How to Fish Best Weapons Guide: Loadout Tier List, Attachments, and Upgrade Order
Selecting the best weapons in How to Fish requires skipping redundant sidearms, focusing investment into an upgraded Shotgun, and equipping recoil-taming muzzle attachments.
The Knife costs $45 and delivers 16 damage base per strike, scaling up to 120 damage when fully upgraded. It serves as the premier starter buy, letting players dispatch stunned crabs in 4 to 6 strikes without absorbing retaliatory hits. While the Brass Knuckles cost only $24 and inflict 5 base damage, they provide an affordable brawler option that powers the community currency route when combined with 
Beer purchased for $12.
Among primary guns, the semi-automatic Shotgun stands as the community favorite, costing $150 at the second island shop. Firing 25 pellets per shell at 3 damage per pellet, it yields a ferocious burst of 75 damage at base level and scales up to 28 damage per pellet at upgrade tier 12. Its heavy spread shreds piranha swarms and carries players through the Pufferfish boss confrontation. Conversely, the automatic SMG sells for $650 on the third island, dealing 24 damage per round up to 70 at tier 12. Although its sustained output reaches roughly 480 damage per second, aggressive recoil requires practiced burst control.
The bolt-action Sniper Rifle costs $3,800 at the fourth island shop, delivering 200 damage per single shot and reaching 500 damage at tier 12. While the Sniper Rifle delivers 200 base burst damage against distant aerial targets like the Albatross, note that the lack of damage falloff across weapons also allows automatic firearms like the SMG to damage airborne bosses effectively. In the endgame, the military Assault Rifle becomes available for $20,000 on the volcano island, outputting 40 damage per round up to 100 at tier 12 with a sustained rate of 570 damage per second.
Priced at $25 per stick, Dynamite functions as an indispensable utility explosive across every stage of the journey. Each thrown explosive generates 200 area-of-effect blast damage, wiping dense clusters of hostile fish in a single detonation. Blasting aquatic packs with explosives also immediately cooks swimming fish, providing free healing rations that replenish health during drawn-out combat sequences without expending funds on shop consumables.
Weapon upgrades are strictly regulated by island progression milestones. Bullet damage enhancement ranks are capped at tier 3 on the forest island, tier 6 on the desert island, tier 9 on the rocky island, and tier 12 on the volcano island. Avoid squandering funds on collecting every gun in the catalog. Instead, invest heavily into a chosen weapon to unlock attachments like the Red Dot Sight, Compensator, Laser Sight, and Extended Mag (note that the shotgun cannot mount extended magazines).