Stardew Valley1.6 update is finally here – and it’s bigger than any of us expected. Developer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone was cautious about some of the bigger features the update would introduce, announcing a festival and some new dialogue, but more or less left it at that for a long time. In the week leading up to today’s release, they shared a handful of spoiler-free lines from Sticky notes daily. This apparently irrelevant technically Changes were received with great applause Stardew Community, but they were always just the tip of the iceberg. Now that it’s here, ConcernedApe has released the full patch notes, and holy shit, is there a lot going on here?
First of all, ConcernedApe lied. When he first mentioned it The new content from 1.6, he said, a single “major” festival that will be added, which we now know is the three-day desert festival that takes place in the spring after the players repair the bus. What he didn’t mention was that 1.6 would also add two smaller fishing festivals, the Trout Derby and SquidFest, as well as an additional “environmental event” in the summer. All festivals (except Night Market and Desert Festival) now undergo map and dialogue changes every two years.
After teasing a few smaller ones mechanically and bug fixes throughout the week, ConcernedApe rounded out the 1.6 drip feed with the announcement of a significant new feature: the meadowland farm type associated with “tough blue grass.” This beginner-friendly farm type, where players start with a chicken coop and two chickens, is now available to players at the start of the game. There is also a new “Mastery System” accessed through an entirely new area. So add it to the growing list of unexpected additions Stardew1.6 update.
One of the updates ConcernedApe provided last week was that players would be able to do this Phase through their loving pets (which often blocked their path) much faster in 1.6, but it turns out that wasn’t the only adjustment pets received. As of 1.6, players can now have multiple pets, which is handy since the patch also introduced turtle pets as well as new cat and dog breeds available for adoption. Pets that players show a lot of love can now also give gifts back to their owners, and in return, players can now put hats on their cats and dogs.
One of the earlier promises about 1.6 was that it would contain new dialogue, and I can now confirm that a lot of it has been added Stardew. NPCs now have custom gift reactions, dynamic dialogue in response to things around them, custom dialogue when accepting the Flower Dance, and some previously missing dialogue has even been restored to the game.
Just to summarize a few important changes:
- PC lobbies can now support up to eight players and stability has been improved across the board.
- The world map now shows your exact location rather than a fixed point based on the zone you are in.
- A whole bunch of new elements have been added, but there are simply far too many to meaningfully list here.
- There are four new home renovations.
- A bookseller now comes to town twice a season.
- Changes to Ginger Island, including a world map of the location and golden parrots to help players find the golden walnuts there.
- A large tree that will apparently lead to a whole new side quest.
- More crops, including carrots and broccoli.
- And so much more than I can fit here.
I think it’s safe to assume that the 1.6 update is on Stardew is much larger than expected, and to even call it an update or a patch is to belittle the size of the thing. It’s essentially a DLC or expansion, and one that is not only over the top in terms of content, but also seems to polish up the game and make a number of changes for modders that will ensure that in the next few The game has been in the works for years as ConcernedApe transitions back into full-time development Haunted Chocolatier (and ports the update to other platforms)
If you want to see the amazingly long patch notes in full, you can find them Here. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to sit down and finally spend some time playing Stardew Valley after writing about it for a week.
