Disney Dreamlight Valley: Diving Into The Keepsake Sea — Live Demo Coverage

Disney Dreamlight Valley has spent the last few years steadily expanding its cast and its map, but The Keepsake Sea marks the first time Gameloft is sending players below the waterline. At D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event last month, I got a live, hands-on look at the upcoming expansion and came away with a much clearer picture of what island life and life under the sea will look like.

A New Fantasy Beneath the Waves

The headline feature is the mermaid transformation, which functions less like a costume swap and more like an entirely new avatar mode. During our demo, we saw multiple tail styles on offer, including traditional mermaid silhouettes alongside options modeled after other sea creatures, such as manta rays and more exotic fish species. Each style supports its own color customization, so the range of looks is considerably broader than a single archetype.

One detail worth noting for fashion-minded players: you aren't locked out of your existing wardrobe once you hit the water. Purchased tops and upper-body fashion items carry over into mer-form, though bottoms, shoes, and any full-body outfits like dresses or suits don't translate underwater.

Building a Home Beneath the Surface

Homeownership and decorating extend below the waves too, and the underwater build tools include at least one mechanic that doesn't exist on land: suspending furniture and decor above the sea floor rather than anchoring everything to the ground. Combined with the terrain-shifting tools Gameloft showed off at the panel, which let players reposition and adjust the altitude of underwater platforms, players can expect a decorating toolkit built specifically for three-dimensional space rather than the existing furniture placement system.

Bubbles, Ripples, and New Ways to Gather

The Keepsake Sea also introduces harvesting mechanics unique to the underwater biome. Some crafting materials are collected from bubbles that float up from the sea floor, giving players a new type of resource node to track down. Fishing gets a twist as well: rather than relying solely on the existing fishing minigame, players can swim directly into ripples they spot on the water's surface to catch fish while in mermaid form.

New Islands, New Faces

Beyond the shoreline, The Keepsake Sea opens up a string of additional islands, each treated as its own self-contained biome. The first of these centers on a pirate theme and introduces Captain Jack Sparrow, who will teach players the Pirate Code and the basics of sailing. He's joined by two other newly confirmed characters: Milo Thatch from Atlantis: The Lost Empire, who serves as the player's guide into the expansion, and Megara from Hercules.

Toucans join the roster as a new collectible companion type tied to the pirate biome, and players will eventually captain their own customizable ship, complete with a salvaging mechanic that lets them pull materials from the open water using a crane mounted on the back of the vessel. The ship can even be outfitted with your own crew of villagers, and voyages will be accompanied by an original sea shanty soundtrack for the voyages.

When You Can Set Sail

Disney Dreamlight Valley: The Keepsake Sea launches in November 2026 on Apple Arcade, the Mac App Store, Steam, the Epic Games Store, the Microsoft Store, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PlayStation 4 and 5. Gameloft has confirmed a dedicated digital showcase for October 21st on its official YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, and TikTok channels, which the studio says will go deeper into the expansion's characters, biomes, and features.