How to prepare for the Emotional Rescue update in Disney Dreamlight Valley

Disney Dreamlight Valley is rolling out its Emotional Rescue update on Wednesday, August 20, bringing two new characters to the valley for us to invite. But you can't just enjoy all the new toys right away; there will be a number of challenges to work on and hoops to jump through to get Joy and Sadness to our valley, alongside a new realm to unlock, which means a lot of work to someone who's not quite ready to jump straight in.

It's hard to know exactly what to prepare since we don't know the content of the quests we'll be expected to work through. With that in mind, this guide won't tell you exactly what recipes you need to perfect or items you need to craft; it's a more general guide to the things you should do to make getting into the update more streamlined.

How to prepare for the Emotional Rescue update in Disney Dreamlight Valley

As always, there's nothing you're required to do to unlock this update. These are the steps I'll be taking to prepare for the update so I can get straight to unlocking Joy and Sadness, but you can take everything at your own pace if you'd rather. Here's what I'll be doing:

Unlock as many realms in the Dream Castle as possible

If you've already made plenty of progress in Disney Dreamlight Valley, you probably already have a lot of the realms in the Dream Castle unlocked. If you're a new player though, or if you've favoured unlocking your favourite characters before anyone else, you'll want to focus on gaining access to these realms as quickly as you can. It's unlikely that you'll need them to invite Joy and Sadness to your valley, but you'll no doubt need to have a strong friendship with a character locked away in a realm as you make your way through their friendship quests.

I've been held back a few times by characters I haven't unlocked yet, such as Belle and the Beast, and it's surprisingly frustrating, especially when you have just spent all your Dreamlight on unlocking the newest character. So, ahead of the next update, I'm making sure that I have unlocked as many characters as possible and have at least a level 3 friendship with them to prevent encountering any roadblocks.

Save up plenty of Dreamlight

This point goes hand in hand with the above, but having a decent bank of Dreamlight to use will be essential for this update. We don't know how much the Inside Out realm will cost, but if it's anything like the Jasmine and Aladdin realm, we're probably looking at around 15,000. You won't be able to take on any quests or unlock Joy and Sadness until you've gained access to their realm, so it's best to have the ability to unlock it straight away rather than worrying about having to stock up first.

By completing Dreamlight duties and digging any spots around the valley which might have dream shards tucked away, you can increase your reserves pretty quickly. 15,000 sounds like a daunting number to match, especially if you're starting from zero, having unlocked multiple other realms already. But, once your great Dreamlight grind is underway, it's actually not that challenging.

Try to lump Dreamlight duties together as well so you can cash in multiple at once, such as serving a meal in the restaurant, cooking a 4-star meal, and cooking a meal with a specific ingredient. Ticking these off together will speed up the process massively, and you'll then be able to quickly move on to whatever task is next.

Get mining

Although we don't know the content of the quests leading up to unlocking Joy and Sadness, I feel like collecting shiny gemstones corresponding with the emotions' colours will play a part in them. As a result, I will definitely be spending a lot of time mining to collect as many gems as I can in case they are needed in substitute of Riley's memories.

Even if this doesn't play a part in the quests, I'll at least have a surplus of crafting materials to use should Joy or Sadness need me to bring their machine dreams to life. That in itself could be a pointer, since crafting materials are definitely needed for all of these character unlock quests, but that just goes without saying.