How to upgrade weapons in Dave the Diver

Dave the Diver upgrade weapons - dave is underwater next to a silver weapons crate with a yellow gun painted on the side
(Image credit: Mintrocket)

If you're looking for a way to upgrade weapons in Dave the Diver, then you probably haven't unlocked the ability yet. You need to get to a certain point in the story before you can strengthen your weapons, and once you do, the option to upgrade will be added to the Weapon Shop on your phone.

There's an avalanche of systems and activities to keep you busy in Dave the Diver, which has hit one million sales in 10 days. If you're just diving in to see what the fuss is about, our Dave the Diver tips guide will help steer you in the right direction. 

To upgrade your weapons, you'll need to play about six hours into Dave the Diver, until you reach the the quest that unlocks the ability. In this guide, I'll explain how to upgrade weapons in Dave the Diver, as well as how to get temporary upgrades to pack a punch if you're not quite there yet.

How to upgrade weapons in Dave the Diver 

Very early on in the game, you'll unlock weapon crates which can be found and opened when you're out on a diving expedition. What you get inside the chests is down to RNG, but they're still worth opening because discovering a weapon a certain number of times allows you to unlock the ability to craft it. That's not all though: you can equip any weapons you find in these crates and use them for the duration of your current dive. 

Some weapons may be worse than the ones you already have, while others may be significant upgrades. Just be aware that anything you get from weapon crates will disappear once you surface at the end of the dive.

If you want to upgrade weapons permanently, you'll need to complete a quest from Duff which tasks you with defeating the first boss. Once it's been dealt with, the upgrade weapons feature is unlocked at the Weapon Shop, allowing you to strengthen existing weapons. Your basic Underwater Rifle can also be imbued with various kinds of elemental damage, like Shock or Poison.

Don't expect to upgrade your entire arsenal straightaway as the upgrade material requirements are pretty steep, especially when you first unlock the ability. You'll naturally unlock many of the things you'll need as you play, but some upgrade materials can be very rare or otherwise tricky to find, taking you to some of the deepest parts of the ocean.

I recommend upgrading the Large Net Gun as a first upgrade—it's useful in the early-game for hoovering up a bunch of small to medium-sized fish in a single shot, and the larger size of the net makes it easier to score hits.

If you're simply looking to upgrade your Harpoon, this can be done via the iDiver app on your phone, which thankfully only costs gold.

Sarah James
Senior Guides Writer

Sarah started as a freelance writer in 2018, writing for PCGamesN, TechRadar, GamingBible, Red Bull Gaming and more. In 2021, she was offered a full-time position on the PC Gamer team where she takes every possible opportunity to talk about World of Warcraft and Elden Ring. When not writing guides, most of her spare time is spent in Azeroth—though she's quite partial to JRPGs too. One of her fondest hopes is to one day play through the ending of Final Fantasy X without breaking down into a sobbing heap. She probably has more wolves in Valheim than you.

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