Haven't played in a while: Should I get Rift first, then Vale DLC later?

[Nightlife]

I've dabbled more at launch - haven't played in a while. I'm not sure I even finished the Toy Story stuff which came out a while ago. Should I log in and try to finish everything I have now? Or get the Rift DLC - work on that for a while or both the Rift and Vale DLC? I don't wanna get over my head in content so looking for advice.

[GrailQuest]

I think the real question is whether you want the cosmetics that come with the "Early Adopter" buy-by-Nov-30 bonus https://x.com/DisneyDLV/status/1859280554409197705 and the magical edition bonuses.

If you can live without it, then there's no hurry to buy it:
- no discount yet
- quite buggy -- but if you are lucky like me (I play on PC Epic Games Store), it won't stop you from finishing all quests
- Star Paths have so far not forced players to own a DLC in order to complete it

Finish the base game, then Rift, then Vale. Meanwhile Vale will be getting bugfix patches.

But if you definitely want the cosmetics from buying early, then the choice is out of your hands.
If you do buy a DLC, you don't have to go to the DLC location and start those missions immediately. You have to unlock Dreamlight Castle and access to the special door leading to the DLC locations in order to start anything there. In this way they are very self-contained and you don't have to feel overwhelmed by too many things happening at the same time.

[SassyAzura]

I wouldn't reccomend it.... game is still super buggy and last I knew there were crashing issues that the devs have yet to fix.... I myself have been having a persistent bug issue that has somehow been yet to be addressed but it's alright so long as they can milk more money out of people

[Nightlife]

Originally posted by GrailQuest:

I think the real question is whether you want the cosmetics that come with the "Early Adopter" buy-by-Nov-30 bonus https://x.com/DisneyDLV/status/1859280554409197705 and the magical edition bonuses.

If you can live without it, then there's no hurry to buy it:
- no discount yet
- quite buggy -- but if you are lucky like me (I play on PC Epic Games Store), it won't stop you from finishing all quests
- Star Paths have so far not forced players to own a DLC in order to complete it

Finish the base game, then Rift, then Vale. Meanwhile Vale will be getting bugfix patches.

But if you definitely want the cosmetics from buying early, then the choice is out of your hands.
If you do buy a DLC, you don't have to go to the DLC location and start those missions immediately. You have to unlock Dreamlight Castle and access to the special door leading to the DLC locations in order to start anything there. In this way they are very self-contained and you don't have to feel overwhelmed by too many things happening at the same time.

Okay thanks. That pre-order outfit is nice but not sure it's worth getting the DLC just for that. I'm close to finishing the base game I think. Last I played Scar was a new character in the Valley (a while ago I know.) I'd like to maybe play the game an hour or two a few times a week - more casual. It does scratch a terrific Disney itch I admit!

P.S. Is there any site or something you can suggest so I know when I've finished all the "base game" content? I'd like a little direction on what I should be doing I think.

[GrailQuest]

Originally posted by Nightlife:

P.S. Is there any site or something you can suggest so I know when I've finished all the "base game" content? I'd like a little direction on what I should be doing I think.

I like this one https://dreamlightvalleywiki.com/Quests
Clean and businesslike, ads not intrusive, not a wall of stupid for-SEO padding text just to find out the ingredients for a recipe.
It's also not always the fastest to get updated -- for example, the SBV recipes aren't all there yet last I looked. But for base game stuff, it should be complete.

[Nightlife]

Originally posted by GrailQuest:

Originally posted by Nightlife:

P.S. Is there any site or something you can suggest so I know when I've finished all the "base game" content? I'd like a little direction on what I should be doing I think.

I like this one https://dreamlightvalleywiki.com/Quests
Clean and businesslike, ads not intrusive, not a wall of stupid for-SEO padding text just to find out the ingredients for a recipe.
It's also not always the fastest to get updated -- for example, the SBV recipes aren't all there yet last I looked. But for base game stuff, it should be complete.

great - thanks!!

[Myth Alric]

You don't need to do all the friendship quests in the game to 'finish' the main story. And likely, after finishing the main story you will still have quests left over. They are still adding new characters to the main game too. In fact, I think there has been like 8 new characters since the main story ended last year. If you only got to scar, it will probably take a while to finish all the quests. There is currently 39 characters in the base game.

[GrailQuest]

I forgot to mention that the Rift DLC has a couple of really good QoL items you can craft:
- Ancient Gardener which can automatically water your crops, so something like the Pumpkin which requires you to water more than once before you harvest can be automated
- Ancient Vacuum which can automatically pick up certain classes of items in a biome. I use it for Dark Wood which is a pain in the arse to spot

So if you have the Rift DLC it might be worthwhile to take a sidetrip there and grind out the unlocks for these two items.