Merida is one of the first new characters you’ll come across in Disney Dreamlight Valley’s Storybook Vale – but unlocking her is a little tricky.
While you meet Merida pretty early on in the Storybook Vale DLC adventure, as usual for Disney Dreamlight Valley, she won’t instantly join your game as a companion. Usually, unlocking all the different characters requires a bit of cooking, crafting, puzzle solving, or in this case, the partial completion of the DLC main quest.
So, to ensure you grab this iconic Brave character and unlock all her friendship quests (which are detailed below), here’s how to get Merida in Disney Dreamlight Valley.
How to unlock Merida
Unlocking Merida requires players to complete part of the Storybook Vale main quest, otherwise known as ‘Welcome to Storybook Vale.’
How to complete Welcome to Storybook Vale
Step 1: Head to Storybook Vale
To begin the quest, open your mailbox in the Valley and select the Storybook Vale awaits message, claiming the letter that goes with it.
Then, head into the main castle and over to the Stardust Port, which is located on the second floor on the left. Go through the main doors and head into the section with the storybook sign on it. Once in, you’ll be able to meet Merida. Head straight on into the Library of Lore, use your magic to remove the Inkies, and speak to the trapped character.
She’ll explain that the Lorebook invited you, but the land is in trouble, with the magic leaving it slowly. Speak to the Lorebook, who will cough out a load of Snippets due to their magic fading. Now, it’s up to you to catch them.
Step 2: Find the Royal Net
However, you can’t catch the Snippets with your current tools. For that, you’ll need a Royal Net. Merida suggests looking underneath all the Petrified Wood and offers a potion for your pickaxe.
To get the potion, head to the top right-hand corner, opposite where Merida is standing, by the stone campfire. Between that and the wood log will be Merida’s bag. Grab the potion (and the food while you’re there) and apply it to your Pickaxe.
Then, turn around and mine the rocks surrounding the pillar nearby. Once you’ve mined them all, you’ll be able to use the pillar, which will spin the puzzle in the middle.
Your aim is to complete the image of Aurora. To do this, spin the left-hand pillar once, and the right-hand one three times. With that, the image will be complete and the Royal Net will be in the center.
Step 3: Catch the Snippets
With the Royal Net equipped, you’ll need to catch some of the Snippets around the Library of Lore. To do this, press ‘space’ or the right mouse button (or respective key on console) when near them. You’ll have to be aiming correctly, as these can be a little slippery.
You’ll need to catch four of them, and most are around the center of the Library, so practice your aim and grab those flying Snippets. Once you’ve caught them, speak to Merida who will ask you to open the gates and reveal more of the Library.
Step 4: Open the gates
Opening the gates will require you to use your Royal Net in a certain way. If the golden wheel is facing across, then you need to hold your swing button (space on PC) and swipe sideways. If it’s facing down, then you need to swipe normally by pressing the swing button.
Once inside, you’ll need to catch all six Snippets in the wings. There are three on each side, and they can be a little tricky to find. So we’ve highlighted their locations in the image above.
Step 5: Rearrange the Lorekeeper’s pages
When all Snippets have been caught, head over to Merida who will introduce you to Reordering Stories. This is essentially a puzzle for you to complete.
Select Reorder Stories, and begin the ‘Once Upon A Time In Storybook Vale’ tale. Complete the puzzle and the first quest will be complete, unlocking the ability to open the rest of the biomes.
How to complete A New Chapter
Step 1: Gain access to The Bind
Once you’ve completed Welcome to Storybook Vale, you’ll need to meet Merida by the Well outside the Library of Lore and speak to her to begin the A New Chapter quest.
She’ll explain that it’s impossible to get to Maleficent and Hades with all the Ink. As such, she’ll ask you to begin clearing the walls to gain access to The Bind.
Pay 500 Story Magic to unlock the gate and explore the Bind with Merida. To complete this part of the quest, simply run around a bit of the biome and head back to Merida.
Step 2: Removed the Inkies and catch Snippets
Upon speaking to her, she’ll explain that it needs a bit of work to restore The Bind to its former glory. So, you need to remove 15 Inkies from the Bind and catch 5 Snippets with your Royal Net while she works on restoring the fountains.
Catch these tricky creatures and then speak to Merida who can’t seem to get the fountains working, though she’ll still insist on fixing them herself.
Step 3: Unlock Scrooge’s store and Goofy’s stall
While she fixes them you’ll be instructed to greet the villagers who have arrived from the Valley. Chat with Goofy and Scrooge, who both want to reopen their respective stores and stalls.
After speaking to them both, you’ll need to do the following:
- Mine ten gems and minerals
- Catch three fish or seafood
Luckily, the ten gems and minerals only mean you need to hit a mining node with your pickaxe ten times, rather than getting ten gems. However, you will need to catch three fish for Goofy.
Once you’ve done that, chat with both and build their stalls and stores for free. Then check back in with Merida.
Step 4: Explore Aurora’s hidden room
She’ll explain that she didn’t fix the fountain but did find a secret room under the bridge. Head there and look for the large wooden doors. Interact with them and grab the sparkling page lying on the floor. Then, tell Merida about the discovery. You’ll both conclude that Aurora clearly used this as a safe space.
Interact with the light on the left to open the doors and reveal a wheel with which you can interact. Next, use your net on said wheel and you’ll finally fix the fountains.
Naturally, Merida will be thrilled, but you unfortunately won’t find Aurora anywhere, as she’s not found in The Bind.
Step 5: Welcome Merida to the Valley
After completing this, Merida will explain that she misses her home and doesn’t really want to live in the Library anymore. So, all you need to do to invite her to your Valley is head into your building tab, place her home down, and head over to it.
The house will cost 5,000 Star Coins to build, but once you do Merida will be welcomed to Storybook Vale.
The main quest doesn’t end here, however. For help on the full Storybook Vale adventure, check out our walkthrough.
Merida Friendship Quests
Level 2 friendship quest: Clan Dunbroch’s Rules of the Hunt
Step 1: Remove Mossy Logs
Merida will explain that she’s had enough of the snippets flying around and will ask you to catch some while she shares wisdom from her dad. She reveals that you have to control the domain so you need to clear up the Mossy Logs.
Follow her and she’ll give you a potion to help you clear these logs with your shovel. Take the potion, put it on your shovel, and remove six Mossy Logs.
We found all of them over by where Scrooge and Remy’s buildings were, on the left-hand side of The Bind.
Step 2: Build a Slow Trap
With this complete, Merida will give the next piece of advice: use everything to your advantage. She’ll tell you all about a way to slow the Snippets down so you can catch them easier.
For this, you’ll need to build a Slow Trap. Open the recipe and collect the following ingredients:
- 1 Opal
- 1 Sorcerer hat Hermit Crab
- 5 Pine Cones
- 10 Moss
- 500 Storybook Magic
Opals are found by mining nodes in The Bind. They’re not too rare, but come up on the node like any normal gem. Look for a lighter blue color, like a diamond in The Bind, and mine it, it should give you an Opal. Sorcerer Hat Hermit Crabs are found in orange ripples in The Bind. Look for an orange ripple, fish it carefully, and the Crab should be in your inventory.
Pine Cones work a lot like traditional wood in Dreamlight Valley, appearing underneath trees in The Bind. Look for the small Pine Cones under the larger trees. They spawn regularly and are quite a common resource. Moss is found on Mossy Logs in The Bind and on the floor in the Wild Woods, but Merida will give you ten before the quest begins, so you should already have enough.
With these in hand, head to your crafting table and craft a Slow Trap. Then, place it anywhere in The Bind to slow the Snippets down.
Step 3: Catch the Snippets
With the Slow Trap down, speak to Merida, who will give the next piece of advice… patience. For this, you’ll need to catch ten Snippets.
Head over to the Slow Trap with your Royal Net and catch any Snippets you see with blue surrounding them. True to the advice, these don’t all appear instantly, so you will need to wait for more to spawn as you go.
Step 4: Complete a Lorebook Page
After catching all the Snippets, the next piece of advice is to never let anything go to waste. This means you need to put the Snippets back in their rightful place. Head to the Library of Lore and complete a Tale in the Lorekeepers pages. Though, you may need to catch more before you do.
Then, reorder a story and speak to Merida. She’ll give you a Storybook Frame as a reward. Place this in your house, and return to Merida. She’ll explain you can commemorate all your adventures here which will complete the quest.
Level 4 friendship quest: Archery and Archrivals
Step 1: Speak to Merida and Flynn
After you’ve unlocked Flynn, it’ll become apparent that Flynn and Merida don’t particularly like each other, with Merida getting frustrated after Flynn offers archery advice.
So, speak to Flynn and he’ll express his apologies but will request the wanted posters Merida scattered around his home be taken down.
Step 2: Take down Flynn’s wanted posters
Next, head over to where you placed Flynn’s home and take down the five wanted posters surrounding the building. They shouldn’t be too tough to find as they’re all pretty close to his home.
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Once you’ve done this, speak to Merida, who will express her frustrations, but her acceptance to try and become friends with Flynn, even offering to host a ‘Clan Feast’ to try and iron out any issues.
Step 3: Cook Persimmon Sour Fondue
To do this, you’ll need to cook a relatively simple but likely brand-new recipe, two Persimmon Sour Fondues.
The ingredients you’ll need are listed below:
- Persimmon
- Sour Berries
Persimmon is best found on trees in The Bind. They’re a larger orange fruit on a light green tree. As for Sour Berries, they’re also found on trees in The Bind, but these are smaller red berries on an orange-colored tree. Grab these and you’ll have enough for the meal.
Then, head over to your nearest cooking pot, add the ingredients, and cook up two dishes for Flynn and Merida. Then, go over to Merida’s house for the feast.
Step 4: Set up for an Archery competition
Predictably, the feast doesn’t exactly go to plan, with Flynn yet again offering advice on Merida’s archery. After watching the argument and speaking to Merida, she’ll conclude that the only way to get Flynn to stop is to beat him in a competition.
To promote the competition, place the five Archery Contest Signs around the Bind and craft some Archery Targets, which need the following items:
- 20 Petrified Wood
- 4 Blue Tale Cone Flowers
- 6 Yellow Tale Cone Flowers
- 16 Wheat
Petrified Wood is found by mining rock nodes in The Bind, The Wild Woods, Teapot Falls, The Fallen Fortress, The Beanstalk Marches, and The Library of Lore. You’ll find them pretty much anywhere you mine, as they’re pretty common.
Blue Tale Cone Flowers and Yellow Tale Cone Flowers are scattered around The Bind, acting like any DDV flowers you come across. They’re not as common as Petrified Wood, so you may have to hunt around for a while.
Lastly, Wheat is a Dreamlight Valley ingredient and can be found in the Peaceful Meadow at Goofy’s Stall. It’s recommended you buy the seeds and plant them, as they only take one minute to grow and cost 1 Star Coin per seed.
Once you have all the items, head over to your nearest crafting table and create the Archery Targets.
Step 5: Enter the Fairy Tale Trial
With the Archery Targets all set up, you’ll need to speak to Merida and head over to the Fairy Tale Trial in the Wild Woods, where you originally found Flynn.
The location is at the bottom of the Wild Woods, but it can be a little confusing to find if you’ve not been there in a while. Its exact location is in the image below, just be sure to enter through the structure to get inside the trial.
Step 6: Complete the Archery Competition
Head inside and speak to Merida, who’s gathered with Flynn by the archery targets in the main room, just off to the left.
Then, simply speak to Flynn, watch him shoot his arrow, and then speak to Merida to watch her take her shot. Unfortunately, the shot goes wide, which is quickly revealed to be the work of Flynn, who’s placed a magnet to sabotage Merida’s shot. Naturally, he’s quickly disqualified, acting sad about not being able to pull off his ‘trick shot.’
Though, shortly after, Merida completes this shot, and the two become friends after she sees that she wouldn’t have been able to do it without the inspiration from Flynn.
With that, the quest will be complete.
Level 7 friendship quest: Change your Fate
Step 1: Search Merida’s house for clues
When you reach Level 7 with Merida and unlock Hades, she’ll ask you to help foil a plot from the God after he attempts to find an artifact she hid before The Forgetting, which lets people change their fate. It’s up to you and Merida to find this artifact.
Head over to Merida’s house to hunt for a clue regarding the artifact. Once inside you’ll see a small sack lying on the back left corner of the house, next to the chair and fireplace. Interact with this bag and pick up the memory that appears.
Step 2: Find the fierce warrior with a bo staff
The memory tells of a “fierce warrior with a bo staff” who was tasked to hide the first clue, so it’s up to you to find her. Naturally, that warrior is Mulan.
Go speak to Mulan who will explain that she climbed up a statue of a giant flying horse to hide the clue and keep it safe. That’s your next destination.
Step 3: Find the statue of a giant flying horse
The statue of a giant flying horse is in the Elysian Fields, near where the Hades trial was. Head through the pillars before you go down to the trial and above it you’ll see the large pegasus, the clue is underneath its wing.
Once you get through the pillars you’ll be instructed to take pictures of the clue, so grab your camera and aim it at the wing. It’s okay if you can’t see the clue (it’s very well hidden), just snap a picture and Merida will shoot it down after you’ve spoken to her.
Head down to the Trial location and you’ll see a small bag to the right of the structure with the portal. Interact with this and reveal the next memory.
Step 4: Find where the Wolf drinks spilled tea
The memory will read that the next clue is “where the Wolf drinks spilled tea”, meaning you’ll need to speak to Merida and head over to the Wild Woods. Along the river, where Goofy’s Stall originally is, you’ll find a purple memory.
When you pick up the memory, it’ll read about a watchful mother. Luckily both you and Merida will quickly work out that this isn’t in fact talking about Mother Gothel, but the Lorekeeper.
Step 5: Find one’s place in the world
However, while it’s about the Lorekeeper, you don’t need to speak to her, instead, you need to look for a globe in the Library of Lore. It’s found on the left-hand side of the Library, just on top of the stairs from the Lorekeeper.
Interact with the globe and pick up the memory, which will display a hidden cave underneath a waterfall with a shield inside.
Step 6: Find the cave
The cave itself is located in The Bind, on the bottom left of the biome. Head over to where Chez Remy originally was and look for the waterfall nearby.
The cave is hidden behind the large bookshelf. Head over to it and interact with the book to open the cave and reveal a note inside. Pick up the note and it’ll reveal that Hades has already been there and taken the artifact.
Step 7: Confront Hades
With this knowledge, head over to Hades and ask him about the Artifact. He’ll explain that it wasn’t the artifact he wanted and that it’s currently in his house being used as a dinner plate.
Head into Hades’ home and grab the shield located in the back right corner, just right of his throne. Then, give the shield over to Merida, who will end up giving it back to you as a thank you and the quest will be completed.
Level 10 friendship quest: A Very Scottish Celebration
Step 1: Speak to Scrooge McDuck
Upon reaching level 10 with Merida, she’ll explain that she wants to host a Scottish banquet. For that, you’ll need to speak to Scrooge McDuck to grab some supplies.
Luckily, he’ll give you the banners for free, so long as you also take some Clan McDuck Banners. Take the banners and place them around Storybook Vale. While it’s optional to place the Clan McDuck Banners down, doing so or leaving it doesn’t have an impact on the story.
Step 2: Cook three Salt-Baked Sea Wolf meals
With the banners down, speak to Merida and grab the Salt-Baked Sea Wolf Recipe from your mailbox. Once you have it, you’ll need to cook up three of the meals, which use the following ingredients:
- 3 Sea Wolf
- 3 Salt Crystal
Sea Wolf is a fish found in The Bind by fishing white ripples. Simply cast your rod in the white ripples and you should catch three in no time. As for the Salt Crystals, these are a little trickier to find. However, they’re located in the Everafter by fishing outside of ripples.
Once you have all the ingredients, head over to a cooking pot and craft the three Entrées. Then bring them over to Merida, place down the feast, and snap a picture of the event.
Step 3: Craft Merida’s Fate Tapestry
While enjoying the event, Merida will feel bad about not being able to host the Lorekeeper, so you’ll have to go and speak to her. Luckily, the Lorekeeper isn’t too upset about missing out, but does want to give Merida a gift. Given she’s a book, you’ll have to make it for her.
For this you’ll need the following ingredients:
- 20 Petrified Wood
- 10 Pine Cones
- 8 Topaz
Petrified Wood is found by mining any nodes around the Bind or Everafter. They’re not a gem, so no need to look out for any differing nodes.
Pine Cones are found underneath trees in The Bind, they spawn under the large trees relatively regularly, like softwood back in Dreamlight Valley. Simply collect these by picking them up from the ground.
Lastly, Topaz is a Dreamlight Valley resource, but you can also find it in Storybook Vale. The gem is found in The Bind, the Plaza (Dreamlight Valley), The Courtyard (Eternity Isle), and The Docks (Eternity Isle). Simply mine the nodes and keep an eye out for any orange gems sticking out.
With the resources in hand, head to the nearest crafting table and craft the item. Then head over to gift it to Merida. She’ll thank you and head over to the Lorekeeper to thank her, so follow her and listen to the conversation.
Shortly after, she’ll thank you again and give you a Tartan Celebration Outfit as a gift, completing Merida’s friendship quests.
Now you’ve unlocked and completed Merida’s friendship quests, check out how to complete friendship quests for both Hades and the charming Flynn Rider, or all of the different recipes for Disney Dreamlight Valley.