Dave the Diver In the Jungle Guide: Complete Hub (2026)

This Dave the Diver In the Jungle guide hub collects every GameBrief article on Mintrocket's freshwater expansion in one place: the full chapter walkthrough, both boss fights, the Jungle Gun's confirmed modes, Bancho Grill's recipes, all 9 staff hires, all 23 giftable villagers, the fish list, and the achievement situation nobody expects. If you only bookmark one page about the DLC, make it this one and follow the links out to whichever system you're stuck on.

TL;DR: In the Jungle launched June 18, 2026 for $9.99 (Steam appid 4394810), running roughly 10+ hours across 7 chapters. It swaps the Blue Hole for freshwater Utara Lake, Bancho Sushi for a villagers-only Bancho Grill, and your old weapon-crafting loop for a single upgradeable Jungle Gun. There are 50+ confirmed fish, 9 hireable staff, 23 giftable villagers, and zero new Steam achievements. Every one of GameBrief's 11 In the Jungle articles is linked below by topic.

Key takeaways

• In the Jungle launched June 18, 2026 as a $9.99 paid expansion (Steam appid 4394810) alongside the $19.99 base game (appid 1868140)
• Mintrocket's official figure is 10+ hours of new content; one completionist's story-only run reported on X ran closer to 17 hours
• The story runs 7 chapters, from The Village with Bad Food to Deep Down, framed by a prologue continuing the base game's epilogue and an epilogue after
• Three fishing zones (Upper Utara Lake, Lower Utara Lake, the Lakebed Sea) hold 50+ confirmed fish species out of roughly 82 that community trackers estimate exist
• Bancho Grill replaces Bancho Sushi and, per director Jaeho Hwang, deliberately has no walk-in customers: every diner is a villager Dave recruits himself
• Nine staff can be hired for Bancho Grill and 23 separate villagers can be gifted; the two rosters never overlap
• The DLC ships with zero Steam achievements, confirmed via Steam Hunters; the base game's own 43-achievement list is untouched

What is Dave the Diver: In the Jungle?

In the Jungle is Mintrocket's expansion for Dave the Diver, and it's the first time the series has left the Blue Hole for an extended stretch. The story picks up after the base game's ending: Dave, Bancho, and Cobra travel to Utara Village at Dr. Bacon's request to investigate prehistoric marine creatures washing ashore. That premise carries the DLC's freshwater lake, a new restaurant called Bancho Grill, and a village relationship system layered on top of the familiar dive-by-day, cook-by-night rhythm.

It launched June 18, 2026 at $9.99, alongside physical Complete and Collector's Editions for PS5 and Switch 2, the first time the full package has existed on physical media. Mintrocket calls it roughly 10 hours of new content, its biggest expansion yet, and has said the mechanics branch beyond both the base game and its earlier expansions instead of just reskinning the familiar dive loop. The Dave the Diver In the Jungle DLC launch coverage has the full announcement details, including what was still unconfirmed at launch.

Mechanically, three things change: Utara Lake replaces the Blue Hole as your dive zone, Bancho Grill replaces Bancho Sushi as your night restaurant, and Utara Village adds a relationship-building layer that feeds both systems. Your existing save carries over. Gear, fish compendium progress, and restaurant skills all transfer, and the jump into Utara Lake triggers from a story beat rather than a separate menu option.

Jungle DLC walkthrough and boss guide

The story runs 7 main chapters: The Village with Bad Food, Jungle Life!, Diving Suit of the Sunang Civilization, The Sea Beneath the Lake, Fruit of the Blue Divine Tree, Sea People Settlement, and Deep Down, bookended by a prologue and epilogue. Chapter 1 sets up Utara Village, the new lake, your first jungle-appropriate gun, and the Bancho Grill handoff. Chapter 2's Muna's Research quest hands over your first Purification Filter, opening progress past the lake's Hydrogen Sulfide contamination. Later chapters gate the Lakebed Sea behind further story progress and specific gear tied to Muna's questline, and Chapter 6 is when William Longbottom's staff questline finally opens in Setah Forest. Officially the DLC runs 10+ hours; some players report closer to 17 hours for story content alone, before side missions and staff recruitment.

Two boss fights anchor the DLC's combat, and they use different systems entirely. Giant Goby waits at Murau Temple B2 with 700 HP, a turn-based fight built around guarding through its High Jump attack rather than trading hits; deeper in the same temple, Giant Fringehead ups the difficulty further at 950 HP, with self-healing and full status-effect immunity. Sulong is a real-time encounter in the Vegetation Cave, a giant crocodile boss unlocked through the Operation: Sulong Hunt quest during Chapter 3, with weak points at the head and underbelly and environmental bone-traps you can lure it into. A June 18, 2026 patch closed an old melee-stagger exploit against Sulong, so if you're reading an older strategy write-up, expect it to no longer work.

• Dave the Diver In the Jungle Walkthrough: All 7 Chapters: chapter-by-chapter breakdown of what unlocks when, including the Purification Filter and Lakebed Sea gating.
• Dave the Diver Giant Goby Boss Guide: Murau Temple: the 700 HP turn-based fight at Murau Temple B2, the High Jump attack, and the Incendiary Sniper Rifle opener that makes it manageable.
• Dave the Diver Sulong Boss Guide: How to Win the Hunt: the Vegetation Cave crocodile fight, its attack patterns, weak points, and the June 18 patch that closed an old exploit.

Recipes and Bancho Grill

Bancho Grill replaces Bancho Sushi for the DLC's story arc, but the real change here is the customer model, not the menu. MINTROCKET director Jaeho Hwang told Automaton West that the villagers-only setup was a deliberate inversion of the base game's restaurant: there are no walk-in customers, and unless Dave actively recruits villagers to dine, the grill sits empty.

The menu itself starts with three free recipes (Papaya Salad, Coconut, Mango Shake), then grows automatically as you fish: nearly every catchable species unlocks a Grilled version the moment you land it, no research cost required. A step above that, a couple of dishes need ingredients gathered in advance rather than a single catch, like Steamed Tricolor Discus, which needs nine total discus fish across three color variants. Deeper recipes cost Artisan's Flame, a currency separate from Doni spent purely on research, most dishes costing a single flame, with Black Caiman Taco confirmed at two. A handful of dishes need a specific villager rank rather than just ingredients, and the VIP-tier Stir-fried Crocodile Tail is locked behind unlocking Bonita as a VIP customer.

• Dave the Diver Bancho Grill Recipes: All Dishes Listed: the full confirmed recipe list, Artisan's Flame costs, and exactly how the villagers-only service loop differs from Bancho Sushi.

Weapons and gear

The DLC replaces your base game's separate weapon-crafting system (loot rifles, Net Gun tiers, Duff's Weapon Shop) with the Jungle Gun, a single modular tool handed to you early and upgraded through Muna instead of found as loot. Confirmed modes split into a Sniper path (Powerful-Armor Piercing for burst damage, Explosive Ping-Pong as the community-recommended boss pick) and a Net Gun sleep path (Wave Sleep Gun, Pulse Sleep Gun). Early upgrades need Doni, Black Iron Ingot, and a one-time Red Sunang Stone reward from the "Hide and Seek!" side quest; later tiers need Silver and Gold Ingot plus named creature drops.

Your loadout is only half of what keeps the DLC running, though. Bancho Grill's kitchen needs staffing too, and that's a separate progression track from anything you catch or craft. Nine hires are confirmed across community sources, each with distinct stats and a signature skill: Martin Tweed carries the roster's highest Cooking stat at 60, Rover's Appeal and Resonance skill boost tips specifically, and William Longbottom, the latest story-gated hire, doesn't open up until Chapter 6.

• Dave the Diver Jungle Gun Guide: Every Confirmed Mode: confirmed Sniper and Net Gun modes, upgrade material tiers, and a Black Caiman weak-point detail most guides miss.
• Dave the Diver Jungle Staff Guide: All 9 Unlocks (2026): unlock conditions, stats, and skills for every recruitable hire, from Yasuto's early sub mission to William Longbottom's Chapter 6 questline.

Fish and creatures

Utara Lake's freshwater ecosystem shares almost nothing with the Blue Hole. Three zones structure the fish roster: Upper Utara Lake (0-35m, open from the start, mixing peaceful cichlids and gourami with predators like Black Caiman and Goliath Tigerfish), Lower Utara Lake (35-75m, locked behind Hydrogen Sulfide contamination until Mina's Purification Filter questline clears it, home to bigger predators like Giant Freshwater Stingray and Electric Eel), and the Lakebed Sea, a prehistoric-themed zone unlocked later with fossil-era species named after real extinct genera, including three boss-tier encounters.

Community trackers estimate around 82 total species, but that number carries a real asterisk: even dedicated player-run lists still mark several slots as undiscovered, and the game's own in-game tracker doesn't reveal a species until you personally catch it. 50+ have been independently confirmed by name across multiple sources. There are also two above-water fishing spots accessed by rod rather than diving, Surga Falls and Setah Forest, which hold their own species separate from the three main lake zones.

• Dave the Diver Jungle Fish Guide: 50+ Species by Zone: every confirmed species by zone, tiered by confidence, plus which predators are tied to specific questlines.

Villagers and relationships

Separate from staff recruitment, 23 villagers accept daily gifts in Utara Village: Bima, Basu, Bonita, Cinta, Eka, Chandra, Lipah, Kinah, Marone, Meilan, Muna, Panutah, Peneb, Jepun, Perak, Omila, Gesang, Jaka, Harta, Lathi, Uzme, Saniah, and Rimbo. Every villager starts at one heart automatically on meeting them, then fills the remaining three through favorite gifts, generic items, or cooking their favorite dish at Bancho Grill. Only one gift per villager counts per in-game day, so it's a daily routine rather than a batch activity.

Most 4-heart rewards are cosmetic, but a few carry real gameplay value: Rimbo's Electric Scooter and Perak's 50% Blacksmith discount are the two most commonly cited as worth prioritizing. This gift-friendship roster and the 9-person Bancho Grill staff roster are entirely separate systems that happen to share a village setting; none of the recruitable staff appear on the giftable-villager list.

• Dave the Diver Villager Gifts: All 23 Favorites (2026): every villager's favorite gift, 3-heart and 4-heart rewards, and the fastest daily routine to raise friendship.

Achievements

If you've finished jungle content and your Steam achievement count hasn't moved, that's expected: the In the Jungle content pack ships with zero new achievements, confirmed by Steam Hunters' tracker against the DLC's specific app ID. Mintrocket hasn't given an official reason. The closest thing to an explanation traces back to Steam Community discussion threads noting the game's earlier, smaller DLCs were time-gated seasonal content where achievements wouldn't have made much sense, and that no-achievements pattern simply carried over to this permanently-available expansion.

The base game's own 43 achievements are completely unaffected by any of this. The DLC does add an in-game "Jungle Achievements" list to Dave's smartphone that tracks DLC-specific milestones and rewards a house decoration on full completion, but it's entirely separate from Steam's system and won't touch your Steam completion percentage either way.

• Dave the Diver Jungle DLC Achievements: There Are None: the full story behind the zero-achievement decision, the leading community theory why, and where the base game's 43 achievements still live.

Tips for new players

A handful of early decisions save real time. Don't fish Utara Lake the way you fished the Blue Hole: freshwater species school and scatter differently, so budget a full dive just observing before you commit to a farming route. Upgrade the Jungle Gun's net gun first, since its sleep ray path unlocks catches that aren't possible any other way, even with some reported inconsistency on specific fish. Build Utara Village relationships in parallel with restaurant progress rather than after it, since some Bancho Grill dishes and guests are gated behind specific villager affinity. And once you confirm travel to Utara Lake, there's no going back to the Blue Hole until the DLC's story wraps, so clear any open base-game objectives first.

• Dave the Diver In the Jungle Guide: 9 Essential Tips: the full breakdown of lake zones, Jungle Gun upgrade priority, Bancho Grill pacing, and a 10-hour session plan.

All Dave the Diver: In the Jungle guides

Every article GameBrief has published on the jungle DLC, in one list:

• Dave the Diver In the Jungle DLC: Out June 18 With 10 Hours: the original launch announcement, price, and physical edition details.
• Dave the Diver In the Jungle Walkthrough: All 7 Chapters: the full story path and what unlocks in each chapter.
• Dave the Diver Giant Goby Boss Guide: Murau Temple: the turn-based Murau Temple boss fight.
• Dave the Diver Sulong Boss Guide: How to Win the Hunt: the real-time Vegetation Cave crocodile fight.
• Dave the Diver Bancho Grill Recipes: All Dishes Listed: the full recipe list and how the restaurant differs from Bancho Sushi.
• Dave the Diver Jungle Gun Guide: Every Confirmed Mode: confirmed weapon modes and upgrade materials.
• Dave the Diver Jungle Staff Guide: All 9 Unlocks (2026): every recruitable staff member's unlock condition and stats.
• Dave the Diver Jungle Fish Guide: 50+ Species by Zone: the confirmed fish roster across all three zones.
• Dave the Diver Villager Gifts: All 23 Favorites (2026): every villager's favorite gifts and max-friendship rewards.
• Dave the Diver Jungle DLC Achievements: There Are None: why the DLC has zero Steam achievements and what to chase instead.
• Dave the Diver In the Jungle Guide: 9 Essential Tips: 9 practical tips for the DLC's opening hours.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Dave the Diver: In the Jungle? It's Mintrocket's paid expansion for Dave the Diver, launched June 18, 2026 for $9.99. Dave, Bancho, and Cobra travel to Utara Village at Dr. Bacon's request to investigate prehistoric marine creatures washing ashore, adding a freshwater lake, a new restaurant, and roughly 10 hours of story.

How many chapters does the In the Jungle DLC have? Seven, from The Village with Bad Food to Deep Down, framed by a prologue continuing the base game's epilogue and a post-story epilogue. Officially 10+ hours; one completionist's story-only run on X reported around 17 hours.

Does the Dave the Diver jungle DLC have achievements? No. Steam Hunters confirms zero achievements tied to the DLC's app ID. The base game's own 43 achievements are untouched. An in-game "Jungle Achievements" tracker on Dave's smartphone covers DLC milestones separately, with no effect on your Steam completion percentage.

How much does Dave the Diver: In the Jungle cost? The In the Jungle Content Pack is $9.99 on Steam. The base game, DAVE THE DIVER, is $19.99 and goes on sale regularly, though no discount was active on either at the time of this hub's last update.

Do you need to finish the base game before playing In the Jungle? Yes, effectively. The story is set after the main campaign and assumes you've finished it; Utara Village relationships and references to earlier events build on the base game's ending, so Mintrocket recommends completing it first.

How many fish, staff, and villagers are in the jungle DLC? 50+ confirmed fish species across three zones (out of roughly 82 community trackers estimate exist), 9 recruitable Bancho Grill staff, and 23 separate giftable villagers. The staff and villager rosters never overlap.

What's the biggest difference between Bancho Grill and Bancho Sushi? Bancho Grill has no walk-in customers by design, confirmed by director Jaeho Hwang. Every diner is a villager Dave has to actively recruit, a deliberate inversion of Bancho Sushi's queue-management loop from the base game.

References

• DAVE THE DIVER on Steam: base game store page, 1868140, $19.99
• DAVE THE DIVER: In the Jungle Content Pack on Steam: DLC store page, 4394810, $9.99, launched June 18, 2026
• Dave the Diver Jungle DLC official launch trailer: MINTROCKET official YouTube