional Boss Lure → Tuna → Albatross | Albatross Head | Final island coordinates |
| 5 | Volcano | Previous stage coordinates | Fish Bucket → Bowhead Whale → Mutated Bowhead Whale | Mutated Bowhead fin | Military ship key → ending |
Unlocking Island 2 (Forest), Step by Step
The first voyage is the most common stumbling block. Complete the Lighthouse starting mission, defeat the Spider Crab with the Empty Beer Can, and hand the trophy to the Lighthouse Keeper for the Ship Key. Buy the Radar (about $10) and hold it in hand — boarding the ship with the Radar equipped shows a green marker roughly to the northwest; sail toward it until the Forest Island renders and docks.
Unlocking Island 3 (Desert)
Kill the Giant Piranha with the Modified Leech and hand the skeleton to the lady by the lake. The Radar then provides new coordinates (usually a yellow dot, west to northwest of the Forest). Killing the boss without delivering the skeleton never unlocks Island 3.
Unlocking Islands 4 and 5
On the Desert, catch a Needlefish (Standard Lure), trade it to the Tourist under the tree for the Carrot, defeat the Puffer Fish and hand in its fin for the Island 4 coordinates. On the Rocks, kill the Tuna, drop its corpse to bait the Albatross, and hand the Albatross Head to the Island 4 NPC — the final coordinates cover the military base and the volcano route. The Volcano finale (Mutated Bowhead Whale) completes the game.
Stuck? Common Unlock-Chain Failures
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| No ship key | Spider Crab trophy not delivered | Return to the Lighthouse Keeper and hand it in |
| Ship but no Radar marker | $10 Radar not purchased | Buy it at the Keeper's store |
| Radar but no green dot | Radar not equipped | Hold the Radar in hand on the ship |
| Green dot but no island | Distance or heading off | Keep the green dot centered and keep sailing northwest |
| Next island never appears | Boss killed, loot not handed in | Check the hand-in transaction before buying new gear |
💡 If the Radar still points at the same rock after a boss kill, the hand-in did not happen — fishing more will never unlock the map.
Naming Note: Which Island Is "Island 1"?
Guides number the islands slightly differently: most sources (and this site) treat the Lighthouse as the starting point with Forest = Island 2 and Desert = Island 3, while some articles call the Forest "Island 1". The unlock order itself is identical in every source.