Dave the Diver In the Jungle Guide: 9 Essential Tips

Updated 2026-10-13: Corrected a wrong claim that you can't return to the Blue Hole (you can, by boat from the Beach). Removed upgrade path names, fish rosters and an hour by hour pacing plan that no source backs. Rebuilt the lake depth bands, filter costs and Jungle Gun upgrade costs from the wikis, added MINTROCKET's launch trailer and today's Steam prices.

Dave the Diver In the Jungle guide: what changes (quick answer)

MINTROCKET's store page promises "over 10 hours of new story and gameplay": a freshwater lake with an ancient underwater civilization at the bottom, a second restaurant called Bancho Grill, and Utara Village, where villagers you befriend "might stop by as guests." Your body upgrades carry over. Duff's gun collection doesn't. Dave gets the four-mode Jungle Gun instead, plus a new currency, Doni.

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Tip 1: Finish the main story first, or skip it knowing the cost

If you've cleared the main story ending, the DLC starts right away. Load that save, go back to the boat with Cobra and let Dr. Bacon's introduction play, per the start guide on davethediver.wiki. MINTROCKET also provides an ending save for players who lost theirs, and New Game now has a starting point that skips straight to the jungle.

The catch is spelled out in the launch post: "If you start from the 'In the Jungle' DLC, you will not be able to earn achievements from the main game." So if you're still chasing base-game achievements, don't take the shortcut on your main profile.

Tip 2: Spend your last Blue Hole money on oxygen

Oxygen capacity, carry weight, diving depth, harpoon damage, drone access, knife progression and unlocked crab traps all stay useful when you continue from a completed save. Base-game weapons don't come along as your Utara arsenal. That makes oxygen the single best purchase before you leave, followed by carry weight. Don't grind Duff's weapon upgrades for the DLC; you won't be using them in Utara.

Tip 3: You can go back to the Blue Hole

Older versions of this guide told you the trip was one-way. It isn't. To sail back, talk to Rimbo in Utara, choose the Beach, then board the boat at the pier. If the option is missing, a story scene is holding you: finish the current objective and it comes back.

MINTROCKET's own patch notes confirm people make this trip. The August 6 update fixed a bug where diving "in the Blue Hole" with the Jungle Gun equipped kept swapping your weapon back, and it added "additional rewards" for returning to the Blue Hole after the Jungle ending. So leaving a base-game objective unfinished isn't a disaster.

Tip 4: The Purification Filter is your real depth meter

Hydrogen Sulfide gets stronger the deeper you swim, and the Purification Filter is what keeps Dave alive down there. It runs as a timed meter next to your oxygen gauge. If it empties before you surface, the filter breaks. In practice the filter, not oxygen, decides how long a deep dive lasts.

Costs and depths come from allthings.how's Chapter 3 walkthrough, which also says the Advanced filter is the one you want before the temple depths. Expect it to annoy you at first. A Steam reviewer called it "the only real annoyance" early on, then admitted to tolerating it more after seeing its role in the story.

Source: launch trailer frame at 0:59 (MINTROCKET, YouTube)

Tip 5: Push one Jungle Gun mode, not all four

The Jungle Gun is unlocked at the start of the DLC and switches between four forms mid-dive: a basic rifle, a shotgun that fires three pellets, a long-range sniper with a small magazine, and a net gun. Muna upgrades each form in Utara Village. You can also downgrade a form to try another branch, and the Fandom Jungle Gun page notes you get the materials back but not the money.

Early costs are low enough to experiment:

• Basic Rifle level 2: 150 Doni. Level 3: 1 Tin Ingot, 4 Brown River Snail Shell and 300 Doni.
• Jungle Medium Net Gun: 2 Lake Vine, 1 Walking Catfish Leather and 300 Doni. Large Net Gun: 2 Black Iron Ingot, 2 Driftwood and 600 Doni.

We'd put the first real materials into the rifle, which is also the default pick on davethediver.wiki's upgrade page, then respec when a boss or a live-capture quest demands something else. Net mode is for small fish you want alive; rifle or shotgun handle aggressive fish; sniper is for big predators. Expect a hard choice inside the net branch. One reviewer missed the old elemental harpoons "when you have to choose between sleep and nets on the gun" and went steel nets plus a stun shotgun.

Tip 6: Learn the lake's depth bands before you farm

The davethediver.wiki map splits Utara Lake into bands, and each one has its own roster:

Red-Bellied Piranha and Pearl Gourami are shallow targets, and the Piraiba catfish for soup lives in the 35 to 75 m band. The Lakebed Sea opens with Chapter 4, "The Sea Beneath the Lake." Pick one recipe or request before each dive and clear one band at a time; sweeping the whole lake wastes filter time. The jungle fish guide has the full roster.

There's also a fishing rod. Surface fishing unlocks through Basu's Piraiba Catfish request and gives you extra fishing spots between dives, but underwater hunting stays the main way to fill the menu.

Tip 7: Run Bancho Grill for Doni

Bancho Grill serves "jungle-exclusive drinks and skewers grilled over an open flame," and its night shifts are, along with missions, the main source of Doni. Doni pays for filters and gun upgrades, so a weak restaurant slows everything else.

Three default dishes are unlimited. Beyond those, the recipe guide on davethediver.wiki rates the Black Caiman Taco as the best repeatable premium dish, because you can hunt the caiman on each Upper Lake dive. Staff work differently from Bancho Sushi: each one unlocks through a quest rather than a hiring list. Our jungle staff guide covers all nine and the Bancho Grill recipes guide covers the menu.

Source: launch trailer frame at 1:07 (MINTROCKET, YouTube)

Tip 8: Treat villager affinity as a second progression track

Utara villagers raise affinity when you fill their requests or give them gifts, and each affinity tier unlocks new stories and rewards. It also fills the Grill: the store page says befriended villagers "might stop by as guests." Gifting one item a day to the villagers you're closest to keeps both systems moving. The villager gifts guide lists what each one likes.

Maxing everyone now pays off. The August 6 update added hidden Spirits that appear once every villager's affinity is maxed; rescue them in the lake and they gather materials for you.

Tip 9: Use the Jungle Achievements app and come back for the patch content

The July 7 patch added a Jungle Achievements app to Dave's phone. It tracks DLC achievements separately from Steam's, counts your existing progress, and gives a special interior decoration for clearing the list. The achievements guide walks through it.

If you finished the DLC at launch, the August 6 patch is worth a return trip: a revenge fight with the Giant Wild Boar in Setah Forest, three new high-level monsters there (Asian Water Monitor, Reticulated Python, Asian Forest Scorpion), and a Bull Shark in the lake after you clear Sulong. The Giant Wild Boar guide covers the forest fight.

Source: launch trailer frame at 1:02 (MINTROCKET, YouTube)

MINTROCKET's launch trailer opens with a live-action short. The game footage starts at 0:48 on Utara Lake, the jungle exploration shots run from about 1:02 to 1:08, and a rhythm minigame with a dancer, a sun bear and Dave on the drum appears at 1:10.

Source: launch trailer frame at 1:10 (MINTROCKET, YouTube)

Our take

We'd go in with a completed save, max oxygen, and a plan to spend the first Doni on the filter rather than the gun. The DLC rewards players who like the management half of Dave the Diver: villagers, the Grill, minigames like the one above. If you came for diving alone, temper expectations. One heavily upvoted negative review on Steam opens with "All I wanted was more Dave the Diver. And I got everything BUT that." At $7.99 on sale we still think it's an easy yes for anyone who enjoyed running Bancho Sushi.

The walkthrough places each chapter in order, and the complete guide hub links every boss and system page.

How we checked this

• On 2026-10-13 we watched MINTROCKET's launch trailer and pulled the frames used here at 0:59, 1:02, 1:07 and 1:10.
• Prices and review counts come from Steam's store and review APIs on 2026-10-13: DLC $7.99 (list $9.99), Mostly Positive, 1,633 of 2,164 positive; base game $9.99 (list $19.99), Overwhelmingly Positive, 158,034 of 163,812.
• Start rules, the Jungle Gun intro and Grill details come from MINTROCKET's launch post; Spirits, the Wild Boar, the Bull Shark and Blue Hole rewards from the August 6 patch notes; the achievements app from the July 7 notes.
• Gun forms, costs and the downgrade refund come from the Fandom wiki (read with a headless browser, since it blocks plain requests). The return route, depth bands, recipe and fishing advice come from davethediver.wiki; filter costs from allthings.how.
• 38 sources in total. We didn't play the DLC for this update, so anything we couldn't source was cut.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is the Dave the Diver In the Jungle DLC? MINTROCKET's store page promises over 10 hours of new story and gameplay. That's the story estimate; one Steam reviewer put full completion at about 25 to 30 hours.

Do I need to finish Dave the Diver before playing In the Jungle? No, but MINTROCKET strongly recommends it. New Game offers a starting point that skips the main story, and a save is provided for players who lost theirs, but a DLC-first start can't earn the main game's achievements.

Can you go back to the Blue Hole during In the Jungle? Yes. Talk to Rimbo in Utara, move to the Beach and take the boat. An active story scene can block travel for a while. The Jungle Gun also works in the Blue Hole once you've unlocked it, and returning after the Jungle ending gives extra rewards.

What is Bancho Grill in the In the Jungle DLC? Bancho Grill is the DLC's restaurant. It serves jungle drinks and skewers grilled over an open flame, uses its own staff, and fills up as villagers you've befriended start dropping by as guests.

How much does the Dave the Diver In the Jungle DLC cost? The In the Jungle Content Pack lists at $9.99 on Steam and was $7.99 (20% off) when we checked on October 13, 2026. The base game lists at $19.99 and was $9.99 (50% off) the same day.

Can you play the jungle DLC without starting a new save? Yes. Load a save that has cleared the main story ending and the DLC starts from there. Body upgrades such as oxygen, carry weight and harpoon damage stay useful, while the Jungle Gun, its materials and the Doni currency start fresh.

Is the Dave the Diver jungle DLC worth buying? If you liked the base game's management side, yes. It's Mostly Positive on Steam (1,633 of 2,164 reviews on October 13, 2026). Players who only wanted more diving are the unhappy ones; one reviewer estimated diving at a quarter of the DLC.

Related Reading

• Dave the Diver In the Jungle DLC: Release Date and Contents: the launch window, price, and what MINTROCKET confirmed before release.
• Dave the Diver Jungle Gun Guide: compare the four weapon modes side by side.
• Dave the Diver Sulong Boss Guide: the crocodile fight that unlocks the Bull Shark.
• Dave the Diver Black Caiman Guide: deal with the upper-lake predator before it ends a dive.
• Dave the Diver Remaining Jungle Bosses: the Lakebed Sea fights and which creatures have none.
• Dave the Diver Insectagram Guide: fill the bug collection while you explore Setah Forest.
• Beastro Release Date: Cooking Deckbuilder Hits June 11: if the Grill loop has you into cooking games, Beastro came out the same month.
• Windrose Crafting Guide: All 5 Stations & Best Recipes: Windrose crafting guide: station outputs, best material-to-output ratios, and what to craft first at each biome tier to stop wasting resources.

References

• DAVE THE DIVER Steam key on Eneba (NA key): the base game, which In the Jungle requires; North America region key
• DAVE THE DIVER: In the Jungle Content Pack on Steam: released June 18, 2026, $9.99 list
• DAVE THE DIVER on Steam: base game, $19.99 list
• DAVE THE DIVER news on Steam: launch post, July 7 and August 6 patch notes
• Dave the Diver Fandom wiki: Jungle Gun and Missions
• davethediver.wiki: return to the Blue Hole, what carries over, map, fishing guide
• allthings.how: Chapter 3 and the Purification Filter
• In the Jungle launch trailer: MINTROCKET's YouTube channel