Even eight years after its initial release, Stardew Valley continues to receive massive free updates from developer Eric Barone, a.k.a. ConcernedApe. With the latest 1.6 update released on Steam last month for the hugely popular farming sim, players gain new events, items, crops, recipes, and more to their game. In addition, there are a number of bug fixes and visual improvements to enhance the Stardew Valley experience.
I’ve been playing Stardew Valley loyally for three years now, and currently have nearly 1,100 hours logged between Steam and the Nintendo Switch (though nearly all of that is on Switch). Like many others in the pandemic, I was playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons daily. I was looking for other games popular with fans of farming and life simulation genres, and that’s when I discovered Stardew Valley.
When playing through my first of many saves, I fell in love with the town’s NPCs, the pixel graphics, the deep lore, and the massive amount of game to explore. Like seriously, I am hundreds of hours in and still feel I have not experienced a significant amount of what Stardew Valley offers. I admire how this feels like a game you need to study, as there is so much to remember. Visiting the Stardew Valley wiki is something to do religiously, where you learn who likes what, where you may find a certain item, or what kind of fish you can catch in what body of water in what season at what time of day (it’s that specific!).
Even playing through many different saves, with one of them reaching 100% completion, there’s always something new I learn in my next save file. Over the years, it’s become a comfort game I return to when I’m looking for familiarity. But now with the new 1.6 update, I couldn’t wait to start a new playthrough.
Since the highly anticipated 1.6 update is only on Steam at the moment, I have been playing on Mac and having a great time. I am 30 hours into this playthrough and there are a lot of small but mighty quality-of-life updates that make me obsessed with Stardew Valley again. I have just started Year 2, and I’ve barely scratched the surface of all the new content. It’s also incredible how I can’t stop thinking about a game that I’ve already played for over 1,000 hours.
Please be warned that if you have not played the 1.6 update yet, there are gameplay spoilers ahead, but no story spoilers.
7 Best Improvements in the Stardew Valley 1.6 Update
Been away from Stardew Valley and looking for a reason to dive back in? Here are seven noteworthy improvements in the 1.6 update that are worth celebrating.
1. New Farm Type: Meadowlands Farm
Meadowlands is a new farm type; ConcernedApe previously added Beach Farm in the 1.5 update and the Four Corners Farm in the 1.4 update. Each farm comes with different pros and cons, making it a new challenge every time. With the Meadowlands, your farm will have a beautiful waterfall with a nearby coop housing two chickens. This is convenient because it saves time and gold by not having to build a coop. Normally, it may take players at least two in-game weeks to get this.
The farm has tons of grass, featuring “a new blue grass that your animals love.” Within a couple of days, your chickens will be ready to lay eggs, which you can use to cook, sell, or make mayonnaise. Additionally, ConcernedApe added the ability to eat mayonnaise for energy. Personally, I will not eat the mayonnaise because I prefer to sell it for the gold. Mayonnaise is an artisan gold, which can make saving up gold in the early game a heck of a lot easier and faster! It’s also a common likely item for gift-giving, which is great for making friends.
2. Prize Tickets
Sometimes when you complete a quest, the NPC requesting the task will give you a prize ticket on top of your monetary reward. With this prize ticket, you can cash it in at a machine inside Mayor Lewis’ home. They’re pretty good prizes too, like new items, preserves jars, seeds, and saplings. I like this addition because it gives the player an extra incentive to follow through on townspeople’s miscellaneous fetch quests, which is something I’m not always good about.
3. New Seasonal Crops
ConcernedApe has added one new crop for each season. There are Carrots for Spring, Summer Squash in Summer, Broccoli in the Fall, and Powdermelon in Winter. The seeds for these crops are not available to purchase at Pierre’s or Joja Mart; they can only be found randomly. Like wild seeds, these special crops may be found when digging in the ground, found in crates in the mine, found in treasure chests, available for trade, and now, won at Mayor Lewis’ prize machines.
Not only do new crops add gameplay variety to Stardew Valley, but it changes up the NPC’s liked gifts that we’ve gotten to know so well for years. The new crops also yield a considerable amount of gold.
4. Drinking a Joja Cola Now Gives Speed Boosts
Prior to the 1.6 update, cans of Joja Cola were only good for 13 point buff of energy (not much) or a liked gift for Sam. So, overall, a pretty dull item. However, with the update, Joja Cola now provides a 21 second boost in speed. Even a Joja Cola found in the trash will give you this temporary boost! While this is a small change, it is really helpful in the early game when you don’t have easy access to a horse or coffee.
5. A Clam Is Now Considered a Fish
Now this may not seem like a big deal, but it’s a simple change that improves the game. Previously, clams were not considered a fish. They were only good for a few recipes, crafting, selling, or maybe gifting an NPC (it’ll earn you a few friendship points with some). This was disappointing, because clams are easy to come across as they are commonly available to forage at the beach.
I’m actually really excited clams are considered fish in the 1.6 update, because they are now consumable as-is and can be used in a cooking recipe that requires any fish, like Sashimi. Prior, I’d usually sell the clams, but now I save these conveniently available ingredients for cooking or eat them while foraging.
6. Deluxe Bait
For the legions of players like me who don’t enjoy fishing in Stardew Valley, deluxe bait will make the mini game a tad easier. With deluxe bait, fish will not only bite much faster than without, but the size of your fishing bar will also increase. It’s a noticeable improvement and makes fishing in the game feel more carefree. In previous saves, I would often skip quests requiring you to catch a fish. Now, I truly don’t mind being the town’s angler.
7. Tents
I can’t count the number of times I’ve been out late at night and have not made it to bed by 2AM. So. Frustrating. I can’t stand it when I fall asleep on the farm and wake up to a note that says I’ve been charged gold for someone dragging me to bed. But in 1.6, there are now one-use tents! You don’t have to risk losing gold when you end up falling asleep outside of your house. You may end up finding a tent on your own or you can craft one yourself when you earn the recipe. I plan to always keep a tent handy when I unlock Ginger Island; I know it’ll take some time to unlock my new home there!
Honorable Mentions
- Winter outfits for NPCs. NPCs now wear cold weather-appropriate clothing in the winter season. It’s hard to recognize some of the villagers at first but they look so darn cute in their gear!
- Golden Joja Parrot. Hate finding all 130 golden walnuts on Ginger Island? Me too. Now you can pay a golden bird to find the remaining ones for you.
- Maru has a new 14-heart event. I’ve yet to marry Maru so I’m looking forward to seeing her special new cutscene!
Final Thoughts on Stardew Valley 1.6 Update
These quality-of-life updates are all great ways to help players earn more gold and progress more easily throughout the game. Replaying to perfection can sometimes feel strenuous, but it has been exciting to return to a game I’ve loved for so many years and find new things to love. As of the time of writing, there is still no release date for the Stardew Valley 1.6 update to consoles or mobile, but ConcernedApe said it would be “as soon as possible.”
While I’m happy to have more free content in my favorite game of all time, I do feel plagued with curiosity on what this means for the potential timeline of when ConcernedApe’s next game, Haunted Chocolatier, will be released. To learn more about the highly anticipated title, check out our list of 13 indies we are hoping to see in 2024. Hopefully we will receive news soon enough, because we haven’t heard any significant details since 2021.
Are you playing the Stardew Valley 1.6 update? If so, what do you think of the new quality of life changes? Let us know in the comments!
Stardew Valley is available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S (included on GamePass), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PS5, and Vita, MSRP $14.99; as well as on mobile, iOS (included in Apple Arcade) and Android, MSRP $4.99.
