Why this list is short

Dreadmoor's marketing says "more than 100 species of dangerous and rare prey". That number appears in publisher press material and on store pages, and it is the figure most sites will repeat as a roster.

It is not a launch roster, and no official source has published a species list. What exists is a handful of names that appear in quests, crafting recipes and hands-on coverage. Rather than pad this page with plausible-sounding fish, it tracks only what can be sourced, and marks the rest as unconfirmed.

That is more useful than it sounds. The fish you need to know about in the first ten hours are the fish the quest chain asks for, and there are three of them.

The confirmed species

Species Where it appears Why it matters
Snapper First contract, five required Tutorial catch; common enough to learn the fight on
Softgrazer Hull protection recipe, three required Processes into Chromatic Scales for hull reinforcement
Harpooner Second contract, three required Unlocks the carburetor for the engine upgrade

Snapper. The opening contract asks for five, caught on earthworms with the Simple Rod from the platform behind the dry dock. They are common, they fight mildly, and they are the correct place to learn the tension system. Selling them is a mistake before the contract closes.

Softgrazer. The name suggests what it does: a grazing, low-aggression species. Three of them process into Chromatic Scales, the material the dry dock needs for hull protection. They are not part of a contract, which is why players sometimes miss them entirely — the hull objective asks for a crafted item, not for fish, and the fish are the hidden step.

Harpooner. Larger and more aggressive than a Snapper, and the second contract target. Three are required to unlock the carburetor, and the carburetor still has to be bought afterwards for 50 in-game currency. Hands-on coverage notes that Harpooners handle differently from Snappers, which is the game's way of teaching that species have distinct fight patterns rather than one shared rhythm.

What the catch screen records

Every landed fish produces a record with four pieces of information. Understanding them is how you decide what to keep.

Rarity, on a three-star scale. The stars describe the individual specimen, not the species. A common species can throw a rare specimen, which is why it is worth checking the stars before grinding something.

Temperament: peaceful or violent. This is a category tag, and it drives two things — whether the fish can damage the boat during the fight, and whether it is safe to store next to other catches.

Weight. Shown per catch, with a personal record flag. Weight is the closest thing to a value multiplier the game exposes. Traders pay more for dangerous prey, and a heavier specimen of the same species is worth more than a light one.

Glossary entry. New species are added to the in-game glossary on first catch. This is the closest thing to a completion tracker the game has, and it is worth filling in deliberately early, because the glossary is how you learn which water holds which species.

Peaceful versus violent, and why the hold matters

The temperament tag matters more than it looks, because Dreadmoor's hold is not a bag. It is a set of compartments holding live animals, and the store description is blunt about the consequence: "sea creatures do not hesitate to devour each other."

That means a violent catch stored beside a peaceful one will eat it. The game does not stop you; it simply charges you the difference in lost profit. The practical rules:

  • Keep predators in separate compartments from small fish.
  • If space is tight, decide what you are willing to lose rather than letting the game decide.
  • Deliver or process a hold full of predators promptly — every extra leg of the trip is another chance for them to eat your profit.

For a first playthrough, the simplest safe policy is to keep one compartment for peaceful fish and one for anything tagged violent, and never mix them even when the trip is short.

Grind, sell, or keep

Three destinations for every catch, and the decision is easier than it first appears.

Grind small, common, low-star fish. They sell for almost nothing and their material value is the input to bait, which is the input to everything else. This is the default for most of what you catch in shallow water.

Sell heavy specimens and dangerous species. Predatory fish carry the highest prices precisely because they are hard to land, and the traders of the Submerged Lands pay accordingly.

Keep anything the current quest names, and anything that is a new species for the glossary. Contract fish that get sold are the single most common cause of a stalled objective in the demo, and the walkthrough flags where this bites.

One more category worth mentioning: rare specimens. The developers describe rare catches as valuable "not just as curiosities, but as resources" that can be refined and repurposed. Hands-on coverage describes salvaging rare fish for high-tier bait material. If you land something with three stars and a weight record, think before you grind it.

Species behaviour, and what to expect as the roster grows

Only three species are named, but the developers have described the design logic behind the roster, and it is a better guide than a list of names.

Mutations are inherited and cumulative. The Sea Blight mutates what it touches, and those changes are passed down and continue to build, which is why "no two creatures are truly the same". In play, that means the same species can vary meaningfully between specimens — which is what the star rating and weight are capturing.

Some creatures are grotesque, some are elegant. The studio is explicit that mutation is not uniformly ugly, and that rare specimens can look almost intentional. Expect visual variety rather than a single mutant aesthetic.

Predators are rarer and smarter. The developers say you will not find a predatory fish on every cast, and that the encounters are designed to be memorable. That is a warning as much as a promise: the water is mostly safe and occasionally not.

For the mechanics behind those encounters, the fishing guide covers the fight, and the bait guide covers how to target a species you actually want.

What will change after launch

The launch build ships "a variety of fish species and mutations", and the studio plans more species during Early Access. That means this page is provisional by design: the roster will grow, and the balance of which fish are worth grinding will shift as the economy is tuned.

The Early Access scope page covers the studio's stated plans for new fish and new fishing mechanics. When the launch build is playable, this ledger will be rebuilt from the in-game glossary rather than from press material, which is the only way to publish a species list that is actually complete.

Sources

Sources checked November 3, 2026. Only species named in quest or hands-on material are listed as confirmed.