Eric Barone, not content with bringing Stardew Valley 1.6 to all platforms, has added a whole bunch of new stuff in yet another huge update.

Eric Barone admitted in an interview earlier this summer that he had a problem with starting things. He wasn't lying. Barone has been working on Stardew Valley since 2012, and released it in 2016. He's continued to work on the game ever since, despite his other obligations.

"1.6 ended being a bit larger than originally planned." Barone had said that he was done adding major content to the game a few months before the "can't-stop" comment. This was technically true, as the 1.6 update for PC rolled out in March. It was huge. Calling it "a little bigger" was not accurate.

Barone had said in May that console and mobile players would have to wait until the update was released. But the ports are now available today. And it turns out Barone worked on even more content to add to the 1.6.9 update, which is now live across all platforms. He didn't want PC gamers to feel left behind today.

This is a very substantial update to the 1.6 version, with a number of quality of life improvements, balance changes, and a host of fixes. There's also new content including Easter eggs, a mysterious friend who will appear to help you retrieve lost items (for a fee, of course), as well as "hidden cheat codes" that only work on platforms which allow save edits.

The cheats detailed on the Stardew Valley Wiki are powerful tools. One allows players to instantly grant them any amount of money, while the second enables the use debug commands through the chat console. You should proceed with caution, however, as debug commands can "crash your game, permanently damage or break your save or cause other issues." It is not recommended to use these on a save that you care about. Backup your saves before you do anything else.

The "new friend" is more interesting to me. He will help you out if you ever lose something important. The wiki explains that if a player unlocks a unique item, but then loses it, a hidden shop appears behind the fallen column overnight to buy it back. The shop sells items which can't be obtained any other way. In multiplayer, anyone can buy an item that has been lost (not just the player who lost it).

What is the only downside? Each item costs 10,000 gold. You should be careful with your stuff.

Barone stated in September that his next game Haunted Chocolatier hasn't been worked on "in a very long time" as he was focused on the Stardew update. Barone's continued dedication to a game that he could have easily thrown away years ago may disappoint those who are eager to explore the new world he has created. However, most people are excited and appreciative of his efforts. MaximusJDo, a Steam user, wrote: "He better wear a chef's cap with the way he prepared this update." This nicely summarizes the mood.

The big question is whether Barone is going to stop wasting time and get back on track with Haunted Chocolatier or if there will be more Stardew. I don't really know, but will say that I predicted a Stardew Valley update in March and I still stand by it.

Below are the complete Stardew Valley 1.6.9 Patch Notes.

New Content & Features

• If you've lost something that can't ever be found again, there is a friend in the secret woodlands who will help you get it back.
• You can now add legendary fish to fish ponds. They are limited to only one per pond, and they produce legendary fish roe. Each fish has its own unique water color.
• You can now put beds and sleep in any building that allows furniture.
• Items dropped in water will now float for only a short period of time. You can collect them with a magnet ring or if you are quick.
• Sam and Shane have now been given work portraits for their time at JojaMart.
• Slightly tweaked a few dialogues.
• New Easter eggs added.
• Hidden cheat commands added. (Only for platforms that allow a save-edit)

Balance changes

• Blue grass is no longer slower growing than normal grass
• Fruit tree growth no longer hindered by grass and seeds spots
• Pine trees now drop an extra wood when cut down.
• The initiation quest counts the wild slimes that have been killed on your farm.
• The damage of a thorns rings stacks when you equip two. Monsters killed with a thorns rings now drop loot just like regular kills.
• The Gatherer skill now allows you to double the amount of forage harvested when using an iridium-tipped scythe.
• Now you can catch the Son of Crimsonfish at the night market.
• Robin no longer builds buildings during green rain year 1.
• When you place a bomb, then switch to another weapon, the enchantments of that weapon will no longer be applied to the damage caused by the bomb.
• Add some items to the shop:
  • Adventurer's guild: Rusty Sword (or Femur), Elf Blade, Steel Smallsword (or Steel Smallsword), Crystal Dagger, Obsidian Edge and Work Boots. These unlock once you reach a certain level of mining, regardless if you found them in mine chests.
  • Marnie's Shop: Cow Decal
  • Hat mouse: Sports Cap
  • Willy's Shop: Advanced Iridium Rod
• The likelihood of passing trains occurring multiple times during the same session has increased, but they can no longer occur on consecutive days.
• Willy's shop opens in the spring of the first year, even if you did not read his letter.
• The recipes required by farmhands who have not claimed their cabins are affecting the Queen of Sauce reruns.
• Fixed the bug where you could receive monster damage when jumping down a mineshaft before the screen faded to black.
• Fixed spa does not fully recover energy when the max-energy buff feature is active.
• Sleeping late when exhausted does not reduce stamina.
• Fix the catalogue and Furniture Catalogue that sells items from themed catalogues such as Retro Catalogue.
• Fixed exploit in which a fishpond with a gold cracker could produce an unlimited output. Fish pond bonuses are now only applied once, when the output is generated.
• Fixed bug where you could cancel the cow milking but still receive the friendship boost.
• Unintentional extra chance of green rain trees occurring when loading a save during fall.
• Fixed skill buffs that affected shop item requirements in version 1.6.
• Fixed the sturdy ring not halving debuff time in 1.6.
• After 1.6, the chance of catching lava Eels in the caldera is now lower.
• Fixed forage crops grown in garden pots are always low-quality and provide no XP.
• Fix iridium scythe when forage crops are not giving XP, or when the forage quality boost is not applied.
• Some weapons no longer drop from crates if legacy randomization is enabled.

Changes in quality of life

• The game will now automatically recover most saves if they are corrupted or missing the SaveGameInfo files.
• If you missed any achievements, recipes or important mail, the game will now send them again. PlayStation/Xbox users can readd trophies when they perform a specific task.
• The number of roe and other output items that need to be collected is now displayed on the fish ponds.
• You can now relive the wedding event if you exit and reload that day.
• The tailoring interface is now more intuitive. Slots that cannot accept the held item have been disabled and you can't pick up certain items that can't tailored.
• Colored items, such as flowers, can now be sorted by color. This prevents items from being reordered at random each time you sort through your inventory.
• You can only sell books via the book purchase menu and not the trade-in option. This reduces the risk of accidentally selling a title when trying to trade in a book.
• The collections tab shows artifacts and minerals only after they are donated to the museum.
• Clint will refill your watering can if you upgrade it.
• Reduce the chances of corruption by tweaking the save process.
• Anvils will no longer accept parrot egg if you haven't yet re-rolled their level.
• Improved chatbox commands
  • Now, chat commands are case-insensitive.
  • Changed the format of /help to allow for more commands.
  • Added /help description for /emote and /mapScreenshot.
  • Consistent messages added when you cannot use a command that is only available to the host or multiplayer.
• Performance optimization is a key component of any business.

Technical changes

• Upgrade from FAudio (formerly FAudio) to OpenAL for improved performance when playing audio.
• Updated SDL 2.0.x to SDL 2.30.4 (used input and windowing).
• Compatibility with some older GPUs and newer Windows systems.

Fixes for gameplay

• The chest type cannot be changed if the new type of chest is too small for its current contents.
• Fixing NPC issues
  • When navigating, NPCs will no longer avoid terrain features such as flooring and grass.
  • Fix for kicking Krobus from the house, triggering divorce dialogs.
  • Fixed Leo after moving to the mainland.
  • Fix a Lewis schedule so that he would not overlap Marnie.
  • Fix a Penny Resort dialogue that was never shown when married.
  • After extending his shop hours, Pierre will sometimes show a dialogue saying that the shop is closed on Wednesday.
  • If you change your gender, the duplicate mail from mom or dad will be fixed.
  • Some dialogue based on the location and heart level is only shown if you have at least 10 hearts with the NPC.
  • Fixes for special NPC gift reactions that sometimes do not match their gift tastes (e.g. Willy gives a positive dialog for triple shot espresso.
  • Fix: Unable to speak to Robin after accepting an upgrade to your house.
  • Fix incorrectly split dialog in Linus's first heart event.
  • Fixed NPCs that were unable to find their way through tiles with a tent on them at the beginning of the day.
  • Fix for NPCs that would not load their green rain dialog if you began the day on an island.
  • Fixed NPCs in 1.6 saying "..." if they purchased an item that you sold to a store but didn't have the appropriate dialogue for it.
  • Fix your spouse who sometimes says "..." rather than the neutral dialogue.
  • Fix your fiancee/spouse's reaction to a mermaid pendant as if they were engaged/married with someone else.
• Fixing UI issues
  • The world map is not always accurate when players are inside a building.
  • Fixed links in credits that no longer open a browser window.
  • Fix: HUD elements, such as the toolbar, can be interacted with when they are hidden (e.g. When the game is paused).
  • Fixes issues with resizing game windows:
    • The layout of the advanced game options is messed up.
    • The tabs and pages of the collections page are not selected.
    • Social page losing its scroll position
  • Fixed theme catalogues without category tabs
  • Fix for the unforge UI that destroys any item held by cursor after unforging.
  • Clicking on the OK button in the fixed museum menu sometimes grabs the artifact behind the button instead.
  • You can now trash some items that are not trashable.
  • The inventory UIs now have an organized button that allows you to place any item into special chests, such as enrichers.
  • Fixed bug where calling Robin to get prices for building and then resizing your window would allow you to build/demolish/etc as if it was a direct visit.
• Fix specific items and machines
  • Fix chest color being reset when you switch chest type.
  • Fixing crab pots that do not produce double catches with wild bait.
  • Crab pots that are fixed and can be loaded with bait by a hopper.
  • In some cases, fixed crab pots do not apply deluxe bait or wild bait bonuses.
  • Fixed fences are destroyed by clicking when they are surrounded on three sides instead of four (above, left and right).
  • Geode crushers were fixed to increase the 'geodes crushed' stat when hovering. This allowed unintended RNG manipulating.
  • Fixed magic quiver trinket does nothing sometimes if both valid and invalid targets are within range.
  • If they are moved into storage (e.g. For an event. When they are put down, they re-equip themselves with their previous clothing.
  • Fixed tents do not block item placement.
  • Sometimes, fixed watering cans that have bottomless enchantment are shown with a half empty meter. Bottomless watering containers are now always filled.
• If you have a problem with the interior items of your building (such as the coop incubator), then please contact us.
  • Furniture is blocking the way. Furniture is now moved like other objects.
  • An item that blocks placement cannot be moved. It has now been moved to the lost &found in that case.
• Fixes cases where the Pirate's Wife Quest chain could lock you out.
  • If you've got the quest, but have lost the item required to complete it, you can now get a War Memento the next day.
  • You can now restart the quest by talking to Birdie if it was cancelled.
  • NPCs cannot mistakenly accept quest items as gifts, or refuse to accept them.
• Fixing location/map issues
  • In some cases, the screen viewport is positioned incorrectly after the horse has been warped.
  • Fix for wilderness farm where the first cabin is not built in separate-cabin mode.
  • Fixed grass in Marnie’s cow field that never grows back.
  • Fixed Willy's bait barrel missing during night market.
  • You can now walk off the screen without missing any map tiles.
  • Fixed the ability to leave Stardew Valley Fair’s festival area on odd years.
  • In some cases, weeds/stone debris will grow on top of the paths.
  • In some cases, it is possible to dig up treasure buried in tiles that are not easily accessible.
  • Fixed forest fish is no longer available on the Four Corners Farm.
  • The bug that caused the wallpaper/flooring of a standard farm to be reset to the default theme for a farmhouse of another farm type has been fixed.
• Fixes the issue where pre-1.6 saves would sometimes lose the Dwarvish Translation Guide. The fix is retroactive to all affected players.
• Fixes the issue where farmhand stats from pre-1.6 were not correctly migrated. The fix is retroactive to affected farmhands.
• If their first day of 1.6 was in the fall or winter, fixed pre-1.6 tubs of flowers will never bloom again.
• Fix raccoon bundle accepting any preserve items.
• The fixed level requirement for farmer's titles has been reduced by 1.6.
• Fixed fish ponds accept multiple golden crackers in advance of the first one landing in the water. They now register the golden cracker instantly (but still delay visual changes until it lands).
• Two Desert Festival makeover outfits were fixed that applied male shirts on female players.
• Shop items with a stock limit as well as a stack size have been fixed. Items in several desert festival shops).
• In some cases, viewing the previous year's Secret Santa letter in the Collections tab would display the current year's Secret Santa in the game menu. This was during the Feast of the Winter Star Week.
• Fixed the throw-item-into-shipping-bin animation drawing the base uncolored sprite for colored items like roe.
• Fixes an error when loading mobile saves from other platforms.
• In rare cases, a crash was fixed when loading a saved file.
• Crash fixed when using a tent during a night-time event on Ginger Island.
• Fixes some cat gifts by applying fishing bonuses to the main player's equipped rod.
• Fixes a bug that caused the movie theater to fail in some cases if players had previously unequipped trinkets.
• Fixed Junimo harvesters dropping crops on the ground when their hut was full.
• Fixed rare edge case in which a Junimo output chest had too many item slots.

Multiplayer fixes

• The /unlinkPlayer command has been added to the chat. This allows the host player to release a farmhand, so that it can be claimed by the next player who connects.
• Fix for the ability to steal a roommate from another player.
• Fixed farmhands can claim multiple Desert Festival fishing missions per day.
• Fixed crash when reconnecting late in the day, after leaving a music festival.
• Fix for host crash when a farmhand disconnects between locations.
• Fixed NPC duplication in multiplayer fish derbies.
• Fix crab pots and farm animals owned by a farmhand offline. Check the main player's professions.
• Fix crab pots without the owner checking professions of the main player, instead the player adding bait.
• Fixed farmhands can sometimes miss the message when they cannot enter an NPC's room.
• Farmhands were not receiving the Calico Egg rewards for Marlon's Desert Festival quests.
• Some multiplayer logic that did not handle an invalid or offline player correctly has been fixed.
• Fixes some possible crashes due to 'null Reference Exception' in the multiplayer code.
• In some cases, fixed crab pots are not checked by the owner to see if the bait requirement is met.
• Fixed Willy not sending fishing mail to farmhands joining after spring 2.
• Fixed 'waiting for players' check including disconnecting players.
• Fixed trains do not play chugga-chugga sounds to farmhands.

Fixes for display text and localization

• In the credits, replace the Reddit/Twitter link with a "News & Community".
• This update fixes a large number of translation issues, especially for non-English speakers. It also adds automated tests that will help keep translations in sync moving forward. This fixes...
  • Changes to dialogue/events in 1.6 that weren't applied to some languages
  • Missing dialogues and event actions
  • Translations that are outdated or missing;
  • Missing event preconditions, e.g. In some languages, Leah's 10-hearts event could be played on a rainy afternoon;
  • The wrong music is playing, the music cannot be skipped, or the players or NPCs are placed at the wrong place.
  • translations having different dialogue portraits/breaks/etc;
  • Conversation topics are not started when something occurs
  • Text displayed with only one word per dialog box
  • Improved grammar (e.g. gender conjugation);
  • There are many typos and errors.
  • There are many other issues.
• Translations and sprites have been improved and fixed, including some retranslated item names.
• Rename "cranberries juice/jelly/wine" as "cranberry juice/jelly/wine".
• The random name generator has been corrected to stop producing some bad words.
• Some chat/UI messages and NPC text signs in multiplayer are not always displayed in your language.
• Some chat/UI messages were not showing the correct flavor in some cases (e.g. "Player added "Smoked" to the potluck soup".
• Fixes typos in English text.
• The fixed special order objectives are not retranslated when language changes. This fix is only applicable to future special orders.
• Robin no longer shows the incorrect number of hardwoods required to upgrade a house in certain languages.
• Some languages incorrectly displayed the back room invitation mail from Willy as "??????" in the collections tab. In the collections tab, some languages were showing Willy's back room invite mail as "??????"
• Fixed some languages with inconsistent hat hair behaviour.
• Some languages now produce items with different internal names.
• French players no longer see the prismatic effect of Magic Cowboy Hat or Magic Turban.
• Fixed French and Japanese showing the message 'needs five coal' for the dehydrator.
• Fixed Russian club coin and slot offset issues.
• Fix Russian Joja movie tilesheet not appearing.
• Fix Russian tooltips with overlapped names.
• Spanish jukebox now shows the song 'Ginger Island" with a blank title.
• Fixed messages on buy-tickets that show an unformatted value (like 1,000g rather than 1,001g).

Cosmetic fixes

• Marcello's bookshelf now has lights.
• Sam changes uniforms when he enters JojaMart instead of when he reaches the work tile.
• Fixes for many bugs relating to light sources. Lights stuck on the screen, displayed in the wrong place, removed before it should be done, etc.
• Fixes issues with the Qi gem & golden walnut drop-down display
  • Support for both simultaneously (e.g. Another player finds a golden nut while you are in the Qi gem store).
  • Sometimes, the screen will be stuck in a fixed position.
  • In some cases, the display shows the wrong type.
  • Sometimes, the display of the value in multiplayer is fixed when it has not changed.
• Fixed line wrapping for movie tooltips.
• Visual glitch fixed during Spirit's Eve in the even-year if you own the Joja movie theatre.
• Fixes padding issue on the edge of game windows when maximized on Windows.
• Fix a shirt which looked odd.
• Fixes for tooltip display issues such as an empty space when edible items don't recover stamina/health, (like sweet peas and crocuses), or an unintended second space in the tooltip buff name.
• Menus now have shadows behind certain colored items, such as wine.
• Joja door texture issue fixed
• In some cases, hidden emotes animations were glitched in the NPC profile menu. NPCs will now always use their default sprite when viewing their profile.
• Fixed red slime item's sprite drawn 1 pixel lower than the other colors.
• Fix missing pixels on the outline of anvil sprite.
• Fix a stray pixel on the dried mushroom color mask.
• Fix Krobus not accepting the gift icon when he cannot accept it.
• The item-received messages no longer cut off part of an item's name if the character # is present (such as 'Tropical Fish 174').
• The item-received messages sometimes show no count or the wrong count.
• Fixes for some farm animals with double shadows.
• Fixes for incorrect stardrop tooltips that showed the health/energy recovery amount.
• Fixing the timing of the Easter egg event in the summit.

Gamepad Fixes

• Fixes various crashes and issues with gamepad support.
• You can now move the cursor when buying animals or buildings using a gamepad.
• In the Community Center Bundle UI, using the gamepad triggers for moving to donation slots and then back will now return you to the same place.
• To prevent accidentally closing the dialogue after pressing OK, a small delay has been added before you can cancel it using a gamepad.
• Fixes gamepad issues with the new game screen.
• Dresser tabs that are fixed cannot be selected with a gamepad.

Modified players will see some changes

• Added a Content/ContentHashes.json file containing the MD5 hash for every vanilla content asset. This can be used to detect corrupted game files by SMAPI or other tools.
• Console commands for debugging have been improved.
• When you leave your horse/mount at a temporary location it will now return home when the location is removed.
• Fixed 'Jewels Of The Sea,' book that produces roe to custom fish catches which normally do not have roe.
• Fixed forage crops are removed every week from the farm.
• On large custom farm maps, the strange capsule, stone owl, and fixed meteorite only appear in the top left 64x64 tile area.
• When mods add new powers, the pagination of the tab "Powers" is now fixed.
• Fixes for edge cases in the game code relating to items whose stacks cannot be reduced to zero, e.g. tools).
• Fixes for various errors when items are not named.
• Fixes an error that occurs when mods attempt to apply audio changes without a device to listen to them.
• Error fixed if mod bug prevented movies from being available. The game will now log an alert and let you choose from the entire list of movies.
• Fix crash if an animal is inside a damaged building or location.
• Crash fixed if the original fish data for a smoked item no longer exists. You now get a delicious smoked Error Item instead.
• Fix crash when custom sounds from a mod’s.ogg file are paused/resumed multiple times.
• Map tilesheet crashes fixed in some cases, when playing split-screen with mods.
• Fixes issues where the game's WhichFarm and WhichModFarm fields were out of sync.
• Some warnings about 'light source already existing' and a 'changing netfield parent' have been fixed.
• Fixes the issue where mod data is reset when chest types are swapped.
• Fixed berry bushes that showed the wrong sprite at locations where seeds could be planted at any time.
• The default stardrop gift response dialogue for custom NPCs is now some raw data, instead of the loved dialogue.
• Fix: Fixed the bug where you could enter the back room of the Adventurer's Guild without meeting the requirements if the door was open after a customized event.
• Fixed triggered actions being recorded twice.

Mod Authors: Changes

• See the 1.6.9 mod author migration guide for new APIs, dialogue keys, game state queries, debug commands, map properties, C# constants/fields/methods, data fields, and many other technical changes.

I told you, it's a ton.