Disney Dreamlight Valley is a cozy life simulation and the biggest mistake you could make is thinking it’s a simple game. It’s far from it. It features multiple mechanics that if not done properly can slow your progress exponentially. Not that there’s anything wrong with doing things your way but if you’re here, you’re probably wondering what is the best way to play the game. So without further ado, here are my top tips for more pleasurable experience:
Don’t Rush the Main Story
The main charm of Disney Dreamlight Valley is the vast array of options to pick from. Yes, you can solely focus on doing the main story quests but you’ll be missing out on so much more. All the Disney characters available offer various quests depending on the level of friendship.
Doing those quests will lead to you getting various cosmetics ranging from clothes to different house and village decorations. On top of that, every once in a while of those quests will yield a tool upgrade that can help you get deeper into biomes. So make sure to take it slow and enjoy Disney Dreamlight Valley
Don’t Hoard Everything
Yes, you heard me right. Most people would tell you to keep stuff because you never know if you’re going to need something later and how if you sell it’s going to be the biggest mistake of your life.
I’m telling you to do the opposite of that. The storage in Dreamlight Valley is very limited and expanding it requires funds that you can only get by selling stuff. I’ve spent well over 100+ hours in the game and I’ve been selling everything that I don’t immediately need and I haven’t regretted it once. Not only that but I’ve managed to buy every upgrade I desired.
Unlock Biomes Before Realms
Disney Dreamlight Valley has a lot of realms where you can unlock iconic Disney’s characters. The problem is that once you unlock them and finish that first initial quest, you’re going to need to build them a house in the Valley which requires a lot of star coins.
If you solely focus on unlocking characters, you’re guaranteed to end up broke. On the other hand, if you first focus on unlocking new biomes, you’ll have access to more resources and more crops, which ultimately leads to better and easier progression. On top of everything, you won’t ever have to worry about having enough star coins.
Assign Villagers Properly
This is one of the most important tips that many players ignore. You need to remember that the villagers aren’t there to be a decoration for your Valley. They’re there to give you quests that can increase friendship levels with them but more importantly you can bring them with you while you’re gardening, mining, fishing, foraging or digging and you’ll get extra resources.
Also, you can’t just bring one character for all activities, you need to bring the one you assigned a specific profession. For example: I’ve assigned Merlin to the mining profession and whenever I want to gather some valuable gems, I’ll bring him with me and my drop increases exponentially. And bonus is that if you bring them, you’ll gain friendship experience, increase friendship level with them and gain more rewards.
Gardening Makes You Rich
If you read my review of Disney Dreamlight Valley, you would’ve read that the best way to earn star coins is by gardening. To be more specific, by growing pumpkins. They are the most valuable crop by themselves but also the recipes prepared with them go for a lot of star coins.
This also strongly correlates to the “Unlock Biomes Before Realms” part. To unlock pumpkin seeds, you’ll need to unlock Forgotten Lands and build Goofy’s shop there. Once you do that, you’ll want to set your farming base there because if you plant pumpkins in Forgotten Lands, they grow faster there.
If you really wanna go to extremes, clear everything from Forgotten Lands, dig every square there and plant as many pumpkins as you can. You’ll be extremely rich if you do that. Now I realise that I sound like one of those MLM scheme bros but trust me, I gain nothing from this.
Almost forgot, bring appropriate companions when you start harvesting those juicy pumpkins.
Energy Actually Matters
Moment of honesty here, it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out the energy system properly. This is probably the time I had the biggest brain fart ever.
If you don’t already know, to perform certain actions you’ll need to spend energy. To recharge said energy, you need to eat. I’ve only eaten berries and I was only cooking meals to complete quests.
Only a few days into my playthrough have I figured out that if I eat cooked meals I can get double the energy reserve. Not only that but I can also use sprinting which I thought wasn’t possible. It’s one of those moments where you’re happy that you found something so useful but also wonder how you missed it for so long.
Anyways, don’t be like me, be smarter. Cook meals regularly and use those bonuses. You’ll be able to do more and get everywhere faster.
Daily Blue Chests Are Free Moonstones
In Dreamlight Valley Moonstones are premium currency that you need to spend real money to get. It’s mostly used on premium cosmetics and seasonal passes. Besides spending money on them, you can collect them daily by opening blue chests that are spread across different biomes. Each chest usually gives around 50 Moonstones which doesn’t seem a lot but if you play the game regularly and pick those chests every day, it piles up and you can save money and unlock a few cosmetics for free. Lots of beginners miss these.
Friendship Levels Unlock More Than Cosmetics
I’ve said multiple times that friendship with Disney characters is important and shouldn’t be ignored. I’ve maxed almost all of my friendships, which allowed me to gather a lot of sweet unique rewards.
Granted, some of them are less impressive but still unique and this is the only way to obtain them. Additionally, raising friendship levels can help you unlock characters that you wouldn’t be able to unlock by any other means. One example that comes to my mind is that if you want to unlock Minnie, you’ll have to raise the friendship level with Mickey and complete quests related to him.
Last but not least, raising friendship levels with specific characters can grant you tool upgrades. If you reach level 10 friendship with Merlin you can upgrade your watering can fully and in the process you’ll gain access to certain areas that otherwise wouldn’t be possible.
Decorate Slowly
Another thing I’ve mentioned in my review is that Dreamlight Valley is fully customizable. You can decorate it as you see fit. The problem there is that in the beginning you won’t have that many decorations and no matter what you do, you won’t be able to make it as you like.
It’s going to end up messy no matter how you look at it. This is the reason why for the first couple days I focused on doing the story, completing side quests, increasing friendship levels, unlocking all biomes, learning the layout and then started decorating. This will save you from a lot of stress and disappointment.
Dreamlight Duties
Dreamlight is one of the most important currencies in Dreamlight Valley. It helps you unlock all the realms and more importantly all of the biomes. If you’re a beginner, this seems like a gruesome task and gathering materials to unlock just one biome takes a lot of time.
In reality, it’s so much simpler than you think. If you press the “U” on your keyboard, it will lead you to something called “Dreamlight Duties”. There you can see you have various daily tasks that you can complete and get Dreamlight in exchange.
There’s 6 tasks available and once you complete one, another one appears in its place. I’ve developed a system where I can farm it efficiently. The way I do it is: I focus on a task in one biome, then I move on to next but I keep tasks related to cooking for last till I get 4 or 5 of them that I can complete just by cooking one or two meals. I’ve managed to gather enough Dreamlight to unlock all of the biomes in a matter of hours.
So remember, if you really need Dreamlight, just spam Dreamlight duties and you won’t ever have any issues.
