Stardew Valley's new update lets you get rich quicker than ever before

We’re back in the trenches of cosy living now that the Stardew Valley 1.6 update is here. Most of us thought we were done with that life, but get rich quick schemes, and other tweaks, have pulled us right back in.

Most of us have started up new Stardew Valley farms to fully appreciate the various changes that have been made – with new NPCs, cut scenes, and so much more to explore, it seems only right that we start afresh. You can even get Baldur’s Gate 3’s Astarion in the game, though that does come via a mod and not the update.

Ready to start a new life in Stardew Valley?

But once all the new introductions and adjustments are done, it’s time to start making that hard cash. A YouTuber has discovered a quick way to make a few bucks, and it’s all to do with fishing. The new addition of a fish smoker is how you take those fishies and turn them into piles of cash. However, for that to happen, you first need to get a smoker.

There are several ways to do this: you can get one free by choosing Riverland Farm at the start, you can purchase it from Willy for a hefty 10,000 gold, or you can build one for yourself using hardwood and jellies. The latter two options are the more taxing, simply because it requires you grind to make enough money to buy and/or upgrade your tools; either way, they’re not the quickest route to getting rich.

By smoking the fish you catch, you retain their freshness, and thus they can make you a lot of moolah within a short space of time (approximately 50 in-game minutes). Better still, you only need one piece of coal to get the burns of the smoker burning.

Given how big this update is, it’s unsurprising that Stardew’s sequel is still a way off yet. It sucks, but, in all honesty, we’re so deep into Stardew again we’re not ready for a new adventure to pop up just yet!

Once you’ve started smoking those fish, you’ll find some sweet stacks coming your way, regardless of whether you directly sell in the shop or merely using the shipping crate. Maybe farming isn’t going to be your main focus during this playthrough after all...