Dredge: How to solve the Fish Shrine puzzles

Secrets of all sorts swim in the shadowy seas of Dredge, with many optional quests and hidden items to find for those who like their fishing with a side order of detective work. Perhaps most enigmatic among these sideshows are the Fish Shrine puzzles: a series of four rock slabs tucked away in different regions of the map, each dispensing an eerie reward if you can figure out which fish to offer upon them. The rewards themselves are great and there’s an achievement tied to solving all four too, meaning you’ll definitely want to know how to solve the Fish Shrine puzzles in Dredge. Read on for a comprehensive guide on doing just that.

How to unravel the mystery of Dredge’s Fish Shrine puzzles

Fish Shrine #1: The Cod Shrine at The Marrows

The first of the four Fish Shrines can be found directly north of your starting location, Greater Marrow. Hug the coast and you should be able to locate it fairly easily. Once you do, you’ll find that this Shrine is in the shape of a Cod, a common fish that’s likely to be one of the first you catch as you set out on your maiden voyage.

In order to solve this puzzle, you’ll need to catch a total of five Cod, from disturbed water spots around the Marrows, and arrange them on the rock slab as shown here. Once you do, you’ll receive your reward: a basic Rod called the Sinew Spindle. It can fish in both Shallow and Coastal waters, making it slightly better than your starting Rod, but its slow speed makes it one you’ll want to upgrade from in a hurry.

Fish Shrine #2: The Crab Shrine at Gale Cliffs

The next Fish Shrine is located in the far south of the map, round the back of Gale Cliffs. You’ll probably spot it as you do your initial exploratory circuit of the area, but if you missed it you can follow the map above to track it down. This Shrine is in the shape of a crab, but the slab area doesn’t give you much of a clue as to which specific crabs you’ll need to solve this one.

Thankfully, the answers are all local to the Shrine. You need two Rock Crabs and one Decorator Crab to solve this puzzle, all of which can be caught in the Gale Cliffs area. To do so purchase some Crab Pots and place them in the water at a depth no greater than five meters, as Decorator Crabs cannot be caught below that. Spend some time fishing or completing other quests, then return to your Pots and hopefully the crabs you need will be there. Once you have them, place them on the rock slab as shown here and you’ll receive the Mouth of the Deep: a high-quality Crab Pot that lasts for 12 days and has a large storage capacity to boot, making it ideal for late-game crabbing.

Fish Shrine #3: The Shark Shrine at Stellar Basin

The third Fish Shrine can be found on a small island at the eastern edge of the Stellar Basin area. It’s easy to miss since there’s nothing else of note on the island, but you can refer to the handy map above to find it with ease. This Shrine is in the shape of a shark and is undoubtedly the hardest of Dredge’s Fish Shrine puzzles to solve. To solve this Shrine puzzle you’ll need to track down four different sharks from three different areas.

The first is a Hammerhead Shark, which can be found in Oceanic areas of the Stellar Basin itself, making it a nice one to start with. Next you’ll need a Bronze Whaler and a Blacktip Reef Shark, both of which can be found in Oceanic areas of The Marrows: the Bronze Whaler during the day, and the Blacktip Reef Shark at night. Remember that you can interrupt your rest at a port any time, which can allow you to skip straight to night when searching for fish like this. Finally you’ll need a Ghost Shark, which can be found way up in Devil’s Spine. It appears in specific Abyssal fishing spots among the ruins, so you’ll need a Rod that can handle that in order to catch one.

Once you’ve assembled your fishy Avengers, arrange them on the rock slab as shown to receive your reward: the Viscera Crane. This is a passable Rod for Abyssal and Hadal fishing, and will serve as a nice stopgap before you unlock the far superior Fathomless Winch later down the line.

Fish Shrine #4: The Aberration Shrine at Twisted Strand

The final Fish Shrine is interesting, in that it’s the hardest one to find but the easiest one to solve. It’s located among the tangled roots of the Twisted Strand, on a small island on the west side of the area. Upon inspecting it you’ll find that it presents you with a huge purple grid, implying that you’ll need a number of Aberrations in order to solve this puzzle.

Thankfully, you actually only need one. Catch any Aberration in the game and place it anywhere on the rock slab here, and the puzzle will be solved. Your reward this time is the Tendon Rod, a basic Mangrove Rod that can be a handy pickup since the easy solve condition on its puzzle allows you to grab it as soon as you enter Twisted Strand. You will want to swap it out for the Versatile Rod later on, however.

So there you have it: a complete guide to solving the four Fish Shrines puzzles of Dredge. Once you solve all four you’ll receive the ‘Servant of the Shrines’ achievement, which can sit nicely among the eldritch fishing equipment you received as a proud reminder of your intellectual conquest.