How to Fish Pufferfish Boss Guide
The Pufferfish is the third major boss in How to Fish and one of the first encounters that punishes weak preparation as much as poor movement. It absorbs plenty of damage, becomes more dangerous as it grows, and must be summoned with a Carrot that can be lost after a failed attempt. The reliable answer is not standing in the open with the most expensive gun you can afford; it is controlling the boss around the trees, investing in weapon accuracy, and preserving enough distance to survive its later phase.
Jump To Section:
Why The Pufferfish Is Difficult
Prepare Before Using The Carrot
Best Weapons And Upgrades
How To Use The Trees
Survive The Second Phase
Best Co-Op Strategy
Collect The Pufferfish Tail
Why You Keep Losing
Why The Pufferfish Boss Is Difficult
The Pufferfish fight is deceptive because its large health pool makes the encounter look like a simple damage check. Damage matters, but the more common failure is losing control of the arena. Firing continuously while retreating through open ground allows the boss to follow a direct path, while heavy recoil causes much of the Uzi’s magazine to miss even when you appear to be shooting constantly.
The Carrot requirement adds another layer of pressure. The Carrot is consumed when the boss is triggered, and losing the attempt may require earning another one before you can try again. Spending a few minutes on food and meaningful upgrades is therefore faster than repeatedly summoning the boss with the same setup.
The fight becomes considerably easier once it is treated as a positioning challenge. Trees interrupt the Pufferfish’s approach, giving you predictable moments to fire without trading health for damage. Your weapon finishes the boss, but the terrain creates the opportunity.
Prepare Before Using The Carrot
The Pufferfish does not appear naturally while sailing around Island 3. You must first obtain the Carrot connected to the Tourist’s earlier request, then use it to trigger the boss encounter.
Do not spend the Carrot immediately after receiving it. Restore your food meter, bring additional food, confirm that your ranged weapon has ammunition, and test whether you can keep that weapon under control. A newly purchased Uzi is not automatically an upgrade if its recoil sends half the magazine around the boss.
Beer can provide emergency healing during the encounter, but it should not replace proper food preparation. Because drinking it can reduce the food meter, entering the fight hungry and relying on Beer can exchange one survival problem for another.
The safest attempt begins with full resources and a weapon you have already tested. If you lose after entering with poor health or no food, the real cost is not only the death—it may also be another trip through the Carrot requirement.
Best Weapons And Upgrades For The Pufferfish
The Uzi is the strongest general recommendation because it lets you apply steady damage while moving backward around the arena. However, its high fire rate only matters when the bullets remain on target. The Compensator is the priority attachment because it reduces the recoil that otherwise wastes much of your ammunition.
The SMG itself costs 650, while the Compensator costs another 600. If money is limited, remember that buying the weapon without controlling its recoil may not immediately solve the fight. A Red Dot can improve the sight picture, but it does not correct the underlying problem if the barrel keeps climbing away from the Pufferfish.
Damage upgrades become more valuable after recoil is manageable. Magazine capacity can also help if the boss repeatedly catches you during reloads, although reloading behind a tree is safer than relying entirely on a larger magazine.
The Shotgun is a viable alternative during the earlier portion of the fight. Its heavier individual hits work well when the boss is separated from you by a tree, while the Uzi becomes more useful once the Pufferfish grows and sustained ranged damage is safer than moving close for another Shotgun blast.
A strong mixed setup is therefore an upgraded Shotgun for controlled early damage and an upgraded Uzi with recoil reduction for the second phase. If only one weapon can be improved, the Uzi with a Compensator offers the most consistent plan across the entire encounter.
How To Beat The Pufferfish Using The Trees
Choose one of the larger trees and make it the center of the fight. Instead of sprinting away across the beach, move around the trunk so the Pufferfish must repeatedly change direction to reach you.
Watch which side of the tree the boss approaches, then rotate toward the opposite side. When the trunk interrupts its route, turn and fire a controlled burst. Resume moving as soon as the Pufferfish begins clearing the obstacle rather than remaining still to empty the entire magazine.
The goal is to repeat a stable pattern: draw the boss toward the trunk, rotate out of its path, deal damage while it corrects its movement, and reposition before it regains a direct line. This converts an unpredictable chase into the same short interaction repeated until the health bar is gone.
Do not run too far from the tree. Open distance gives the Pufferfish a clean approach and removes the obstacle that makes its movement readable. At the same time, avoid pressing directly against the trunk where the camera and character movement can become awkward. Leave enough room to move smoothly while still forcing the boss around the object.
Reload during the safe portion of the rotation instead of waiting for the Pufferfish to reach you. It is better to skip one shooting opportunity and refill the magazine behind cover than to begin the next opening with only a few bullets remaining.
How To Survive The Pufferfish’s Second Phase
The fight changes as the Pufferfish takes damage. It becomes larger, applies more pressure around the arena, and produces a purple hazard effect that makes close-range attacks increasingly dangerous.
Widen your movement slightly when this begins. The tree remains useful, but the larger boss and expanding hazards require more space than the opening phase. Continue rotating rather than abandoning the strategy, and wait for safer firing angles instead of forcing damage while standing inside the purple area.
This is the ideal time to rely more heavily on the Uzi. Sustained fire allows you to keep dealing damage from the safer side of the tree without approaching for a Shotgun blast. Recoil control becomes especially important because the boss’s larger size can create the false impression that every bullet is landing.
Do not rush forward with the knife when the health bar becomes low. The Pufferfish remains dangerous until the death animation begins, and losing a Carrot-backed attempt for a slightly faster finish is a terrible trade. Keep repeating the ranged pattern until the boss is completely dead.
Best Co-Op Strategy For The Pufferfish
Two players can simplify the encounter by separating aggro management from damage. One player stays mobile around the trees and keeps the Pufferfish occupied, while the other maintains distance and fires whenever the boss focuses on the runner.
The ranged player can also climb onto the shack to create a more stable shooting position. This does not remove the need to pay attention, but it provides a cleaner angle while the second player draws the boss around the arena.
Avoid having both players circle in different directions. That makes the Pufferfish’s movement harder to predict and can pull it away from the trees. Establish one person as the runner and one as the primary shooter, then switch only if the runner needs time to heal or reload.
In the later phase, the shooter should prioritize uninterrupted Uzi damage while the runner maintains spacing. The runner does not need to compete for damage; keeping the boss pointed away from the second player is already the most valuable contribution.
Collect The Pufferfish Tail After The Fight
Killing the Pufferfish does not finish the Island 3 progression sequence by itself. The boss drops a Pufferfish Tail that must be collected and returned to the Tourist.
Pick up the Tail before sorting through ordinary drops, cooking anything, or returning to the boat. If the Pufferfish is dead but the trophy is missing, inspect the surrounding ground and check nearby seagulls. A bird may grab loose items before you realize the important boss drop is gone.
Bring the Pufferfish Tail back to the Tourist to complete the request. The Tourist then provides a Flash Drive containing the coordinates for Island 4. Once those coordinates are registered, return to the boat, follow the Radar, and continue to the next island.
Why You Keep Losing To The Pufferfish
If the Uzi fires quickly but the boss health barely moves, watch where the magazine is landing. Upgrade recoil control before purchasing more raw damage. Bullets that miss contribute nothing regardless of the weapon’s theoretical output.
If the boss repeatedly catches you while reloading, use the tree rotation to create a reload window or invest in magazine capacity. Do not begin a reload while backing through open ground with the Pufferfish already approaching.
If you lose during the second phase, create more space from the enlarged boss and leave the purple hazard before firing again. The later phase is supposed to slow the pace of your attacks; attempting to preserve the opening-phase damage rate often causes unnecessary deaths.
If the fight feels impossible despite upgraded weapons, stop running in a straight line. More equipment cannot compensate for giving the boss an unobstructed route. A basic ranged weapon used around the trees can outperform an expensive build that constantly trades damage in the open.
If the Tourist refuses to advance after the kill, the likely missing step is the Pufferfish Tail. Recover the trophy and complete the hand-in before expecting the Island 4 Flash Drive.
Final Pufferfish Thoughts
The safest way to beat the Pufferfish in How to Fish is to prepare before consuming the Carrot, equip an upgraded Uzi with recoil control, and fight around one of the large trees. Rotate around the trunk, fire while the boss redirects, and move again before it clears the obstacle.
Switch to more cautious ranged damage when the Pufferfish grows and begins producing purple hazards. After the kill, immediately collect the Pufferfish Tail and return it to the Tourist to receive the Flash Drive containing the Island 4 coordinates.
