Character Overview

Fish is the first character in the game and one of the two unlocked by default. He has a normal starting loadout with the Revolver. His B-Skin is unlocked by reaching loop 1 as all 12 normal characters in the game, not needing to loop as any secret character.

Fish A Sprites
	Icon	Fish B Sprites	Icon
	Idle		Idle
	Walk		Walk
	Death		Death

Abilities

• Fish will perform a fast roll in the current direction he is moving in.
• If he is standing still, he will roll in the direction of the cursor.
• Rolling does not provide any sort of invincibility.
• Fish's direction cannot be changed normally while rolling.
• Firing weapons still works while rolling, and weapon knockback/melee pulling forward can change Fish's direction.
• Rolling is slowed by cobwebs, unless if running Extra Feet.
• Extra Feet will not change the distance Fish's roll goes.

• Fish will gain 1.25x more ammo than other characters from any ammo source, rounded up, which includes Lucky Shot and starting ammo.
• Normal ammo pickup values can be viewed here. The following table is just about Fish's passive.

(Lucky Shot gives the same amount as an Ammo Pickup, while Starting Ammo is the same amount as Present Chests)

• Fish's roll will now be given a watery boost effect and can done indefinitely so long as the active button is held down.
• Also allows for control of Fish's direction while using his active.
• Moves at the same speed as a normal roll.

Ultra A: Confiscate		Ultra B: Gun Warrant

• Any enemy drop has a 20% chance to turn into a chest instead. Rad drops are never effected.
• Ammo pickups can turn into an ammo chest or a present chest.
• Ammo also has a chance to turn into IDPD chests if its normal spawn rules currently apply, which is between 4-1 and 7-2 (including in loop), or any secret area.
• Weapon drops can turn into weapon chests. This includes cursed chests if any crown is being ran.
• Health pickups can turn into health chests.
• Pizza Sewers will replace health chests with the Pizza Chest, exclusive to Confiscate.

• Any time a new level is entered there is a 7 second window in which no ammo will be consumed.
• Rads used by ultra weapons will not be consumed either.
• Weapon cooldowns are not removed and still apply here.
• Cooldowns for weapons with high reload times can be circumvented by hotswapping, or simply running Trigger Fingers.
• Fish will have an electric-like effect around his sprite while Gun Warrant is active. A sound cue will play when Gun Warrant deactivates.

Other Perks:
Fish is seen strumming a Guitar on the character select screen. This will also appear for Fish on 0-1 L1 only, now as a usable weapon. It will not re-appear in any later loops. If playing Hardmode, it will instead spawn on 0-1 H2.

Weapon	Drops At	Fire Type	Reload Time	Damage Per Click
Guitar	L1 0-1 Only	Single Swing	0.70 sec	26

Preloop Strategy Guide

Fish is a very well-rounded character in preloop making him a solid pick for anyone learning the game, which is due to his perks being both easy to understand and helpful at easing the game's difficulty.

Active Rating: (Text)
Rolling in other roguelikes often provide temporary invulnerability, however in Nuclear Throne this just adds some quicker movement. Rolling can be useful as a panic button, quickly fleeing from enemy encounters if taking sudden damage or if running low on ammo. It's also useful to rush to nearby pickups quicker before enemies have a chance to block you off, although rolling should be used with some caution while enemy behaviors are still being learned. As Fish cannot control his direction while in a roll, he can find himself in danger easily if this is used carelessly.

Passive Rating: (Text)
One of the first challenges in preloop is learning proper ammo management, becoming familiar with any weapons accuracy and the nature of their projectiles. Fish's passive helps ease the learning curve as he regains much quicker than other characters. He also allows for weapons with high ammo consumption to be more viable early on, as the extra ammo makes these weapons much more forgiving to use. Overall this passive is a nice boost to make the player have to worry about ammo less often.

Between active and passive, the takeaway is that Fish just makes the game more forgiving in terms of ammo and lets him get breathing room more easily during close encounters. While this is not as eye-catching as some mutants' powers it shouldn't be underestimated for making any run easier to handle.

Thronebutt Rating: (Text)
Fish's normal roll is typically enough to help him position better, meaning that Thronebutt is not necessary. An infinite roll can be dangerous to clear levels with as Fish moves extremely quickly, and can be hard to avoid projectiles even if his roll can now be controlled. This mutation can be useful to completely flee to a safer spot in record time, but otherwise is mostly just taken for fun.

As for other mutations, the player can take whatever they find most useful as Fish is a well-rounded character. Ammo-related mutations can be viewed as slightly lower priority as Fish's passive can make up for their absence; adversely the player could entirely lean into a high DPS build with any high ammo consumption weapons.

Loop Strategy Guide

Guitar Rating: (Text)
Before diving into Fish's ultras, the first thing Fish will come across in loop is a guaranteed Guitar drop. This is generally considered by the community to be the third best melee in the game, as it has a decent firerate and good damage output for the melee weapon class. Being a guaranteed drop, this also means the player can take Long Arms in their build knowing it will definitely come in use. Guitar is especially helpful for the Throne II fight & loop Desert, which are tricky for newer loop players, and will hold its viability through Loop 2.

Fish's gameplay truly starts to shine in loop as his option between two ultras both enable him to have a very high damage output, given the right build. The pros and cons of both ultras will be gone over first, and then compared after.

Confiscate Rating: (Text)
In simple terms, Confiscate has a 20% chance to cause any ammo pickup or health pickup to turn into a chest which doubles their value; weapon chests do not have any extra ammo gain. On top of this, ammo chests give guaranteed ammo to the held weapon while it is just a split 50% chance for normal ammo pickups. The last benefit is that chests do not despawn, meaning that Fish can open these at any point of the level when he needs them. A notable downside is that chests must be directly walked over in order to collect, as they have no pickup range, so it may be difficult to utilize in the heat of combat. (Also, Present Chests are an annoying downside.)

Gun Warrant Rating: (Text)
Gun Warrant gives 7 seconds of infinite ammo at level start, which always gives Fish a strong start by spawn and can handle unsafe spawns with ease. Even when Gun Warrant runs out, Fish will likely be completely full on ammo and is put in a very advantageous spot. Aside from being used to kill enemies, Gun Warrant can even be used for weapons that destroy walls to clear out more space, which is very helpful in some situations. A notable downside is that some spawns are sparse in enemies and isn't always useful, and that this will not directly help with most boss fights.

Confiscate or Gun Warrant?
Gun Warrant gives the option to quickly spam out shots every level start with no worry about ammo, making it the more popular option. It is best used for builds with Trigger Fingers that utilize weapons that have high damage & high ammo consumption, like Plasma Cannon, Super Plasma Cannon, Super Crossbow or Super Flak Cannon. Confiscate won't reach the same damage highs, but will instead have its usefulness spread throughout the level, which is great for any generalized/weaker builds that may not fully utilize Gun Warrant.
Both of these ultras are great and are up to player preference; this section just tries to give reasoning on which situations may benefit certain ultras more.

Be aware that by Loop 2, Fish's ability to clear levels very quickly may lead to all the IDPD spawning in at the same time with Vans quick to follow, especially on smaller levels. This can be overwhelming, so be prepared to have to handle multiple elites at the same time.

Aside from Trigger Fingers being useful in most situations, Fish can choose pretty much any mutation he wants due to the versatility of his abilities. The only other really strong pick would be Back Muscle as either of his ultras and passive combined lets him be high on ammo constantly, so this lets him better utilize those perks. This is a character who can focus in on damage-based builds easily.

Active Rating: (Text)
Thronebutt Rating: (Text)
At this point of the game rolling takes a bit of a backseat to gameplay, which means that Thronebutt can easily be passed over for other mutations. It's still useful to keep rolls in mind as they can be used to quickly create space between Fish and any dangerous elite IDPD, dodge Vans, or reach IDPD spawns quicker to start damaging them as soon as possible, as a few examples.

Meta Strategy Guide

Note that this is an advanced guide, it is meant to be used by those primarily looking at Loop 3+. This builds off of content shared in the meta guide.

Fish continues to be a powerhouse into deeploop as his ultras let him become a true DPS monster. While he may not be one of the highest tier mutants, he's still a very powerful choice for starting out meta loops and is a great option to run.

The question of taking Confiscate or Gun Warrant is a bit more clear cut here. Gun Warrant is much more preferred by top level players and has the better viability in later loops. Confiscate is still a good ultra that may fall a bit short of that, but for those starting out meta loops either are still viable options.

Confiscate Rating: (Text)
There is still use in taking Confiscate as Fish can fall back to chests at any point that he wants. His passive makes any ammo chest give more ammo than SPC costs to fire, meaning that any chest on the ground can be treated as an extra shot. The biggest downside is still that Fish has to directly walk over chests in order to collect them, which could compromise his position during more chaotic levels later on, which is a part of why Confiscate is less favored of the two. However, this is still a nice option to always have a safety net to fall back to at any time, especially during boss fights.

Gun Warrant Rating: (Text)
Gun Warrant with SPC spam can quickly clear out any dangerous spawn, always letting Fish start out any level in a safer position. This is the more popular ultra as ammo and rads are not consumed at the start of the level at all, which is useful to both players learning deeploop with proper rad management, and competitive players who want to fly through levels as quickly as possible. During especially dangerous spawns (Palace and sometimes Frozen City), he can fire excess shots into his spawn to clear out more space to fall back to at any point.
Hotswapping is a great strategy with Gun Warrant as well, as Fish can quickly swap between weapons on the floor to reset SPC's reload time entirely while spam clicking to fire. Be wary of cursed weapons being pulled through portals when doing this, or hotswapping explosive weapons. One area this can especially be useful in is the 0-1 spawn, as Fish can hotswap SPC immediately after spawning in to clear out as much arena space as possible for the Throne II fight; continuing to fire extra shots as he kills Popo Freaks before the boss fight initiates.

Fish's options for meta mutations are fairly standard, up to player preference. His passive gives him 13 energy instead of 10, which is over half a SPC shot rather than under half.
Standard p9: Generally the best well-rounded build.
Paw9: Excess pickups may be wasted by Fish, but has its uses especially for boss battles.
Muscle9: Mainly helps Fish avoid wasting any drops due to how easily he can rebuild ammo.

Active Rating: (Text)
Thronebutt Rating: (Text)
Rolling still has its uses in deeploop, although not run defining in any way. Its main use is just traversing around levels more quickly such as getting out of spawn a bit quicker for Gun Warrant usage, finding exit portals easier, or circling around 1-3 quicker to find more Big Bandits during their fights. Thronebutt is a waste of a mutation slot at this point as it provides little extra benefit.

Overall Fish is just a character who makes gameplay go much quicker due to his ability to clear levels in a very short time, while having to worry far less often about ammo or rad levels than other characters. This makes him a solid pick at any skill level as a very damage-oriented character whose ultras gives him a lot more breathing room and versatility in a run.