A Decade of Stardew Valley – 10 Best Updates In Review
Stardew Valley, a farming cozy game, was crafted by Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone. This game was released initially on February 26th, 2016, but just where did Stardew Valley begin, gameplay-wise? In order to find out what the best updates were, we have to know where it all began, of course!
For those who were following the development, the old Stardew Valley website shares where it all began in 2012, before the move in 2013, once Chucklefish came over to publish StardewValley while ConcernedApe was still in the thick of development. With that bit of review, let’s jump into some of the best updates!
Cooking
It may not sound big, but in the Stardew Valley 1.03 update launched February 28th, 2016 (only two days after launch!) you were able to now use items in your fridge for cooking instead of just having everything in your inventory. As an inventory management spaz, cluttering up the inventory with everything needed to make Complete Breakfast (1 Egg to make a Fried Egg, Milk, 1 Potato and 1 Oil for Hashbrowns, 1 more Egg and Wheat Flour for Pancakes) is a major drag! Even with a full unlocked inventory by year 2 of Spring, this Queen of Sauce recipe takes quite a bit to make.
So Much Immersion
With Stardew Valley’s 1.07 update, players were given a much more immersive and quality patch. This update gave spouses unique dialogues for festivals, with your sweetheart standing with you during the Dance of the Moonlight Jellies. That wasn’t the only thing Stardew Valley got right with this update; they even changed the dialogue of the family members after you’ve married a villager.
ConcernedApe even added in the likelihood of lightning striking trees, though lightning rods were able to intercept as long as they weren’t already in processing. For those who enjoy how choices affect the world around us, this update was big in ways that genuinely bring you closer to the game. To top this mega-immersion, maxed friendship wouldn’t decay anymore!
Marriage and Maps
One of the major game-changer updates was the Stardew Valley 1.1 update, launched October 3rd 2016. This was major in that we were given the gift of Shane and Emily as new spouses, bringing us to 12 marriage candidates. Not only did we get 2 new possible heartthrobs, we were also given spouse outdoor areas that were unique to the NPC we married! Que the fan-girling hand waving and shrieks! This introduced Shane’s own chicken hutch and his best chicken, Charlie to player farms if he was their pick.
Space and storage management is a big problem, but this was finally addressed! No longer do we have to litter our house or farm with boxes and production. Robin gave us a shed! Someone heard the OCD player’s prayers and gave us a space we could dedicate to storage, and you could decorate it! We won’t be shedding a tear over this major shed update; we’ve got organizing to do.
Stardew Valley also introduced 4 new maps, based on themed skills with unique decorations in your homestead. Enter the Riverlands, a map for the artisanal fisher who seeks all the village-based fish. If you wanted a forager map, the Forest was the optimal choice, growing unique weeds that gave mixed seeds and renewable stumps, giving hardwood topped with a sprinkling of seasonal forage spawning. The Hill-Top map was where the miners would truly shine with its dedicated ore spawn and unique geode stones. For the combat veterans, you now have a Wilderness farm where bats and golems come out at night that scale with your combat level, introducing a new fiend called wilderness golem, which only spawns here.
Localization and New Languages
In April of 2017, Stardew Valley finally got to reach wider audiences with localization and seven new languages being available. ConcernedApe was taking the game global, releasing originally through Steam only until updates for consoles and GoG could be made. Stardew Valley 1.2 was a major undertaking with help from community members to help with translation feedback and reports to try making its debut on the world-scale as fluid as possible. Now players who spoke German, Brazilian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, or Simplified Chinese could enjoy the game in their language.
Multiplayer Update
Any list of massive updates for Stardew Valley absolutely must include the massive August 2018 update, 1.3 Multiplayer, which allowed everyone to finally play with up to 3 friends for a total of 4 farmers to one farm! ConcernedApe tipped his hat to Tom of Chucklefish for the networking code that allowed this experience to truly come into being. Sure, we got a new festival and winter mystery plus a few other this and thats, but the heart of this update was the ability to chill with friends and farm together.
New Heart Events and Farm Map
In Stardew Valley 1.4, we got the gift of 14 heart events for every spouse, which gave us a deeper look into their development after marriage. This was such a crucial update for immersion in the game with your heart throb! The true show stopper here was the new four-corners Co-op-based map, though, which, as the name implies, divided the farm map into 4 separate areas with their own individual perks. For players who enjoyed co-op, it gave each friend their own skill they could focus on and hone their skills. We got new endgame content as well, but the co-op expansion focus was definitely a big win!
Super End-Game Content
Towards the end of 2020, Stardew Valley was given a whole big update in 1.5, which introduced the ability to spawn monsters as well as change the community center bundles through advanced game options. This also gave hardcore players a challenge in the Beach Farm, which could sometimes get crates washing up on shore, sprinklers don’t mix with sand! This update came super-packed with a whole new region, Ginger Island, which gave players a whole new questline and tons of end-game content to explore.
Quality and Quantity For You, Me, EVERYONE!
Prior to update 1.5.5, players were buying and or crafting in batch mode, one at a time, agonizingly slow, and sometimes getting more from shops than intended! ConcernedApe gave Stardew Valley farmers the ability to do this in stacks of 25 items at a time in the November 2021 update. Did you accidentally sell something? Well, now you could buy it back! This change also saw players able to nudge their pets out of the way; no longer would Fido keep you stuck in the hallway! We also got in-game settings from our last playthrough applied to new saves, which made starting a new farm from scratch less of a hassle.
Festivals, Mastery, and… Neighbors?
March 19th, 2024, saw the absolute biggest update when 1.6 landed. With it, ConcernedApe graced players with a new festival in the desert, 2 mini fish festivals, and some strange rain. Alongside these, though, was a new mastery system in its own new area with some unique and powerful perks. For the farmhands who love raising animals, they got the gift of yet another special farm type with unique grass animals love. Above and beyond was the labor of love in this update as we got new NPC dialogs, relating to custom gifts as well as reactions to things that happened, and a custom flower dance partner dialogue. The world map officially showed your position, with Ginger Island world map being visible when you’re visiting. Once you completed a new quest line, you’d find some new neighbors moved in and have some requests of their own! To top all of this off, 8-player co-op was released, so you could make all your friends do all the hard work while you profit.
Cabins and Clint
Video of Stardew Valley Update, Courtesy of the ConcernedApe channel
March 27th, 2024, saw a short but essential update that was both needed and asked for. Cabins could be painted once they reached the third upgrade, making it so co-op players could make it their own. Not only could they be painted, but we got new cabin styles at the start, so every cabin had its own appearance instead of all looking the same. Clint, however, could now be accessed for either the shop or his geode service while your tools were being upgraded! So many times, a tool would be sent in for a boost when suddenly remembering that there are geodes that need to be opened for the museum!
While we’ve already had a whole decade of action-packed updates, ConcernedApe has already hinted that there is even more to come! Update 1.7 has already been teased, with some reveals regarding new marriage candidates. Those who love the desert will have Sandy as a new marriage candidate, and our love-lorn Clint will also be a new suitor. ConcernedApe gave us a video snapshot of what is to come.
