So, as usual, I am starting this off a bit early to talk a bit about the patch notes! The update arrives tomorrow (though, it’ll be out when you see this post).
For the most part, I feel like I covered certain things in my last DDLV post, so I won’t really retread on most of that, but I figured I’d at least talk about anything that stood out to me from the full patch notes.
Valiant treasure seekers, your time has come! Find special treasure maps around your Valley, solve riddles, and earn amazing rewards with the new Troves of Treasure Event.
I love riddles and puzzles so I am kind of excited for this, but I am slightly worried about how the “special treasure maps around your Valley will work”– I hope it’s just set spots and not complete RNG (there are still some Memories in Storybook Vale I haven’t found yet due to the RNG), but either way, I get worried about anything spawning in the valley nowadays :/
I’m not surprised about the Summer Event returning. I just hope it won’t feature anything as frustrating as the last couple events have been.
New optional items are coming to the Premium Shop for a limited time, including a unique River Kit bundle that allows you to create your own waterway. But there is more! A new Companion Bundle arrives, introducing Max from Disney’s The Little Mermaid as an Animal Companion. This adorable canine will not only follow you on your adventures but also help dig holes nearby thanks to his exclusive ability. The Max Bundle also includes a variety of nautical furniture and wardrobe items for you to enjoy!
Still really don’t think either of these should be Premium Shop-exclusive, especially seeing more information on the River Kit. At the same time, I can’t help but wonder how much that will bug even more spawns in places.
The Seasonal Moonstone Packs are also continuing which, while I’m not surprised, I’m also still pretty disappointed by :/
We also received more information on the new Critter/Companion Friendship system and well…
Gather your furry, scaly, and feathered pals – friendship levels are here! Spend time and interact with your companions to level them up and get rewards. Bring companions along to collect bonus resources – each kind of companion will pick-up a specific type of resource:
Squirrels will help with Fruits
Rabbits will help with Vegetables
Turtles will help with Seafood
Sunbirds will help with Flowers
Foxes and Crocodiles will help with Fish
Raccoons and Whimsical Creatures will help with Gems
Ravens will help with Soils
Capybaras, Snakes, and Monkeys will help with Timebending Parts
Owls, Baby Dragons, and Pegasuses will help with Snippets
Dogs will help with sticks
Some companions, especially notable named Disney companions, may not fit conventional categories and may bring special reward once you reach max friendship.But that’s not all! Depending on their level of friendship, companions can help expand your player inventory and provide extra resources when equipped to your Avatar. As a cherry on top, you can now give a unique nickname to any regular critter that doesn’t already have a preset name, making them truly your own. Additionally, all companions will now appear in a dedicated section of the Collections Menu – perfect for keeping track of your loyal sidekicks!
I wasn’t really enthused about the idea from the start and the more I hear about it, the worse I feel about it. I think what bothers me most is there are even more benefits for premium exclusive ones now when Premium Shop stuff should have always been cosmetic only. And I say this as someone who owns every single companion in the game.
Despite my concerns with these so far, I am excited for some of the following notes:
Path Improvements: Unleash your creativity with an update to Paths, allowing you to place tiles diagonally! Seamlessly switch between Straight & Diagonal Modes for even more design flexibility and unique builds.
Grid Update: Explore new decorating possibilities with an expanded grid! More tiles will give you greater flexibility to place furniture items and customize your Valley in Decoration Mode.
Player House Style Improvements: Your favorite House, everywhere you go! A unique House Styles can now also be placed outside of your Valley, once in each Expansion area – and even on one of your Floating Islands!
I had been sad I couldn’t really set a proper Player House on a Floating Island so I’m hoping that will help motivate me to work on the Floating Island stuff more, especially as it feels like the Valley is becoming a trash heap of event materials.
I’ve also hoping the new decorating additions will make it easier to put some of my ideas into action as well.
My favorite new addition though?
Memory Improvements: Complete memories faster! Updates to the shards balancing ensure you now receive a new Memory Shard every time you get a memory orb when participating in activities around your Valley – unless you’ve already completed all memories related to that activity. Plus, there are now more chances to obtain memory orbs when watering dried flowers!
FINALLY. I can’t believe it took this long to finally happen, but at least it finally did. I’m looking forward to finishing up the memories I have left.
And with that… It’s time to wait for the update.
Mysteries of Skull Rock is finally here! I’m so excited to finally get this story done. Despite doing this right away, this post is actually a bit late as I’ve been feeling pretty under the weather this week :(
I was a little confused at first as the last few times, something had popped up pretty quickly. I also figured maybe the items we’ve been getting from the last couple of updates would maybe tie into this but… No, not really.
Before I went and investigated though, I spent some time checking out some of the new things, grabbing some stuff from the Premium Shop, and looking into the new Companion leveling. Critters definitely level up much faster and with the new guaranteed memories situation, it’s definitely something I’ll probably just let get worked on while I grind for memories, but I did end up prioritizing the “special” options due to them unlocking exclusive things (while everything else just gives you a chest with a random item in it).
Max even has two photo poses.
And as always, my usual first Star Path purchase: The new Critter/Companion.
With nothing really popping up, I decided to head over to Skull Rock. I’m not sure if being there mattered or if the Forgotten just got close enough to trigger something, but I finally had a quest to talk to them and essentially give them a new name. I ended up picking one of the pre-sets: Onyx. Maybe I’ll change it at some point (I had been considering ‘Shadow’ if we had to write something in), but I’m fine with it for the moment. Now if I could just give them a different hairstyle… and maybe something to help with the glowing eyes situation. With a new name, we finally get to invite the Forgotten into the Valley. They still don’t really have their own house though.
This essentially started up the next quest to finally investigate Skull Rock as it was now open (which uh, was kind of anticlimactic, but at least we’re finally getting to it).
Going through Skull Rock essentially required a few puzzles, trapping Peter Pan’s shadow, and gathering up Pixie Dust which even had us running through the Valley as well.
I was just relieved I was able to find things despite how my Valley was set up, though, I had to repair some paths after…
Once we got the music playing (and Peter Pan’s shadow stopped messing with it), he finally showed up.
Despite the puzzles being interesting and it not necessarily being super quick or anything, I did kind of expect more from Skull Rock? I think it’s partially because it kept being pushed back and built up to, but even from just how it finally opened, it felt kind of like a let-down that didn’t need to be held off for as long as it was.
Regardless, it was time to befriend Peter Pan. I put his house in the Forest for now, though, I don’t know if it’ll be permanent or not. I am envious of the teddy bears in his house.
Peter Pan’s first quest had us trapping his Shadow once more in order for him to finally get it attached.
His second quest was helping make the Treehouse feel more like home by cleaning it up and finding his old treasures. He even got a swing set up outside.
The third was unfortunately helping him throw pies at various Villagers and then cleaning it up, but then helping him get some new Lost Boys in the Village to hang out with.
While I absolutely expected Vanellope and Olaf to be here, WALL-E was a surprise.
Finally, with the Lost Boys by Peter Pan’s side, it was time for a game against the “Valley Pirates”. We managed to win.
Some of the lights we had to avoid were super finnicky though…
Anyway, in between all of this, I was also trying my best to level the various Critter Companions. I was excited by how cute Figaro’s item looked, but like with the Aquarium, there isn’t actually any fish in it so it just… looks kind of sad. Where is Cleo, DDLV? T~T
The inventory additions also aren’t really permanent upgrades so much as if you thought of your Critter as a bonus backpack. They give you some extra inventory slots (up to a full row when at a higher level), but if you switch to a different companion, those slots are gone unless you have the same amount on another companion. I haven’t really used these yet because I’m trying to level all of them up and I don’t know if the items will disappear or move or something when I switch, but it just feels… really annoying of a system. I kind of wish it was just the first companion you get high enough, you permanently have an extra row and leave it at that.
It’s at least not pay to win, but I feel too paranoid to use them with how it currently works.
That said, I kind of hate the flower pick-up skill. They will literally pick up anything close enough to them which essentially ruined a lot of the flower set-ups I had, filled my inventory, and I still haven’t found all the places I had flowers put down to begin with. All the others are fine so I kind of wish I could just turn off the flower pick-up instead of everything, but that’s not currently possible…
As for the Player House, I was really hoping I could have a proper house on a floating island, but what it meant was just that you can have the same house style in each place which I mean, that’s still great, but I really wish I could have a permanent home on the floating island and not just another cabin to decorate…
While I may be getting this post a bit later than planned, it does at least mean I could include the new Pride items which are pretty nice, though, I was surprised to see just one color scheme this year. If you didn’t see the code, it’s: DDVPRIDE25
Anyway, to finish this off as usual, my latest Dreamsnaps:
