Stardew Valley 1.6 Update: Release Date & All New Content

The latest update for the role-playing game Stardew Valley is called 1.6, and comes eight years after its initial release. Developer Concerned Ape built the update while taking a break from their second game, Haunted Chocolatier. While they wanted to give modders more tools to work with, they couldn’t help but add some new game content for players simultaneously.

This guide explains when the release date for Stardew Valley 1.6 is and what it adds to the game, as well as all the teases and information its developer has shared along the way.

Related: How many Purple Starfish are there on Ginger Island in Stardew Valley?

All New Content in Stardew Valley 1.6 update

Concerned Ape has confirmed the two main elements players should be concerned about with Stardew Valley 1.6. The first is new gameplay content, but not as much as Stardew Valley 1.5 introduced. While the previous update added an entirely new region, update 1.6 will likely simply add more to what’s already in the game.

This brings us to the second new element Stardew Valley 1.6 adds, which is new dialogue. We don’t know how comprehensive this will be, but a few characters will have new things to say to you. We suspect this will be linked to the new game content, potentially a new activity or set of quests you’ll need to complete.

We also know that Stardew Valley 1.6 will bring changes that modders will appreciate. These changes will make it easier to mod Stardew Valley and provide powerful modding tools for those that want to create custom content for the game. While the official new content Stardew Valley 1.6 adds might be lighter than fans want, the new modding tools will undoubtedly lead to hundreds of hours of unofficial content being added to the game.

In a sneak peek post to X in September 2023, Concerned Ape shared a few more additions we’ll see in the 1.6 update for Stardew Valley, including new end-game quests related to Joja Mart, three new festivals (one major, two mini), and a ton of new items and crafting recipes. In spite of previous remarks about the size of the update, it seems that we’ll get a lot more than initially expected with 1.6.

When is the Release Date for Stardew Valley 1.6?

The Stardew Valley 1.6 update will release on March 19 2024 for PC gamers. The exact date for the console and mobile releases of the update isn’t yet confirmed, but Concerned Ape did let us know that it will follow “as quickly as possible.” This most recent update about the release for 1.6 came to us on the eight-year anniversary of the game’s original release, in a tweet from Concerned Ape.

On January 26, 2024, Concerned Ape explained in a Twitter post that the update would be a bit larger in scope than previously suggested, which means fans man not be quite so disappointed with the amount of new content as we may have thought.

Concerned Ape had previously shared that they were working on the update, and fans were pleasantly surprised to hear that the game would get new content despite the developer’s focus being on Haunted Chocolatier. This update, in particular, seems to have been a bit of a palette cleanser from the current project.

The latest news from ConcernedApe is that Update 1.6 will release for PC on March 19 of this year. They’ve also mentioned a potential Update 1.7 for Stardew Valley, but it’s a very vague comment. However, it does show that the developer isn’t discounting the idea of a much larger update for the game immediately, so a big chunk of content could be on the cards once Haunted Chocolatier has been released.

We’ll update this section of our guide once the mobile and console release dates and more content are revealed.