DREADMOOR Beginner Guide – Your First Hours in the Submerged Lands

DREADMOOR drops you into the Submerged Lands with a damaged boat, no money and a voice on the radio. This beginner guide walks the opening hour in order and flags the mistakes that send most new captains back to the dock.

The Abandoned House

The game opens on foot. Before you touch the boat:

1. Search every container in the house. Metal Plates and Rope are available here, and both feed recipes you will need within the hour.
2. Pick up the Axe. It harvests Coral Fibers on Angler's Island later and breaks crates and rotten doors.
3. Tune the radio. The objective only advances once the signal is clear and the caller's conversation starts.
4. Board the motorboat and sail west to the Trading Post. Floating barrels are tempting, but fuel and hull damage matter more than one extra container on the first run.

Betsy and Sons: Essence and Debt

Gill and Bozur run the trading post. They explain the Sea Blight and offer an Essence injection that treats its effects. The treatment is not free — it is recorded as a debt you repay through work, and that debt is the spine of the opening act.

Before leaving the shop you should have the Bunkhouse key and know where your personal chest sits on the pier. Carry the chest to the Bunkhouse yourself; the objective does not advance while it sits outside.

The Bunkhouse

Inside the Bunkhouse:

• Place the chest in its marked position.
• Patch the hole in the wall with the repair material at hand — the night will not proceed until the room is secure.
• Sleep until morning.
• Collect the Simple Rod before you walk out. The first fishing contract is built around it, and leaving without it is the most common beginner soft-lock.

Your First Contract: Five Snappers

Gill and Bozur send you to the fishing platform behind the Dry Dock with the Simple Rod and Earthworm — the only bait Snappers take. The fight is a lesson you will use for the rest of the game:

• Keep the rod still until a Snapper bites.
• Pull opposite the fish's movement to drain its Stamina.
• Reel when it tires; stop reeling before Line Tension fills, or the line snaps.
• Land all five and keep them whole. Do not process or sell contract fish.

Deliver the catch and the traders point you to John the Fifth and the Dry Dock — the boat progression half of the game begins there.

What Comes Next

The route from here is: repair John's Moonshine Still (Coral Fibers from Angler's Island, Bug Slime from the blue creatures on the water, Metal Plates from salvage), earn the Dry Dock Key, restore the Dry Dock, then work through the Softgrazer and Harpooner contracts to upgrade your hull and engine. Our demo walkthrough covers every chapter step by step, and the fishing guide explains stamina and line tension in detail.