How to find and start The Iron Rig in Dredge

The Iron Rig is the second piece of paid DLC for Dredge and might be its biggest expansion to date. It tasks you with signing up to work for a new company in the game, but it’s not quite as simple as you might think. If you want to get anywhere with them, you’ll need to put in the legwork.

Once you’ve downloaded The Iron Rig DLC, it’ll immediately impact your game. Dredge‘s world becomes filled with mysterious crates belonging to the Ironhaven company. You can dredge them up and stick them in storage, but eventually, you’ll need to do something with them. That’s not possible until you find the new location, though. It’s not wise to turn up without upgrading your boat and completing some of the story first, though.

How to find and start The Iron Rig in Dredge

To find and start The Iron Rig in Dredge, you need to sail north towards the massive oil rig that appears in the world once you’ve downloaded the DLC. It’s huge and very visible from The Marrows, so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding it.

The DLC causes Ironhaven crates to appear all around the world. I recommend dredging these up and storing them because they play into what you’ll be doing with Ironhaven once you reach the rig. The story begins as soon as you start chatting to the NPCs there. So, when you’re ready, sail over and say hi.

Note that The Iron Rig‘s story revolves around gaining new gear, so it’s worth going there as soon as possible. It will completely change the rest of the game.

What should you do before playing The Iron Rig in Dredge?

Before starting The Iron Rig in Dredge, you must complete the tutorial story in The Marrows. This is the location where you start the game’s story, so it’s pretty hard to miss. It’s where you learn how to fish, how to dredge up materials, and where you’ll find your first artifact.

Once you’ve completed that section of the story and have moved on to other locations, you should keep progressing until you’ve upgraded your boat’s hull to level 2. Finally, you need to unlock trawling nets. All of this should only take you three or four hours at most. You unlock trawler nets in the third major location Dredge, but it really doesn’t take much time to get there.

If you want to start a new save file, or this is your first time playing, and you want to speedrun reaching The Iron Rig, then fish as much as possible to earn money. I like to use crab pots to maximize my income. This will help you buy the gear you need to progress quickly. Dredge up as much material as you can find and then report back to the Dry Dock to slot it into upgrades.

If you do this enough, you should have all the materials, upgrades, and money you need by the time you unlock trawler nets. Then, it’s simply a case of heading out to Ironhaven.