Stardew Valley‘s long-anticipated 1.6 update has finally arrived, bringing a slate of new features and fixes to the PC version of the game (with the console patches launching later). In the lead up to release, developer ConcernedApe teased a range of features coming to the game in its latest update, but played coy about revealing its full scope.
Now, we know exactly what’s been added to the game, thanks to comprehensive patch notes published on the Stardew Valley website. Beyond what’s already been revealed, the patch notes outline details for new festivals, and what exactly NPC dialogue contains.
First up: festivals. As detailed, Stardew Valley gets three new festivals in its 1.6 update. The Desert Festival is a three-day event in Spring, which pops up after the bus is repaired. There are also two new mini fishing festivals in the game: Trout Derby and SquidFest.
Read: 8 strange unsolved mysteries in Stardew Valley
As for NPC dialogue, there will now be custom gift reactions for NPCs, dynamic dialogues to react to in-game events, custom Flower Dance acceptance dialogue, and a restoration for key pieces of missing dialogue.
Beyond these changes, Stardew Valley Update 1.6 will also introduce new items (Big Chest, Mushroom Log, Anvil, Mini-Forge, Statue of Blessings, Statue of the Dwarf King, Tent Kits, Mystic Seeds, 19 Books of Power, and more) as well as mystery boxes, four new crops, new home renovations, new winter outfits, a special golden Joja parrot, a prize machine in Lewis’ house, a world map for Ginger Island, and the ability to get multiple pets.
There is also a new “mastery system” that can be accessed via a mysterious “new area” which may grant “powerful perks and items.” You’ll need to discover this particular secret for yourself, by the sounds of things.
Here’s the complete list of new contents and features coming to Stardew Valley in its 1.6 update. You can view the full list of additional changes, tweaks and improvements on the Stardew Valley website.
Stardew Valley Update 1.6: Major new features
- Added new festivals and events:
- The Desert Festival is a three-day event in spring which can be accessed after the bus is repaired.
- Two mini fishing festivals: Trout Derby and SquidFest.
- A new environmental “event” in summer.
- Added a “mastery” system, accessed via a new area, which grants powerful perks and items…
- Added a new farm type: Meadowlands Farm. It has a chewy blue grass that animals love. You also start with a coop and 2 chickens.
- Added many new NPC dialogues. That includes…
- custom gift reactions;
- dynamic dialogues which react to things that happened;
- custom flower dance acceptance dialogue;
- restored missing dialogue (like Emily and Shane’s flower dance custom accept-dance dialogues when married to the player, Shane’s dialogue when browsing the Saloon vending machine, Lewis congratulating female farmers after their wedding, a line in Maru’s 14-heart event, three dialogues from Sam related to Kent, two randomized dialogues when an NPC buys an item you sold to a shop, two speech bubbles from Marnie and Robin when you enter their shop building, and a fortune teller dialogue for your potential spouse);
- and more.
- You can now get multiple pets (after getting max hearts with your starter pet).
- Added a world map for Ginger Island, visible when visiting the island.
- The world map now shows your actual position within the world in real-time (instead of showing you at a fixed point for each location). In multiplayer, you’ll see other players’ positions in real-time too.
- Pets that love you will sometimes give you gifts.
- NPCs now have winter outfits.
- Festivals now have map and dialogue changes every second year (except the night market and desert festival).
- Added a golden Joja parrot, which you can pay to find all remaining golden walnuts on ginger island.
- Added perfection waivers, a new Joja way to bypass perfection challenges.
- Added a prize machine in Lewis’ house. You can collect prize tickets as a reward for completing quests and special orders, and from repeated egg/ice festival wins.
- A bookseller now comes to town twice a season.
- Added mystery boxes.
- Added a big tree, with a quest line which ultimately gives you some new neighbors.
- Added four new crops (carrots, summer squash, broccoli, and powdermelon) which can’t be purchased at the store, and two new giant crops.
- Added four new home renovations: dining room, attic, expanded corner room, and cubby.
- Added new items:
- Big Chest, which has almost double the size of a regular chest. It can also be placed “onto” a regular chest to upgrade it.
- Dehydrator, which turns fruit into dried fruit and mushroom into dried mushrooms.
- Mushroom Log, which produces mushrooms and interacts with nearby trees.
- Bait Maker, which can produce fish-specific baits.
- Heavy Furnace, which can process more bars at a time, and yield bonus bars.
- Fish Smoker, which produces smoked fish, doubling the value of the fish. You get one by default when starting a new riverlands farm.
- Text Signs, which can be written on.
- Anvil, which allows you to re-roll trinkets.
- Mini-Forge, which acts as a Dwarvish Forge.
- Statue Of Blessings, which grants a random blessing each day.
- Statue Of The Dwarf King, which allows you to select one of two mining buffs for the day.
- Tent Kits, which allow you to build a tent which can be slept in for one night.
- Treasure Totems, which spawn a ring of diggable spots.
- Mystic Seeds, which grow a unique tree which can be tapped.
- Mystic Syrup, a valuable tapper product.
- Deluxe Bait, gets fish biting faster than regular bait.
- Challenge Bait, which allows for up to 3 fish to be caught at once, but loses 1 each time a fish leaves the bobber bar.
- Deluxe Worm Bin, which upgrades the regular worm bin to produce deluxe bait.
- 19 unique Books Of Power, which grant special perks.
- Skill Books, which grant experience in a skill.
- Book Of Stars, which grants experience in all skills.
- Moss, a new resource type which grows on old trees.
- Mixed Flower Seeds.
- Sonar Bobber, which shows the fish on your line before you catch it.
- Raisins, which have a special use.
- Sea Jelly, River Jelly, and Cave Jelly, a new item that you can fish.
- 7 Trinkets, which grant powers related to combat.
- Red, Purple, and Green fireworks.
- Stardrop Tea, which makes an excellent gift for anyone.
- 25 new hats.
- 280 new furnitures.
- New unique furniture catalogues, which contain themed furniture sets.
- 41 new floor styles.
- 24 new wallpaper styles.
- Golden Animal Crackers.
- Mannequins, which can be dressed.
- Spouse Portraits which can be purchased after reaching 14 hearts.
- Butterfly Powder, which allows you to remove pets…
- Blue Grass Starter.
- Moss Soup.
- Secret items.
- Added Goby fish.
- Added some new remix bundles.
- You can now place hats on cats and dogs.
- You can now upgrade the copper pan into steel, gold, and iridium pans.
- You can now enchant pans with Archaeologist, Generous, Fisher, and Reaching.
- Added a “Special Items & Powers” tab to replace the wallet. The wallet area now tracks a selection of progress markers.
- Added an animals tab that shows all your pets & animals.
- You can now build pet bowls in Robin’s shop, with three variants.
- The farmhouse and pet bowl can now be moved through Robin’s menu.
- The farm computer can now be used anywhere to see a summary of that location, instead of only the farm.
- The mini-jukebox can now be used on the Ginger Island farm.
- Added a new interaction with your horse.
- Added a new side-tunnel to the quarry mine.
- The community center fish tank now becomes an actual fish tank when you complete it.
- Added more secrets & easter eggs.
- Added two new cat and dog breeds.
- Added turtle pets.
- Added 8 new achievements.
- Added 4 new cabin variants.
- Added a few more accessory options in character creation.
- Added a new bobber machine in Willy’s shop, with 39 bobber styles to choose from. New styles unlock by catching new kinds of fish.
- Added a cameo appearance to Maru’s 14-heart event.
- Emily has a new rare “socialize” daily quest if you’ve completed the introduction quest.
- You can now add anchors, treasure chests, and pearls to fish tanks.
- Pierre now sells a few random items at the winter star booth (at a markup!).
- Added a jingling sound when running with the cinderclown shoes on.
- Baby toss now has a chance to crit.
- Added a skull cavern statue that can be used to toggle hard mode in the skull cave (after completing Qi’s challenge).
- Added additional chests to Skull Cavern levels 200 and 300.
- Added unique skull cavern chest appearance for level 100, 200, and 300 chests.
- Added a high note (C5) to flute block.
- Added iridium golem to wilderness farm.
- See changes for mod authors.
