How to prepare for The Storybook Vale in Disney Dreamlight Valley

Disney Dreamlight Valley is getting its second expansion pass on November 20, so if you've been waiting to tie up loose ends with any active quests or you want an excuse to get back in the valley, this is it. The Storybook Vale will bring three new biomes and a handful of new characters to valley, and if you're like me there's a chance you're worrying about how you can prepare before its launch to make sure you're ready to jump into a new story the second it becomes available. 

To clarify, there's nothing you need to do before The Storybook Vale launches, but there are few things you should consider doing to give yourself a headstart and make sure you can get stuck into the DLC without hitting any hurdles like having no money to unlock areas. With three new biomes to explore, new items to farm, and new recipes to unlock, there is plenty of stuff waiting for us. Making sure we're prepared enough will guarantee a fast track into the DLC without any annoying pauses to play catch up, and here's how I would advise you to do so. 

How to get ready for The Storybook Vale 

Even though there's no progress requirements  to get ready for The Storybook Vale, there is still some advice I would share for anyone who wants to do an extra bit of work to make the beginning as streamlined as possible.  

Make some money 

The first thing to do to prepare is make sure you've got some money squirrelled away. Having plenty of Star Coins will take the strain off once you're in the Vale, since you'll need to unlock things like Goofy's Stall and Wishing Wells to activate fast travel in the new biomes. If you've been playing for a while, costs like this will creep up on you since it's probably been a while since you last unlocked one. Making sure you've got more than enough in the bank will save you the stress of having to fish for hours or cook 5-star meals to sell and stop you from getting stuck in with the story. 

The best way to make money quickly is through cooking. Preparing basic meals with whatever you've got lying around, like fruit salad, is a guaranteed way to make some consistent money. But making high quality, 5-star meals is the best way to make a lot of money quickly. Items like Birthday Cake and Banana Split will sell for several hundred Star Coins at a time, giving you a reasonable amount of money to get started.  

Build some chests 

Making sure you've crafted plenty of chests to place around the Vale will also keep you from spending time running back to your valley to store things every time your inventory fills up. As we already know, the Vale will have a lot of new resources and forageable ingredients for us to collect, but we still don't have a huge amount of pocket space to take everything home. Making chests and buying wardrobes now will give you plenty of space to stockpile new items in the expansion. 

A basic chest can be crafted with 25 x softwood and 25 x stone, which I guarantee you've got tucked away in your storage already. If you don't, then softwood can be found across every biome in the valley, and stone can be mined from any rock spot around. These chests will give you 16 inventory spaces, so if you can craft multiple you should have more than enough space for all your new foragables.  

Finish up any friendship quests and clear some space 

Although not essential, finishing up any friendship quests you have active will also make your life easier while you take on new quests with the characters joining the roster in The Storybook Vale. I usually get slightly overwhelmed when I've got more than two or three quests to track at one time, so making sure you're as up to date as you can be will help clear your to-do list for the future. Hopefully there won't be any crazy "get to level 10 friendship" requirement for any specific character, but at least if there is you will be a decent chunk ahead.

In advance of welcoming new characters to the valley, it's worth thinking about where you'd place villager houses too. We know that Merida and Flynn Rider will be unlockable in the first part of the DLC, so making sure we've got enough space for their homes is important. Of course, we can place homes in the new biomes, but if you want to reunite Flynn and Rapunzel you'll probably want to think about house placement before you're pressured to. The last thing you want is to get to a point where you're welcoming new characters, and have to move things like a bush or tree before placing a house.