Dave the Diver: Beginner's Guide & Best Tips

Why I Wrote This (And Why You're Here)

Look, I get it. You bought Dave the Diver because the trailer looked chill. Cute guy runs a sushi restaurant, explores a pretty ocean, hilarity ensues. And for the first two hours, that's exactly what you get. Then the White Sturgeon shows up and you realize you've got a Tranq Rifle with 3 bullets, a net that can't catch a sardine, and the restaurant reviewer is arriving in 45 minutes and you've got no menu.

I've been there. I spent my first three runs trying to stack poison on Viperfish thinking it would chain damage—got destroyed by the Giant Squid at depth 80 because I'd never upgraded my oxygen tank. I nearly refunded the game after losing a full inventory of Bluefin Tuna to a single Tiger Shark because I didn't know about the dash-button invincibility frames.

This is the guide I needed on day one. Not a wiki copy-paste. Not a "press X to win" list from someone who played for 30 minutes. I'm at 120 hours, I've platinumed it, I've cooked every dish, and I've lost count of how many times I've said "wait, that works?" out loud. Let's fix your early game.

Where Dave the Diver Actually Beats You Down

The game doesn't explain itself well. That's the honest truth. It throws 8 systems at you in the first hour—breathing, inventory, weapons, fish behavior, restaurant management, staff hiring, upgrades, and the bizarre seahorse racing minigame that nobody asked for. Most players bounce off because they feel stupid. You're not stupid. The game just expects you to read its mind.

Here are the specific pain points that'll make you alt-tab to Google:

• Oxygen management feels punishing until you realize you're supposed to use air tanks as consumables, not permanent upgrades (the game doesn't tell you this).
• Weapon upgrades are hidden in menus—the Duff's Workshop tab is easy to miss if you click through dialogue too fast. I missed it for four hours.
• Fish run away from nets. Not a joke. If you sprint toward a fish, it despawns or bolts. The game implies nets are catch-all tools, but they require stealth positioning.
• The restaurant timing windows—if you serve the wrong dish at the wrong time, you waste ingredients AND earn less money. This isn't explained anywhere.
• Bosses have "hidden" phases. The Humphead Parrotfish boss isn't vulnerable until you break its armor. I died three times before I noticed the health bar doesn't even show damage.

I'm not saying these are bad design. Most of them become fun once you understand them. But the game doesn't introduce them well, and that's where I come in.

Day One: What Nobody Tells You

Let's skip the tutorial garbage. Here's what you need to do in your first 5 dives to set yourself up for success without wanting to throw your controller.

First: ignore the main quest. Yeah, I said it. Bancho will tell you to catch a Red Grouper for the restaurant. Ignore that for two dives. Your actual first priority is oxygen upgrades and inventory space. Go to Duff's Workshop (the weird crab guy on the beach) and buy the Oxygen Tank + for 150 gold. Then the Utility Bag for 100 gold. Without these, you'll run out of air at 40 meters and lose half your catches. I lost an entire Marlin this way and almost quit.

Second: learn the net vs. gun decision. This haunts new players. The default Net Gun is good for small fish like Striped Bass and Clownfish. It's terrible for anything medium or larger. The Harpoon Gun (default weapon) is your workhorse. After 10 hours, I stopped using nets entirely except for specific ingredient farming. The Death Rifle (upgraded harpoon) one-shots most regular fish at 65 base damage and doesn't require ammo. That's your bread and butter.

Third: the restaurant isn't real work. You can auto-manage the sushi counter by hiring staff. As soon as you can afford Raptor (the big tough-looking guy), hire him. He increases serving speed by 30%. Then hire Maki for the kitchen. Staff make the restaurant a passive income generator. I spent 15 hours doing it manually before I figured this out. That's 15 hours I can't get back.

Fourth: sell specific fish, not everything. The game has a "sell all" button. Do not press it. Some fish like Horse Mackerel and Sardines are worth 3-5 gold each. Not worth inventory space. But Blowfish meat sells for 28 gold and is used in high-end dishes later. Learn which fish are "ingredient" fish vs. "sell" fish. A rule of thumb: if it has a flashy animation when caught, keep it. If it looks generic, probably safe to sell.

Fifth: the dash button has invincibility frames. This is the single most important combat tip in the game. Every creature's bite attack has a wind-up animation. Press Shift/Space/X (depending on your platform) right as the mouth snaps shut, and you phase through the damage. Against sharks, this means you can stay in melee range and farm them without taking hits. I killed my first Great White at level 4 using only this and a Steel Harpoon. Felt like a god.

The Stuff I Learned After 80 Hours (So You Don't Have To)

You've got the basics. Now let's get good. These are techniques the game's tooltips will never tell you, and most guides miss because they're too busy writing "carefully manage your oxygen." Fuck that. Here's real advice.

1. Stacking weapons is a trap. Early on, you'll find weapon crates that offer choices: "Do you want the Flamethrower or the Grenade Launcher?" The Flamethrower does 45 base DPS but ramps to 120 DPS after 3 seconds of continuous fire. That sounds amazing. But it also sets fish on fire, making them panic and run into walls, which means you can't catch them for ingredients. If you're farming, use the Steel Net Gun. If you're boss-hunting, the Flamethrower is fine. Context matters. I wasted six hours wondering why my farm runs were producing 50% less food.

2. The drone is not for photos. Once you get the Sea Drones upgrade (it's a side quest from Duff), most people use it to take pictures. Don't. The drone can carry fish back to the boat. If you catch a giant Mako Shark or a Tuna, you can attach it to the drone and it auto-transports to your inventory. This frees up your hands for more fishing. On deep dives, I routinely fill my bag, then catch one more big fish and drone it out. Turns a 30% efficient run into a 90% efficient run.

3. The restaurant's "Dish of the Day" system is pure math. Every fish has a recipe that converts 1-3 fish into a dish that sells for more. But the markup isn't linear. Some recipes give a 2.5x multiplier, some only a 1.2x. For example: Grilled Striped Bass (2 Striped Bass) sells for 34 gold. Raw Striped Bass sells for 6 gold each. That's a 2.8x multiplier. Meanwhile, Spicy Tuna Roll (3 Tuna) sells for 68 gold, while raw Tuna sells for 22 gold each (66 total). That's basically break-even. Don't cook Tuna. Sell it raw. I must have lost 2000 gold in the first 20 hours because I assumed cooking was always better.

4. Night dives are for specific items, not exploration. The game unlocks night diving eventually. It's scary, visibility is terrible, and aggressive fish spawn more. But certain items—Giant Squid Meat, Lanternfish, and Gelatinous Blobs—only appear at night. If you need these for a recipe or a quest, don't waste time during the day. Directly swap to night mode at the boat. Also, night dives have better weapon crates. I got a Shotgun on my first night dive that carried me through the midgame.

5. Staff placement is a mini-game nobody warns you about. After you hire staff, you need to assign them to stations. The Serving station needs high Speed and Charm. The Kitchen needs high Cooking. The Prep station (which washes dishes) needs... well, anyone. But the trick is that matching staff to their preferred station gives a hidden buff. Raptor has "Preferred: Serving" in his bio, and he serves 15% faster when placed there. I didn't check bios for weeks. Maki prefers Kitchen, obviously. El Nido prefers Prep. Don't just throw bodies at the problem.

6. The sea horse racing is a scam. Okay, it's not a scam, but your first instinct will be to bet big on the Lucky Blue seahorse because it has high "Speed" stats. The game doesn't tell you that Stamina is the real stat. A seahorse with 8 Speed and 2 Stamina will sprint for 3 seconds and then walk. A seahorse with 4 Speed and 6 Stamina will win every race. I lost 500 gold on races before I realized this and started checking the hidden stats in the Stable menu. Use the Stamina-based seahorse, bet medium, and collect free money every day.

7. Save your pearls. You'll find Pearls inside clams and oysters. They're worth 50 gold each, which seems like a lot early on. And it is. But they're also used to upgrade your weapons at the Workshop. The Steel Harpoon upgrade requires 2 pearls. The Death Rifle requires 5. If you sell them all, you'll be scrambling later. Sell half, keep half. I sold all 8 pearls I found in my first 10 hours and regretted it when I had to farm clams for two hours to get them back.

8. The "Grip" mechanic on weapons matters more than you think. Every weapon has a hidden Recoil stat. The Death Rifle has low recoil, so you can rapid-fire without the crosshair jumping. The Shotgun has high recoil—if you spam it, the third shot goes into the ceiling. The game never explains this. You can crouch (press C on keyboard, down on d-pad) to reduce recoil by roughly 40%. Crouch-walk into a shark and unload. It's basically a hidden damage buff.

Mistakes That Made Me Alt-F4

I'm going to list the things I did wrong so you don't have to learn the hard way. These are the "check yourself before you wreck yourself" moments.

• Not upgrading the oxygen tank first. I did weapons first. Big mistake. You can't fight anything if you're dead at 30 meters. Your first 500 gold should be oxygen. Doesn't matter if you have a gold harpoon if you can't reach the deeper zones where the good fish are.
• Trying to catch everything on every dive. The ocean is massive. You have limited time, oxygen, and inventory. Focus on one target per dive. "Today I'm getting 4 Tuna." Not "I'll grab whatever I see." You'll end up with a mix of worthless fish and miss your restaurant quota. I did this for 10 hours and wondered why I was broke.
• Ignoring the farm. Around the 15-hour mark, you unlock a seabed farm where you can grow seaweed, kelp, and peppers. I ignored it because it seemed passive. Then a recipe required 5 Kelp and I had zero, and farming kelp in the wild is a nightmare. Start the farm early. Plant Kelp first (fastest growth, most used), then Wasabi (used in high-tier dishes). Check it every dive. It's free ingredients.
• Not using the "Fish Helper" app. On the in-game phone, there's a Fish Helper app that shows you which fish are active that day, their depth, and what bait to use. I didn't open this for 30 hours. I would dive randomly and hope. Use it. It tells you "Tuna are active at 50-70m, use shiny bait." 30 seconds of checking saves 30 minutes of wasted diving.
• Fighting the Giant Squid with the default harpoon. This is the noob killer. The Giant Squid has 400 HP and does 40 damage per tentacle slap. Your base harpoon does 15 damage. You need to land 27 shots while avoiding attacks. That's borderline impossible. The boss is designed to be fought with the Steel Harpoon (30 damage) or a Net Gun to immobilize the tentacles. I died here five times before I googled it. Save yourself the headache. Bring a Steel Net Gun and a Harpoon Gun III. You'll kill it in under 2 minutes.
• Overcooking dishes. In the restaurant, if you prepare too many of one dish and it doesn't sell, you lose the ingredients. Don't make 8 plates of Miso Soup on a day where only 3 people ordered it. Check the customer forecast (it's on the wall behind Bancho). It tells you roughly how many customers and what type of fish they prefer. I made 12 Grilled Eel one day, nobody wanted eel, I lost 200 gold in ingredients. Learn from my waste.

The biggest mistake, though? Thinking the game is easy because it looks cute. Dave the Diver has teeth. It expects you to optimize. But once you do, it's one of the most satisfying loops in gaming. It's like Stardew Valley but underwater and with more shark murder—check out our Stardew Valley guide if you want more efficiency tips for this genre.

Questions I See Everywhere

Q: What's the best early-game weapon?
A: The Steel Harpoon from Duff's Workshop. Costs 3 Titanium and 2 Pearls. Does 30 damage, fast reload, no ammo. It's the best DPS per gold cost until you hit the mid-20s depth. Don't waste resources on the Powerful Shotgun yet—it's expensive and eats ammo that you'll need for bosses.

Q: I can't beat the Viperfish boss. Help?
A: The Viperfish is essentially a DPS check. Its weak point is the glowing bulb on its head—shoot that exclusively. Each hit on the bulb does 50% more damage than body shots. Also, when it charges its beam attack, dash behind it. It's vulnerable for 4 seconds after the beam misses. I beat it with a Basic Harpoon using this strategy. Also, bring 3 oxygen pods—the fight takes 5 minutes and the arena has no air bubbles.

Q: Should I sell fish or use them for recipes?
A: Depends on the recipe. As a rule of thumb: common fish (value under 10 gold) should be cooked. Rare fish (value over 20 gold) should be sold raw unless the recipe has a 2.5x+ multiplier. Use the recipe book at the restaurant—hover over each dish and it shows the multiplier. Memorize the good ones. Grilled Blowfish (2 Blowfish) sells for 82 gold. Raw Blowfish: 28 gold each. That's a 1.46x multiplier—not great. But Blowfish Sashimi (1 Blowfish) sells for 45 gold. That's 1.6x. Better, but still not amazing. Cook when it's worth your time.

Q: I'm stuck on the Ice Cave section. What do I need?
A: The Ice Cave is a difficulty spike. You need two things: a Frost-resistant wetsuit (bought from the shop at the Mirage Resort for 800 gold) and a Flamethrower (found in weapon crates in the cave itself). The Flamethrower melts ice barriers that block paths. Without it, you can't progress. Also, bring 5+ health kits—the cave has no redeemable oxygen bubbles. I went in with 2 and had to abandon the dive. Don't be me.

Q: How do I unlock the Submarine?
A: Progress the main story until you meet Herman the biologist. He gives you a chain of side quests about ancient artifacts. Around the 3rd quest, you'll find a blueprint for the Small Sub. It costs 2000 gold and 10 Titanium to build. The sub lets you go to depths 100-150m without worrying about oxygen. It's expensive but worth it. Rush the Titanium farming—it's found in metal crates at depths below 50m. I farmed for two hours straight. Not fun, but necessary.

Q: Is there a New Game Plus or endgame content?
A: Yes. After the main story, you unlock NG+ where enemies have 2x HP and damage but drop better loot. There's also a boss rush mode and a deep sea dungeon with procedurally generated floors. If you enjoyed the combat, the endgame will scratch that itch. If you're here for the restaurant management, the endgame has new recipes and a staff handbook that unlocks special abilities. There's about 20 more hours of content after the credits roll.

Q: The Seahorse Racing seems rigged. Is it?
A: No, but the odds are misleading. The "favorite" in the betting menu has a 40% win rate. The underdog has 15%. If you only bet on favorites, you'll slowly lose money because the payout is lower. The profitable strategy is to find a seahorse with high Stamina in the stable (check their hidden stats by inspecting them), level it up in training, and then bet on it every race. The training minigame (a simple rhythm game) increases stats by 2-3 points per session. Do that, and your seahorse will win 70% of races. But honestly? If racing isn't fun for you, ignore it. It's side content. I spent 10 hours on it and ended up with 800 gold profit. Not worth it if you'd rather be diving.

Q: This game reminds me of Deep Sea Adventures. Is it similar?
A: Not really. Deep Sea Adventures is more survival horror with limited resources. Dave the Diver is comedy-first. Even when you're fighting a Kraken, the game is cracking jokes. The restaurant management adds a layer that DSA doesn't have. If you liked the exploration loop of DSA, you'll like this, but the tone is completely different. For more on that game, check out our Deep Sea Adventures guide.