Stardew Valley 1.5 update adds new Beach Farm type and advanced options menu
UPDATE: 1.5 out now on PC!
UPDATE: The Stardew Valley 1.5 update is out now on PC!
Check out the full changelog if you want to know all that's in Stardew Valley's biggest update yet.
Here's a no-spoiler list of additions from developer Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone:
- Local (split-screen) co-op
- New people to meet
- New goals
- Many new items
- A new type of quest
- A new farm layout
- New game options like "remixed" bundles
- New character events
- A new Community Upgrade
- Home renovations (after you've fully upgraded your house)
- Ducks can now swim
- You can sit in chairs
- You can move your bed
- Fish tanks
- A bunch of new furniture items as well as new furniture types like wall sconces
- New secrets
- Nine new music tracks
ORIGINAL STORY: The imminent Stardew Valley 1.5 update adds a new Beach Farm type and a new Advanced Game Options menu, developer Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone revealed on Twitter.
"If you're a seasoned player thinking of starting a new farm when 1.5 comes out, I'd like to highlight a couple of new features," Barone said. "There will be a new farm type, Beach Farm, and a new Advanced Game Options menu, from which you can adjust some aspects of the game."
There's a screenshot showing the advanced game options, which include remixed community center bundles, a toggle for Guarantee Year 1 Completable, a setting for mine rewards, and a toggle for spawn monsters on the farm.
As Barone explained in a follow-up tweet, Guarantee Year 1 Completable refers to red cabbage.
"Right now in Stardew Valley, there's a bundle that requires red cabbage, which can't be obtained in year one except by random chance at the traveling merchant, which might not happen," Barone said. "Selecting 'guaranteed y1 completable' ensures that red cabbage seed will show up in y1."
Remixed bundles are a randomised mixture of some brand new bundles and also old bundles, Barone said, "but sometimes the old ones have variations, for example they might require different crops or fish."
If you choose "normal" then you get the classic Stardew Valley set of bundles.
These new advanced game options are only available when you make a new farm, Barone confirmed. The options, with one exception, can't be changed once you've started the game.
If you're worried about feeding animals on the Beach Farm, there's no need. "Grass grows on the sand!" Barone said. Oh, and any crop can be planted in the sand.
It is, however, worth noting the Beach Farm description in the screenshot. It reveals: "sprinklers don't work in the sandy soil." This means you'll have to water by hand.
"Yep, the old fashioned way," Barone said. "I know it might be controversial, that's why I'm giving everyone forewarning. I kind of like watering by hand, myself. If you play through the entire update, by the end you might realise, in context, the sprinkler restriction isn't that bad..."
Barone has said the 1.5 update is likely out for PC by the end of 2020, and due out on console early 2021. Not long now!