How to level friendship fast in Disney Dreamlight Valley

"You've got a friend in me."

Screengrabs via Gameloft | Remix by Kacee Fay

One of the best aspects of the life-sim adventure game Disney Dreamlight Valley is the ability to befriend all manner of beloved Disney characters. In addition to the fun of getting to know your favorite Disney characters better, players will also be heavily rewarded for investing time and energy into friendships.

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Every Disney Dreamlight Valley character has a set of nine rewards unique to them that players may earn by growing closer to them. Two of these, the fourth and seventh levels of friendship, are always Star Coin rewards, but otherwise, players will find a set of entirely distinctive rewards including furniture, motifs, hairstyles, accessories, and clothing themed after both the character and film they are from.

Screengrab via Gameloft

Related: All leaked characters for Disney Dreamlight Valley

Increasing your friendship with villagers will not only grant you these unique rewards but also will make hang-out sessions with the villager you level up with more profitable and may even help you to unlock new abilities that will allow for an easy time traversing through Dreamlight Valley. Those seeking to easily attain more resources and unlock all of Dreamlight Valley will need to focus on leveling up their friendships with all Disney characters.

Best ways to increase friendship in Disney Dreamlight Valley

The process of raising friendships in Disney Dreamlight Valley can be done in quite a few different ways. For the best results, players should try to do as many of these as they can to grow closer to their Disney villagers.

Image via Gameloft

Bring villagers their favorite gifts

Each day, every village will have three specific gifts that they desire. These change on a daily basis and will heavily reward players with a massive friendship boost when they grant each villager any of the requested favorite gifts for the day.

In terms of how good of a method for raising friendship this is, the massive boost provided by gifting characters their favorite gifts of the day is one of the best ways to quickly level up with any desired character.

Screengrab via Gameloft

Players can find out what each character desires for that day by finding the villager on the character page under the collection section or by talking to the villager in question and telling them that you have something to give them. If you opt for the second method but do not have one of the desired gifts, you can simply back out and go find it then go back to the villager once you have attained it.

Characters can be gifted just about anything in Disney Dreamlight Valley, but the boost players will see in friendship for their daily favorite gifts is far greater than the small rise that will occur with any other item outside of their daily favorite gifts. However, if you find yourself unable to attain the favorite gifts for a character one day and still want to give the said character a gift, flowers are the best choice because they generally provide a better boost than other regular gifts.

Have daily discussions with villagers

One easy and important way to raise your friendship fast with villagers in Disney Dreamlight Valley is by having a daily discussion with them every day. To do so, all players need to do is approach the villager they wish to raise their friendship with and select the option that has the speech bubble with three dots inside it.

Screengrab via Gameloft

Players can only have one daily discussion with each villager per day. While daily discussions do not provide much of a friendship increase, it is quite quick and easy to do, so those seeking to raise their friendship with all villagers as quickly as possible should be sure to utilize this feature every day.

Hang out with villagers

One of the easiest methods for raising friendships is by spending quality time with Disney characters. This method is especially great because players can simply go about their business and do whatever they wish to do with a Disney character following them around and they will experience friendship gains while doing so.

To hang out with villagers, players will first need to raise their friendship with the desired villager to level two. Upon reaching level two, players will need to then select which friendship role they want for that character.

Screengrab via Gameloft

All friendship roles in Disney Dreamlight Valley

Once players reach friendship level two with a character, they can then assign them a role. There are five roles in total, each of which is centered around one specific activity in Disney Dreamlight Valley.

  • There is the Gardening role, which allows the chosen character to find more crops when in a hangout session with the player when they harvest crops.
  • There is the Fishing role, which allows the chosen character to find more fish when hanging out with the player actively fishing.
  • There is the Mining role, which allows the chosen character to find more minerals when in a hangout session with players actively mining around Dreamlight Valley.
  • There is the Foraging role, which allows the chosen character to find more loot when hanging out with the player while harvesting crops and fruits from the wild.
  • There is the Digging role, which allows the chosen character to find more loot when in a hangout session with players who are actively digging for items.

Once you have chosen the role you desire for the character, it will then be locked in and cannot be changed. As players go around Dreamlight Valley hanging out with the character of their choice, they will experience friendship boosts and gain even more of a friendship increase while the activity they are performing corresponds with the chosen role of the Disney character at their side.

Screengrab via Gameloft

While specifically engaging in the activity of the role that you chose for a character will provide a greater friendship boost, you will gain a smaller boost from doing any other activities as well. Thus, it is best to primarily focus on the main role but also stop for any other activities that you desire to do along the way as pretty much any activity will grant a bit of a friendship boost.

Ultimately, the best strategy with this method is to always have a village at your side no matter what task you are doing to ensure that you are always building up your friendships regardless of if you are focusing on doing so or not.

Cook villagers their requested order at Chez Remy

Once you have unlocked Remy from Ratatouille and helped him open his very own restaurant, all villagers residing in Dreamlight Valley will occasionally stop in and request some kind of meal. The villagers dining at Chez Remy regularly shift and players can view who is currently there at any time by viewing the restaurant on their map or heading directly to the restaurant to check.

Players will need to utilize their own ingredients to cook at Chez Remy but can also purchase a select few ingredients there. A kitchen is located within the restaurant and Remy will always join players when they cook at his establishment to help them be more successful at cooking.

Screengrab via Gameloft

When cooking up a dish for a character, players can watch Remy’s reactions to see if the dish that they are creating will turn out to be good or bad. If Remy looks upset, you did something wrong during the process while if he looks happy, you are on the right track and it will be an excellent dish.

Once you have completed cooking the requested dish, you may then give it to the character you cooked it for by approaching them and selecting the option that tells them you have their order ready. The friendship boost for delivering the requested meal is quite a large one and players who are seeking to level up all friendships fast should thus check in at Chez Remy frequently to see who is dining there.

Complete friendship quests

Every villager has a series of quests that players may complete as they progress further in their friendship. Not only does completing these quests heavily raise friendship with the chosen character, but completion of these quests also sometimes provide other helpful benefits like unlocking the ability to get rid of tree stumps or clear mushrooms.

Screengrab via Gameloft

Not every quest that players are given will be one that rewards friendship experience. Some quests will instead grant players regular experience or other rewards.

Gift villagers a Purified Night Shard

Crafting and then gifting a Purified Night Shard provides a massive friendship boost. Five Night Shards and one Dream Shard are required to craft this item.

However, due to the current issue of meager Dream Shard drops, players should stick to the other methods of raising friendship and not utilize this method until Gameloft has fixed the drop rate as they have confirmed they plan to do so. Even when the drop rate is increased, players should still be wary of this method as they may need quite a few Dream Shards for future quests to progress further in the game.

Author
Image of Kacee Fay
Kacee Fay
Staff Writer at Dot Esports covering new releases and a wide array of topics including Minecraft, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Phasmophobia, general gaming, streaming, and more. She has been avidly writing and gaming her whole life and now spends her time combining the two. Kacee graduated from San Diego State University in 2021 with a Bachelor’s Degree in English and a Certificate in Creative Editing and Publishing. She then joined Dot Esports as a Freelance Writer in 2022 before transitioning to a Staff Writer in 2023. In her spare time, she enjoys buying more books than she can read, gaming alone or with friends, drinking too much tea, attending concerts, fangirling over movies and television, listening to music, and spending time with her family, friends, and pets, who are the most important parts of her world.