Theme Park Scope

Disney Dreamlight Valley is letting you become a mermaid, and I am not emotionally prepared.

I’ve put an embarrassing number of hours into Disney Dreamlight Valley already, and I genuinely did not think there was a feature left that could get me to clear my schedule for a weekend. Then Disney announced you can just… become a mermaid. So here we are.

The new expansion, called The Keepsake Sea, adds multiple new biomes to Dreamlight Valley, and the headline feature is exactly what it sounds like: players get a fully customizable mermaid or sea creature form, letting you swim anywhere there’s already water in the existing game. You can dive for fish and items in this form too, which is a genuinely nice option for anyone who’s grown tired of standard fishing mechanics or just wants a different way to gather aquatic resources after years of playing.

The mermaid/sea creature form is customizable down to tail and fin designs and colors — an eel-inspired tail has already been previewed, so expect a real range of options rather than one default look.

To actually access the new content, players will swim up to a mermaid statue that appears off Dazzle Beach, which acts as a portal into a brand-new underwater area. From there, additional portals lead out to the rest of the new biomes being added with this expansion.

Once you’re down there, you get full mobility (swimming up, down, left, and right) plus a real stash of new collectibles to track down. And it’s not just a scenic detour: you can actually build underwater using furniture you already have access to, including on the ocean floor and vertically, thanks to marine platforms that can be placed at any height. Floating underwater houses are apparently a real thing you can build now, which is the kind of detail that makes me want to redo my entire in-game house immediately.

Beyond the mermaid mechanics, players will also be able to captain their own fully customizable pirate ships to reach some of the new areas, with room to bring up to two other characters along as crew. Want to sail the high seas with WALL-E and Daisy Duck as your first mates? Apparently that’s a completely valid crew combination now.

This expansion also brings a genuinely exciting round of new characters:

• Captain Jack Sparrow — long-teased, now officially confirmed, and reportedly one of the most-requested additions from the fan community. He keeps his signature run animation intact, for anyone worried Disney would smooth that out.
• Milo from Atlantis: The Lost Empire — paired with a fun dynamic alongside Jack Sparrow, apparently bonding over Milo’s fascination with Jack’s knowledge of the East India Trading Company.
• Meg from Hercules — bringing the option to reunite her with Hercules, who’s already in the game, for anyone who’s been waiting for that pairing since he joined.

There’s also a new critter joining the valley: a toucan, adding another animal to track down and befriend alongside everything else this update is bringing.

Dreamlight Valley has added plenty of new areas and characters over its run, but a mermaid transformation combined with genuine underwater building is a different kind of addition than we’ve typically seen; it’s less “new zone to walk through” and more “new way to actually play the game.” Pairing that with a legitimately fan-requested character like Jack Sparrow makes The Keepsake Sea feel like one of the more ambitious updates the game’s gotten in a while.

We’ll share a release date and more details on The Keepsake Sea as soon as Disney confirms them, so check back with Theme Park Scope for updates.