Research Parts Unlock New Fishing Gear and Boat Upgrades in 'Dredge' — How to Get Them

While scouring the calming and periodically eerie waters within the cosmic horror fishing game Dredge, you will encounter several bubbling interactable points to pull up materials, trinkets, and fish. You may even find research parts alongside your haul.

By collecting a specific amount of them, you can unlock new fishing gear and implement various upgrades to your vessel for extra durability or safety during the night. Research parts are essential to progress through the game, so knowing where to find them is significant.

Here's everything you need to know to get them.

Unlike the many fishing spots within Dredge, research parts are hard to come by. In most cases, you'll naturally stumble upon one while searching a shipwreck. However, there are three ways to get research parts faster than aimlessly searching around islands.

You could buy them from the traveling merchant settled around the remote islands. The parts usually go for $300. If you go this route, it's best to venture between the different shops to check which has research parts in stock.

Another way is to complete Pursuits from the dreary NPCs from the various islands. These side objectives will require you to reel specific fish or fetch items. Regularly as a reward, you may get a research part for the trouble, so it doesn't hurt to finish them.

Lastly, you could undock and hunt for dredging points with research parts. Pro tip: In some areas, you'll notice a colorful gust of wind billowing in one direction at times, which will always direct you to a dredging spot with a research part.

These points are scarce, but there are usually at least one or two around islands and even found at smaller ones in the middle of the ocean.

In order to use your hard-earned research parts, you must head to any local shipwright capable of researching new rods, engines, pots, and nets.

Dredge will plainly spell out how many research parts you'll need for specific items on the Research menu. This is the only way to unlock new rods for reeling unique varieties of fish and gaining better lights to withstand the panic feature at night.

Once those items are available after spending your research parts, they will get added to the shipwright's storefront for purchase and installation.

Dredge is now available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.