Stardew Valley's 1.6 update is finally live, and Eric Barone wasn't kidding: it is massive

BaroneWatch 2024 has concluded: The Stardew Valley 1.6 update is now live, and that means we've finally got the full rundown of all the changes in the long-awaited update.

Stardew Valley's 1.6 update, lest you've forgotten, was intended to be a small thing: Creator Eric Barone warned players in 2022 that it would be mostly focused on support for modders, and "won't be huge." 

That promise didn't last long, as Barone kept piling things on: A new farm type, three new festivals, support for eight-person multiplayer, «new late-game content,» and more.

The promise of all those new things to see and do naturally got fans properly wound up, and Barone's tease that the update "adds so much stuff to all the different aspects of the game" did not calm that situation down. Nor did his decision last week to start revealing the 1.6 patch notes in a slow-drip litany of one patch note at a time, which gave us unforgettable highlights including:

There's more, but you get the idea. It's been quite a week.

Barone revealed the 1.6 update release date in February, but he's been coy about exactly when it will go live, saying only that «as soon as I wake up, drink a coffee, and there's no last minute problem, I will push the button.» He riffed on that vague promise earlier today, drawing out everyone's agony (and his amusement) just a little bit longer.

Anyway, we've had a lot of fun with it (and hopefully Eric has too) but now it's time to get down to business: The Stardew Valley 1.6 update is live, and the full patch notes are below (forgive any formatting errors, there's a lot to plow through here, but do let me know if anything is actually broken). Note that Barone said recently that over 1,000 mods have been updated to be compatible with Stardew 1.6, but if you'd prefer not to update he's also added a public branch on Steam that will enable players to stick with version 1.5.6.

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