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How to catch tuna in Dave the Diver

Not as easy as opening a can of Bumblebee

How to catch tuna in Dave the Diver: A white-haired man is standing on the deck of a pixel boat floating in bright blue water
Image credit: MINTROCKET

Catching tuna in Dave the Diver takes more effort than you might expect, even after Cobra teaches you how it’s done.

You need a tuna to progress the main story, though depending on your luck, you may have to wait a few days before you can actually do it.

Or you can just dive into the water and pummel them, if you feel particularly daring.

Dave the Diver tuna

How to catch tuna in Dave the Diver

Tuna only start showing up in the ocean after you start the Tuna Party quest, which happens naturally as you play through the game. If you’re trying to find them before that, don’t. They won’t be there – and that’s fine, since you won’t really have the tools to catch them anyway.

You have a few options for catching tuna, though the easiest way is using steel sensor traps. Cobra teaches you how to use these, a method that essentially just involves setting them up where a fish is going to swim through them. The fish swims through, and the net catches them. If it looks like the net doesn't catch what you want, you probably caught something small instead. Collect the net and its contents, and then put a new one out.

The problem is actually getting a steel sensor trap.

How to get steel sensor traps in Dave the Diver

Cobra sells the traps – but not every day. His stock changes randomly, and we haven’t been able to discern a pattern in what items are available on which days. Your best bet is just checking in every day to see what he has for sale. Make sure you’ve got some money on hand as well. Steel sensor traps cost 85 coins each.

Other ways to catch tuna in Dave the Diver

If you don’t want to wait for Cobra to restock, you can try your luck with a tranquilizer dart. These have a moderate chance of putting the target to sleep, and if it works, you can approach the tuna and have your drone swoop in and take it away.

The less advisable method is attacking the tuna and reducing its HP to zero, “less advisable” as the tuna moves quickly and makes landing hits difficult. Harpoons work pretty well for this. They deal low damage, though, so it ends up taking a while.

If you're stuck finding other fish in Dave the Diver, check out our guides for where to find White Trevelly, and how to find Atlantic Bonito without too much fuss. We've also got a handy guide for finding the Sea People's missing seahorses to earn their trust.

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