DREADMOOR Crafting Guide – Workbenches, Recipes & Material Chains

The inventory is a budget — spend it like one. This guide explains DREADMOOR's crafting stations, research system and material chains, and which recipes actually deserve your salvage. Full data lives in the recipes, blueprints and resources databases.

The Two Crafting Stations

DREADMOOR splits crafting across two physical stations:

• Craft Table — bait, rods, lines, reels and tools. The main one is at Betsy and Sons; the Dry Dock has another.
• Ship Upgrades Table — engines, hulls, propellers and auxiliary boat modules, inside the Dry Dock.

If a recipe does not appear at your workbench, check whether it belongs to the other station — or whether its blueprint still needs research.

Research and Blueprints

Blueprints are unlocked in the Mastery tree with Torn Pages (the inventory item is called Scraps of Knowledge). Pages come from quests and exploration, and traders sell them for 200 each. Ship nodes cost 2 pages each; most fishing and tool nodes are free; only Deadly Tick costs 5. If you are short, fund Weak Hull Protection and the Upgraded Engine before any experiment.

Materials: Where the Bottlenecks Are

Almost everything comes from salvage, not vendors:

• Metal Plate — floating barrels, metal containers, wreck salvage. The single biggest bottleneck; it feeds boat modules, repairs, bait and tools.
• Chromatic Scales — process Softgrazers at the Thresher. The most contested material: hull protection, Rainbow Fin, Sturdy Earcrawler and the Spotlight all compete for it.
• Coral Fibers — coral growths on Angler's Island, harvested with the Axe.
• Bug Slime — pulled from the small blue creatures on the water with the Hook Gun. Keep a reserve.
• Carburetor — a shop purchase at Betsy and Sons (50, after the Harpooner contract), not salvage.

The exceptions to the salvage rule are the Carburetor and Torn Pages, both bought after the relevant quest steps.

The Three Processing Chains

1. Grinder — fish become Fish Meat (bait recipes, Fuel Larva feed).
2. Thresher — suitable peaceful fish (Softgrazer) become Chromatic Scales.
3. Fuel Larva — eats Fish Meat and produces fuel; transfer it to the boat with the Fuel Gun.

What to Craft First

1. Wind-Up Tin — required for the Softgrazer contract (1× Metal Plate + 1× Fish Meat).
2. Rainbow Fin — required for the Harpooner contract (1× Fish Meat + 1× Metal Plate + 1× Chromatic Scales).
3. Hull Protection — required boat module (3× Coral Fibers, 2× Bug Slime, 2× Rope, 2× Rubber).
4. Upgraded Engine — the second required module (10× Metal Plate, 4× Gear, 2× Machine Oil, 1× Carburetor).
5. Braided Line / Reinforced Rod — comfort upgrades once the required chain is funded.

The Chromatic Scales trap: hull protection and Rainbow Fin both want scales. If you spend every scale on bait before John's hull work, you will need another Softgrazer trip — process extra fish whenever the spot is active.