Happy New Year’s Eve!

It’s honestly been a crazy year (though, it feels like every year has been crazy these last few years) and also very long. It’s still kind of hard to wrap around all the things that have happened this year.

Next year, which is now in less than 12 hours for me and is already happening for people over on the East side of the world, there’s a lot I’m hoping to do. There are so many plans that really are just kind of on hold still while we get more things unpacked and get some new furniture (mostly shelves, so many shelves… I also need a new computer stand and monitor, honestly), but I’ve been trying my best to make things work regardless at the moment.

I still have more posts planned here as well along with various videos, but the main thing is you may see some of the Art Assets changing here! I’ve wanted to update things for a while to connect my website, Youtube, and Twitch and I’m hoping this will help. Thank you as always for your support!

The confusion of Cats vs Pickles and the Versus World

If you asked me the main reason that I’ve been debating stopping at Gold Wave for collecting the “Versus World” (Which essentially includes all Cepia’s versus lines– Cats vs. Pickles, Dogs vs Squirls, Kittens vs Gherkins, the upcoming Bears vs Donuts, and recently teased Cows vs Aliens), it’d be hard to summarize it into just one as it’s a set of issues that combine into the one big frustration I’ll be talking about today: It’s too much to keep track of.

Compared to Blue Wave which initially had 48 Open Box or 2-packs of Beans alongside some Jumbos and Huggers to Gold Wave with 96 alone in just the Gold Wave Bean Mystery Bags. This doesn’t include any possible Open Box, the 36 Blue Stripe Bag ones, or other sizes, but essentially this number increasing to such an extent is across nearly every size. The only exception seems to be Huggers right now.

We already know another Wave is coming and that it’ll be even bigger and honestly, that’s kind of frustrating. On one hand, I get it– you need to figure stuff out ahead of time, but when things are only just getting started and are broken up in so many ways and releases feel almost random (which obviously, stores have some control over that but), the last thing I want to think of is a whole new Wave when there’s Beans on some of the very first checklists and early showcases and commercials that are still MIA.

This isn’t even all of them… These are just some of my favorites.

Some, obviously, are likely for Holidays and while they have been delayed quite a bit (There’s a handful that are clearly for Valentine’s Day, Easter, or Halloween), hopefully we may finally see them soon… But some don’t seem tied to anything.

What really gets me though, ignoring the near universal change to blind bags despite it only happening initially due to Five Below’s request, is that there’s not really a good way to even know what you’re getting. You look at the Gold Wave checklist. You know there are no Chasers. You just picked up one randomly. Decided you liked it and would like more after looking over the full sheet. 1/96 is a lot, but you like enough to try.

Except it’s not 1/96. It’s 1/12. Or even that could be wrong, depending on how the shops have stocked them. Each batch consists of 12 different ones. If your store only got Set A, even if they have four boxes and you buy 24, you’ll at most get only 12 different designs because all 96 aren’t out yet. Half aren’t going to be out until sometime next year.

This is an example of a sheet that has been put together illustrating each “set”. Set E, while not supposed to be out until next year, still has had designs already gotten due to issues with Amazon, prizes from contest winners, or given to Influencers. Some have also found them in the UK. At the moment, based off information from the UK and what people have gotten here, it likely includes Cat-mouflage, Yin-yang, Saylor, Cole, Carrot Head, Juke, El Macho, Dawn, Madeline, Lily, Fish n Chips, and Dr. Gherkin.

And maybe it’s just me, but I hate this. Not only does it just become exhausting having to constantly keep up with information, I also can’t help but think of it from a standpoint of people who DON’T do that. Who aren’t going on Facebook, which is where most information is shared, or other social media and/or are just checking stores from time to time or even spending all this money trying to get some that may not be out yet or even in the batch on shelves because, well, they’re on the sheet… and it has no indication, nor do the bags, on what part of the sheet they could be from. Your best option becomes buying a set off Amazon which comes with its own challenges, whether you do not like to use Amazon, just don’t want a full set, and/or the fact that it’s not always guaranteed that you WILL get the full set with your order. You could get a couple of duplicates and possibly miss out on the one you wanted most.

Purple Wave had its own messes (such as a general lack of order), even if you could keep track of batch codes for some idea. Gold Wave more or less shares the same things, despite how it’s divided up, so unless you manage to see through the bags, you’re pulling blind from generally either 1/12 or 1/24 and expecting a bigger variety than that. Either way, that’s not really the main issue here. The main problem is that the bags show a Checklist of Gold Wave having 96 Beans to pull from and besides about half not being out yet, it’s not even that likely you’ll even get the 1/48 shot– most places had Set A and B (for up to 24) and eventually got a third set. While some stores may have just one of each (So if a store just stocked, there’s a good chance it’s a full set), there’s also a chance the store just got 6 boxes of the exact same 12.

I don’t know any other blindbag product that has a checklist where some products from the Wave just… aren’t available yet. Like… that would be its own Wave. There should be Gold Wave Part 1, Part 2, etc. Something to properly break things up. 24 Beans every few months, if they need to keep the blindbags, or even 48 Beans once or twice a year, if some (or all) were open box would be so much easier to just… keep track of, especially as more and more continue to be added. You could say it’s because of the number of designs, but there are absolutely Blind Bags/Boxes with a lot of designs that… do not list things on their sheet that aren’t out. Pop-it Pets, one thing I’ve collected favorites for, had all of the 100+ designs on their website available right away. I was able to get all the ones I really liked within a few weeks.

Another issue is the “Limited Blue Stripe” bags– despite what most places selling them tell you, they’re not limited stock-wise. The “Limited” is just in terms of what STORES will carry them– they won’t be in most big box stores (Like Target or Walmart) in the USA. That’s it. It’s Limited STORE availability, but they are part of Gold Wave and will retire the same time the rest of Gold Wave does. There aren’t less of them, just not as many stores will carry them.

These same Beans, however, also hit the same problem as the rest of the Gold Wave– despite showing 36 different designs, they are once again broken up into sets of 12. Most stores seem to only get one set at a time furthering the issue of possibly buying duplicates because, well, you’d expect all the options on the checklist to be possible. While all 36 are released at least, it was staggered to some extent and Set C for the Blue Stripe Wave is still the most sought after right now due to not finding as many stores with it (or maybe they got mixed in with the other blue stripe bags, who knows).

There’s also slowly been some two-packs added as well for the Blue Stripe wave. The Chonks have also had a similar issue with their releases alongside 18 not on the checklist that are open box as singles or 6-packs online.

Despite my frustrations here, I don’t feel that any of this is done maliciously— I think it’s just a huge oversight. Unfortunately, as the waves keep getting bigger and more and more focus on blindbags (versus, it’s bigger now, maybe… give us back some more open box options? Please? The UK sells singles and Snowball has done well, I’d like to think it’s possible.), I just don’t see how it can get better. I don’t see how it can get less crazy to keep track of things. All it does is give Scalpers more. The amount of “limited” and “rare” in listings when it’s not true is crazy and price gouging gets worse and worse. Even while Snowball was still for sale, there were ones selling for $20-$40+. And yes, while there may be 12-packs (or 6-packs for Chonks) available from some places, ignoring that there’s a lot of Collectors who don’t want to collect them all nor deal with selling any after, there isn’t always any guarantee you’ll get one of each design. You could get duplicates regardless.

That’s where my issue is. Things keep getting bigger when I think it really needs a pause and some organization. It’s also just… kind of bad to have things on the checklist if people can’t actually pull them? If there’s absolutely no way from that specific batch certain designs can be pulled, then they should not be on the checklist yet or there should at least be some indication on the checklist itself for when they will be or that they can’t currently. The site doesn’t give any indication to this as well. Variations are also a thing, which are usually designs that vary by batch… Sometimes it’s Sample versions that went out to PR/Influencers, other times it’s a mistaken design that got out early (IE: Teddy’s Darker color, as the lighter color will eventually become more common or Kiwi’s lack of little hairs on the back), maybe even just two different factories working on the same design and having different embroidery options/instructions, or even just spelling mistakes on the tag. You’ll occasionally notice some designs don’t match the checklist either.

As it is, too much is hidden away in a private Facebook group and while communication may be okay, it’d be much better if… there was just a global Q&A topic solely for asking questions versus individuals asking and getting different answers and causing even more information to get locked away. Despite their website, it’s not that informative and in some cases, like Dogs vs Squirls, is especially behind with updating the checklists on the website. I miss when Websites had more news on when to expect things or what stores may have started carrying them and everything wasn’t some constant short social media post with maybe some witty comment attached.

The Checklist issue is a problem across the Versus World, with Dogs vs Squirls definitely on the most confusing end of it. At least with Dogs vs Squirls, when the soft launch hit, the checklist initially only had the first 24… Which was mostly accurate, except just 12 were actually in Blindbags and the other 12 were Open Box. Everything was right with the Chonks though.

The confusion came when DvS updated their checklist, adding 25-48 and 50-61 to the initial 24. You’ll notice I skipped 49. We’ll get to that.

Some Stores may still just have the Soft Launch batch, but all the bags look the same so once again, it’s back to trying to look through the bags and see what you can see or just hoping maybe it’s from a newer set. Set C released in the UK first alongside #49 and 62-96 which I guess are Open Box? I haven’t seen them actually stocked in any stores besides as 12-packs and 2-packs on Amazon.

Set C has finally been in more stores in the USA and Set D is supposedly slowly rolling out as well (I’ve been keeping an eye out for a few of them, but haven’t seen them yet :( ). There’s also some mystery Chonks over in Canada with a checklist for #97-144… which becomes even more confusing because those who I’ve seen get them have only gotten 97, 98, 99, 101, 102, and 151. Yes, the sheet goes up to 144. #151 isn’t on it. Are you confused? Because I sure am! What happened to 145-150? How many may even be after 151?? (Going by the usual pattern, probably at least 5 as batches of 12 but) When will these even be available in other places? Are more than six even available right now? I don’t know! And the official website sure doesn’t help.

Despite my constant confusion with Dogs vs Squirls, I will at least give it credit for being in order for the general blindbag assortments so far. 1-12 = Set A. 13-24 = Set B. 25-36 = Set C. 37-48 = Set D. That should mean 50-61 should be Set E, the only real confusion being 49 not being part of the blind bag ones but joining the ones from 62-96. Despite that, they still, thankfully, stay in the same relative order: Assortment 1 has 49 plus 62-72, Assortment 2 has 73-84, and Assortment 3 has 85-96.

Kittens vs Gherkins has been a little more straight forward as it slowly finds its way into more stores, despite having the same checklist issue (showing more than what’s available at the moment). The Singles were intiially only Set A, but recently seem to have Set B and C. That said, you’ll likely have better luck with Double Packs if you want more than one. The double packs are generally always the same pair– some people have gotten differences (or even two of the same design), but it’s very rare. While Sets A and B were a bit more mixed, Set C was much more straight forward and thankfully, Set D seems to be following suit.

Set D has only started showing up in some stores, but I’m REALLY hoping it’ll be up on Amazon too… and maybe also Set E of Gold Wave because some keep releasing somehow, and I don’t know if I can wait until Spring for Shoujo Anime Protagonist Cat Saylor. I also just feel kind of disappointed they did end up going with exclusives for their Kickstarter, despite generally trying to be more inclusive for everyone, as Exclusives are not required for Kickstarters at all and they would’ve likely blown passed their goal regardless.

Bears vs Donuts are supposed to be releasing early next year (which is less than a week away now and some have already been found in Stores) and while it seems like they are having a smaller launch of 24 like DvS did, there’s still the chance of these same issues and patterns continuing to happen, especially when Cows vs Aliens is coming as well.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’d much prefer smaller waves that have exactly what’s in them better represented, even if there’s the same amount of time in-between, than whatever craziness we have now where it feels like I need to double-check spreadsheets to keep track. The fact that even more Cats were briefly added to the Gold Wave Bean and Chonk checklists before being removed just added more questions. They had been shown as part of Gold Wave in previews before– were they pushed back? Will they be open box maybe? Were they just test designs? Who knows. I just want things to make sense without giving myself a headache trying to keep track of it all and if what I want is even out in the first place.

My Fluffy Life – Christmas 2022!

My Fluffy Life has updated for Christmas 2022 (and a Happy Christmas Eve, 6th night of Hanukkah, Early Kwanzaa and/or belated Winter Solstice for those who celebrate) and in addition to four new sweaters you can get once per in-game day (There’s also plenty more if you didn’t get all the ones from last year!), the Stuffie Making Workshop is back (no new options, but still great if you missed it last year or had more you wanted to make!), Bibu has some new clothing, Flora has new furniture, and a new limited time shop is back on the Laptop along with the usual Laptop Shop updating as well.

The new items are so cute, though, the new locket has to be my favorite.

I also really loved some of the new furniture but will miss my cute flower pillow and Elephant friend. Why can I not have all the plushies with the cute furniture…

The Gachapon also adds some brand new ornaments. I hope I managed to get them all– they’re very cute… but also more Teddy Bears to taunt me that I cannot hug and display on my Stuffie shelf.

There’s also one new minigame where you can make a very cute Snow Teddy:

That said, while there isn’t much new with the event outside of a few new items (For those who weren’t here last year, you can also get a present from the tree as well once per in-game day, if there are any, along with putting up letters and ornaments– I talk about it all in this post) and being able to make an adorable Snow Teddy, the big updates this time are actually new features!

For one, better Scrap Book organizing. You may have noticed it in the screenshot above, but we can now bookmark pages with a paperclip. We can also choose what diary pages can be read by anyone (if any) or even just friends or specific friends. You can also keep it private which is the default setting.

There’s also an option to let guests or friends write on a page so you can set designated Guestbook pages which I think is really fun! Guestbooks aren’t really common on websites anymore, but they have a special place in my heart.

The bookmark option is especially helpful, as I’ve had to click through a lot now to get to newer pages. That said, there does seem to be a slight bug with them right now where after I placed them and closed my scrapbook, the next time I opened it, I have been unable to change who can view a page or if a page can be written on like a guestbook as clicking the options causes the game to immediately crash. I hope this will be fixed soon though!

Of course, you may be wondering how you can even view others’ scrap books or write in them as a Guestbook anyway… You can now visit each other’s houses! I’m really excited about this especially. Unfortunately, NPC houses don’t seem to be open right now, but I hope they will be soon. Especially if it makes it a bit easier to access those NPC questlines.

I’ve set up one guestbook page for now which you can get to immediately through the second paperclip bookmark in my Scrapbook! I wanted to set the next two as guestbook pages as well, but due to the bug, I can’t right now unfortunately. My newest page (the one you see above for Christmas) also can’t be viewed publicly for the same reason ^^; But as soon as this is fixed, I’ll be setting those up.

And as always, you can check out my video over on Youtube too!

Disney Dreamlight Valley – Finishing Stitch’s level 10 Quest & the Holiday Event

If you didn’t see the addition to my last post, I’d recommend checking that out for the first part of Stitch’s quest. During his Level 10 Friendship quest, which already took a day to unlock, it required an additional day to wait after finishing some of the quest… So, before anything else, I went to talk to Stitch now that it was the next day. It was time to set things up for the concert… Unfortunately, the “concert” was pretty disappointing.

After a very brief strum of melody, it quickly went to a photo opt situation and then the concert set-up went away… I suppose it was actually on lend this time so I can’t be too disappointed on that front. What really bummed me out though was the lack of seeing an actual song play. Considering we had to wait a day for the quest, the fact that it was just a quick 5 minute run-through and not really any cutscene made the wait not particularly exciting :( Stitch giving us his fixed-up Rocket was very cute though. I left it by his house.

With that done, on the way to where Stitch was, I noticed some red wrapping paper out in the plaza which made it very clear that my thoughts were correct, and a holiday event had begun! Unfortunately, the spawn rate doesn’t seem as nice as the Halloween Buckets were. It also feels more random. The wrapping paper is used to make gifts at the Crafting Station.

Each gift requires 1 of the wrapping paper plus an item based off the gift name. Shiny Gift requires a Shiny Ruby and Shiny Emerald, Delicious Gift requires Hot Cocoa and Minnie’s Gingerbread Cookies, Handcrafted Gift requires a Holiday Feast Chair, and Naughty Gift requires 1 Coal. I didn’t really feel right giving out the Naughty Gift as I feel like even the Villains are making an effort to be better, but I did make one to keep regardless.

While I am sure on the 25th, characters may ask for specific gifts as their favorites like Halloween had every favorite gift be the Event Candy you could get, you can give 10 different characters a gift to finish up the Ho! Ho! Ho! task to get a Pile of Gifts.

On my way to give one last gift to a character who was currently awake, I noticed some red and green bubbles in one of the ponds in Peaceful Meadows. I’m really glad the Festive Fish have their own unique indicator.

So, I made sure to get all 5 Festive Fish as well. (You can find Festive Bass in Peaceful Meadows, Festive Squid in Glade of Truth, Festive Fugu at Dazzle Beach, Festive Angler Fish in the Forgotten Lands, and Festive Salmon in Sunlit Plateau). Unsurprisingly, Fugu took the longest as it does require it to be raining for it to show up in the first place. As far as I can tell, it seems you can only catch one a day so I’d recommend getting them with a Fishing Buddy for a chance at more per day.

Catching each Fish once completes the Even Fish are Festive! Task which will get you a Santa Hat.

I then decided to head to the Castle as I was curious if the Photo Backdrop was still there (I later realized you could make a regular furniture version now at the crafting station)– it wasn’t, but there was a nice tree set up.

I ended up adding the gifts and wrapping paper to the tree I have set up in the “Study” room. I do wish the wrapping paper could be put on a table though.

I think my only negative with the Event, besides the low spawns, is I do wish there were some things geared more towards those who celebrate other Winter holidays. Like… they could have more than just a tree in the Castle and a few more blue/white Winter items as well. I get Christmas is an easy thing to do because of how many celebrate it and the fact that, while there are people who celebrate for religious reasons, many of the people who celebrate are not religious which isn’t the case for most other holidays… But I just hope even those who don’t celebrate Christmas can have some fun with the event and hopefully can have a little more representation in the future.

Anyway, if any additions happen with the Holiday event, I’ll be sure to edit this post.

Edit: There’s presents under the tree in the Castle today! Be sure to go grab your gifts :)

Disney Dreamlight Valley – Unlocking Stitch

As mentioned in my last DDLV post, I had a feeling this quest was hinting at Stitch after finding the first pile of socks on the Beach and was very much right. Last Sunday, 5 days after I found the first pile of socks, I stumbled upon another in the Meadows, this time belonging to Goofy.

After helping clear out Goofy’s house, a new clue was found: Some blue fur! So, I brought it over to Donald to scan into the device and despite his protests, there absolutely is a Blue Raccoon.

Considering the matching 33% up (making it now 66%), I figured it’d be another five days until the next part and well, as you can tell from the date of this post, I was right!

Today (Friday, the 16th), I found another sock. This time, in the Forest of Valor. You can also find my playthrough of everything I mention here over on Youtube!

Unlike the last two times where we were told pretty quickly whose sock it was, this time had to ask around. I decided to go in order and started with Kristoff. Despite him making it pretty clear it belonged to Merlin, I headed to Mickey next which gave some interesting dialogue… He mentioned how the socks were made by someone.

Initially, I thought he meant us as I don’t think Mickey fully remembers we’re the Ruler yet… Especially when he says “she” next, but I recalled the game didn’t ask us for pronouns, so he was likely talking about someone else and a few female Disney characters quickly jumped to mind.

Making my way to Merlin next, the sock was indeed his and he dropped more information on us.

What I find interesting is his use of conjured which makes me think it has to be a magical character… A Magical character who would make socks… Fairy Godmother was the first to come to mind, but I suppose some others may fit the bill too.

After clearing out the mess in Merlin’s house, we had our final piece of evidence which also got the Beacon to 100%.

Placing it caused Stitch to crash his ship right on the beach… But at least he was okay. I do hope Lilo won’t be too far behind though… I always feel a little sad when they’re not together.

Stitch is another character who essentially managed to escape the Forgetting and mostly seems to remember his memories. To make up for his ship crashing, we made him a very nice new house.

It was then onto Friendship leveling! After giving favorite items, I kept giving him flowers until level 10. If you’re wondering why I didn’t do the questlines in-between like I usually do though, it’s because Stitch’s had a hidden requirement right off the bat. Thankfully, it didn’t take me too long to find it after seeing this sign of Donald all messed up:

There are two other signs you need to find like it for the quest after activating it– one by the entrance to the Glade of Trust from Peaceful Meadows and one by the Stairs down to the Beach.

After finishing this, it was another hidden requirement needed… This time, I found a Coffee Cup near WALL-E’s garden (do not let the screenshot fool you– this is near where mine is, but the quest very much makes it clear it’s by wherever the Garden you let WALL-E take care of is) alongside a bunch of wheat and soil.

If you don’t see it, try relogging! Or going in a house and back out. Considering the last quest was in Peaceful Meadows as well, if you’re doing them back-to-back like I did, it may not show up immediately.

Stitch explained he messed up the Garden because he wanted Coffee to stay awake and was trying to find some. And while I am not a coffee drinker (Tea is better), I do 100000% agree with this sentiment:

Thanks to WALL-E’s help, we were able to save the Coffee Bean plant. And it grew into a very cute bush (the bushes that grow in the Glade after are around the same size as the Blueberry and Raspberry bushes).

We even managed to get 3 Coffee Beans which is just enough for each of the recipes! Stitch said to talk to Remy about how to make the Coffee, so it was over to talk to him. I did run into a little bug here, but a reset worked out and I was able to continue no problem.

One nice thing is you can ask Remy about how to make the other Coffee Drinks as well and he essentially confirmed what I figured all along:

  • Coffee Bean = Coffee
  • Coffee Bean + Milk = Latte
  • Coffee Bean + Milk + Cocoa Bean = Mocha

It’s nice having various collections complete again!

The next quest didn’t have any hidden objectives, so it was a bit more relaxing. We just had to fix his TV, but I also had to change my outfit to be more of an “Adventurer”. A Princess can absolutely adventure in her Princess Dress, Stitch!!

There was then only one quest left… But it didn’t unlock. I have Stitch at level 10 and there’s no other objectives mentioned under the Quest. If it’s the case like Minnie’s and WALL-E’s, I wouldn’t think it’d be in the Quest List at all and if it had a hidden objective or any additional objectives, it’d say that… So, it’s very odd, but regardless, I think it must be bugged in some way and I just hope it’s fixed soon.

It’s possible it could require an extra day, maybe? I don’t know, we’ll just have to wait and see. For now, I did everything I could! Until the Holiday event starts (Still thinking sometime this upcoming week) and this gets fixed, there’s not much else to do right now… But I’ll update this as soon as I can do Stitch’s level 10 Quest.

As for the Holiday Event, that will get its own post!

Edit for December 17th: Stitch’s Level 10 Quest did unlock today! Essentially, we’re getting a band together and I regret not talking to Merlin as well before talking to Kristoff just for the dialogue/lore. It should’ve dawned on me that would end the objective, especially as Stitch heavily hints that Prince Eric and Kristoff will be the band members (a very royal band crew), but I just ran into them immediately after Remy and didn’t think about it.

I did have to remake the Photo Backdrop for the quest, but thankfully I still had the materials. I also always really like when we do a quest in the Castle. I feel like the Castle doesn’t get enough love. Make sure you use the full camera mode and not the selfie close-up mode for the picture as Stitch has to be at the Backdrop for it to count and he’ll move if you’re in the initial Selfie mode.

Unfortunately, it’s another day wait before the next part unlocks which I’m kind of bummed about. Especially as it’ll overlap with what’s likely the start of the Holiday event… so I guess stay tuned to a new entry with both tomorrow.

I have mixed feelings on the gating with some of the quests and specific hours as the game is generally really flexible with time-stuff that it stands out. I get that part of it is it won’t feel as much for people when the game is fully out and they are doing everything together, but I think letting people play at the pace they’d prefer, especially as someone who has days where maybe I can play 12+ hours and other days I can only do like 5 minutes, is just much better accessibility-wise and really doesn’t take away from anyone.

Disney Dreamlight Valley – A new realm is here!

I’ve been looking forward to this update for so long and seeing that trailer and preview image, it looks like Stitch may be here too besides just the Toy Story characters. As a note, despite this entry being finished up today (the 7th), I did play through yesterday on release! It’s actually part of why this entry is a day late– I played essentially all day, partially due to some unluckiness with a few things I’ll explain later in the entry.

Before I made my way to the Castle for the new Toy Story realm, being the Collection-minded person I am, I had to try and make the new recipes first and thankfully, they made more sense than some of the past recipes we had to figure out.

  • Minnie’s Gingerbread Cookies – Ginger, Wheat
  • Gingerbread House – Ginger, Eggs, Wheat, Vanilla, Sugarcane
  • Hot Cocoa – Sugarcane, Cocoa, Milk
  • Fruitcake – Wheat, Any 3 Fruits (I personally did Apple, Raspberry, and Gooseberry)
  • Yule Log – Wheat, Cocoa, Vanilla, Cherry
  • Boba Tea – Milk and Sugarcane
  • Coconut Boba Tea – Milk, Sugarcane, Coconut
  • Gooseberry Boba Tea – Milk, Sugarcane, Gooseberry
  • Mint Boba Tea – Milk, Sugarcane, Mint
  • Raspberry Boba Tea – Milk, Sugarcane, Raspberry

You’ll notice that three items aren’t there yet though: Coffee, Latte, and Mocha, all which require a new ingredient: Coffee Beans. Having finished all the new quests now, I’m also in the “This will probably be gotten through Stitch somehow” group so it’s going to probably be a while as they flat out say it’ll be at least a few days until the next part of the Stitch quest which… kind of stinks. I would say my biggest worry is missing out on a step because I didn’t realize I COULD do another step yet.

Regardless, I really love a lot of the new recipes and decorated with some immediately.

I also took the time to craft some of the new Festive items as well. Sadly, couldn’t really fit the tree in my main room though… The Yule Goat could probably be placed nicer too.

Before making my way to the Realm, I did notice I had a new quest with Merlin and thinking it could possibly be a requisite to opening the new door, I made my way there first. Alas, it was only for various enhancement potions similar to the Watering Can one we got during the last part of the Story. I mostly have mixed feelings on them as honestly, the drop rates for a lot of the other stuff just… kind of sucks. It’s one thing with the Watering which just cuts out the waiting time (which is thankfully better than most other games with farming anyway), but needing the enhancements to make drops not suck makes it feel like you constantly need them. At least it helps the Star Path go faster… I’ll also say that the Fishing Rod when enhanced looks really pretty, though unless you need tons of the Gold pool fish, it doesn’t feel especially helpful.

I also am just… not fond of more items that you just get randomly when doing a specific thing– Rich Soil was kind of annoying and now Red Algae and Onyx too… The only real positive here is that once I do FINALLY get one, they seem to start showing up more, but still was annoying farming them. My crystal collection grows though.

With that done, it was time to make my way over to the Castle and finally unlock the Toy Story Realm.

Even if I wasn’t surprised, I was a little sad it was Bonnie’s room. I have nothing against Bonnie, but having only seen Toy Story 1 and 2 (specifically because I don’t like the message at the end of 3), part of me still hoped to see Andy’s. Despite that, it was still really neat and probably one of my favorite Realm designs so far. I also loved how much we really got to do between puzzles and even going back and forth with other Realms as well through Buzz’s and Woody’s friendship storylines.

I also loved these Cacti. They were so cute with their little faces.

I know people were having trouble finding the “blueprints” you needed to take photos of, so if you were having that issue, here’s all four you need to take photos of:


With the first chunk done, it was time to move Buzz in. His house was a lot smaller than I expected it to be… and also an RV I guess, but it was kind of a relief because I’m still struggling with placing things. It’s honestly really cute though.

The dialogue when you get back to the Valley with Buzz is really great. Also great: Our uniform.

While working on Buzz’s friendship quests, I also stumbled upon a suspicious pile of wet socks on the Beach that unlocked a new quest with Donald and very much seems to be hinting at Stitch. Considering he’s already on the friendship list and the trailer, it definitely feels like this is the way to unlock him.

Since I had to get back to Bonnie’s Room anyway, I also continued the Realm quest to get Woody moved back in. I really love the Farm. Would place in my own Valley. The Origami animals were one of the first things I noticed so it was very easy to find them all.

With that, Woody moved in and I always get kind of emotional whenever there is dialogue about us being the original Ruler and all. I still have so many questions about what happened!!

Unlike Buzz’s house, Woody’s Carousel was MUCH bigger and quite in the need of some work… I thought maybe it’d work like how we had to upgrade/fix Remy’s restaurant, but instead, fixing it up was mostly through Woody’s story quest. Though… I think it could still be upgraded a bit, but it definitely looks a lot better from how it started.

I wish we got to keep one of the cute Space Aliens though…

Regardless, with Woody and Buzz moved in, it meant it was finally time to get Minnie’s and WALL-E’s level 10 Quests done. Minnie’s, thankfully, unlocked right away and while finding the leftovers of the banner was annoying (it really blends in with the Glade of Trust’s glow) and I… clearly did not place the banner well, it was still very cute.

Also in my usual fashion, I still suck at taking pictures with the photospot items… I also hate that we never get to keep them T~T At least we got the Blanket fort this time… I love blanket forts.

There’s just too many nice quest-exclusive items. I loved Ariel’s music box so much too.

It took me several hours to finally get the memory to unlock for WALL-E’s level 10 Quest to unlock. I personally got it from night thorns, but it seems any memory earning activity could lead to it. Just need to hope for good RNG. It was very cute and very short and another lovely quest only item lost, but I’m just glad to have it done.

As for non-quest related things… First, the Star Path: It features a lot of new quests this time and outside of the annoying Kingfish quest (partially due to their rarity combined with them only showing up at Night), I feel like it was a lot more relaxing which was nice. I loved the new Fireplace and of course the new Critter was the first thing I bought.

I’m nearly done with it. I would’ve finished today, but Donald asked for one of the Festive Fish yesterday so I’m one favorite gift short to finish.

Meanwhile, just… in our inventory is this frame we can rotate Memories we’ve gotten through which is nice. I set it up along with some cute Castle photos I’ve gotten. I just wish memory getting wasn’t so slow. It feels like it’s been improved to some extent as yesterday were the most memories I got in a day since the start, but it’s still so slow and getting repeats sucks.

There were also new Event Tasks under “Village” like Halloween ones were around last year. I was able to complete 3/5:
Cookie Taste Test – Eat one of each type of cookie.
A Home for the Holidays – Place 5 Holiday-themed items in your house
Do You Wanna Build a Snowman? – Place a Snowman outside (craft it if you haven’t yet). You can move one you already have out too or just… put it back and place it again.

“Even Fish are Festive!” will probably require you to catch one of each of the Festive Fish, but I don’t believe they are available yet. “Ho! Ho! Ho!” is probably tied to a mini event like Halloween. I would guess the Festive Fish will be available around that same time so just need to wait it out for now…

Considering the Halloween event started a week before Halloween, I’m expecting this event to start a week before Christmas so probably like the 18th? I guess we’ll see closer to then at least…

Disney Dreamlight Valley – The Current Intermediary

So, with Scar’s update done and a lot of goals complete, it’s been kind of quiet time before the Toy Story update hits on December 6th. My current main goals have been clearing out Scrooge’s shop and getting all the Ravens unlocked to finally finish my Critter collection.

Memory Collecting has been partially put on hold, as much as it pains me to not be working on it, just because the low rate has me incredibly discouraged. In a similar sense, I’ve been letting Night Thorns build up due to Star Path tasks usually requiring them which also kind of bums me out.

Despite those things bringing me down, I at least finished my Raven goal! And with that, I have every Critter currently in the game ^-^

I’m also fairly close on Clothing– only missing a Frozen item (which may be bugged?) and Minnie’s and WALL-E’s Level 10 Quest Completion items. I’m really hoping these will be fixed with the upcoming Toy Story update. It’ll be nice to just focus on new stuff in that department and hopefully I won’t run into more issues of not all the spots being filled that I kept having as I got closer to finishing the Clothing Collection. It’s been a pretty rough road, partially due to items just… not appearing even if I needed things and it’s hard to know if the Frozen Collection just should be one less item than it actually is, something is mislabeled, or still an issue from this.

Furniture, however, is still a complete mess, I’ve started to get a little luckier with the furniture selection, but most of the time it’s just repeats of things I already have. I am happy I did manage to get some Clothing and Furniture I’ve been really wanting for quite a while now.



In general, anything that makes my Kitchen pinker and my bathroom actually start looking more like a bathroom is high on my list. I also am so happy to finally have the Dolly Shoes, even if I’m waiting until I can finally have some nice tights to use them.

Regardless, I really hope something is done about the Empty Display issues. It was already frustrating when the windows became permanently empty after getting anything that could rotate there. I just don’t think there should be blank shelves and if all of a priority item type are out, then it should cycle to something else. It’d be nice to have more furniture chances now that I don’t really have any clothing left to check for.

Of course, the main thing keeping me going is how excited I am for the Toy Story Realm. I just hope I’ll find a nice place in the valley for them, assuming we get to move them in. I’m still really undecided on how much decorating I want to do just yet and with the Night Thorns kind of sticking around at the moment, my Valley definitely feels messier than I’d like. Maybe I should at least start setting up the Meadow as it’s where I’ve wanted to move my house for a while.

I have some loose ideas on things I’d like in each Biome and more definite ones with the Meadow and Plaza for now, but with the quest system, I wonder if it’d still be better to wait before I do too many changes.

While I’m still a mess when it comes to my Valley, I did take the time to finally redo my Touch of Magic Dress which I’m much happier with, if only for it now being a nicer shade of pink. I do still have some slots left too so maybe I can add some stuff in the future. I think the only things I may have wanted to do more, if I found a decent way to do it, is have the middle part of the skirt be an even paler pink.

Finally, it’s time to address the Potato in the Room: The Secret Golden Potato. The Golden Potato is the first Redemption/Promotional Code item we’ve gotten, actually hidden in the Halloween image posted on October 24th, with the hint being that the file name was titled “LOOK-CLOSER”.

If you can’t see it, try zooming in towards the bench…


Etched in there is the code: GPOT-OATO-LDFS-ENNM

Upon entering it, you can find a mysterious golden potato in an equally mysterious letter in your mailbox.

It’s not the first time something has been hidden in the background– back before the game even had an Early Access date, there was this image that had some neat Atlantean you could translate— while the last word is cut off, the rest translated to: “If you can read this you are too …”.

Of course, this is the first time there’s been attainable reward for it. The fact that I wasn’t home to do my usual investigations kind of kills me, especially as November has just been insane in general.

Regardless, while we’ve found the code, its use is still a mystery. It’s possible it could be used for something special in the Toy Story Realm (though, I kind of just want to keep it, it’s very cute), but if it is used in some way, I’m not sure how I feel about it being used as a code… Unless this is a way to get a second one to keep as a souvenir.

With the Patch less than 2 weeks away now, there’s also the question of if the Potato will still be redeemable or not when the next big update hits? For now, it’s just another mystery…

If I do anything else worthwhile, or we find out more about this mystery Potato, before December 6th, I’ll edit this entry once more. :)

Edit: Not much else happened, but I DID finally have this chair stock at Scrooge’s store! I managed to fit one in my room and also used it to help shape up the bathroom a bit more.

My Fluffy Life – The Fundraising is back!

The Halloween event has officially ended, but the Fall season is still here to stay and with it comes the Fundraising for Cozy Winter Sweaters, alongside the return of the Fall-themed games like Apple Picking.


Unsurprisingly, another Teddy Bear on the map that I adore.

I’m really glad it seems to have improved since last year with it being milestones to earn Medals (You receive all lower medals in addition to the tier you donate for so, for example, if you donate 300K, you get all the other medals.) instead of a high score table. I’m hoping this means people will be able to continue donating after the milestone is hit as well as otherwise, only two more people need to do that 300K milestone for the donation to close off.

Just in case, if you are planning to donate, be sure to get your donations in early!

I’ll update this again when the Fundraising has finished :)

Edit: And within just a couple hours, the Fundraising has been completed. Unfortunately, it does look like there’s no way to continue donating after hitting the goal! That said, Middlepot did increase the goal last year to allow more people to donate. I hope some option is possible for everyone to contribute for all the Medals even though the goal is released.

If you did donate before the funding was reached, you can interact with the Donation Box to get your Medals! Simply hit the “Get” option and you will receive two of each: One of the actual Medal and one as an Infinite Sticker you can use in your Scrap Book and Mail.

The actual Medals are on the Shelves like Stuffies– you can choose to display them (again, we need more display space so badly T~T) or wear them– Left (The Pearlescent one) is one of the 2021 Medals and Right (The Gold one) is one of the 2022 Medals:

I also made a new page in my Scrapbook to show them all together since… even if I decided to deprive my shelf of Stuffies, I could only show up to 4/5 of just one type at a time.

Edit: As of November 20th, the donation amount required was increased from 1 million to 3 million so be sure to get those donations in! It IS cumulative so if you do 1K now and then maybe 19K later, you’ll get the 20K and all ones below it. You can only get each Medal once so no need to do more than 300K cumulative! There’s also new Minigame items.

Edit: As of November 26th, the donation amount was met once again and is no longer open. I really hope there can be a way for people to donate even after the funding hits its goal.

Genshin Impact gave me the Pokemon Journey I always wanted

Due to a very stubborn friend, I gave Genshin Impact another try July in last year, coinciding with Ayaka’s release that happened to be a few days after my birthday. Playing since then made two things very clear to me:
-The game is a million times more fun when you have a character who’s playstyle jives with you.
-When you’re still early on and learning everything, playing with a friend is such a godsend.

I’ve gotten to a point where I don’t necessarily need to play with someone to get through fights, though sometimes it’s still preferred to get through them faster, but generally if I need help, it’s with the exploration variety. Unfortunately, exploring is where Co-Op suffers a bit as while enemy drops are shared, forageables are not and anything you can find exploring in the world (Oculi, Chests, etc.) only counts for the host– not everyone who is playing together.

Regardless, we’re not here to talk about my general feelings of Genshin Impact, but rather its newest event: Fabulous Fungus Frenzy. The event involves you capturing Fungi with a “Wisdom Orb” to then use in Battle to win a Tournament alongside various new NPCs and a few familiar faces as well all while investigating the host of the event. The inspiration is definitely pretty obvious and with a new Pokemon game just four days away has the timing quite perfect.

While I played Pokemon Blue, collecting the cards, and watched the Pokemon Anime all at the same time, the message from the Anime was always what drew me in the most– not just “Gotta catch ’em all” and trying to finish my dex, but the idea of going on a journey and bonding with these Pokemon which is something that often falls flat in the games themselves.

There’s no miraculous thing that will cause a Pikachu to beat an Onix in the games with an electric attack, max happiness didn’t suddenly make my Pokemon suddenly power up to the extremes and be good enough for any Battle Tower-esque frustrations that suddenly required perfect IVs and specific stats and builds. Sure, type advantages weren’t necessarily the end of the world– I beat Onix with a very overleveled Charmeleon and a Caterpie back in Blue, but it made a difference and especially if your Pokemon was weak to what they were up against, they could go down very fast. There’s no real dodging or motivation to give to your Pokemon. It’s just Rock-Paper-Scissors expanded and hoping your stats are good enough.

And as someone who would get attached to specific Pokemon and desperately wanted to keep that Team together, it sucked to hit areas of the game that essentially said your Team wasn’t good enough because Pokemon Bonds didn’t matter, in the end, no matter what the Anime said. While I continue to play Pokemon games the way I want, as a completionist, this will never be something that doesn’t end up frustrating me.

But Genshin Impact’s Fabulous Fungus Frenzy event’s entire focus was on those Bonds. Sure, some attacks may have been better and each had their own attack styles, but you were forced to keep your special “Starter”, Bongo-Head*, in the party each time regardless of who else you wanted to fight. You essentially had an evil team, you had a rival, you had friends who even leant you their Fungi for the final battle, and while maybe the actual exploring was relatively small (beyond capturing each Fungi, everything was focused in one place), the focus on friendship and the bonds you made with these Fungi and how those bonds will power-through regardless is the one thing I’ve wanted from Pokemon all along. I was so scared maybe my Fungi wouldn’t be good enough, but no, the bonds were strong enough that we could win anyway.

*Bongo-Head was named by Paimon and I’ll be honest, I hate that we did not get any input here unlike all the other Fungi. I get it’s because it was to be voiced and then they would have to voice three different names, but Bongo-Head deserves better. :(

While the Event ended somewhat bittersweet as our Fungi need to go away for now, the promise of seeing them again and future Tournaments in the future has me really excited… But also, why couldn’t I just have a cute Fungi Farm attached to my Teapot, Genshin??? Let me see them whenever!! Or at least be able to spawn them with the Wisdom Orb…

Despite my hopes, we had to have a Tearful Goodbye for now…

Don’t worry, my little Shroom Buddies… Bongo-Head, Bloomsoon, Superswirl, Elebit, Pickinding, Retribushroom, Pyrotechpuff, Windyhead, Hardhat, Tingleshroom… We’ll be reunited soon enough T~T

I’m hoping with Pokemon Violet having various new features from playing in whatever order you want to exploring with friends, maybe that bond of friendship can have some kind of focus, but I feel like as long as the game always puts a focus on IVs and EVs and making combat more convoluted with additional battle gimmicks, that message will unfortunately continue to only be part of the Anime instead.

If you do not play Genshin Impact and are curious about the Event, I have my entire playthrough of all six acts up on Youtube

My Fluffy Life – Halloween 2022!

Halloween returns in My Fluffy Life and unfortunately, it’s still as difficult as last time, or well, at least for me as someone who really struggles with mini-games and the number of tickets/keys required. The Key minigame isn’t hard of course, but… I can only do repeated clicking so much at a time X-x I did buy some things so I only need 800 more Keys, but do need over 20,000 Tickets for all the items (and even more if you didn’t participate last year).

Like last time, I am offering Teddy Coins for Tickets and also Keys! Feel free to mail me in-game (or comment below) if interested if you are way better at the minigames and clicking repeatedly does not slowly break your wrist.

Of all the Events, Halloween was the biggest grind with items generally costing thousands of tickets and this year isn’t any less complicated with that. Most of all, of the items I haven’t gotten yet, I really want the new Bunny Stuffie and well, really should’ve shopped there first as I don’t think I’ll actually be wearing any of the new items.

In addition to Halloween items for Tickets and Black Keys, there are also new items for sale at two of the regular stores and the Rollcake Store on the Laptop. While the black furniture set isn’t really my thing, the Teddy Bear tempts me to keep this out anyway. I also can’t decide which Teddy Bear I like more.

As mentioned, all old items are back alongside the three minigames. There are no new minigames for Tickets which, if you had trouble with any last year to begin with, may not end particularly well.

With Black Keys, you get them through this new Endless Tower game which I had been excited for… before I realized we kind of just stand there while the wallpaper moves and click photos. I really hoped it would be an exploration thing where you solve puzzles to get to floors and earn keys that way (like maybe 50-100 from a chest or something) over… clicking picture frames that have keys in them.

There’s also new Stickers in the Gachapon– 6 new ones in addition to the 9 from last year for a total of 15. I may try to stock up on more of the cute Bunny plush. That said, it seems there is a bug and the stickers are missing from the inventory now…

Speaking of bugs though, my entire scrapbook ended up resetting :( And trying the new reset save feature didn’t fix it which, putting it lightly, had genuinely broken my heart. I’m glad I made this video recently so it’s all backed up in a sense, but there were a lot of photos I put there that I could like… enlarge to look at better or read the Valentine’s and now they’re just gone. I don’t think I’ll be using the Scrapbook again due to this unless it does get fixed.

Anyway, I’m off to try and farm more Tickets and Keys X-x As mentioned at the start, if you would like to trade some for Teddy Coins, let me know! I’ll update this entry after I’ve managed to get everything.

Edit as of 4:30PM EST on October 30th: The sticker and scrap book glitches have been fixed! Yay :D

Edit as of 10:56AM on November 1st, 2022: A big thank you to everyone who has helped out with the Keys and Tickets! I managed to get all the new items! ^-^ Thank you so so so much.