The friendship system in DAVE THE DIVER In the Jungle is one of the DLC's most rewarding mechanics, and it's also the one most players underestimate early on. Every villager in Utara has specific tastes, and knowing what they want before you start handing out random items saves you a lot of wasted dives and missed tip opportunities at Bancho's Grill. This guide covers every confirmed favorite dish and gift item for all 22 villagers, plus the most efficient ways to keep your inventory stocked.
What are villager favorites and why do they matter?
Each villager in the In the Jungle DLC responds to gifts and cooked dishes differently. Handing over a generic item still bumps friendship up a little, but gifting a villager their favorite item produces a noticeably bigger jump. On the restaurant side, cooking with a villager's preferred ingredient when they're seated at Bancho's Grill increases the tips they leave, which adds up fast if you're targeting the right customers each night.
Friendship levels also gate story progression in the DLC, so treating this system as optional will stall you out sooner than expected.
Friendship level progress bar
All villager favorite dishes and gifts in Dave the Diver In the Jungle
The table below lists every villager's confirmed favorite cooking ingredient and preferred gift. Entries marked TBC are villagers whose preferences haven't been fully confirmed yet and will be updated as more information surfaces.
How to get favorite villager gifts fast
Rimbo's shop daily stock
Rimbo's shop is your primary source
Rimbo's shop refreshes its stock daily, making it the most consistent place to pick up gifts for the majority of villagers. The inventory rotates through merch items, household objects, and collectibles, covering categories like game consoles, action figures, sweets, and more. Checking in every in-game day and buying out relevant stock is the single most efficient gifting habit you can build.
Diving for jewelry and pearls
For villagers like Harta (Gold Jewelry) and Chandra (Pearls), the lake and seafloor are your best bet. These items appear during regular dives at a lower frequency than shop goods, but you'll typically find one or two per dive session. Running consistent dive routes while fishing for dish ingredients means you're passively collecting gifts for these two at the same time.
Pearl found during lake dive
Quest rewards and friendship milestones
Completing side quests for villagers occasionally drops gift items rather than the usual money and Bancho's Grill decorations. Reaching friendship level 3 and level 4 with specific villagers can also trigger gift rewards, which you can then pass along to other villagers. Mapping out which villagers you want to prioritize and planning your social route each day around those targets makes the whole system move considerably faster.
What's the best strategy for maxing friendships quickly?
The fastest approach combines three habits: check Rimbo's shop every day without fail, run dive sessions with a mental list of which seafloor items you need, and complete villager side quests in an order that generates gift rewards you can chain to the next target. Focusing on villagers with shared gift preferences first (the Comics and Game Console crowd) lets you stretch a single shop purchase across multiple relationships.
For the restaurant side, knowing your seated villagers' preferred ingredients before each service and cooking to match them turns friendship grinding into a money-making exercise at the same time.
For more tips on navigating the DLC and the base game, the DAVE THE DIVER guides collection has you covered across every major system. If you enjoy this kind of story-driven adventure games blend of mechanics, there's plenty more in the genre worth exploring.