How to unlock Merida in Disney Dreamlight Valley

Merida is the first person you’ll meet upon entering Disney Dreamlight Valley’s Storybook Vale world. Initially, she’s trapped behind some ink, but after clearing it away, she’ll introduce you to the Lorekeeper and the world around you.

You can even befriend Merida and invite her to Dreamlight Valley.

How to unlock Merida in Disney Dreamlight Valley

Unlocking Merida as a Dreamlight Valley village and friend requires completing Storybook Vale’s A New Chapter quest. You’ll access this mission immediately after finishing Welcome to the Storybook Vale, allowing you to befriend her within your first hour of playing.

During this quest, you’ll learn more about one of Storybook Vale’s biomes, The Bind. After collecting some Story Magic, you’ll unlock this area, catch some Snippets, and remove inkies to clean The Bind up slightly. You’ll update Merida on your progress, with the quest’s end requiring you to build her a house.

How to complete A New Chapter quest

You’ll initially begin the A New Chapter quest shortly after completing the Welcome to the Storybook Vale quest. You’ll find Merida outside the library near the well, where you can talk to her about what’s going on, including the nearby biome, The Bind. After collecting 500 Story Magic through finishing Dreamlight Duties, you can unlock The Bind and venture forward.

As you explore your surroundings in The Bind, you and Merida will notice it’s a little rundown from the ongoing Neverafter curse, prompting you to go around and clean it up. Your first objective is to catch five Blue Snippets and remove 15 inkies within the Bind.

Remove inkies and catch Snippets in The Bind

Removing this many inkies isn’t too difficult, as there’s already a ton after opening the biome. However, if you already cleared out a bunch before advancing the quest, you may have to wait a little while for more to spawn. As for the Blue Bird Snippets, they behave similarly to their red counterparts in the library, so finding some will be easy.

Once you clean up The Bind a little, talk to Merida again to talk about your next steps. She wants to learn more about some fountains around the Storybook Vale, giving you free rein to do what you want.

Talk to Scrooge McDuck and Goofy

Folks from Dreamlight Valley are already deciding to visit again, so you’ll take this opportunity to speak with Goofy and Scrooge McDuck to open their respective shops in the Storybook Vale. Talk to them both to receive some new objectives.

They’re both a little reluctant to open shop here first. However, with your help, they’ll have the resources to be successful here, allowing you to visit both whenever you please. You’ll gain the following tasks from these conversations:

• Catch Fish and Seafood around the Bind. (3)
• Mine gems and minerals from the Bind’s mining rocks. (10)

Since the fishing spot and mining rocks behave identically to the base game, you shouldn’t have too much trouble with either. You’ll also gain the chance to spend 2,500 Star Coins to repair The Bind’s Wishing Well as a side project.

With every material on hand, return to Scrooge McDuck and Goofy to open their respective shops. With that done, return to Merida to learn about a secret room below The Bind’s bridge connecting it to the Library of Lore.

Open the mysterious door beneath The Bind’s bridge

Here, you’ll find a wooden door with a bunch of bookshelves inside. Interacting with a nearby broken lantern reveals a hidden mechanism that opens the wall and carries out a wheel, which you can hit with your Royal Net to reactivate the fountains.

Now that the fountains are functional again, Merida is thrilled and ready to relax. She wants to live in Storybook Vale, and, as the protagonist of this story, you offer to lay down its foundations.

Once you place the foundations for Merida’s House and pay 5,000 Star Coins for Scrooge McDuck to finalize it, you’ll officially unlock and welcome Merida into your Disney Dreamlight Valley village.