Quality of Life and potential buffs for Dredge

Ghoulstab

So Dredge has not been touched balance-wise since patch 6.0.2 and has gotten progressively worse over time, with certain factors really holding it back. A major one being new maps and locker placements, but there are other significant things that really just make Dredge weaker than it needs to be.

I've been playing Dredge since release and consider it my main, and here are the types of changes I think would really help with the gameplay and feel while playing as Dredge without being a dramatic buff that makes it oppressive or significantly more unfun to play against:

• Make movement speed while holding a Remnant similar to powers such as Demogorgon holding Shred and Trickster holding/throwing his knives (the first proposed value) or powers like Freddy’s Dream Snares and Vecna’s spell charging (the second value): 3.68 m/s → 3.86 m/s or 4.0 m/s
  • This will make it more worthwhile to use for larger loops or long set-ups such as through multiple floors while making it slightly less punishing if the Survivor leaves the loop early but still rewarding if the Survivor chooses to leave
  • The lethality and level of commitment (Set-up time, walking around, and recharge time) of a Remnant teleport & M1 is far less than other powers with similar speeds such as Hillbilly’s Chainsaw Rev (3.68 m/s), Pyramid Head’s Torment Trail (3.68 m/s), Wesker holding Virulent Bound (3.68 m/s), Deathslinger’s Aim Down Sights (3.74 m/s), Plague’s Vile+Corrupt Purge (3.6 m/s charging, 4.4 m/s holding/vomiting), or Nemesis holding Tentacle Strike (3.8 m/s in Mutation 1+2, 4.0 m/s in Mutation 3)
    
    
• Lower the passive “wooshing” sound’s radius, especially during Nightfall. As far as I understand (since it is not listed anywhere), the distance at which you can hear it is at least over 24m away (Likely 26m or 28m?), and it is directional. I would change this from 26~m → 16m.
  • It defeats the purpose of the aspect of Nightfall that makes Dredge Undetectable and not visible past 20m. I hesitate to match it to the range at which you see Dredge highlighted in white (20m), because it’s already a fair distance and at 16m it only adds just over 1 second before you can hear it while still being able to see Dredge if they are approaching before hearing the woosh. But matching it to 20m would still be a significant improvement.
    
    
• When the Dredge is the Killer in a trial, add an extra locker close to each generator exactly where Sadako’s TVs or Xenomorph’s Control Stations are set to spawn. 
  • Dredge’s locker teleporting is most often used for the purpose of patrolling generators and on many maps is either in a very awkward spot or just too far away. Some maps even have complete dead zones for lockers where a generator could spawn, and others can have a gamble on whether a tile with a locker spawns where the generator is hidden, making it essentially pointless to patrol or guard the generator when you can get to the others much quicker.
    
    
• Make the add-on Ottomarian Writing partially basekit by reducing the Gloaming’s recharge during Daytime from 12 seconds → 10 seconds while also changing Ottomarian Writing so it instead reduces it by 2 seconds instead of 4 seconds, effectively keeping the add-on the same as it currently is.
  
  
• Make the add-on Haddie’s Calendar completely basekit and rework the add-on’s effect to something entirely new. This effectively reduces breaking out of locked lockers from 3 seconds → 2 seconds.
  
  
• I don’t know how I’d change these next add-ons, I’d hope the devs could come up with something less useless if not actually useful. But as it stands these add-ons do virtually nothing: 
  
  *As a note for the first 3: It takes 300 charges to fully charge up the Nightfall Meter which equates to 20 minutes if you do literally nothing to charge it as it charges at a rate of 0.25 charges/second. So injuring Survivors, hooking Survivors, having Survivors stay injured, teleporting & hiding in lockers, and teleporting back to your Remnant are the ways to significantly gain charges. Any add-on that affects the charge rate of the Nightfall Meter that isn’t Malthinker’s Skull is never worth it and I don’t think Dredge needs to have any add-ons that affect the charge rate with the exception of the Malthinker’s Skull. It’s strong enough on its own and having any other ones is boring and lazy design potential.
  
  
• Wooden Plank 
  • Increases the charges added to the Nightfall Meter for hooking a Survivor by 25%. This makes it go from +20 charges → +25 charges. 
    • This is a 0.02% increase in charges for a hook. Completely rework this.
      
• Burnt Letters
  • Increases the charges added to the Nightfall Meter for injuring a Survivor by 25%. This also makes it go from +20 charges → +25 charges. 
    • This is also a 0.02% increase in charges but instead it’s for injuries. Completely rework this.
      
• Fallen Shingle
  • Increases the charge rate of the Nightfall Meter while using Reign of Darkness (holding a Remnant) by 15% per second. 
    • I am unsure if this also affects teleporting to/hiding in lockers due to the wording choice of “using Reign of Darkness”, but the values would equate to 0.25 c/s → 0.29 c/s for just holding a Remnant and 6 c/s → 6.9 c/s if it affects teleporting/hiding as well. Completely rework this.
      
• Air Freshener
  • Increases the number of Power Tokens to 4. 
    • This allows you to teleport 1 more time before you are forced to leave a locker. Almost every time 3 teleports is more than enough which makes this a rather useless add-on. It doesn’t combo with any add-ons in a significantly positive way either. I would up the amount to 5 or 6 to make it at least somewhat fun and useful in a niche way. But should the change for guaranteed lockers spawning next to gens go through, I would leave it as is or rework it completely should that be too strong.
      
• Destroyed Pillow
  • Reduces the cooldown time of The Gloaming by 2.5 seconds during Nightfall. 
    • This is rather pointless because the cooldown time is normally 4 seconds during Nightfall, which is short enough to always be ready to go again when you need to use it. Making it 1.5 seconds is overkill and not practical to take advantage of. Completely rework this.
      
• War Helmet
  • Increases the duration of Killer Instinct by 1.5 seconds during Nightfall.
    • This one is more of a personal beef with the add-on but an extra 1.5 seconds on something that is 3 seconds and only gives visual/audio notifications maybe every 0.5-0.75 seconds effectively adds one to three extra notifications. It also doesn’t work with the Follower’s Cowl add-on which allows you to receive Killer Instinct when teleporting back to a Remnant during Daytime. I would increase the duration by 1 second and allow it to combo with the Follower’s Cowl. Barring that, completely rework this.
      
• Tilling Blade
  • Survivors suffer from Blindness, Hemorrhage, and Mangled for 80 seconds after being injured during Nightfall.
    • I don’t hate what this add-on applies but the fact that it has to happen during Nightfall is what kills it. Hemorrhage and Mangled would be perfect for Daytime where you want to delay or disincentivize healing to accrue more charges to the Nightfall Meter. Blindness however is more effective during Nightfall. Perhaps remove Blindness from this add-on and make it one of the lower rarity add-ons I suggested that need to be changed. And change the activation condition to something like a hit after teleporting to your Remnant and/or a hit shortly after exiting a locker.
      
• Iridescent Wooden Plank
  • Survivors suffer from Exposed for the last 12 seconds of Nightfall.
    • Expose add-ons are already boring and unfun for Survivors, but this one is also way too niche to make use of reliably. Maybe if the Broken Doll add-on that adds 20 seconds to Nightfall effectively made this 32 seconds when used together?... I’d rather it be reworked entirely though as I can’t see a fair way to have Exposed within Dredge’s abilities and not from perks. It’s an iridescent add-on so it should feel powerful and worthwhile, but this current form is pathetic. Completely rework this.
      
• Sacrificial Knife
  • Block all vault locations within 16m of the locker you emerge from for 5 seconds.
    • I love the concept of this add-on. There are three problems with it though: 
      • This is completely impractical to use outside of Nightfall due to the speed at which you teleport to lockers. You are mostly going to use this during a chase, and Daytime teleport speed is almost always far too slow. 
      • It’s only for 5 seconds. You waste a second or two orienting yourself to continue chasing and/or swing to attack, and that’s if you time it for when they run in front of a locker and not just to block the vault locations. The orientation of the locker may also make it impossible to capitalize on the 5 seconds and make distance to attack before they can reach the vault again.
      • It’s only 16m from where the locker is located. You’d think that would cover the area of most tiles, but it definitely does not. Not to mention whether you’re lucky enough that a locker spawned in the tile in the first place.
    • I would change the values from 5 seconds → 7 or 8 seconds and the distance from 16m → 20m, which I feel relatively confident would cover even the largest non-map specific tile that can spawn lockers. 
    • I do worry that this could make it oppressive though, so it would definitely need some thorough testing. But I want to keep this add-on’s effects as is, just buff the numbers.
      
• You could argue the Mortar and Pestle add-on that makes it so you emerge from your Remnant facing your current direction instead of the direction you were facing when you placed it should also be reworked as it causes the player to form bad habits when using the Remnant seeing as it only works this way when using this add-on. But even though I’d never use this add-on as is, I think it’s fine as a niche quirky brown rarity add-on that some players may enjoy from time to time or entirely prefer when playing as the Dredge.  
  
• As for Dredge’s other add-ons, I feel they are in a good place and fulfill fun and useful gameplay moments for the Dredge player.

This may look like a lot of changes, but it is 3 basekit changes that are mostly small-ish number buffs for better quality of life when playing as the Dredge. Of course I also suggested changes for 50% of the add-ons, and outside of making Haddie’s Calendar and Ottomarian Writing fully or partially basekit I wouldn’t be overly upset if the others were left unchanged. But would the others be changed and depending on the strength of what some of the add-ons could turn into, I still feel it shouldn't feel dramatically different to play against the Dredge, while still making the Dredge more powerful to play as and even more importantly, consistent from map to map.

I would love to hear y'alls thoughts on any of this, and of course, to know if any devs see it.