The characters living in your village are a big part of Disney Dreamlight Valley, delightful citizens you'll certainly you'll love to have around. There's a lot to discover about the friendship mechanic of the game, and it's one that's worth taking the time to learn since it'll give you some fantastic perks as you continue playing.
As you play, you can increase your friendship with the inhabitants of the Valley and earn themed rewards as you go. You do this by becoming closer with your villagers, to improve their mood and yours. It's a fun mechanic and given who these characters are it's quite a unique experience.
This guide is based on Early Access content, and as such may be subject to change in the future.
Updated December 20, 2022, by Ashely Claudino: As Disney Dreamlight Valley continues to grow with constant content updates and quality-of-life improvements, more gamers have been joining the game's community. New characters have been added and it's only natural that you'll need to increase your friendship level with them as well. We've added some crucial information to this guide regarding Chez Remy's restaurant's importance to relationships as well as the hanging out mechanic.
Ways To Increase Your Friendship Level
Each character has its own friendship meter, and as you increase your level with them, your own character will improve their level and be able to accumulate more energy to perform daily tasks. That's not the only perk, either — each time you increase your friendship level with a character, you'll receive a gift.
This can be a themed clothing article, motif or piece of furniture, or Star Coins. The character will also improve their task performance in their assigned roles. Here are the key ways you can increase your friendship.
Chatting
This seems pretty obvious, right? However, this method is easily overlooked and forgotten. Simply approaching the characters wandering around the Valley and talking to them will improve your relationship with them. Sometimes they'll even ask you questions about yourself. A conversation with a Disney character is always a lovely interaction to have.
Gifting
Just like in Animal Crossing, you can give your neighbors gifts to make them like you a little bit more. Each day there are three specific items that they'll enjoy more than usual. You can check out these items by opening up your menu, visiting the Collection tab, and going to the Characters list. Select the different characters to see what they prefer on a certain day.
You can also do this by interacting with them when you see them. And, if you open your inventory and there's an icon with a purple icon then it's either a quest item or someone's favorite thing for the day.
Hanging Out
Once you reach Friendship level 2 with a character, you'll have to give them a role in the community. They can either become better at gardening, fishing, mining, foraging, or digging. And, the next time that you speak with them, you'll have to option to invite them to hang out — they'll be your temporary companion. While you're hanging out they'll be able to collect items and resources with you.
Not only this but each time you do something related to their role while hanging out with them, it'll give a slight boost to your friendship with the character. For example, if you give Mickey Mouse the gardening role, each time to harvest a vegetable it'll increase your friendship with him. If you have a ton of crops to tend to, you will certainly level up in no time. This is why it's always worth the time to approach characters and ask them to hang out with you.
Missions
If a character has a purple sparkle icon over their hands, it means that they have a friendship quest for you. So, if you talk to them during this time they'll give you a task that you'll have to complete in order to increase their friendship with you.
This might take longer than the other methods but it's crucial to progressing through the game and completing the main storyline.
Serving Food
You should definitely check your map from time to time to see where characters are hanging out. If they're visiting Chez Remy - Remy's restaurant - it's likely that they're waiting on an order and you can go in and make it for them.
If a character is sitting down at a table with a meal icon above their head, it means that they've ordered it. If you know the recipe, you can cook it and then give it to them. This will greatly increase your friendship bar with them, especially if you haven't invested too much in the friendship yet.
You have to be quick making though, the villagers are always moving from place to place and if you don't have the ingredients nearby, you might return and find that they've already left the restaurant.