Dreadmoor Boat Upgrades: Trawler Modules & Upkeep

Your trawler is Dreadmoor's progression hub and your lifeline — the developers' sixth dev diary is titled "The Trawler as a Lifeline" for a reason: the boat "is directly linked to the player's survival," carrying you through swamps, away from danger, and home again with the catch. This page covers the confirmed upgrade system, what playtest footage showed about costs, and how to plan your first upgrades.

The confirmed upgrade system

The developer FAQ confirms a modular upgrade system: "Your trawler will feature a modular upgrade system allowing you to improve its capabilities and equipment." Official material names the parts players have seen so far:

• Hull Armour (Mk I) — armor for the hull; the "Mk I" naming implies a series
• Engine variants — multiple engines, changing speed and range
• Fish storage upgrade — how much a trip can bring home
• Roof-mounted lantern — support for night operation, and nights are dangerous
• Ship Upgrade Skill Tree — the progression track that ties ship improvements together

Official material also confirms ship maintenance: the trawler wears out, and hull armor exists for a reason. Expect repairs to compete with upgrades for your resources.

What playtest streams showed about costs

September 2026 playtest streams — recorded during the Open Playtest, so before final tuning — show the upgrade economy in action, and one resource keeps appearing: torn pages. The same collectible pages that unlock bait recipes in the fishing tree also buy ship-side upgrades:

• Streamers purchased hull protection for two torn pages, then went on to an upgraded engine — narrating "so, in here, using torn pages, we get unlocks" while browsing the ship upgrade screen.
• A PAX East preview from GamingTrend separately reported a dry dock as the place where the boat gets made "more seaworthy" — suggesting physical upgrade locations rather than a pure menu.

Torn pages therefore appear to be a shared progression currency across fishing and ship systems — spending them on hull versus bait recipes is a real early-game decision. Treat the exact numbers as playtest-era: the developers reworked systems between every test, and the demo on October 6, 2026 is the first current build to verify against.

How upgrades change how you play

Official material connects the dots between upgrades and risk:

• The catch is the exception to safe storage — fish can be lost if your ship is destroyed, so hull and storage upgrades protect your actual income.
• Fuel matters — the official press release has you fueling up "for the journey ahead," and preview builds made refueling a manual, hands-on chore.
• Night and deep water are where upgrades pay off — the lantern, hull armor, and better engines exist to extend how far and how late you can safely push.

A sensible first-demo plan: storage and hull before speed, fuel efficiency before range, and the lantern as soon as night fishing becomes necessary.

Where upgrades come from

The acquisition path is not fully documented: salvage is confirmed as the material base (the press release: "salvage wreckage and scrap to upgrade the boat"), torn pages appear to gate the skill tree side, and blueprints are named in official store copy. Whether individual modules are bought, crafted, or quest-rewarded should become clear in the demo — see also crafting and the fishing guide for the other half of the economy.