Dredger

The Dredger is a type of Bulk Cruiser Megaship. It has a design that utilizes a large intake and grinder mechanism on the bow of the ship to draw in both natural materials and manufactured objects, then break them down into raw resources and fuel; advancements in hyperdrive and Fuel Scoop technology have rendered this design obsolete. Dredgers that are still in operation in the 34th century were acquired centuries or decades earlier by nomadic Dredger Clans, who keep the vessels operational and use them in a similar manner as Generation Ships. Tens of thousands of clan members may inhabit a single Dredger, and each clan typically possesses its own eccentric culture. Depending on the clan running it, a Dredger passing through an inhabited system may only furtively scavenge local detritus, or carry out aggressive raids on unprotected outposts.^[1]

Locations

Name	Class & ID	System(s)	Planet	Notes	Logs
The Artificers Clan Dredger	Dredger	Reorte		Missing as of 2.4	[1]
The Phagos Clan Dredger	Dredger	Lugh		Missing as of 2.4	[2]
The Scriveners Clan Dredger	Dredger	Perseus Dark Region KC-V c2-2	B A Belt Cluster 1	Discovered the Hesperus on April 8, 3307 and claimed it as salvage; found by independent pilots on April 10, 3307	Logs

Notes

Dredgers were planned content for Elite Dangerous: Horizons The Return (2.4), and appeared in the 2.4 beta, but were never released. Frontier Developments has yet to provide an explanation for their absence, but one Dredger, The Scriveners Clan Dredger, was finally found in the game on April 10, 2021 as part of the search for the Hesperus.