Today Stardew Valley developer Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone finally released the much-awaited update 1.6 for his popular life simulator.
The update has been in the works for a long time, so it's certainly nice to see all that solo effort coming to fruition.
For now, only the PC version received the update, while the console and mobile versions will follow as soon as they're ready, with no estimated release date for now. Yet, ConcernedApe mentions that they're actively in development.
Interestingly, the full patch notes are absolutely humongous. If you want to read them all, be prepared to read over 7,300 words. That being said, do keep in mind that ConcernedApe recommends playing the update without spoilers, and the patch notes do contain some, so read them at your own risk.
Besides a massive amount of fixes for gameplay, NPCs, multiplayer, text, visuals, UI, mods, and various bugs, we get a new farm type that lets you start with a chicken coop, new festivals and a special prize for continuing to win the same festivals, more NPC dialogue, and winter clothes for them.
Players are now able to keep multiple pets that will bring them gifts when the relationship level is maxed. New home decorations have been implemented. Item drop chances and prices have been rebalanced, and speaking of items, there are tons of new ones, like a new Heavy Furnace that can finally speed up smelting.
Interestingly, the update brought back a lot of players to Stardew Valley, with the tracking site SteamDB reporting that it has broken its previous concurrent players record on Steam, passing 140,000 people playing at the same time.
If you're unfamiliar with Stardew Valley, the game originally debuted in 2016. The original version for PC was followed by PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation Vita, and even mobile over the following three years.
If you'd like to know why the game is so beloved among fans of life simulators and basically pioneered "cozy" games, you can check out our review, which awarded it with a much-deserved 10 out of 10.
