Time to get sucked back into Stardew Valley

There’s a significant update playable now in beta

I’ve wrestled free of Stardew Valley. I don’t know how I got away from the soothing farm life sim, but I did, and I’m hesitant to so much as look at its listing in my Steam library unless I have no obligations left for the day. This isn’t a game I can play for “just a little bit.” It’s a multi-hour commitment.

With all that said, dang, I might be about to head back in. There’s an important update currently in beta testing that you can and probably should get (right click on Stardew Valley in Steam, hit “Properties,” click “Betas,” and choose “beta”). If you’d prefer to back up your saves in case of a possible but “very unlikely” data tragedy, you can find your files in the %appdata%/StardewValley/Saves” folder.

All set? Let’s run through the list.

v1.1 changelog:

New Features

• Shane and Emily are now available to marry. They each have new events, music, and more!
• Spouses now have a unique outdoor area and behavior on the farm.
• You can now choose from 5 different farm maps at character creation. Each map is focused on a different skill area.
  • Standard Farm – The original Stardew Valley farm.
  • Riverland Farm – Lots of water, good for fishing.
  • Forest Farm – Foraging opportunities and a unique weed that always drops mixed seeds.
  • Hill-top Farm – Has a small mineral deposit from which ores spawn, including a unique geode-bearing ore.
  • Wilderness Farm – Bats and Golems spawn at night.
• “Shed” building… An empty room that can be decorated, filled with kegs, etc.
• “Mill” building… Can be used to turn wheat into flour and beets into sugar overnight.
• A new quest that can be started after the Community Center or JojaMart quest arc is complete. The new quest results in a new “magical construction” feature available from the Wizard’s Tower. The new quest is triggered when you enter the Railroad area.
• Added several new locations that are related to the above quest. “Junimo Hut” building (Magical Construction). Junimos will harvest crops within a certain distance of the hut, instantly transporting the harvest back to the hut for you to gather at your convenience.
• “Earth Obelisk” building (Magical Construction). A permanent warp totem to the mountains.
• “Water Obelisk” building (Magical Construction). A permanent warp totem to the beach.
• “Gold Clock” building (Magical Construction). Prevents weeds from spawning and fences from decaying on your farm.
• You can now move your buildings via Robin’s construction menu.
• New house upgrade from Robin that adds a cellar to your house and teaches you the “cask” crafting recipe. In the cellar, you can use Casks to age cheese and alcohol, increasing their quality.
• “Iridium-star” level quality is now attainable for aged goods and fruit. (2x value)
• NPC’s now appreciate quality level in gifts, but it only has an effect on gifts they “like” or “love”.
• Added Coffee, a spring/summer crop, and Coffee Bean. The bean acts as the produce and the seed, similar to sunflowers.
• 5 Coffee beans can be added to a Keg to make coffee.
• Honey can be placed in a keg to make mead.
• Void eggs can be placed in mayonnaise machines to make void mayonnaise.
• 2 new fish, “Void Salmon” and “Slimejack”
• You can now choose to color your chests with one of 20 color options.
• Evil Shrines, where you can make offerings in exchange for dark magic.
• Divorce. You can file from a little book in mayor’s house.
• You can now wallpaper the little hallways in your upgraded house.
• When you beat Journey Of The Prairie King, you can now start over in a harder mode, keeping your upgrades and coins.
• 2 new “Lost Books”
• Krobus now sells a “Return Scepter”… a tool which acts as a permanent warp totem to the farm.
• Giving someone a gift on their birthday will never make your spouse jealous.
• Pierre now sells a “Catalogue” furniture item that can be used for unlimited free access to all wallpapers and floors.
• Robin now sells a “Furniture Catalogue” furniture item that can be used for unlimited free access to nearly all furnitures.

Bug Fixes

• Wild plums are now labeled as fruit.
• Grandpa’s Shrine should now always properly give the reward for reaching 4 candles.
• Fixed issue where gathering an item with the “botanist” profession would fail if the inventory was full, even though the gold-level item was present in the inventory.
• Slime charmer ring should now protect against giant slimes
• You can no longer tap a stump
• Fixed Joja Warehouse graphic issue in winter
• “Check action”-mapped keys should now work to attach bait to a rod.
• Rain ambient sound should no longer play in Sandy’s Oasis under any conditions.
• Your baby should now be properly born, even if you pass out in the mines on the eve of the birth.
• Moonlight Jellies engagement crash
• Galaxy sword should now be truly unloseable
• You can no longer lose hay to a hopper because you have no silo.
• You can no longer plant fruit trees off the farm.
• Typo fixes

Thanks for helping me test and I hope you like the new update.
-Ape

List Of Issues Found So Far (Fixes may not be in current beta build yet):

• Tooltip for the bottom two new farms can be covered by the “Back” button on the Character creation menu. (Fixed)
• The initial introduction dialogue from villagers comes after their usual dialogue. (Fixed)
• Opening the steam overlay crashes the game
• Invisible wall on pier at beach (Fixed)
• You can exit out of the “move buildings” screen while a building is still being moved, causing the building to disappear. (Fixed)
• Train sometimes abruptly disappears from the tracks.
• Hill-top farm starting furniture — duplicate rug. (Fixed)
• Hill-top farm invisible barrier tile on south-east bridge (Fixed)
• The fridge menu erroneously gives the option to choose its color (Fixed)
• Saloon music doesn’t resume after playing Prairie King (Fixed)
• Crash on sleep after visiting the Mutant Bug Lair (Fixed)
• Picking up item from ground (Eggs, crystals, etc.) always yields golden quality item with Botanist perk chosen (Fixed)
• Issues with introduction Quest
• Shaders only apply to the left half of the window (OS X)
• Coffee Beans & seed maker unintentional “exploit” (Fixed)
• Glazed Yam recipe can’t be read. (Fixed)
• Shane is “working” even though he’s not
• Prairie King says to “Press Button to start a more difficult journey”, but only the space bar works (Fixed)
• By using the scythe tool or your sword on the casks on your cellar, they are destroyed and don’t drop anything. (Fixed)
• Using any tool but the pickaxe on the geode stones crashes game (Fixed)
• Special font characters aren’t displaying correctly (Linux)
• Spouse outdoor areas are still there after divorce (Fixed)
• Shane and Emily still sending mail after marriage (Fixed)
• Game crash if loading on day that spouse tries to feed animals (Fixed)
• Trees and weeds spawning in bad spots on new farms (Fixed)
• Return Scepter issues (Fixed)
• Can place chests on stairs leading to cellar, allowing you to get stuck (Fixed)
• Harvey’s outdoor marriage behavior animation messed up (Fixed)
• Sometimes can’t get through door in Shane’s 4-heart event (Band-Aid Fix)

Moving farm buildings. Coffee. Dark magic. Divorce. The good stuff.

And, nice, “Your baby should now be properly born, even if you pass out in the mines on the eve of the birth.” If you want to skip this beta build, the finalized update will go live on Monday, October 3.

1.1 Beta Thread [Stardew Valley Forums]