As of March 19, the newest, and possibly final, update for the hit indie game Stardew Valley has been released for PC players, bringing with it tons of new end-game content, three new festivals, many quality of life improvements, plenty of aesthetic upgrades, a new farm type, and much more.
While first hinted at all the way back with the 1.5 update in December of 2020, the 1.6 update has finally arrived for Stardew Valley. Recent screenshots and teasers on ConcernedApe’s (the creator of the game) twitter have given eager fans tastes of the information, but now the full list of patch notes has been posted to Stardewvalley.net. What kinds of new secrets and surprises does this update hold?
Right of the bat, ConcernedApe’s post mentions the addition of three new festivals, and one new event. The first, and most notable, is the Desert Festival, held in the Desert during spring, which is typically not available to players during their first year. The Desert Festival is a “passive” festival, similar to the night market, with a number of unique vendors and challenges that give and accept a special currency, unique to this festival.
The two other festivals are related to fishing, being the Trout Derby and SquidFest. During these, their respective fish can be caught en masse, and traded in for unique prizes. The other new event is “Green Rain”, a unique weather phenomenon that occurs during the summer, and is connected to a brand new item: moss. Moss is a forgeable item, used in many new crafting recipes, and a few of the old ones have been altered to include it as well. Green Rain greatly increases the chance of finding moss, and causes odd green stalks to sprout out of the ground.
The new farm type added has nothing to do with fishing or foraging, however (that was the Beach Farm, added in the 1.5 update). Instead, however, the new Meadowland Farm is focused on raising animals. The Meadowland Farm comes already stocked with a chicken coop and two hens, and naturally spawns a new item: Blue Grass, which animals supposedly like better than plain grass. Presumably, the farm also has notably less land for growing crops, to balance it with the other farm types.
Beyond new starting options, the update also adds plenty of late game content, similar to the 1.5 update. Most notably, from the patch notes is the new Mastery system which grants “powerful perks and items” to the player after earning Mastery Points. Currently, little is known about how these Mastery Points are earned, but the player must have reached level 10 in each one of their stats (farming, mining, fishing, foraging, and combat).
Other late game additions including blessing statues that provide the player with buffs, trinkets to augment combat, and a miniature version of the Dwarven Forge for players to enchant and infuse their tools and weapons from their farm.
While the update contains numerous other updates: new pet types, 8 new achievements, quality of life improvements, modding updates, and bug fixes, these are the biggest and most important. Currently, no date has been given for when the update will be implemented in the console and mobile ports of the game.
