Stardew Valley's updates make it too easy to lose the watering can

How many people look forward to the latest thing Stardew Valley After the update, I restarted my old save file that I hadn’t touched in a few years to prepare for new content.

Stardew is one of those games that I pick up, sit in the haze for a few weeks, and then put it down to decide on all the other games out there. This time I was gone few longer than usual (what can I say? Baldur’s Gate 3 came out). When I loaded my game, it took me a second to even remember what season it was.

I remembered most of it, but I played for an entire day without noticing that my watering can was missing. And holy cow, was it a bitch to figure out where it went? Finally, I have lots of sprinklers on my 4th grade farm to water my crops, so I barely use my watering can. I woke up, kissed my husband and went about my life. I harvested the crops, looked after my animals, fished and drove into town.

It wasn’t until the next day, as I was thinking about progressing on Ginger Island, that I realized that my watering can had mysteriously disappeared from my inventory. One of the gimmicks of the Ginger Island volcano is using the watering can to get over the hot lava. So after paying for the boat ride, I realized that my entire trip was useless.

But aside from my wasted gold, it posed a big mystery: Where the hell was my watering can?

A screenshot from Stardew Valley showing a person standing on a small ranch.

I checked with the blacksmith in case I had turned it in for an upgrade. Nothing. I looked online and learned that if I accidentally sold it or deleted it, I could find it the next day either in the mayor’s lost property office or in my fridge (that’s a very fun little gameplay detail, kudos to ConcernedApe ). It wasn’t there. I had to check every single box in my game, and since this was fourth grade, I had one much

, all full of various knick-knacks that I had accumulated over the years of gaming and that I didn’t want to display in my house or keep in my inventory. I cursed I checked them all but still couldn’t find my watering can…

…until I finally took a second look at the door of my house and found him among an assortment of seeds, hats and other random things Stardew Valley Things™.

Stardew Valley is a beautifully dense game with so many little details that help make the farming simulation mechanics more colorful. There are hidden areas, interesting characters and everything else you could want from a farming simulation taken to the next level. And the game continues to grow as developer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone continues to add more updates over time, with new dialogue, areas, objectives and more.

But because it’s so dense and there have been so many new additions over the years, picking it up again after a while is like throwing it overboard. I’m a good swimmer, but I still have to do a little flailing and gasping for air before I can find a comfortable paddle that allows me to enjoy the swim. It’s one of my favorite games, after all, even if the search for my watering can became a side quest in its own right.

Stardew Valley is full of little surprises, and some of those surprises are unintentional, like my big watering can quest or my in-game husband’s kiss telling me I’m pregnant. I guess I do Also I forgot I did it The before I put down my game.