Massive Stardew Valley Update 1.6 Adds New Mastery System, Farm Type, Festivals, Dialogues and Much More

20.03.2024 - 14:41 / wccftech.com / Aernout van de Velde

A rather massive free content update for Stardew Valley has been released on PC - Stardew Valley update 1.6.

The release date for the large content update was revealed last month alongside the 30-million sales milestone for the game. As covered earlier, this free update from creator Eric 'ConcernedApe' Barone has turned out to be "larger in scope" than initially anticipated. We already knew that this update would new items, and a new festival alongside fixes, and we now have the official release notes for this free patch. Aside from visual improvements, changes to multiplayer, balance changes, QoL changes, and tons of fixes, the 1.6 update also adds a new mastery system which allows players to use powerful perks and items. In addition, this patch adds new NPC dialogues, mystery boxes, new crops, a bookseller, and much more. We highly suggest checking out the full patch notes for this new update here. We've included some main new features of the update below:

Related Story Stardew Valley Update 1.6 “Larger in Scope” Than Planned; Currently in Bug-Fixing and Polishing Phase

Stardew Valley Update 1.6 new content and feature

• 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.

As said, Stardew Valley update 1.6 is available now for PC via Steam and GoG. As shared by Barone, the update will also soon be available through Game Pass. "Gamepass is incoming soon, sorry about that", Barone shared on X. "Waiting for a new build to go through."

Stardew Valley is available worldwide now for PC, consoles, and smart devices. The update will soon be made available on other platforms as well.