Island numbering first, because Steam threads disagree: we count the lighthouse/tutorial island as Island 1, the leech-and-piranha island as Island 2, and the tropical island this page unlocks as Island 3.
The whole unlock runs through one quest chain on Island 2.
The Quest: Leeches → Bait → Giant Piranha
The daughter NPC on Island 2 wants to surprise her father with a special dinner. She can’t handle guns, so she asks you to kill the “big yummy fish” circling the island — and it “really likes leeches.”
Leeches are ground pickups, not a catch: small, dark, scattered around the island. The on-screen quest counter shows how many you still need (source footage shows a three-count; some players mention five — trust your counter). Hand them in and she converts them into leech bait.
When she gives you the bait, she also gives you the only warning that matters: “Make sure you have a gun.”
The Giant Piranha Fight
The boss spawns with a swarm of small piranhas, and the fight is timed — a white bar counts down, and the boss escapes if it empties.
- The small piranhas die in a hit or two. Clear them when they swarm you; you can even eat them mid-fight to heal (or sell them after, at a few dollars each).
- Keep your damage on the big one whenever you’re not being swarmed.
- Recommended prep from the reference run: Pistol at minimum, ideally the $150 Shotgun with bullet upgrades — the shotgun clears the swarm well.
- If you go down, you drop your held weapon, and players have reported spending half the fight hunting for dropped guns in grass and water. Stay out of the swarm.
The Hand-In
The boss drops meat chunks and the distinct “Big Yummy Fish” quest item. Only the quest item advances anything. Give it to the daughter NPC and she hands over a flash drive with coordinates to Island 3 — “it will be automatically added to your map.”
Step by Step
- Talk to the daughter NPC on Island 2 to activate the quest.
- Walk the island and pick leeches off the ground until the counter fills.
- Hand them in for the leech bait.
- Buy a gun first — Pistol minimum, Shotgun recommended — and carry a couple of fish as healing food.
- Cast with the leech bait to summon the Giant Piranha and its swarm.
- Kill small piranhas when swarmed, shoot the boss otherwise, and watch the white timer bar.
- Pick up all drops; keep the “Big Yummy Fish.”
- Hand it to the NPC for the flash drive.
- Optional: buy the Big Motor engine upgrade (about $230–250) for a faster crossing.
- Follow the new dot on your radar straight to Island 3.
Common Mistakes
- Using the bait before you have a gun. The bait is consumed on use — the reference runner wasted one exactly this way and had to farm more leeches.
- Handing in (or selling) the wrong drop. Meat chunks are food; the “Big Yummy Fish” is the quest.
- Ignoring the timer bar. Spend it all on the swarm and the boss escapes, costing you another bait.
- Standing in the water or inside the swarm. Chip damage adds up fast, and going down means a dropped weapon.
- Leeches not appearing at all — a separate launch-week issue, covered in Leeches Not Spawning.
Watch It Done
Jump to:
What’s Waiting on Island 3
Two new quest NPCs: the Grill Master (bring him a shark; unlocks the grill and a 1.5x cooked-sell multiplier) and the Tourist (wants an endangered creature; his chain leads to the Pufferfish boss — the biggest difficulty spike in the game so far). New gear too: the SMG, gun attachments, extra inventory slots and stronger lures.