DREDGE Getting Started Guide: Your First Days in The Marrows

Start with a short Marrows loop

Your first useful loop is simple: fish near Greater Marrow, sell the catch to the Fishmonger, then see the Shipwright. Those early stops explain the cash, repairs, gear, and boat-management loop without asking you to cross the map. Keep an eye on cargo shape as well as value. A high-value fish that blocks the only space for a quest item can make the next trip awkward.

After the Mayor sends you east, take the package to the Dockworker at Little Marrow. It is a short landmark run that teaches you where the two settlements sit. On the return journey, stop at any safe-looking fishing spot you can identify, then dock before turning a small job into a night crossing.

Let the first jobs pay for the next trip

Sell ordinary catches before they rot, but do not sell every strange find automatically. The Fishmonger is the right person to show when an unusual fish starts a conversation or a Pursuit. The main early story also leads to Blackstone Isle and dredging equipment. Once you have the crane, inspect wrecks and marked resource spots during daytime runs for materials, valuables, and route leads.

At the Shipwright, repair damage before committing to a long detour. Use the dry-dock screen when you have enough materials for a hull step; use the equipment screen when a fishing spot says your current gear cannot work there. These are separate problems. More cargo slots help a run pay for itself, while the right rod or net opens the fish you actually came for.

A calm first priority list

1. Learn Greater Marrow and Little Marrow in daylight.
2. Bring fish home often enough to keep a few cargo squares clear.
3. Dredge nearby wrecks after the story unlocks the crane.
4. Spend Research Parts on the next obstacle you can name, rather than on a tool you may not use yet.

Next, choose Ship upgrades for materials, Research Parts for new gear, or the main Pursuits route for the story.

Use the dock menu before every longer run

At a dock, make four checks in the same order: sell or store fish, repair damaged equipment, look at the cargo grid, then read the journal. This prevents a common early mistake where a captain buys a rod for the next destination but has no room to fit it, or leaves with an important item blocked behind low-value fish.

If the journal says to deliver an item or passenger, make that your only job for the crossing. If it says to find a fish, open the encyclopedia and check habitat, method, and time before leaving. The game does not require a perfect first boat. It rewards a small boat that comes home with the right thing.

When a route asks for more than the current layout can carry, do not sell a quest item to make it work. Return to the Shipwright, decide whether one equipment change solves it, and use a hull upgrade only when the grid itself is the problem. The first outer-region stop is Gale Cliffs Pursuits, where that planning begins to matter.