Quick Links
On the surface,Dredgeis a single-player fishing game with a dark slimy secret floating just under the surface. This warped tale of eldritch terror culminates in two endings straight out of the Lovecraftian playbook.
Like those twisted tales of old, Dredge’s finales also leave quite a little bit to the imagination. One of the endings is also locked behind some extra steps that are easily missed, so you’re able to often mistake the results you get as all there is. So to fill in the blanks and bring these dark story beats into the light, here’s the endings in Dredge explained.
Updated June 16, 2025 By Matthew Mckeown:Whilst it seems like Dredge was a one-and-done type of game, your adventures through those Eldritch waters were substantially expanded upon with new content. After a stellar reception, the devs behind Dredge were able to pump out not one, but two pieces of story-based DLC.
Dubbed Pale Reach and Iron Rig, these new expansions were released several months apart and took your fishing boat to brand-new locations. There we met new NPCs, pulled up weirder and mutated fish, and enjoyed a brief but interesting side-story distraction for a few hours. For those catching up on everyone’s favorite Captain, here are the endings to the Dredge DLCs explained.
Warning: Spoilers For The Ending Of Dredge Below
The Point Of No Return
Before diving straight into the murky waters surrounding the story, it’s worth highlighting thepoint of no return. For those who don’t know, this is the moment where a game locks you into a specific ending path, and Dredge does signpost that exact moment particularly well. Plus, the game saves before each ending begins, so you can still unlock both in one run.
The point of no return is themoment you give the last lost relic to the Collectoron Blackstone Island. A warning will flash, and at this point, you can choose to either do the default “bad ending” or go on an adventure for a little while to unlock the “good ending” instead.
The Two Endings
There aretwo endings, and getting them is pretty easy as you just have toreturn the lost relics, which you’ll naturally do anyway as the game progresses.
They’re also a littlesimilar in their overall theme, but there is enough of a difference between the two to make the process of unlocking them worthwhile. For those going for the 100 percent completionist run, here areboth endings broken down.
To get the basic “bad ending,“return to Collector with the last relic. When you do, he’ll warn you that you’re approaching the end of the game. If you choose to continue, he’ll mark a special spot on your map to visit. Ared pillar of lightwill mark this area, so it’s pretty easy to spot.
Sail your vessel towards this spot andinteract with itto trigger a cutscene and the end of the game.TheCollector is onboardand remarks that this is thespot where the Fisherman’s wife diedand also where shecan be resurrected. The Collector then performs a ritual, tossing the items overboard as he intones some strange script.
Thenthe power on the boat cuts out,and everything darkens as aghostly figure of a womanfloats up from the depths. In the background, agigantic red-eyed tentacle monstrosityrises out of the ocean as thescreen cuts to blackand the credits roll over apocalyptic scenes.
Dark blood-red skies, vicious thunderstorms, and the mansion that was so previously frequentednow ablaze. Implying that although the Fishermangot his wife back, it was at a high price,as the world is now being destroyed by a gigantic sea blob.
The Good Ending In Dredge, Explained
If the default “bad end” was a little too grim, the alternate is alittle more positive but just as dark. To trigger this finale, first collect all the lost relics. Instead of tossing them all at the Collector this time as part of your normal fishing routine, gospeak to the Old Mayor over at the Greater Marrowafter you hand each one in.
The Mayor is found on anunmarked islandthat you might sail past a few times, but it’sfound on P10 on your map grid. There’s asmall dockon this abandoned archipelago.
The Old Mayor will tell you to go to theLighthouse Keeper in the Greater Marrowas they have a few things that will add some extra context to what’s going on. He’ll also explain why the waters surrounding these isles are mutating the fish and making everything look so Eldritch and evil around the coastlines, as well asthe secret of the Book of The Deep.
After this lovely and disconcerting discussion, hop back on your boat andgo see The Collector again. This time, ask for the book. They willrefuse a few timesbut remain adamant, and eventually a prompt will appear saying, “Step Closer.” Accepting the promptlocks you into the “good” endingas you take the book from the Collector, who was your reflection in a mirror. After this, return to the Lighthouse Keeper again and speak to them.
They’ll ask you to go to another point on the map. It’s illuminated, so it’s not hard to miss. But, if you’re struggling,the map grid is G8. Sailing to this spot and interacting with it will bring up the prompt “Throw it back.” This can becanceled twiceif you still have things to do. But accepting it will cause the Fisherman to dramatically toss the evil book into the ocean.Something the book is not very happy about.
The cursed tome sinks beneath the waves; the camera slowly pans out; everything is serene and calm. Then agiant sea monster surfaces,swallows the shipand the Fisherman whole, thenswims offas the game ends and the credits roll. Though this time, theMansion is not on fire,and everything seems normal on the island again.
What Does It All Mean?
If you’re still left scratching your head by this point, don’t worry, here’s a breakdown. In the beginning, you are a Fisherman whostarts at the Greater Marrow with amnesia. He doesn’t remember who he is, why he’s there, or what’s going on, only that he has to fish. It’s revealed that this wascaused by the Book of The Deep.
Prior to arriving at these cursed isles, the sameFisherman was on his boat with his wife. The two sailed the seas happily together until, one day, they pulled up the book. Unfortunately, doing so causes amassive sea monster to attackthe small and vulnerable vessel.
Our protagonist survives, but sadly his wife does not. These events werewitnessed by the remaining islanders, but it was so terrible that theOld Mayor decided to flee to his hermit isleto avoid it all.The Collector wasn’t a real person, he was created by the bookto be your guide to reviving your dead wife.
If Shadow of The Colossus taught us anything, these kinds of deals never work out how you intend.Sure enough, it’s the same here. The Collector turns out to be amanifestation of the dark part of the Fishermanbrought about by the machinations of the book and the dark entity it’s linked to. Its purpose is torelease the blob demonlurking beneath the waves so that the apocalypse can begin.
The giant sea beast in the “good ending” is thesame one that attacked the boat in the beginning, implying that it’s linked to the book. Whether it’s another manifestation of the jellyfish-esque Star God or is just a massive fish that’s under its influence is honestly up to your own interpretation.
But the instant reaction to the rejection of the mission to recover the relics being death by big sea monster means thatthe two are definitely linked. There’s also a bit ofsub-text about grief, with each ending corresponding to the Fisherman’s ownrejection or acceptance that his wife is gone,and the following the requests of his dark part is his denial, driving him in futility to bring her back.
There are also some interesting implications around time. How time in the game seems to pass, how the ritual to summon the Blancmange from Hell has the line “release a lost one frozen in time,” implying that perhapstime has stopped for the Fisherman,and he’s in a never-ending loop.
Plus, the pages shown onscreen have a solar cycle on them. There’s also how the town itself seems to befrozen in timewith its architecture. Finally, there are bigShadow Over Innsmouth vibeswith how the Presence seems to only affect the town,the fish, and anyone that gets too close, in this case, the Fisherman and his wife.
Pale Reach Ending, Explained
Dredge’s approach to DLC has been an interesting one. Instead ofloading you into a new areaor requiring a full restart, it just adds anew location to the map. You can sail to there at your leisure and then take part in the tasks you find.
As it plays out you’ll start to notice there arelarge chunks of a gigantic Narwhal-type monsterencased in ice scattered around the frozen island. The spooky thing about that is the the islands are the remains of a monster.
It turns out a very, very long time agothe gigantic Narwhal fought with the Leviathanthat capsized your boat at the start of the game. The Leviathan won that brawl andripped the Narwhal into pieces. But because it’s an unkillable Eldritch monster, it insteadfroze its parts in ice to preserve themand has been trying to reconstitute itself ever since.
The frozen crew you find were lured in and encouraged to dig up the beast with the promise ofvaluable crystals and other treasureslocked within the ice.
At some pointa fishing crew stumbled upon itand over time it whispered into their minds and turned them mad. The Captain of the doomed vesselsacrificed his crew one by onein an attempt to resurrect the Narwhal, but unfortunately there was a mistake in the ritual.
Three sacrifices were required withthe Captain set to be the third. But before that could happena fourth person was frozen, either after or at the same time and this threw awrench in the ritual.
Instead of resurrection, all were encased in ice.
The Fisherman appears at some point and throughcompleting tasks around the islewe’re able to lift the curse andfree the trapped soulsof the long-dead crew that arrived before you. As each soul is freed the giant,still alive Narwhal, slowly closes eye after multiple eye.
When the last one closes, the beast finally goes into what’s assumed to be either aneternal slumber or final deathas its golden horn crumbles and falls into the ocean. Then the Fisherman canleave or continue to explorethe area.
The Iron Rig Ending, Explained
Just like the Pale Reach,the Iron Rig pops up on your gameworldand you can sail straight to it whenever you like during the main story. It’s a relativelyshort distance to the Northand you’ll see it once you get near The Marrows.
The side story surrounding the Rig is one of extinct creatures, corruption and capitalism gone wild. In this tale, the Fisherman comes across a Rig owned bythe Ironhaven Company, a large wrought iron and rusting structure looming in the ocean to the North.
It’s run bya skeleton crew and a few NPCs, primarily the Foreman andthe Scientist. The Foreman tasks the Fisherman withfinding lost Ironhaven Company boxesleft around the area that can be used to upgrade the Iron Rig, whilst the Scientistrequests samplesfrom the local spooky fish population.
After the Iron Rig is fully upgraded the Foreman and his crew proceed todrill into the sea floorbeneath them. But because things are never that simple in this land, the drilling causes massive fissuresall across the ocean floor, whilst astrange black goopbegins to emerge and pollute the surrounding sea life.
This strange oil not onlymutates the local wildlife, but it also revives the corpses of long-dead species. the Fisherman continues tocollect samples for the Scientist, but unfortunately exposure to the goop within these samplesmutates the Scientist into a Fishmanand he escapes the Rig into the Ocean.
The Foreman on the other hand wants to stop drilling, but withthe arrival of The Executive, a representative of Ironhaven, they’reforced to continueexcavating. The Foreman wants to abort the drilling asthe goop is creating some very dangerous monsters, but his hands are tied because he doesn’t want to get fired.
Things escalate as the Fisherman is asked by the Foreman tosabotagethe Iron Rigs defense systemto allow the monsters in as an attempt to persuade the Executive to abandon the site. The defenses are turned off, and amassive tentacle monster attacks the Rigand starts tearing it apart.
However, this new interloper, like the Narwhal from Pale Reach, isripped to shreds by the Leviathanas the Iron Rig starts to crumble into the sea. The Executiveescapes on a helicopter,whilst the Foreman stays behind to make sure all of his crew can escape first before he leaves along with them.
Pale Reach and Iron Rig can betackled before or after the main game, they have no major impact on the plot of the main story.
