Stardew Valley Patch 1.6 adds new crops, mastery system, and mystery ‘new neighbors’

With the release of Stardew Valley 1.6, the patch notes have been revealed, and it’s safe to say that Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone has been one very busy man over the last few months. There’s a very, very long list of changes and additions to the game, so let’s take a look.

Rather than going into absolutely everything, I’m going to focus on the most important aspect of 1.6 – the new features, items, and content we get to enjoy. For everything else, you can check the patch notes themselves and read them at your leisure.

New content and features in Stadew Valley 1.6

• New festivals and events have been added:
  • The Desert Festival is a three-day event in spring which can be accessed only once the bus has been repaired. 
  • Two mini fishing festivals: Trout Derby and Squidfest
  • Environmental ‘event’ in the Summer
• New “mastery” system which grants powerful perks and items, accessed via a new (unspecified) area
• New Farm, Meadowlands Farm, comes with a pre-built Chicken Coop and two Chickens
• Multiple new NPC dialogues
• You can now have multiple pets, but only after getting maximum hearts with your starter pet. As well as this, pets who love you will now sometimes bring you gifts.
• A world map for Ginger Island will now be visible while visiting the island
• World map now shows not only your own real-time position, but also the position of other players while playing multiplayer games
• NPCs will wear winter outfits
• Festivals now have map and dialogue changes every second year (except the Night Market and Desert Festival)
• Added the Golden Joja Parrot, which will find the remaining Golden Walnuts on Ginger Island in exchange for a fee
• You can now bypass perfection challenges using Perfection Waivers
• There’s now a prize machine in Lewis’ house. Prize tickets are rewarded for completing quests and special orders, or from repeated Egg or Ice Festival wins
• A bookseller now comes to town twice a season
• Mystery boxes can now be found at random
• Added a big tree, with a quest line which ultimately gives you some new neighbors
• Added four new crops, seeds for which can be purchased at Pierre’s Store:
  • Carrots
  • Summer Squash
  • Broccoli
  • Powdermelon
• Added two new giant crops
• Added four home renovations:
  • Dining Room
  • Attic
  • Expanded Corner Room
  • Cubby
• Added Goby fish
• Newly added Remixed Bundles
• You can now place hats on cats and dogs
• You can now upgrade the Copper Pan to all levels, including Iridium
• You can now enchant Pans with Aechaeologist, Generous, Fisher and Reaching
• Added a “Special Items & Powers” tab to replace the Wallet. 
• Wallet area now tracks a selection of progress markers
• Added a new animal tab which shows all of your pets and animals
• You can now build three types of Pet Bowls in Robin’s shop
• The Farmhouse and Pet Bowl can now be moved through Robin’s menu
• The Farm Computer can now be used anywhere to see a summary of that location
• The Mini-Jukebox can now be used on the Ginger Island Farm
• Added a new interaction with your Horse
• Added a new side-tunnel to the quarry mine
• The Community Center fish tank will now become an actual fish tank when completed
• More secrets and easter eggs
• Two new Cat and Dog breeds
• You can now keep Turtles as pets
• 8 new achievements
• 4 new Cabin variants
• More accessory options in character creation
• Willy’s shop now has a Bobber machine with 39 styles of Bobber to choose from. New styles are unlocked via catching new kinds of fish
• Emily has a new rare “socialize” daily quest if you’ve completed the introduction quest
• You can now add anchors, treasure chests and pearls to fish tanks
• Pierre now sells a few random items at the winter star booth
• Added a Skull Cavern statue that can be used to toggle hard mode in the Skull Cave, but only once you’ve completed Qi’s challenge
• Added additional chests to levels 200 and 300 of Skull Cavern
• Added unique chests on levels 100, 200 and 300 of Skull Cavern
• Added Iridium Golem to Wilderness Farm

Items added with update 1.6

• Big Chest, almost double the size of a regular Chest. Can also be placed “onto” a regular Chest to upgrade it 
• Dehydrator which turns fruit and mushroom into dried versions
• Mushroom Log, which produces mushrooms and interacts with nearby trees
• Bait Maker, which produces fish-specific bait
• Heavy Furnace, which can process more bars at a time and sometimes produce extra bars
• Fish Smoker, which produces smoked fish and doubles the value of the original fish. You’ll now get one of these by default when starting a new Riverlands farm.
• Custom text signs
• Anvil, which allows you to re-roll trinkets
• Mini-Forge, which acts as a Dwarvish Forge
• Statue of Blessings, which grants a random blessing each day
• Statue of the Dwarf King, which allows you to select one of two mining buffs for the day
• Tent Kits, which can be used to erect a tent to sleep in for one night
• Treasure Totems, which spawn a ring of diggable spots
• Mystic Seeds, which grow a unique tree which can be tapped
• Mystic Syrup
• Deluxe Bait, which gets fish biting faster than regular bait
• Challenge Bait, which allows for up to three fish to be caught at once, but loses one each time a fish leaves the bobber bar
• Deluxe Worm Bin, which upgrades the regular Worm Bin to produce Deluxe Bait
• 19 unique Books of Power, which grant special perks
• Skill Books, which grant experience in a skill
• Book of Stars, which grants experience in all skills
• Moss, a new resource which grows on old trees
• Mixed Flower Seeds
• Sonar Bobber, which shows the fish on your line before you catch it
• Raisins, which have a special use
• New things to fish for:
  • Sea Jelly
  • River Jelly
  • Cave Jelly
• 7 Trinkets, which grant powers related to combat
• Fireworks
• Stardrop Tea, which makes an excellent gift for any villager
• 25 new hats
• 280 new furniture items
• New unique furniture catalogues containing themed furniture sets
• 41 new flooring styles
• 24 new wallpaper styles
• Golden Animal Crackers
• Mannequins, which can be dressed
• Spouse Portraits which can be purchased after receiving 14 hearts
• Butterfly Powder, which allows you to remove pets
• Blue Grass Starter
• Moss Soup
• Secret items

Now remember, that’s just the new stuff. There’s also visual improvements (the map has been completely redrawn, for instance) and hundreds of fixed issues that were remaining from previous patches.