If you’re trying to get the Bean achievement in How to Fish, the one-hour requirement can look pretty rough at first. There are a lot of things you need to buy, fish to catch, bosses to deal with, and upgrades to squeeze into a pretty tight time limit.
After trying the route with two players, though, there is a much more consistent way to approach it. The biggest thing is not wasting money early and making sure both players are contributing to the same progression instead of buying unnecessary upgrades.
This guide breaks down the route from the first island all the way through the final boss setup.
How to Fish Bean Achievement Duo Strategy and Fast Route
The basic idea is to have both players work together while gradually upgrading your equipment.
You’ll start with cheap fishing and melee tools, move to dynamite farming on Volcano Island, then transition into guns and better lures.
Your overall progression looks like this:
First Island → $57 → Volcano Island → Dynamite farming → Professional Lure → Scientific Lure → Upgraded Pistols → Assault Rifles → Boss preparation → Final fight
With a good run, there’s plenty of room under the one-hour requirement. A successful duo run using this strategy finished in around 28 minutes and 33 seconds, so you don’t need to play anywhere near the full hour if everything goes smoothly.
First Island: Save Your Money
Don’t go crazy buying things immediately.
The first goal is to make enough money for the basic equipment you’ll need to progress.
First Player: Reach $46
The first player should fish until they have around $46.
Use that money to buy:
- Knife
- Hot Dog bait
The Hot Dog bait helps increase the overall value you’re getting from your fishing, allowing you to build up money more efficiently.
Second Player: Reach $57
The second player should continue farming until they have around $57.
This gives them enough money for:
- Knife
- Beer Can
The Beer Can is important because it lets you start the next boss encounter.
Don’t waste money on unnecessary equipment here. You’re going to replace most of this gear once you reach Volcano Island.
Defeat the Crab
Once you’ve got the knives, both players can take on the crab.
The fight is fairly straightforward if you use the same basic strategy and work together.
Once the crab is defeated, head toward Volcano Island.
An important little detail: sell your knives when you arrive at Volcano Island.
You’ll need the extra money to start buying the equipment that actually matters for the rest of the run.
Volcano Island: Start With Dynamite
This is where the money-making strategy really kicks in.
Buy Dynamite as soon as you can.
Use it to blow up groups of fish. You can hit around four or five fish with a good dynamite throw, giving you a pretty huge return for the cost.
But there’s one thing you absolutely don’t want to forget:
Cook the fish in the lava before selling them.
Cooking them increases their value by roughly 1.5x, which makes a massive difference when you’re trying to build money quickly.
Keep repeating the dynamite fishing loop until you have around $150.
That should be enough to start getting the weapons and lure upgrades you need.
Buy Guns and a Professional Lure
Once you’ve reached roughly $150, you’re ready to move into the next phase.
You want to get:
- A pistol for each player
- A fishing rod
- A Professional Lure
The lure is especially important because you’re now going to combine fishing with shooting.
How to Fish With Two Players
This is where having a second player makes the run much faster.
One player uses the lure and throws the fish toward the other player.
The other player shoots the fish.
The goal is to get a good multiplier when shooting.
You don’t necessarily need a perfect shot every time. Even simple jump shots and noscopes can give you useful multipliers and help speed up the money-making process.
Once you’ve successfully caught and shot the fish, make sure you’re still using the lava to cook them before selling.
The extra value is worth the few seconds it takes.
Upgrade to the Scientific Lure
Keep repeating the Professional Lure strategy until you can afford the Scientific Lure, which costs around $500.
This shouldn’t take too long if you’re consistently landing good multipliers.
Once you have the Scientific Lure, switch over to it immediately.
The same basic strategy applies:
One player fishes → throws the fish toward the other player → both players shoot → maximize the multiplier → cook the fish → sell it.
The better lure makes the farming process much more efficient.
Keep Two Scientific Lures Ready
Once you’re using Scientific Lures, try to keep at least two in reserve for the player doing most of the fishing.
This gives you a safety buffer.
You don’t want to reach an important part of the run and suddenly realize you’ve run out of bait/lures and have to stop your farming cycle.
Having a couple ready means you can keep the money-making loop moving without interruptions.
Upgrade Your Pistols
While one player focuses on fishing, the other should start investing money into their pistol.
Upgrade the pistol’s damage steadily.
The goal is to eventually reach around 100 damage per shot.
A compensator is also useful and can make the weapon more effective during this farming stage.
At first, the fisher may need to help shoot the fish.
But as the pistol becomes stronger, one player can eventually handle the shooting without needing much help.
That frees the other player to focus almost entirely on fishing.
Keep Cooking the Fish
This sounds like a tiny detail, but it makes a big difference over the course of the run.
Whenever you blow up or catch fish, cook them in the lava before selling them.
The cooked value is significantly higher, giving you more money from the exact same amount of fishing.
If you’re trying to complete the achievement quickly, there’s no reason to leave that extra money on the table.
Move From Pistol to Assault Rifle
Keep farming with the Scientific Lure until you have enough money for one Assault Rifle.
Once you’ve purchased it, give your upgraded pistol to the player who was doing most of the fishing.
The other player can then start upgrading the Assault Rifle.
This creates a nice progression loop:
Player 1: Fishing + upgraded pistol
Player 2: Assault Rifle progression
Once the Assault Rifle is ready, both players can begin building their ARs.
Best Assault Rifle Upgrades
For the Assault Rifles, make sure you prioritize useful attachments rather than spending money randomly.
The important ones to grab include:
- Laser
- Suppressor
Continue upgrading the AR until both players have either a maxed-out rifle or are very close to one.
The goal isn’t necessarily to have every single attachment immediately. You just want enough damage and useful attachments to make the upcoming fight manageable.
Preparing for the Boss
Once both players are properly geared, it’s time to prepare for the boss encounter.
Grab some Dynamite again and use it to get the fish needed for the scientist’s bait.
You’ll need this bait to start the boss/mutated encounter.
At this point, you should have:
- Strong Assault Rifles
- Useful attachments
- Scientific Lures
- Enough bait
- Good damage output
- Two players ready for the fight
Don’t rush into the boss before you’re prepared. The money you spend getting the right weapons will save much more time during the actual fight.
Should You Use the Red Island Strategy?
There’s another strategy involving the red-blip island with the roofed casino.
The idea is to sail there and use the island’s layout during the boss fight.
However, this strategy wasn’t completely consistent.
In later attempts, the boss didn’t always behave the same way, even when it was following very closely.
Because of that, I’d recommend treating the red island method as an optional strategy rather than relying on it for your achievement run.
A consistent strategy is much more valuable when you’re trying to beat a time limit.
Recommended Boss Strategy
The safer option is to fight the boss directly on Volcano Island.
The two players should stay relatively far apart from each other.
This helps prevent both players from getting pressured at the same time and gives you more room to reposition.
One player can use the army tent as cover, while the other stays on the opposite side of the shoreline.
With a suppressed rifle and laser, hip-firing can give you surprisingly good damage output while still letting you move around.
The main thing is to avoid standing together.