How to Fish Pufferfish Boss: Beat the Third Boss Fast

The Pufferfish is the third boss encounter in How to Fish (developed by Dazed Games). Unlike a normal catch, you trigger the fight by fishing the Pufferfish up — once it is hooked, the battle begins and your guns do the real work.

The boss has one signature trick: it becomes physically bigger as you shoot it, like a real pufferfish puffing up. Player reports also describe the fight as having two phases, with the second phase calling for heavier, sustained fire. It is a genuine difficulty wall — the most common community thread about it is literally a player asking how to beat the third boss because he could not kill it even with a friend.

The Pufferfish arena gives you more tools than it first appears. There are trees you can circle around to keep distance, a shack that players can jump onto for high ground, and a motor that is for sale sitting close to the water's edge.

The motor matters most: the Pufferfish tends to get stuck on the motor on the side closest to the water, which is exactly why the Dynamite strategy below works. The boss arena sits on Island 3, the Desert island.

The most-repeated community strategy is to run and gun. Equip the Uzi and run in a giant circle — several players recommend running the circle backwards — while spraying the boss down. Circling the trees keeps the boss at arm's length while your damage adds up.

Recoil control is the difference-maker. Players running a max Uzi build call the Compensator a must-have to counter the recoil, though at least one player beat the boss without upgrading the Uzi at all, so upgrades help but are not strictly required. With a maxed build, one player reported the boss dying in less than two minutes of running around the trees.

A popular two-weapon variant covers both phases: max out Shotgun and Uzi damage (plus recoil on the Uzi), fight Phase 1 on the move with the Shotgun, then swap to the Uzi and full-blast the boss through Phase 2. That run took roughly two tries.

The fastest community kill uses almost no sustained shooting at all — it uses a huge pile of Dynamite and the boss's habit of getting stuck on the motor. You will need serious money first, so check the money guide if your wallet is light.

1. Earn a lot of money and buy a huge amount of Dynamite.
2. Set the Dynamite by the motor that is for sale, on the side closest to the water, and arrange it into a nice flat pile.
3. Buy one more stick of Dynamite — this one is your fuse stick.
4. Fish up the Pufferfish so the fight starts with the boss right at the pile.
5. Light the fuse, drop the Dynamite, and take out the Pufferfish.

The window is tight — you only get a few seconds to light and drop before the boss moves — but the payoff is a kill so fast it feels like cheating.

The boss is beatable solo, but co-op makes the mechanics friendlier. The classic two-player setup: one of you jumps onto the shack while the other takes aggro and keeps shooting the boss as it grows bigger. The player on the shack stays out of reach and keeps firing while the aggro holder kites.

Online lobbies support up to 8 players, so bigger groups can split roles further — one bait, one on the shack, and the rest free-firing. See the multiplayer guide for lobby setup.

• Standing still to shoot. Every successful strategy involves constant movement — circling the trees, running backwards, or kiting for a partner.
• Ignoring Uzi recoil. Without recoil control from a Compensator, your spray goes wide and the fight drags on.
• Treating Phase 2 like Phase 1. Players who struggled swapped to sustained Uzi fire for the second phase instead of keeping the same pace.
• Starting the Dynamite plan while broke. The pile strategy needs a lot of money upfront — buy the pile first and the fuse stick last.
• Bunching up in co-op. Split into shack and aggro roles so the boss can only chase one of you.

The Pufferfish drops the Pufferfish Fin, the half-fish trophy piece — grab it and deliver it to the Tourist to open the route onward. Beating the third boss also opens the way further into the game's boss lineup, which you can browse on the bosses overview.

If the fight is still a wall, stock up first: the money guide covers earning cash for Dynamite and upgrades, and the fish guide helps with the fishing side of the game. How to Fish is patched frequently, so boss behavior and values can shift between versions.