This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s spring editorial intern Alexandrea Ciardella. Find her on Instagram at @a6ysma1. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
The long-awaited Stardew Valley 1.6 update is finally here! Released on March 19th for PC, the Stardew Valley update has finally been launched on Steam after many years of waiting. As this is the largest update the game has received in many years, fans are eager to see what new content will be added in the update. Let’s review a few things the update has added, as well as what I’m the most excited to see in the game.
Stardew Valley is a cozy farming simulator game where the player moves to their late grandfather’s farm to become a farmer as well. While growing crops and meeting the townsfolk is one aspect of the game, the player can discover new areas with upgradable items, meet magical creatures throughout the valley, fight monsters, fish for treasure, mine for resources, and do so much more. Through resource management and farming (referring to both the agricultural and gaming sense of the word), the player is encouraged to continue expanding their farm and to even reach “Perfection” if they so choose. The sole developer, Eric Barone, aka ConcernedApe, was inspired by games like Harvest Moon and considers Stardew Valley to be a “love letter” to those types of farming games.
First released in February 2016, Stardew Valley has received multiple updates since launch day. The 1.6 update is the largest in the last few years, December 2021 being the latest update, comprised mostly of bug fixes. It has been a few years since new content has been released and fans are excited to see what ConcernedApe has added to the game. Things such as additional dialogue, new cosmetics, and environmental aspects have been updated, among many, many other things. Below, I’ll go over a few of the major content updates I’m the most excited to see in the game but be wary of spoilers! You can find a comprehensive list of all the game updates here.
Meadowlands Farm
When players first begin creating their character, they must choose from eight different farm types that will be their home for the rest of the game. Each type is unique in both the layout of the farm, as well as the perks that each one provides. For instance, the Riverland farm has less space to grow crops but makes catching freshwater fish much easier. The Hill-top farm provides mining resources through stone and ore nodes, while the Wilderness farm allows monsters to spawn on the farm at night.
The new Meadowlands farm caters to farmers who enjoy raising livestock, including chickens, cows, pigs, and more. Selecting the Meadowlands at the beginning of the game provides the player with blue grass for the animals to eat, a coop with two chickens, and a bundle of hay. When I get the chance to play the 1.6 update, I think I’ll select this farmland and give it a try!
New NPC dialogue
When you’ve played Stardew Valley for as long as I have, the dialogue starts to get a little stale. The NPCs can only be programmed with so many responses for different events- even though there are a lot of different dialogue tags, you start to realize that after a while the NPCs have nothing new to say.
The new update will add tons of new dialogue such as “dynamic dialogues which react to things that happened”. Some NPCs will likely have dialogue that reacts to events like cutscenes in the game- what once felt like isolated events are now given new context by NPCs. I’m excited to see what new dialogue my favorite characters have to say!
More Pets/Pet Hats
When you start a new game in Stardew Valley, you’re allowed to select a pet, either a cat or a dog. Throughout the game this pet acts as passive companion, providing some ambience to the farm. However, players were only allowed one pet through their whole playthrough. With the update, you can now adopt multiple pets and give them a home on the farm, once you max out your friendship with your starter pet.
Another new feature added are pet hats. In the past, players were allowed to equip the hats for themselves, for their scarecrows, or even for their horses. Now, pets can wear any hats that the player owns. Cats in hats. Who knew we needed this?
With the 1.6 update, I’m hoping that it will bring a new resurgence to the game. Stardew Valley 1.6 is now available for PC copies of the game. The update will come to console and mobile versions soon, though it has not yet been specified when.
Are you as excited about the Stardew Valley update as we are? Let us know in the comments below if you’ve played yet, and what your favorite part of the update is!
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