Ever wanted to run a sushi shop and work as a diver at the same time? In Dave the Diver, players take on the role of the titular character, who is peer-pressured into diving for fish in the local Blue Hole as well as running the restaurant Bancho Sushi in the evenings.

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Dave the Diver does have something of a learning curve, too; diving too deep can see players run out of oxygen and die, losing all but one of the items they've salvaged in the Blue Hole. With this in mind, these beginner tips should help beginners adjust to the game in no time at all.

Updated May 22, 2024, by Hamza Haq: In the blue world of Dave the Diver, players are not just tasked with exploring the ocean's depths but also managing a bustling sushi restaurant as well. To succeed, Dave has to muster up the courage to face massive ocean-bound monsters, fend off overaggressive climate activists, and save an undiscovered race of merpeople residing in the depths of the ocean.

12 Upgrade Equipment

Upgrade Dave's Diving Suit And Weapons

Players can use the gold earned from profits at the Bancho Sushi restaurant to purchase various upgrades to their diving suit and weapons. Doing so is a crucial part of making progress in Dave the Diver - not only does it allow players to dive for longer and deeper, but it also enables them to defend themselves more effectively against the Blue Hole's more sinister inhabitants.

Being able to spend more time diving in the Blue Hole also makes it more likely for players to find treasure chests and rarer, more valuable types of fish to sell at Bancho Sushi. So, beginners to the game should absolutely prioritise upgrading their in-game gear ASAP.

11 Don't Overfish

If Players Die, They Should Choose The Item They Keep Wisely

When players die in Dave the Diver, they'll only be able to keep one of the possibly many items they've found or obtained while diving for that day in the Blue Hole.

Because of this, choosing the right item to keep after dying is absolutely crucial. Players should consider whether they'd benefit from keeping a particular fish that is part of a best-selling dish on their menu at Bancho Sushi, or if it would be more worthwhile to keep some treasure that they've found. Carefully think about which item to keep after dying before committing to it.

10 Check the Phone Often

Use Dave's Phone To Maximize Productivity

Dave's mobile phone in Dave the Diver is full of handy apps and features to help players maximize their success in the game. Players can contact Dave's friends, who can give him tips and pointers for whichever tasks or objectives he needs to complete on a given day.

Additionally, the Emails and To-Do List apps are handy for gathering information about the various fish available in the tropical Blue Hole. As players progress through the game, they'll unlock the iDiver app, which Dave can use to upgrade his gear - crucial for getting as much out of the game as possible.

9 Pour The Perfect Cup Of Green Tea

Practice, Practice, Practice

Green tea is an absolute cash cow in Dave the Diver, as long as players are able to learn how to use it effectively. The amount of gold Dave earns for a cup of green tea is actually based on how well it's been poured - cups that are too full or not full enough are worth far less than a perfectly poured cup.

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Pouring green tea doesn't take much time, either, so it's a great way to maximize the amount of gold earned for a night of service at Bancho Sushi. Practicing pouring green tea until players can do it perfectly is well worth the effort.

8 Try New Dishes

Make The Menu As Diverse As Possible

Learning how to properly fill out the menu for a night of service at Bancho Sushi is crucial for making as much gold as possible at the restaurant. A more varied menu with a wider variety of dishes and rarer kinds of fish will net Dave a far greater profit than a meager selection of a few types of fish.

As such, players should carefully build each night's menu around the widest array of dishes possible, placing particular emphasis on rarer, heavier fishes. Players who do this should be raking in the gold in no time!

7 Stick to the Shallows

Don't Dive Too Deep In The Early Game

When players are just starting out in Dave the Diver, they'll be fairly limited in terms of the weapons and gear that they can use to defend themselves. The deeper players dive in the Blue Hole, the deadlier the creatures they'll come across are.

As such, players in the early stages of the game should be careful not to dive deeper than they're ready for. Ideally, players should wait until they've completed a number of assignments and unlocked some better gear before attempting to dive the darker, deeper reaches of the Blue Hole.

6 Come Up For Air

Watch Oxygen Levels Closely When Diving

As is probably to be expected, players only have access to a finite amount of oxygen when diving in the Blue Hole. Run out of this, and Dave will, well, die. While this isn't a game-ending scenario, players will lose most of the progress and items they've acquired for that given day of diving.

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So, players should make sure to closely watch their oxygen levels while diving the Blue Hole. Taking too many risks isn't advised, either - it's almost always better to return to the shimmering surface too early rather than too late.

5 Hunt Expensive Fish

Find Out What The Best Sellers At The Restaurant Are

Arguably one of the things that makes Dave the Diver so rewarding is that the game doesn't do a lot of hand-holding. One example of this is the top sellers at Bancho Sushi - after each night of service, a stats screen will show up which highlights which item on the menu Dave sold the most of.

However, the game doesn't tell players where to find more of these items or whether or not they'll consistently be a top seller. As such, players should keep track of their best-selling menu items, as well as good sources of the ingredients used in each top-selling dish.

4 Enhance Dishes Early

To Earn A Tidy Profit

One of the mechanics that often goes overlooked in Dave the Diver is the fact that players can enhance dishes in the restaurant. If they do that, it’ll make it so that every time a customer orders that dish, the restaurant gets more gold, and the customers are more satisfied. A cool thing about this is that the cost of the dish doesn’t actually go up at all. Players will still be able to make that same dish with the same old ingredients they’ve been using before enhancing the dish. All it does is make the dish more palatable.

Not all dishes are created the same, however. Dishes that use Jellyfish and Parrotfish, for example, tend to scale better than those made from other ingredients, making them extremely useful to enhance right from the get-go. In the early game, this will free up players from having to progress the story and turn a profit at the restaurant at the same time. Once the fish farm is online, even the hunting mini-game becomes unnecessary.

3 Learn to Perfect Catch

Reel In Three Star Fishes

When players take down a fish in Dave the Diver, either by shooting it down with a sniper rifle or spearing it through with a harpoon, the quality of the fish meat goes down. The game follows the simple logic that if a fish has been hurt, its meat is not perfect, and therefore, players will get less than three stars for bringing that fish to the restaurant. Three star fish will not change the recipe of the dish being served at the restaurant; it’ll just increase the amount of meat per kill, making them extremely efficient to hunt. Catching 3 star fish also has an increased chance of coming with secondary ingredients and weapon upgrades.

To catch a three star fish, players have two options: the tranquilizer gun or the net. The net is available very early on in the game and only works to catch smaller fish at three stars. The Tranquilizer gun, on the other hand, can even put sharks to sleep, allowing players to call in an underwater scavenger drone to pick them up. The underwater drone is a requirement for bringing home the largest fish like sharks but other large fish can be obtained at 3 stars by upgrading the Net or the Harpoon (paralyzing variant).

2 Start Managing Restaurant Staff Early

Choose Staff At The Sushi Shop Wisely

One thing players will learn while running Bancho Sushi is that the different staff members that Dave can roster on have different strengths and weaknesses. Put together a strong enough team, and Dave can more or less sit each service out, other than performing essential duties like pouring green tea for customers.

Of course, players who especially enjoy the Bancho Sushi minigame can take a more active role in each service. Building out the ideal team for the dishes that players are planning on serving, though, is a crucial part of earning the most gold possible.

1 Explore Everything

Keep An Eye Out For Treasure When Diving

Fish aren't the only thing to be found in the Blue Hole; in fact, there are actually a number of treasure chests that Dave can come across which are filled with different goods and items.

Some of these treasure chests are quite hidden, though, so players may need to keep an eye out and even do some exploring in order to find them all. However, it's definitely worth the effort, as some of these chests contain some pretty incredible treasure. Players struggling to find treasure chests should look out for their yellow lids.

Dave the Diver

Platform(s)

PC , Nintendo Switch , PS4 , PS5

Released

June 28, 2023

Developer(s)

Mintrocket

Genre(s)

Simulation , Adventure