All 31 Achievements: Exact Conditions and the Quickest Method for Each

How to Fish has 31 achievements: 28 from launch and three added by The Islet Update in 1.1.0. Six come from the story, ten from collecting, and fifteen are tricks you have to set up on purpose. The percentage after each one is the share of Steam players who have it.

Story: unlocked by playing through

• Who stole my beer (91.8%): kill the Spider Crab and give its shell to the lighthouse keeper.
• Dinnertime (81.6%): kill the Giant Piranha and give its skeleton to the woman on the Forest island.
• Vacation (71.2%): kill the Pufferfish and give its fin to the tourist.
• Terrorizing bird (58.4%): kill the Albatross and give its head to the person inside the Rocks shop.
• Deadliest catch (46.6%): kill both whales and give the Whale Fin to the scientist.
• We are so back (45%): take the military boat home and finish the game.

Each island guide covers its boss in full.

Collection

• Getting started (98.4%): kill your first creature.
• Drip (96.2%): kill any drip (rainbow-named) creature. Keep releasing ordinary bites with right-click until a drip bites; colourful text marks it.
• Getting an upgrade (85.7%): buy the first boat motor ($230), sold from Island 2.
• Grillmaster (79.8%): hand a whole Blue Shark (or Goblin Shark) to the Grillmaster.
• GOLD GOLD GOLD (67.6%): roll a legendary skin on a Reel of Fortune; 10% of spins are legendary, and a golden glow marks it.
• I am speed (64.6%): buy the second boat motor ($860), sold from Island 4.
• Collector (17.1%): kill every creature in the Fishipedia, 62 entries in 1.1.3.
• Bilingual (17%, from 1.1.0): earn your first euro, for example by selling a Crab Carcass catch or Money in a bottle.
• Money in a bottle (14.2%, from 1.1.0): pick up the bottle on the single-palm mini island.
• Fishipedia (3.6%): kill the drip form of every Fishipedia creature.

Tricks and challenges

Let me go (83%): die, do not respawn, and wait until a seagull picks your body up and flies off with it.

Noob (84.9%): get a kill that earns no kill-score bonus at all. Aim down sights for more than half a second, shoot from a medium distance, and avoid headshots.

Yummy in my tummy (48.3%): leave a creature on the lit grill until it burns, then eat it.

Competitive eating (24.5%): eat an entire mini-boss after killing it. The Old Pike, a Blue Shark, a Tuna and a Goblin Shark all count; the Old Pike, from a $40 Beginner Boss Lure, is the cheap option.

I'm the bird now (32.4%): make your boat fly with Dynamite. On the Forest island, drive the boat into the middle tree on the bank near the leech woman so it wedges in place, stack at least four Dynamite sticks in front of it, step well back and shoot the pile. Another way that works: put about ten sticks inside the boat on open water and shoot them.

Everyone's dream (7.4%): kill a seagull with a Dynamite blast. Drop a dead fish as bait, wait for a seagull to land on it, then throw the lit stick.

Impressive (82.8%): reach a 5x kill-score multiplier. Impressive itself adds x2 once five other bonuses are active on the same kill. Easy bonuses to stack: Headshot, One Shot, Last Bullet and Overkill (1.25x each), Finally (1.1x, after more than five shots in the fight), No Scope (1.2x) and Endangered (1.25x).

360 no scope (65.4%): spin at least 320 degrees and fire the killing shot from the hip within one second. Birds are easy targets with a Sniper Rifle; pinned fish are easier.

Fully equipped (61.3%): fit one gun with a sight, a muzzle attachment, the Laser Sight, the Extended Mag and at least one bullet upgrade. It cannot be the Shotgun, which has no magazine slot.

All in (40%): at a roulette table, bet any item on green and win. Keep betting cheap catches until green comes up.

Rich! Millionaire (20%): sell one item worth 100,000 or more. Green pays 35 times the bet item's value, so any catch worth about 2,860 or more turns into a 100,000 item on a single green win. Build the value first with drip creatures, kill bonuses and cooking, bet it on green until it hits, then sell the result.

Easy (36.4%): kill a story boss within ten seconds of it appearing. The Albatross is the usual target: pile a large stack of Dynamite on the grass, keep one lit stick in hand, drop the Tuna onto the pile, and throw the stick the moment the health bar appears, then step back.

Bean (3.2%): finish the game in under one hour of save playtime. It has its own route guide.

Hobin Rood (6.9%, from 1.1.0): kill any creature with an arrow from the Bow.

Handyman: the bare-hands final boss

Handyman (4.2%) asks you to defeat the Mutated Bowhead Whale with your bare hands. The usual method: bring its health very low with the Assault Rifle, unequip everything, and land the final blows with your fists while dodging the slams and lava. Keep food on the ground nearby, because you have to get close.

Players report a much safer shortcut. The game appears to check only that the killing hit does as little damage as a punch, not that it is a punch, so a single Shotgun pellet (3 damage) from range also counts. Get the whale to a sliver of health with Dynamite and other weapons, then finish it with the Shotgun from a distance. Several players confirmed this in 1.1.x.

Do Handyman, Deadliest catch and We are so back on the same final fight, and Bean too if your playtime is still under an hour.