Dave the Diver Gets Spooky Crossover with Dredge Free DLC
Dec. 11, 2023Dave the Diver Gets Spooky Crossover with Dredge Free DLC
The Adventure RPG Dave the Diver is getting a free DLC adding new depths with a Dredge crossover.
Developer Mintrocket has teamed up with Black Salt Games for a Dredge crossover in Dave the Diver. The free Dredge DLC will be coming to the game onDecember 15thfor platforms PC and Switch.
The casual RPG adventure will tie in a crossover with the single-player Lovecraftian title Dredge. This was also a nominee for the indie category at TGA. It’s a perfect match, as Dave the Diver will be gaining new depths (literally) that are infested with Aberrated fish. New boat mechanics will shake up the experience, along with strange hooded figures showing up at the restaurant.
It will all kick off with the Traveling Merchant from Dredge showing up and meeting Dave. He will request him to catch Aberrated Fish or mutated versions of the sea creatures found in the sea. These fish have their own attack patterns, meaning you will have to be on guard for these troublesome new foes.
By driving Dave’s boat, you can navigate to a new area of the Blue Hole. This will also open up a salvage system from Dredge to uncover sunken treasure. It’s great we’ll get to explore more of Dave’s world, as up until now we haven’t been able to manually steer the boat, but had a couple of predetermined destinations.
A new unique weapon will appear in the DLC called The Drain Gun which specialises in using one of the effects of the Aberrated Fish. What’s cool about this gun is that while it does damage, it can also heal Dave.
But who would enjoy these potentially poisonous-looking fish? Well, remember those strange hooded customers that I mentioned earlier? They are the exact market for these dangerous creatures of the sea. While normal customers don’t seem to care for the aberrations, the Lovecraftian patrons have a unique taste for unusual sushi. Unlike normal customers who are satisfied with just one plate of sushi, these mysterious figures will keep ordering food until the restaurant closes. So it’s best to stock up and satiate their appetite as they are well-paying customers.
If you’re worried about being over-stocked on Aberrated Fish, worry not, as the Traveling Merchant will take them off your hands at the end of the day. I’m just hoping we get an explanation as to why these strange customers have turned up all of a sudden. Hopefully, they just want the fish and aren’t a sign something bigger is coming to the shores of Blue Hole…
One good thing to look forward to besides this major DLC is an update for the Switch version of the game. If you’ve played Dave the Diver on the Switch you will know that loading times aren’t great. While this isn’t unique to the game as manyports of titlestend to have longer loading times comparable to other platforms or have had content adjusted for the platform. Developer Mintrocket has heard your pleas and has addressed them in the next update.
Shaving off roughly 6 seconds of loading time between the boat and arriving at the sushi restaurant. I will say that the loading times in my opinion aren’t a deal breaker in their current state, but it does become tiresome to have to sit through a long loading screen between activities. This sped-up load time for both the sushi restaurant and startup should help with immersion and get you back into the game faster.
Mintrocket will continue to work on the load times which is awesome that they have taken feedback from players and are continually looking for ways to improve. Ultimately it’s due to the Switch’s aging hardware. Hopefully, we’ll get wind of a new Switch with updated specs next year to reduce these kinds of problems with games going forward, but there’s no word on this yet.
Making improvements to the Sea People Village, the Beluga Taxi will be able to be continually used per session once called, even if you enter a building. This will surely make the village more of a fun place to visit without having to worry about your Beluga disappearing just because you stepped inside for a minute.
One pesky issue that has been resolved is the celebratory thumbs-up that Dave gives when carving a large fish. This would occasionally cause him to be stuck when being attacked. It will now let you cancel the animation without risking Dave’s life in the process.
If you have yet to pick up either title Dave the Diver or Dredge, you can get the combined bundle on December 15th which lets you get both titles in one neat package.
This doesn’t seem to be the last collaboration that the developer will do either. They mention in the dev video that they are on the lookout for future crossovers. I think it’s awesome that not only has the studio decided to honour another studio’s creativity with a DLC but have made it free for players to enjoy. We’ve seen collaborations with such titles such asDead Cells, which had collaborationswithHollow Knightand more which also came as a free update.
I wonder if we will see further studio spirit in future as it’s wonderful to see studios inspire each other and support one another by featuring aspects of their games. It also invites different fan bases to try new games through crossovers. If you haven’t checked out Dave the Diver I highly suggest getting it as it has some fun gameplay and mechanics.
Also if you haven’t checked out Dredge, well this clip sums up our experience quite well:
Yuria
News Editor at Fextralife. Yuria is an avid PC gamer and Twitch streamer who enjoys online multi-player games and believes games should have amazing storylines not just great graphics.
