Credit: Black Salt Games/Team17

Being all by yourself on a tiny boat out in the middle of the ocean can be a stressful experience even at the best of times. In the dead of night, when the world is silent but for the swishing of the waves, it always feels like something horrible is looming just beneath you. This is an even worse feeling in Dredge, where something horrible very much is looming just beneath you, but let’s try our best to stay calm. Here’s how to manage the Panic meter in Dredge.

How to Manage the Panic Meter in Dredge

In Dredge, the Panic meter serves as a visual abstraction of your fisherman’s current mental state. While sailing around is simple enough when he’s in a good state of mind, as his Panic begins to take hold, various dangers and mysterious effects will begin to manifest to threaten the vessel and its fishy cargo. Attempting to travel like this is not a good idea if you can help it, so you want to do what you can to keep your Panic under control.

The Panic meter is indicated by an eyeball that appears over the time indicator at the top of the screen. The opening of the eye, as well as the various colors it turns, determines how freaked out the fisherman is:

• Closed Eye: The Fisherman is just fine, nothing weird is going on.
• Blue Eye: The Fisherman is a little worried but still more or less okay. No anomalous effects will manifest in this state.
• Green Eye: The Fisherman is becoming unsettled. Strange sounds may start to play in the distance.
• Brown Eye: The Fisherman is genuinely upset. Strange sounds play, unusual shapes may appear in the fog.
• Red Eye: The Fisherman is in a full-blown panic attack. This is when most anomalous effects manifest, such as ghostly ships sailing near you, sounds of gurgling and roaring around and beneath the ship, rocks appearing out of nowhere, and more.

What Increases and Decreases Panic?

Credit: Black Salt Games/Team17

The first and foremost thing that affects your Panic meter is the time of day. When it’s nice and bright out, the Fisherman is in good spirits and can shrug off upsetting occurrences like catching an Aberrant fish or having his ship damaged. When the sun goes down and darkness descends, though, the toll on his mind is immediate. Spending time in the dark will passively increase the Panic meter, which is problematic as nighttime is when sailing is often most dangerous. You can alleviate the effects of the night with powerful lights on your ship or by sailing near stationary sources of light like buoys and settlements. Generally, though, unless it is required of you for progression purposes, sailing at night isn’t a good idea.

Besides night and day, there are various upsetting occurrences that can negatively impact your Panic meter. As previously mentioned, catching an Aberrant fish will inflict a small Panic penalty. During the day, this is negligible, but at night, the effect is more pronounced. Additionally, if you’re sailing at night or in dangerous waters, you may notice floating clouds of red mist in the ocean. If you sail through these red clouds, the Fisherman will be beset by terrifying whispers and paranoia, worsening his Panic. Finally, in the event the ship is damaged by rocks or attacked by a sea creature, the Fisherman will take a big hit to his Panic. Even if the impact is a hallucination caused by low lighting and high Panic, it’ll still freak him right the heck out.

If you ever need to restore the Fisherman’s composure in a hurry, the best option is to find a place to dock and get a good night’s sleep. Staying awake for multiple days in a row will worsen the effects of Panic-inducing events, so make sure to catch some Zs whenever things are getting too stressful.

While it’s not impossible to navigate in the throes of a panic attack in Dredge (and indeed, you will probably have to fairly regularly), you’ll have a much easier time traveling and fishing if you can keep a calm state of mind.