How to Fish Cooking, Grill & Survival Guide

Food first, then the grill

The main grill unlock is on Desert Island: bring a defeated Blue Shark to the Grillmaster. Use spare catches for cooking, keep the item inspection panel open and move each catch away from the heat before it burns.

Before reaching the grill, community guides describe Clams and ordinary creatures as food options. Keep a few expendable catches available when learning a fight. Separate them from bodies, bait and trophies that an NPC still needs. See the Clam entry and island walkthrough for the early route.

Unlock the grill with Blue Shark

1. Reach Desert Island. Finish the preceding story hand-ins and speak to the Grillmaster about the shark request.
2. Choose a Standard Boss Lure. The boss lure provides the dedicated Blue Shark encounter. Check the shop price in your session before spending.
3. Prepare for the fight before casting. Restock your weapon and put food within reach so the lure purchase does not become an unprepared attempt.
4. Defeat Blue Shark and keep its body. Carry it back to the Grillmaster and finish the request.
5. Confirm the grill is available. Starting it is the objective of the official Grillmaster achievement.

Follow the connected Blue Shark encounter and Grillmaster quest if the hand-in is incomplete. The request is for this shark, so a spare food catch cannot replace it.

Watch the item, not a timer

Open item inspection while handling a catch; F is the documented default item-info key. Check your bindings if it does not open the panel. The readout shows the catch's value and cooking state, which are more useful than guessing from a distant view of the flames.

1. Pick an expendable catch. Put the weapon you intend to keep and any quest objects away from the cooking area.
2. Inspect before heating. Note the starting value so you can tell what changes.
3. Cook one catch you can watch. Follow the inspection readout as it changes, then remove the item completely from the heat before it burns.
4. Choose its destination. Keep it as food for the next encounter or inspect its final value before selling.

Try this with a low-value spare before risking an expensive catch. For sale planning, continue to money and Killscore. The bonus calculator models combat bonuses; the item's actual inspection panel remains the final check on the catch you are carrying.

Keep the story hand-in out of the cooking pile

Before treating a boss body as food or sale stock, ask which NPC or encounter needs it next. Use one clear holding area for spare food and keep the route item with its assigned carrier in co-op.

The same habit applies to quest bait and named trophies: complete the relevant quest chain before experimenting with the item. A food shortage is easier to plan around than repeating a boss because its required body was used elsewhere.

Prepare food before the next fight

For a team, check what each player carries. One person holding every meal makes recovery depend on that player's position. During practice, note which encounter consumes your supplies and bring more for that stage on the next run; a fixed meal count would ignore difficulty, equipment and missed attacks.

For Bean's one-hour route, use your practice run to decide where a brief food stop saves a failed attempt. Cook only the supplies your route needs and leave optional food-related achievements for a separate cleanup.

Patch 1.0.10 introduced saving of up to 64 dropped items, with weapons, tools, quest objects and creatures prioritized. Keep important supplies in inventory when possible; that limit is not a promise that every item in a large ground pile will remain. Official patch source.

Cooked gun or fishing rod? Use water

Patch 1.0.10 added water cleaning for weapons and tools affected by cooking. Dip the item somewhere shallow enough to recover it, bring it back out and inspect it. A Steam player report from October 9 also describes cleaning fishing rods, a pistol and a shotgun this way.

There is no death or repurchase step in the official cleaning instruction. The patch names equipment; it does not establish water as a way to restore burnt fish or a damaged quest trophy. Keep your active loadout away from the heat while cooking ordinary catches.

Difficulty changes the preparation you need

Patch 1.0.9 added difficulty selection in the main menu and during play. These are the creature modifiers published by the developer, relative to the default setting:

Use that difference when planning ammunition, food and your practice route. It describes enemy health and attacks, not a cooking multiplier or a guaranteed number of meals. Read the official 1.0.9 announcement.

Cooking and healing FAQ

For the food achievements, use the current Steam achievement checklist. Burning a spare creature for Yummy in my tummy and eating a mini-boss for Competitive eating are different tasks; neither requires risking the next story hand-in.