The Kids Have Jobs update turns all four rescued children in 99 Nights in the Forest into passive workers. Once leveled, Dino Kid chops wood, Kraken Kid catches fish, Squid Kid cooks, and Koala Kid gathers scrap, so your camp keeps producing resources while you focus on surviving. Getting every kid to their top job tier in a single run comes down to three things: rescuing them early, feeding them high-quality food, and returning their lost trinkets.
Quick answer: Rescue Dino, Kraken, Squid, then Koala Kid as your campfire tiers reveal their caves, feed each one whenever their hunger bar drops (prioritize stew and cake), and return their color-coded trinkets for big EXP. Take Kraken, Squid, and Koala Kid to Level 5, then claim their badges from the badge board to unlock the Tree Swing.
Rescue order and campfire tiers
All four kids are locked away in caves scattered across the map, and their cave locations only appear as you upgrade your campfire. Their exact spawn spots shift from run to run, so place your map down early and keep it expanded to track them. In most runs the caves open in the same sequence.
- Dino Kid is usually the first available and closest to camp.
- Kraken Kid shows up after a few campfire upgrades.
- Squid Kid is a mid-run rescue once the map opens further.
- Koala Kid comes last and typically needs the highest campfire tier.
Do not save all four for late in the run. Every night a kid spends back at camp while you keep them fed counts toward their first job unlock, so the earlier you free them, the more passive progress stacks up. After a kid is back at camp, walk up and interact with them, then confirm to start their friendship progression. From that point, two inputs level them: food and returned trinkets.
What each kid automates
Every kid handles one resource loop once leveled. With all four working at the same time, your camp passively produces wood, fish, cooked food, and scrap, removing the four most repetitive manual tasks from your routine.
| Kid | Job | Where it delivers |
|---|---|---|
| Dino Kid | Chops wood | His tent, the Campfire, or the Scrapper |
| Kraken Kid | Catches fish | Her tent |
| Squid Kid | Cooks food | His tent, or the Crockpot if it is empty |
| Koala Kid | Scavenges scrap | Her tent or straight to the Scrapper |
Note: Squid Kid’s automatic Crockpot delivery only unlocks at Level 5. If you want cooked food dropping straight into the pot without your help, he needs to reach max level first.
Feeding: the reliable EXP source
Feeding is the steady way to level a kid, and food quality changes how much EXP you get per feed. Keep each kid’s hunger bar from emptying and feed them the moment it drops. Once your Crockpot is built, switch to stew as your main feed instead of burning through stacks of basic food.
| Food type | EXP reward |
|---|---|
| Basic cooked food | Low |
| Cooked fish | Moderate |
| Stew (Crockpot) | High |
| Cake | High |
Do not feed a kid whose hunger bar is already full. You get no EXP and the food is wasted, so wait for the bar to drop first. Each kid also has a favorite food that gives bonus EXP or a mood boost. Koala Kid and Squid Kid want cake when they are craving it, so hold a few cakes back for those moments.
Trinkets: the fastest EXP source
Each kid has a set of lost belongings hidden around the map. Returning one hands over a large one-time EXP reward that dwarfs what any single feed provides. Trinket spots are random and get circled on your map once discovered, and the search radius tightens as you upgrade your campfire.
Trinkets are color-coded per kid on the map, with red marking Dino Kid’s items and blue marking Squid Kid’s. They can sit inside structures like shacks or near landmarks rather than out in the open, so check buildings, not just the ground.
Multiplayer warning: if a teammate grabs a trinket first, it may not register on your own map, and only the player who physically picked it up can hand it to the kid. Coordinate who is collecting to avoid dead-end searches.
The leveling loop for all four kids
The fastest route folds rescuing, feeding, and trinket hunting into one loop instead of treating each as a separate chore.
You can reach Level 5 on feeding alone, but it takes far longer. Trinkets are best used to blow through the early levels, then stew and other high-EXP food carry the rest. The one real bottleneck is Koala Kid, who needs the highest campfire tier to rescue and can be tight to fully level in the same run as the others.
Badges and the Tree Swing reward
Three badges are tied to this update, one for each non-Dino kid, and all three require reaching Level 5 with that kid. Claiming all three unlocks a Tree Swing you can place at camp.
| Badge | Requirement | Reward |
|---|---|---|
| Kraken Daycare | Kraken Kid to Level 5 | 5 Diamonds |
| Squid Daycare | Squid Kid to Level 5 | 6 Diamonds |
| Koala Daycare | Koala Kid to Level 5 | 8 Diamonds |
The game does not hand these badges over automatically. When a kid hits Level 5, go to the badge board and claim the matching badge yourself. Once all three are claimed, the Tree Swing becomes available as a placement item for your campsite.
If a trinket search stalls
A trinket circle that stops narrowing usually means one of two things: a teammate already picked up the item, or it is sitting in a hard-to-reach place like the volcano biome. If the circle suddenly shifts or shrinks in a new direction after a campfire upgrade, the item was likely in an area your map had not revealed yet. Keep upgrading and re-check the map, and confirm nobody else grabbed it during a co-op run.
