Stardew Valley: Guide to Exploring Patch 1.6

The long-awaited Stardew Valley 1.6 update finally arrived on PCs on the 19th, bringing some news with it, correcting technical bugs, improving localization and cosmetics, fixing some NPC dialogues and enhancing them, fixing a few balancing issues, adding several new items, new events, improving the gift system… from a small increase in the amount of time you need to walk up against an animal to be able to walk through the same spot on the ground to bigger things such as an entire new farm option, new missions, seed options, fish, climatic events - there’s a lot of stuff waiting for the seasoned farmers and bringing in newcomers every day.

But amidst all of that, which are the most relevant changes, especially when starting a new game post-update? Stardew Valley is in itself a game filled with secrets, countless quests both in the “main” storyline and optional ones, hidden items, new areas you can unlock, endless possibilities both for people who like to focus on the farming simulator aspect of it and just live your new, simple life and to those who enjoy exploration and combat gameplay, and are looking to go on adventures every day, and it’s easy to a newcomer or to someone who hasn’t played very recently to get lost in these myriad of choices.

The main point of Stardew Valley is that there are no rules, there is no right or wrong way to play, or a chronogram to which you must adhere, or you will be “miss out”. The most pressure present in the game are some optional missions which require you to deliver certain items asked by NPCs and have a time limit for them to be completed. Other than that, you are the one who has to find your own rhythm and the way you have the most fun playing!

The tips in this article will set you on just one of the paths you can take during your gameplay, a more “balanced” start, with an overview of all the initial activities you can engage in and progressing at a moderate rhythm, so that you, the newest farmer in Pelican Town, can explore some of the possibilities for your new life.

One of the most significant additions was a new type of farm, and it will be the one we will start in, since it’s appealing both to old players and new ones, and it brings one of the other major news in the update: a new type of blue grass, its exact properties not fully known yet but, in the developer’s own words, the animals like it best.

Each farm type already existing in version 1.5 had major terrain differences to each other, to better adapt to each play style: there are options for those who’d rather focus on growing crops, on mining, foraging, fishing… and the Meadowlands farm came especially for those who want to focus on raising animals!

Unlike any of the prior options, you start with a chicken coop and two chicks, and the missions and focus of the “main plot” push you in this direction, giving you quests focused on advancing your animal raising needs, such as building a silo to held food for your birds, buying more animals, etc.

The rest of the farmland is actually quite well-balanced when it comes to resources, your property is bordered by a river and has a regular number of trees and rocks, on top of several points where the blue grass grows wild.

The quests themselves and the game progression point out important objectives for your advancement, such as crafting objects you will need like scarecrows, sprinklers and a furnace, encouraging exploration of the mines, fishing, expanding your house and making sure you get to know and explore the world around you.

If your objective with the game is not to reach 100% efficiency as soon as possible, but you also don’t want to be losing your precious time, aiming to get relatively ahead so that you can get to the more “open world” adventure and exploration point or raise your farm’s potential and earnings, there are a few things you can do to help your goal:

Focusing on the Community Center

From the 5th in-game day, if you go into town, you will trigger a cutscene which makes available to you one hugely important place: The Community Center.

Mayor Lewis introduces you to the broken down, abandoned building and, after completing a few simple quests, the place will become a very important source of quests to collect items and reward you greatly, with things such as opening up new map areas and new buildings with several new options, etc. It’s recommended that you complete the prior quests and reach this point as soon as possible, to get started at once on the quests inside the Center.

It’s also essential that you do not, in any way, become a JojaMart member, the huge supermarket corporation threatening the local economy, since the mayor promised the corporation’s owner that if another citizen signed up to their advantages' membership program, he could tear down the old community center and build a new store in its place.

Upgrading your Tools

Your main tools in the game are an axe, pickaxe, watering can, hoe and scythe, and certain resources can only be explored with upgraded tools. To achieve that, you will get into the mines as soon as you can, with your basic starter pickaxe, and mine the first few levels until you get at least one copper ore.

As soon as you leave the house in the morning after getting the ore, you’ll be greeted by the town blacksmith, Clint, and he’ll give you the blueprint for the furnace. Gather the required materials, craft it, and continue exploring the mines! Alongside the ores and coal, you’ll use it to create bars of the metals available in the game, and in turn those bars are used to purchase the tool upgrades directly with Clint in the Blacksmith’s shop.

The deeper you go in the mines, the larger the quantity and quality of the ores you’ll find, but also larger the quantity and strength of the monsters which dwell in the deep, and the sword is not a tool you can upgrade in the shop.

As you advance, the game itself gives you a couple better, stronger blades, but if you have access to the Adventurer’s Guild (to gain access you need only complete a simple quest that you’ll receive in your mailbox the morning after reaching level 5 in the mines), you can also buy better weapons and equipment there.

To improve your mining skills, the best thing you can do is… mine! Your level in each proficiency gets higher the more you practice it, and the pickaxe is a good option as the first tool to upgrade, since out of all of them, it’s the one which will give you the most access to exploration and rewards. Remember to take food with you into the depths of the mines if you intend to stay a while, to get your energy and/or HP back when needed!

Either if you already have some NPCs you’d like to build a friendship or get into a romance with or if you have no idea who your neighbors are in Pelican Town, and you’d like to meet them all, the tip here is the same: Talk to everyone every time you get the chance, and you don’t need to especially go touring around town everyday meeting everyone, you can simply follow your daily life and tasks normally, and chat with the ones you meet alongside your way.

If you’re looking to get closer to someone in particular, be it to complete a mission and find the mayor’s purple “shorts” or because you’re already planning your marriage to Abigail (totally not based on the personal experience of the writer), it’s worth getting to know their routines, engaging in conversation every day as well as giving them gifts.

You can give two gifts per week to each character, and an extra one on their birthday. Giving a birthday present that they love will get you eight times as much friendship points. Completing missions, optional or not, can also get you some friendship hearts with the NPCs.

In a reflection of the real-world and just like in most games, in Pelican Town you need money to buy house and farm improvements, new buildings, seeds, resources, to upgrade your tools… So it’s recommended that you set apart some time during your days to that end, in one of the three ways the game allows you to:

Foraging

At the Night Market, not directly accessible as a physical location but only by placing the items you wish to sell into the wooden crate to the right of your house, you can sell all of your harvested crops and the greater part of the resources you forage, so a way to get money without spending any on seeds is by foraging.

You can chop down trees and mine boulders and sell the resulting wood and stone, walk around the map and collect the seasonal items you’ll find strewn about, such as grapes in the summer, leeks during fall and various shells on the beach and sell them as well. These items do not pay as well as harvested crops, but can help you get some revenue.

And just a reminder, these items are also many times necessary items in quests or ingredients for recipes and blueprints, so keep an eye on quantities and on what you’ll need if you want to cook or build something specific.

Animal Produce

As explained previously, the Meadowlands Farm is great for raising animals, but to be able to get animals other than chickens, it’s necessary to buy and build new farm buildings, on top of upgrading each of them, so you’ll need a lot of money for that, and you’re unable to make a fortune right off the bat with animal products. But what you can do is optimize to the maximum what you do have access from the start, so go visit Marnie at the farm south of yours and buy two more chicks from her, reaching maximum capacity for your chicken coop.

Remember to feed them daily, interact to raise their affection to you (just click on any animal to interact with it) and keep the small door in your chicken coop open during sunny days so that they can get outside and feed on the blue grass. Comparing it to my previous gameplays, the chickens which grew feeding on this grass in this new save tend to mature faster and lay bigger and better eggs with more frequency.

Planting

And finally, maybe the most obvious way, since you have now abandoned your old life to become a farmer: Planting.

You can get some seeds as rewards by completing quests, and you can also come across them by digging in certain locations, but the easiest way to get them is by buying from Pierre at the General Store. Always keep an eye on the number of days the plant will take to fully grow and on how many days are left in the current season not to lose money, since the crops wither when the seasons turn (except for a few which can grow on more than one season).

Don’t forget to water all of your crops every morning (except on rainy days), crafting sprinklers and upgrading your watering can will help you spend less time on this daily chore. You can sell everything you harvest either directly to Pierre at the store if you want the money ASAP or you can leave everything at the Night Market crate and get the profits when the day turns, but once again pay attention to the fact that everything can be used as ingredients and quest items, so keep an eye on your active quests to decide on what you’d rather not sell immediately.

Fishing

On your second day at your new farm, you’ll get in your mailbox an invitation from Willy, the local fisherman, and if you go down to the docks to meet him, he’ll teach you how to fish and gift you his old fishing rod. The fishing system is a minigame which can take some practice to perfect, but it’s a great source both of ingredients and quest items, and of fish to sell for profit, either on the NIght Market or directly with Willy at his store on the pier.

Bookseller

Twice in each season (you can check out which days on the calendar outside the General Store, as well as the dates for all events and NPC birthdays) a Bookseller will visit the town. The books are quite expensive, but offer significant improvements in some proficiencies, plenty of new recipes and blueprints, etc.

Green Rain

The Green Rain is a climatic event which has a rare chance of occurring, only during summer and only once a year. Like the name says, it’s a green rain, and during this entire day the vegetation on the entire map will be denser, there will be more of it, and also weird, unusual trees will grow all over town. It’s a great opportunity to forage large quantities of moss, as well as some items and seeds which can only be obtained by chopping down these trees.

The other residents of Pelican Town get apprehensive and restless during this day, most of them flocking to common areas like the saloon, so it’s also a great opportunity to upgrade your social skills with many characters in one location.

Prize Machine

A Prize Machine has been added inside of Mayor Lewis’s manor! You can get tickets to use on it as a reward for some optional item delivery quests or in some festivals (by winning the easter egg hunt, for example) and you can exchange them in the machine for exclusive rewards.

Mystery Boxes

By collecting your second prize ticket at the Prize Machine or living in Stardew Valley for 50 days, whichever comes first, Mystery Boxes containing valuable items can be found by doing any activity, from digging up the ground to fishing or cracking open boulders.

Pets

Maybe the highlight of Patch 1.6! Now it’s possible to adopt more than one pet (after reaching maximum affinity level with the first one you adopt) and, if you are at that maximum affection level, there is a chance of your pet leaving you little gifts. You can also get them to wear hats now!

Winter Attire

And, to finish up, there couldn't be an honorable mention to one of the community’s favorite updates: Now all NPCs have an exclusive winter attire, unlike the one they wear for the rest of the year. Also related to clothing and also a highlight, any gender-based restrictions on all clothing articles for your character have been removed from the game!

Stardew Valley is a game which can seem intimidating at the beginning, since it’s easy to get lost amidst so many possibilities, but following these tips you’ll have an easier start for sure, and will have lots of time to explore each activity and determine your own preferred gameplay style.

Above all else, it is an exploring game which will probably never stop surprising you, because it will always have one more secret to be uncovered, or a circumstance which you’d never encountered before and that will trigger something new, and that is the most fascinating aspect about it! Everyday new discoveries pop up in forums and the community is very welcoming and helpful, and now with this new update, we will have a period stuffed full of news coming ahead.

Since there are hundreds of changes and news, a lot of them quite technical, it wouldn’t even be possible to mention all of them here, but if you’re interested, you can see every detail brought by Patch 1.6 at the official changelog in the game’s website.

I hope this article has helped you enjoy your new farming life! And if you have any good tips, be sure to leave it here in the comments!