Eric Barone issues an emergency Stardew Valley performance PSA - 'Remove any hats from your pets'

Stardew Valley 1.6 is now available on all platforms. As usual, a few issues have arisen. The problems don't seem to be too serious, which is great news, but some players are experiencing performance issues. There is a simple fix that may be the most Stardew like of all.

Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone wrote on X: "PSA: If you are experiencing performance problems in Stardew Valley 1.6 remove all hats off pets." "We will fix the problem as quickly as possible."

This is important but not for the reasons you might think. The degraded performance of the game is a concern, but the real problem is that pets are no longer wearing hats. In the Stardew universe, it is essential that pets are chapeaued. The longer your furry little buddies go without their stylish lids the worse the experience for everyone.

Barone, like the invisible coyotes who stole the chickens, has a legend to explain the pet-hat crisis. "There are rumors about a strange rash that affects pets' ears in Zuzu City, and we want to make sure these ears can breathe for a couple of days."

I don't think Barone's loreification of Stardew Valley's bugs makes me want to see what he does with other minor technical problems, but I hope he continues. We should all have fun with bugs, because they are inevitable. Who knows what will emerge? The "invisible chicken-stealing coyotes" joke led to the idea of adding real coyotes to the game. This is a good idea. Barone has not yet commented on whether or not this is likely to happen, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did.