Dave the Diver Jungle Staff Guide: All 9 Unlocks (2026)

Updated 2026-10-13: Rebuilt from the per-character wiki pages and the game-data staff database. Fixed Om Nom's unlock (a three-mission Candy Thief chain, not a single minigame), Rover's and William's unlock steps, and Martin's and Sato's skills; removed day numbers and stats no source backs.

All nine at a glance

Hire stats are from the Dave the Diver Fandom wiki's character pages; level 10 stats are from the game-data tables on davethediver.net. Mita's hire stats aren't published on either site.

One wrinkle in the numbers: the Fandom wiki lists Martin at 605 Cooking at level 10, while the game-data table says 555. The gap is exactly his +50 Cooking skill, so one table counts it and the other doesn't.

Screenshot: MINTROCKET's In the Jungle launch post on Steam (cropped)

That crop from MINTROCKET's launch art shows two staff problems at once. On the left, a staffer with a camera is calming a customer (the hearts), which is Udo's Keepsake Photo. On the right, a monkey is raiding a table while the customer next to it panics. That's the job Om Nom's Intimidate and Udo's Flash exist for.

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The kitchen: Martin Tweed, then Sato

Martin Tweed, the Kindred Aerospace CEO from Journey to the Savage Planet, shows up at the end of Traces of the UFO, which starts the Lake Purification mission. He joins the morning after you finish it. His first skill, Mechanic Cooking, "Instantly finished cooking with a robotic arm," and his second adds 50 Cooking permanently. Nobody else hires above 60 Cooking.

Sato, the Marinca card collector, is the second cook. Fill 50 entries in the Marinca Bloom app (the wiki notes star count doesn't matter), talk to him to unlock A Monster Snapping Turtle!, beat the turtle, then talk to him again. His Ranged Serving lets him throw dishes, and Small Flame finishes cooking dishes at once. MINTROCKET's July 7 patch fixed Sato remote-serving customers who had already been served, so that skill misfiring was a bug, not your setup.

The davethediver.wiki team-setup page lands in the same place: "start with om nom for service and martin tweed for cooking."

The floor: Om Nom, Udo and Yasuto

Om Nom comes from Cut the Rope, and his route is three missions early in the DLC: The Midnight Candy Thief, The Candy Thief's Footprint and Catch the Candy Thief!. Finish the last one and he's hireable. He serves coconuts and mango shakes on his own, and Intimidate "Frightens monkeys and drives them far away." The August 6 patch fixed the Kui used in his mission being granted repeatedly.

Udo, the Weekly Fish reporter from the base game, joins after A Giant Stag Beetle?, which is gated by how many new insects you've logged in the Insectagram, not by story progress. Keepsake Photo reduces customer stress and Flash scares monkeys with a camera flash. If you've ignored bugs, the Insectagram guide is how you get him.

Yasuto is the free one. A spider bites him during Traces of the UFO, and the next morning he offers to work for you, now able to shoot webs. Spider Web grabs food from a distance, and Amazing Spider Web adds skewers from the grill. His stats are average everywhere, so treat him as a filler, not a target.

Dispatch and tips: William, Rover, Charlie

William Longbottom, the researcher from Two Point Museum, is the hire the Fandom wiki tells you to train early: "secondary ingredients are one of the biggest bottlenecks in the DLC." You meet him in Setah Forest after you've explored the temple. He needs 42 Unihornus bones, one per forest enemy you defeat, and the horn sits to the left of where you found him, behind a level 11 boss. He hires with 72 Procure and reaches 684 at level 10, the highest on the roster.

Dispatch got better after launch. The June 25 patch added more dispatchable materials, including fruits and ground-gathered items, and fixed William not showing on the village map. The June 30 hotfix stopped Dispatch Master staff bringing back ingredients from the wrong region.

Rover, from Wuthering Waves, joins after The Taste of Fish (also called Crocodile Tail Cuisine). Resonance means he "Receives tips more often and in larger amounts while serving," and Dispatch Master gets more items from dispatch. Charlie Bonnet III, a real Nashville musician, joins after The Musician of Nashville. Fantastic Melody "Plays the guitar to earn tips from nearby customers," and his Appeal scales to 508 at level 10, the top of the DLC roster.

Screenshot: In the Jungle launch trailer, 0:49 (MINTROCKET)

Screenshot: Steam store page (MINTROCKET)

Mita, the one the wikis skip

Mita is the gap in every fan source we checked. The staff database has her level 10 stats and skills (instant grilling, then auto-serving coconut drinks), but neither wiki documents her recruitment step. MINTROCKET's July 7 patch notes do tie her to the Chandra's Suspicion mission, fixing her missing sprite there, and to a "Toy Hammer Showdown" minigame. We'd treat that mission line as her path and recruit her whenever it comes up.

The crossover question

Every hire is a reference, and players split on it. One Steam reviewer who didn't recommend the DLC asked, "How did Om Nom from Cut the Rope get into this?" Another, who did, wrote that they "loved most of the crossover characters." A third summed up the roster as "wacky side characters that join your staff." For the record, the wiki also lists Yasuto as a Spider-Man nod and Sato as an Ash Ketchum parody dressed as Tai from Digimon.

MINTROCKET's launch trailer is mostly a live-action short; the in-game footage starts at 0:48 on Utara Lake, and the 6.18.2026 release card closes it at 1:27.

Our take

We'd recruit in this order: Yasuto and Martin as they come, Om Nom as soon as the Candy Thief chain opens, then push for William, because a grill with great cooks and no side ingredients still loses money. Udo and Charlie are nice upgrades once service is stable. Don't chase hire stats; nearly everyone starts low and scales hard, so train the person who fixes your actual bottleneck.

For the rest of the DLC, the Bancho Grill recipes list shows what your cooks will be making, the jungle fish guide covers where ingredients come from, and the tips guide has broader early priorities. The walkthrough places each staff mission in the story, the villager gifts guide covers affinity, the Giant Wild Boar guide handles the forest fight, the achievements guide tracks completion, and the DLC release page has price and platforms.

References

• DAVE THE DIVER: In the Jungle Content Pack on Steam: released June 18, 2026, $9.99
• DAVE THE DIVER news on Steam: launch post and the June 25, June 30, July 7 and August 6 patch notes
• Dave the Diver Fandom wiki: per-character pages for unlocks, hire stats and skills
• davethediver.net staff database: level 10 game data for all nine
• davethediver.wiki: All 9 Bancho Grill staff and best staff setup
• In the Jungle launch trailer: MINTROCKET's YouTube channel