Banner Saga Guide: Destroying the Mighty Dredge

My last two guides went over class abilities of the humans and varl. This time, I’ll tell you all about the dredge. The dredge are tough if you don’t know how to fight them. The smaller dredge can usually be killed pretty easily, but they all have one thing in common. You need to take down their armor before attacking.

This guide will cover dredge abilities including

• Explanation of each dredge ability
• Strategies for each dredge unit

Banner Saga Dredge Abilities

The dredge have different classes just like the humans and varl. There are melee, ranged, and special dredge. I will go over the ranged first.

Ranged Dredge

Ranged dredge all have the passive ability Back Off. This causes the dredge to run several spaces away from their attacker when they get hit. They also all throw stones at their targets.

This ability can prove troublesome when you are fighting multiple dredge. If you chase the dredge running away, it can put you in a vulnerable position and the stronger dredge will attack you. The best way to deal with this is to use your own ranged units to finish them off.

• Slag Slingers are dredge that throw stones attached to a rope. They do not do anything else and do minimal damage. These dredge are the easiest to deal with.

• Flame Slingers and Fire Slingers are identical, but Flame Slingers are slightly stronger. They have the Shatterstone active ability. This ability throws two bombs to an area that explode on the next turn, dealing two strength and armor damage.

When fighting these dredge, it is best to spread out. You don’t want to get bombs thrown into a group of units and take unnecessary damage.

• Sun Slingers and Spark Slingers are also the same, Sun Slingers do more damage. They have the active ability Sunstrike. This ability causes an explosion that stops the use of exertion for one turn. Exertion uses willpower to deal additional attacks.

Keep any units that rely on exertion away from these dredge. Losing the ability to use exertion can really hurt you in a battle.

Melee Dredge

All melee dredge have the passive ability, Splinter. This ability causes adjacent dredge to take damage when that unit takes at least three armor damage.

• Grunts are the most basic dredge units. They have no abilities, other than splinter. Enraged grunts and Vicious Grunts do more damage.
• Scourge Warriors are giant dredge with a tuning fork sword and the active ability, Tremble. This ability summons another dredge to the battlefield. It’s best to take their armor down early in case you need to kill it quickly. When it uses tremble, you have time to kill it before another dredge enters the battlefield.
• Stoneguards are giant dredge with a shield and the active ability, Kindle. This ability knocks back all adjacent units with the shield, doing armor damage. It has high armor, so its best to start on it early and do not surround it.

Special Dredge

These dredge do not fit into the other categories because they have very special mechanics and are not fought often.

• Stonesingers are melee/support dredge with the passive ability, Disease Strike. Contact with this dredge causes disease, losing one strength each turn. They also have the active abilities Rupture and Umbrage. Rupture causes units to explode, doing strength damage equal to their remaining armor and damaging all adjacent units. Umbrage causes dredge allies to lose two armor, but permanently gain three strength.

Just stay away from these dredge, trust me. Kill them with ranged units, but do not engage them with melee. Their Umbrage ability can cause a lot of trouble, so take them out fast.

• Bellower is a giant dredge called a Sunder. It has the passive ability, Indomitable, and the active ability, Quake and Despair.

Indomitable makes Bellower invincible, each turn it will recover armor and strength, it will also not go below one strength. There is an ability that can defeat Bellower, but it is only possible the last time you fight it.

Quake and Despair stuns one target for a turn and pushes back all other enemies, three spaces. This ability really messes up your strategy. There is nothing you can do against Bellower except the Silver Arrow ability that you get while going through the story.

I covered all the dredge that I know of. Please comment if I’ve missed any or if you have any questions.