Settlements are scattered across the Submerged Lands and act as the social and commercial hubs of the world. Traders in those settlements buy your catch, settlement docks double as trawler upgrade points, and NPCs at settlements offer trade and lore. Travelling between settlements is the main form of progression in the early game.

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Finding settlements

Settlement locations are not pinned to coordinates in the demo, so players find them by sailing the Submerged Lands and watching for dockable structures. The reliable landmarks are:

  • Dockable structures along partially submerged shorelines.
  • Decaying roofs and built-up debris that signal a community at the water's edge.
  • NPCs visible from the trawler, including a deformed trader with fish growing from their back in preview coverage.

Once you see the dock markers, approach slowly and dock the trawler to enter the settlement hub.

Trader rules

The single rule across all settlement traders is direct and worth memorising:

  • The more dangerous the prey, the higher the price the mysterious traders of the Submerged Lands will pay.

Rare fish, mutated catches, and night-only species bring the best prices. Common catches still sell but pay little, so they are usually worth burning as boat fuel on long runs unless a settlement is on the way. Each named zone has its own trader; selling the same rare catch at multiple settlements does not stack, so pick a sensible home settlement and use the others for restock.

Settlements also function as exploration hubs because the workbench lives nearby, the trawler docks there for upgrades, and the dock is the safe anchor point between night expeditions. Restock Purified Water and other crafting inputs there, repair and upgrade between trips, and treat the settlement as the only place where the four resource loops actually sync.

For the pricing detail that decides what to bring in, see the DREADMOOR trading prices guide.

FAQ

How do settlement trader prices work?

Across every settlement the rule is the same: the more dangerous the prey, the higher the price. Rare fish, mutated catches and night-only species pay the most, while common catches are usually worth burning as boat fuel on long runs.

DREADMOOR Trading PricesTrading converts catches and rare finds into resources, modules and torn pages, with a single price rule across every settlement.DREADMOOR Submerged Lands MapThe Submerged Lands are an open flooded world travelled by trawler, with named regions and waterline landmarks replacing a fixed map grid.DREADMOOR Shipwrecks LocationsShipwrecks are scattered exploration targets, found by visual hunting along the waterline and salvaged with the grapple gun during daylight.