For gamers, nothing beats the thrill of when one of your favorite games drops a new expansion pass. For me, that’s currently A Rift in Time, Disney’s new DLC for their Disney Dreamlight Valley base game.
Although some of you are new to the Disney Dreamlight Valley, or DDV, the game has been in early release for the last year or so, and it’s gathered quite a fan base. In case you’re not familiar with it yet, you should check out our Disney Dreamlight Valley review. The newest addition, A Rift in Time, seems to be catching on quite fast and further deepening the Dreamlight Valley sim life adventure game.
Is it worth the additional cost? What does it include? Hop onto the “Disney Dreamlight Valley – A Rift in Time” ride and find out.
How Do You Get the Rift in Time in Disney Dreamlight Valley?
Even though the expansion pass and the official exit of Disney Dreamlight Valley from its early release phase both happened on the same day, they are two separate components.
Disney Dreamlight Valley is the base game, with a cost of 39.99$. You can play it without having to purchase the Rift in Time DLC. In case you want to expand your adventure and get “A Rift in Time”, you will have to pay an additional 29.99$, so get ready to loosen the purse strings. And no, A Rift in Time is not included in the Xbox Game Pass subscription.
Once you’ve paid the piper, you will need to do these quests in order for the expansion pass to kick in:
- The Dream Castle – a quest from Merlin
- Making Cents of Things – a quest from Scrooge
- Fishing Expedition – a quest from Goofy
- Scrooge McDuck’s Grand Re-opening – a quest from Scrooge
After finishing those tasks, a gray plinth will appear at the base of the bridge leading to the Dream Castle in the Plaza. There you’ll have a chance to chat with our old nemesis from Aladdin, Jafar. Jafar will sweet talk you into doing the Port of Many Worlds quest, which will start the Rift in Time adventure.
To answer your question: no, you cannot start the DLC at the same time you’re starting the base game as those quests are (just a bit) further down the road.
Some players have experienced a glitch while trying to add the Rift in Time expansion, but a simple restart of the game fixes that right up.
What does A Rift in Time Expansion Pass Offer?
To cut to the chase: A Rift in Time is a whole new story. The expansion introduces a new plot, three new characters, new tools and currency and an enormous new land called Eternity Isle.
It seems that Jafar meddled in some magic and managed to get the whole Eternity Isle lost in time. It’s again up to you to straighten this out and this time with the help of your little robot helper from WALL-E, EVE, Rapunzel (another character from Tangled) and Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. Along with these three and with the latest update, you will have a chance to add Jack Skellington to the bunch.
The DLC offers new quests, new crafting mechanisms and tool upgrades and it will take you about 11 hours to get through all the adventures in the three new Biomes.
It’s a lot, and it’s just the first of many new expansions in the works. So far, so good.
New Biomes in Disney Dreamlight Valley: A Rift in Time
The new area is huge, almost the same size as the whole Valley in Disney Dreamlight. There are 3 new Biomes called Ancient’s Landing, Glittering Dunes and The Wild Tangle. Each Biome has subsections, so there is loads to unravel. Although some areas do look a lot like certain areas in Dreamlight Valley (the Plains look somewhat like the Sunlit Plateau) they are nice to go through.
You can decide if you want to place a character’s home in the Valley or add them to Eternity Isle, which is a great option. However, you cannot have them in both places. This kind of sucks as a lot of us spent a significant amount of time decorating the areas in the Valley according to the houses. The good thing is that your house is available in both the Valley and Eternity Isle and Scrooge’s store and Remy’s cafe will appear in Eternity Isle upgraded on the same level as it was in the Valley.
The characters, on the other hand, will move between both locations. Sometimes, you’ll need to check both maps and use fast travel to engage with someone. Don’t worry, this will only occur when you’re not in the midst of a specific quest involving these characters, as they’ll conveniently appear in the required area during those times.
There are new critters to befriend: monkeys, cobras and capybaras. Feeding and doing tasks and quests involving them is very similar to the base game, so not a lot of change there. There are new types of fish and other sea creatures, as well as new fruit, veggies and recipes to combine them. As a person who absolutely loves cooking with Remy, this was a great add-on to the game.
New Tools, New Crafting Mechanisms, New Currency with A Rift in Time Expansion Pass
After completing Jafar’s second quest, ‘Flying Metal Nuisance,’ along with two additional quests involving Goofy and Scrooge, you’ll unlock a shiny new tool: the hourglass. Initially, its function is limited to clearing smaller Swirling Sands and locating items that were lost in time. As you advance further, you’ll gain access to a new crafting feature known as the Timebending Table, allowing you to expand the hourglass’s capabilities and possibilities.
So, the regular crafting table and the Timebending Table serve different purposes. The Timebending Table is like an upgraded version – it’s versatile. You can upgrade your hourglass, make amazing Ancient tools and furniture, and create figurines for the fun new mini-game called Scramblecoin. It’s a whole new crafting system that brings in stuff not originally in the base game, and honestly, I’m really happy about it.
The Ancient tools is a very welcomed set of devices to help you automate your gardening and cooking. It will take you a while to gather all the necessary materials to build all of them, but it’s definitely worth it. If you’re not a fan of planting seeds only to come back in an hour to find them all withered, this will be an awesome upgrade. It’s not completely free to use it, as you will need to “pay” the machine to do the work for you, but it will make your life on the Isle easier.
While we’re on the subject of payment—there’s this new currency on Eternity Isle called “Mist.” It’s taken over from Dreamlight and works exclusively there. Getting it is pretty straightforward: complete quests, take down Swirling Sands, tinker with the hourglass, or handle Mist duties, similar to Dreamlight ones. Just like Dreamlight, you can use Mist to unlock Biomes and upgrade your tools and machines. Unfortunately, there is no way to craft it.
Scramblecoin – A New Mini Game in Disney Dreamlight Valley
Before starting A Rift in Time, I browsed tons of Reddit posts discussing this new in-game game, and most people weren’t thrilled about it. And then I played it and fell in love. And I mean, FELL IN LOVE. If this were a standalone game, I would purchase it tomorrow. That’s how much I’m into it.
Basically, Scramblecoin is a board game that slightly resembles chess or checkers. There’s an 8×8 two-colored board filled with obstacles. The goal is to collect as many coins as you can by using a combination of 5 figurines at your disposal. In the beginning, you’ve got only a few figurines, but as you progress through matches against your computer opponent, you unlock better ones with broader moves.
There are not enough positive words to use to describe my fascination with this game. It’s relaxing, it’s fun, it’s challenging. I mean, if that’s not enough to get you to try it, I don’t know what is. A lot of players complained about some mechanisms that seem unfair (E.g., you always start as the player with the opening move, which does give you a disadvantage), but that’s just loser talk. Us winners know you don’t need an advantage when you’ve got skills. Just kidding. Or not.
The “negative” part about Scramblecoin is that some duties require you to win to gain a lot of Mist. This might be annoying to those who don’t enjoy the game. Also, you are not able to play it against other online players through the Multiplayer option, which is a huge bummer. Hopefully, this will be fixed in future updates.
Disney Dreamlight Valley: Multiplayer options
With December’s “The Pumpkin King Returns” update, you have the option to play Disney Dreamlight Valley with your friends. If you’re unsure how to do this, check the paragraph below.
How to unlock the Multiplayer option in Disney Dreamlight Valley?
After reaching Friendship Level 4 with Vanellope, she’ll offer you the Valley Visit quest. At the end of your chat with her, she’ll give you the Valley Visit Station, which you can place anywhere in your village. Once activated, it generates a Multiplayer access code for your kingdom. Share this code with anyone you want to invite. Players receiving the code can enter it in the Multiplayer section of the start screen to join your game.
Players can walk around your village, pick up items you drop on the floor, and even snoop around Scrooge’s shop and make a purchase. You are also able to trade certain items. Whenever you visit someone’s Valley, you can collect Pixel Shards used to create Pixelated Cooking Flame and Glitchy Pixel Duplication Pack.
Unfortunately, you are unable to use your Royal Tools or exchange items like furniture or clothing. And the biggest beef I have with the game: you are unable to play Scramblecoin against your guests.
Once you wish to close visitation times, just go to the Valley Visit Station and disconnect the option. If you do so, players will need a new code to access your village once again. Simple.
While I love the fact that there’s an option to explore other’s creative areas and homes, it’s not a feature that I find valuable at this point. Perhaps Disney will introduce new possibilities and the Multiplayer mode will become more tempting. Until then, I’ll be in my own little world.
The multiplayer option is available for those who have an active subscription on their respective consoles unless you’ve purchased the game on Steam or the Mac App Store. The cross-platform play is available for everyone except PlayStation users.
Is Disney Dreamlight Valley: A Rift in Time Worth Buying?
Disney Dreamlight Valley : A Rift in Time Review
If it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no. And A Rift in Time is a hell to the yes. You’ll notice that I haven’t talked about the new quests, and that’s just because they are so similar to Dreamlight Valley. Don’t worry, there are plenty of them and you will most probably enjoy each one. The same goes for characters. They are beautifully done, interesting and a great addition to the game, just nothing really special about them to garner a longer paragraph.
If you’ve read our review of Disney Dreamlight Valley, you are familiar with the many glitches in the game. No, those are still not patched up in Rift in Time, but I find them to be less intrusive and few and far between. That’s a thumbs-up in my book.
This expansion pass could easily function as a standalone game and a solid one at that. Together with Dreamlight Valley, it creates an amazing pack filled with beautiful areas, compelling quests, tools and the best mini-game ever. Yeah, Scramblecoin won me over. All in all, I’m really looking forward to future expansions from Disney Dreamlight Valley.