How the Radar Works: Finding New Islands in How to Fish

The open ocean in How to Fish has no map screen and no waypoint markers. The only navigation tool in the game is the radar — a physical instrument that sits on your boat — and the game mentions it exactly twice, both times in easy-to-miss NPC dialogue. Miss those lines and you’ll be sailing blind.

Where to Buy It (and What It Costs)

The radar is sold at the Island 1 store, on the bench, for $10. You can see it there from your very first shop visit, before you even own a boat.

Two pieces of dialogue tell you it matters:

• The tutorial: “Use the radar while using the boat.”
• The Fisherman, when he hands over the boat keys after the Spider Crab quest: “Remember to use the radar when looking for new islands.”

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"Remember to use the radar when looking for new islands" — the game says it once, as he hands you the keys.

Buy it the moment you get the boat keys. It is the single cheapest progression item in the game.

How It Actually Works

The radar shows islands as colored dots. You never enter coordinates manually:

1. Complete an island’s main quest (kill its boss, hand in the trophy item).
2. The quest NPC gives you a flash drive with coordinates — the new island is added to your radar automatically as a new dot.
3. On the boat, check the radar, turn the bow toward the new dot, and sail.
4. Re-check the radar every so often to stay on course. The island fades into view on the horizon before the dot is reached.

In the reference 100% run, a newly added island shows up as the red dot (“So red is the new one. So it’s straight ahead.”). The exact color scheme for visited vs. new islands isn’t officially documented, so treat the newest dot as your target rather than memorizing colors.

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What you actually look at: a handheld tablet. Islands show as terrain blobs on the green sweep — point the bow at the newest one and keep checking.

What the Radar Does NOT Do

• It doesn’t detect fish or bosses. A four-player co-op group tried repeatedly to spot a quest creature on the radar and got nothing. Islands only.
• It doesn’t update without the quest step. If no new dot appears, you haven’t finished the step that grants the coordinates — go talk to the quest NPC again. The co-op group lost several minutes to exactly this.

Common Mistakes

• Sailing off Island 1 without buying it. The game only warns you in dialogue, and $10 feels skippable next to rods and guns. It isn’t.
• Buying it twice. Island 3 sells a $200 boat radar and the Island 5 military vendor stocks another. The reference runner bought the $200 one and called it “kind of a waste of $200” — it just gets added to the boat. One radar covers the whole game.
• Rough water. The radar is a loose physical object on your boat. In the reference run the boat nearly tipped and chat warned “might lose your radar” — keep the boat upright in storms.

See It in Action

Skoottie buys the radar and navigates to every island — 100% walkthrough

Jump to:26:44 Boat keys + $10 radar on the bench59:30 Navigating to Island 3 by radar dot1:35:30 "Red is the new one" — Island 4 dot