The next Disney Dreamlight Valley update will not only bring new characters to befriend, new Quests to complete, and new Realms to unlock, but also major changes to how Star Paths function. Disney Dreamlight Valley has experimented with changes to the Star Path formula several times over the past year, most notably with the introduction of Bonus Duties. The upcoming Retro Roadtrip Star Path, which celebrates throwback fashion and end-of-summer style, will feature large-scale changes that could fundamentally alter how players tackle Star Paths.
The Next Star Path Will Remove Time Gating Entirely
Star Paths are essentially Disney Dreamlight Valley's battle passes. Players can complete Duties to earn Tokens, which are then exchanged for clothing, furniture, Moonstone, and Dream Style rewards. Typically, there are around 70-100 different Duties to complete during the Star Path. While new Duties have been added over time, several standbys have been around since the very first Star Paths in 2022, and some of those Duties will no longer appear in Retro Roadtrip. The removed Duty types are:
- Giving favorite Gifts to specific Villagers
- Crafting Training Manuals
- Participating in DreamSnaps competitions
- Serving meals in the Village's restaurants, Chez Remy and Tiana's Palace
- Hanging Out or having Daily Discussions with Villagers - except for the two new characters introduced in the update, Joy and Sadness from Pixar's Inside Out
Notably, the duties that are removed are the ones that require logging in regularly over multiple days. For example, previous Star Paths would require players to give five Favorite Gifts to a Villager, such as Merlin or Mickey Mouse, but each Villager can receive only three Favorite Gifts per day. Alternatively, players might be tasked with completing three Boutique Challenges for Daisy Duck, when only one Boutique Challenge can be completed per real-world day.
It is now technically possible to complete all standard Star Path duties in a single day, although it is not necessarily advisable to do so.
Bonus Duties Will Be Released On A Weekly Rotation
Players who want to earn Bonus Rewards in the next Disney Dreamlight Valley Star Path will now need to complete Routine Duties, which will be released weekly every Wednesday. An example set of Routine Duties has been revealed on the official Disney Dreamlight Valley Web page, consisting of tasks such as purchasing items at Scrooge McDuck's store. This means that there will still be an element of time-gating, but only for Bonus Rewards. In addition, Routine Duties do not go away, so players who want to complete them all at once simply need to wait until they are all revealed.
In a "Star Path Deep Dive" blog post on the official Dreamlight Valley website, the Gameloft team revealed that the changes to Star Path functionality were made as a result of player feedback. Removed Duties were based both on frustration with time-gating and newer players finding themselves unable to complete Star Paths as they had not unlocked certain characters or the ability to create and submit DreamSnaps.
"We received feedback that certain Star Path duties felt repetitive or impossible to complete since some duties require a character or a game feature to be unlocked," the post explains. "To fix this, we’re introducing Routine Duties and will remove locked, multi-day, and other restrictive duties to make progression smoother for all players."
This is a wise decision, particularly the removal of character-based Duties, because, as of the upcoming update, Disney Dreamlight Valley will now have close to fifty Villagers, not counting characters exclusive to the A Rift in Time and Storybook Vale expansions. Unlocking every character is no longer the fairly straightforward process it was when Disney Dreamlight Valley launched in Early Access, and it is good that Gameloft is making changes to acknowledge that. It remains to be seen whether the changes to Star Paths will be permanent, but if player feedback is positive, they may very well remain in place.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 75 /100 Critics Rec: 77%
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- unity
- Multiplayer
- Online Co-Op
- Cross-Platform Play
- All platforms
- Cross Save
- All platforms (requires purchasing the game separately on each platform)
- Franchise
- Disney
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Verified
- Genre(s)
- Life Simulation, Casual
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PC, iOS
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
- How Long To Beat
- 33 Hours
- X|S Optimized
- yes
