FS25 Insane Swim Dredge V1: the beta is afloat

🔑 Important: grab your Download Key too! Lots of people download only the zip and forget the key. Without the key the dredge's functions stay locked. Zip and key are both on the mod page, and the key (the .xml) goes right next to the zip in your mods folder.

⛏️ For the full function you need three mods alongside: TerraFarm for the digging in the terrain, Dig With Anything so the buckets on the chain are recognised as a digging tool, and Mining Layers for the ground layers like pay dirt and gravel, set across the whole map. Without the three, you feed the hopper with a wheel loader instead.

Beta for members. The Insane Swim Dredge is here: it floats, digs standing still, washes the gold out on board and smelts it into bars on pallets. The download is on the mod page, together with your Download Key (the .xml goes into the mods folder next to the zip). Current version: 0.9.5.2. Not a member yet? You can join on the membership page.

⬇ Get the Insane Swim Dredge

▶ The dredge in the music video: Rae Dawson, Gold Love

In-game controls (not all of them show up in the F1 help, so here is the full list): engine and digging B · bucket ladder K / M · spuds LAlt + K / M · wash drum LAlt + V · wash plant window LAlt + U · flow rate LAlt + B · pallets I · lights (cycle through the stages) F · searchlight high beam Ctrl + F · height and digging depth J / N · pallet crane Shift + K / M, Ctrl + K / M, Shift + J / N, pallet fasten/unfasten L (the game's tension belt key).

From today there is a house on the lake that makes gold. The beta is the first batch for members, and it already does more than you'd expect from a beta: dig, process, smelt, stack. A few corners are still rough, and we name them further down.

How you dig

B starts the engine, the bucket chain and the digging, and the engine needs about 30 seconds to spool up. Then you lower the bucket ladder with K / M until the buckets are stuck in the lake bed. The ladder stops in the ground and sinks on by itself once the material is dug away. You can watch the buckets carry the gravel up and tip it into the hopper. Digging happens standing still, 4 metres wide, the dredge doesn't have to go anywhere. How deep she digs is set with J / N, which moves the whole dredge up or down. While the plant runs she keeps digging, even when you get out. B off means knocking-off time.

From bucket to bar

Washing only starts once the wash drum runs. The drum has its own switch, LAlt + V, and only needs the engine, so digging and washing work separately or together. Then the plant sorts by itself: almost everything you dig goes back out as piles at the back, the stones drop coarse off the conveyor boom, the fine tailings run out of both stern sluices. The concentrate runs into the tank (3,670 litres), the smelter turns it into bars, and I puts the finished pallets on the loading deck, two rows of three. Full 400-litre pallets are even set down automatically while the plant runs. The washing keeps pace with the digging, so the hopper doesn't overflow. How much water runs through the plant is set with LAlt + B to low, medium or high, and the setting is saved. What sits where right now is shown in the wash plant window on LAlt + U: hopper, every output with share and flow, gold bars with progress to the next pallet, flow rate and drum. That's also where you switch each tailings output: to another material, or simply out with the water. Coarse gives coarse tailings or stone, fine gives fine tailings, and if a mining mod or map brings gravel, rocks, sand, dirt, silt or clay, those are on the list too. On Paydirt at medium flow, a pallet of gold bars fills up about every 10 minutes. That's a starting value, and we'll fine-tune it after your tests.

Material in, material out: your call

The wash plant window (LAlt + U, Enter or a double click confirms, the space bar hides the signs) lists the three outlets on the right: port side sluice, starboard side sluice and the main belt. Click one and choose what comes out there: a material from the list or simply "out with the water". Gold sits in the fourth row and always stays on board, it gets smelted into bars. Set the main belt to water and stones and water run over the belt and drop into the lake at the front. All three streams fall in an arc like the water, and the pile grows right where the arc lands. Park a truck under the belt and it gets filled.

Everything turns

As soon as the drum runs, water flows through the sluices and gold tables into both stern sluices. You can see material running over the 12 gold tables, with gold and silver glinting in the stream. The conveyor belt and the drum's drive pinion run, and drum and belt have their own sound. Flywheel and rocker arm turn with the engine, smoke rises from the stack, and sounds and smoke run in time. The bucket chain hangs taut, nothing flaps around. The dredge settles into its floating position on its own, and J / N trims it. Steering is by all-wheel steering.

The pallet crane

Shift + K / M slews the crane, Ctrl + K / M moves the trolley. A lifting frame hangs on the hook: Shift + J / N sets it down, L fastens the pallet and releases it again. That's the game's own tension belt key, which is why the F1 help calls it that.

Lights and doors

Interior light (6 lamps) is F, the searchlight is Ctrl + F, for the night shift, and it now works at low light quality too. The 6 doors open when you stand in front of one and press the activate key. Their state is kept after saving, so a door you leave open is still open tomorrow.

On board

You can go anywhere: stairs, galleries and the catwalk are walkable, and so is the inside staircase, and the railing is an obstacle, not decoration. The pilot house has a lever bench with 6 levers, plus a pressure gauge, a telegraph, a stool and a stove. The gold room has its vault door, the smelter sits on the stern wall, and while the engine runs the crucible glows with steam rising above it. At the front a spiral staircase takes you up, and the whole railing is now made of round tubes with bent corners, like on a real ship. Honk, and you get a proper fog horn.

What isn't perfect yet

Beta means saying honestly what still hurts.

• Gravel and sand give the same yield as soil for now. Yield per soil type comes with the update.
• The gold factor is a starting value and will be adjusted after your tests.
• The lifting frame on the crane doesn't rotate yet. A swivel comes with the update.
• The water spray inside the drum comes with the update.
• The beta is singleplayer only for now.
• Raise the spuds before you move off; in the beta she also drives with the spuds down.
• How the tailings pile behaves on the map depends on the map itself.

Our tip for the controls

The dredge has a lot to steer at once: ladder, spuds, throughput, crane, hook and lights. It works on the keyboard, but it really comes alive with two joysticks, one per hand. Many FS25 players use two Thrustmaster T.16000M sticks for this (each one switches to left- or right-handed), and the Thrustmaster SimTask FarmStick is plug & play in FS25. You put the functions on the sticks in the game under Options → Controls. Your gold pan will thank you.

Anything else you run into belongs in the forum or on our Discord. Every report goes straight to the build, and every report makes the next version a little better. How all of this started as a concept is in the concept news.

Never stop hunting gold.

👉 Download the Insane Swim Dredge