Stardew Valley has a secret mode you definitely missed

It turns out that Stardew Valley has a secret mode, and it changes everything.

Stardew Valley has been going for nearly a decade now, and it’s become one of the most successful indie games of all time.

Even all these years later, creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone is still adding new content and patches to the game. This is in addition to working on his new game, Haunted Chocolatier.

Part of the fun of new updates is the fact they have undocumented changes in them, meaning it’s up to the community to find out what else has changed outside of the official patch notes.

Back in November, Barone released the 1.6 update to Stardew Valley on console and mobile platforms, and revealed it also has an experimental multiplayer mode on mobile.

Although multiplayer has been available in other versions of the game since 2018, the mobile version’s multiplayer mode is a more recent addition.

Barone also calls it an “experimental feature”, so be aware that there might be bugs or broken features.

If you’d like to access the hidden multiplayer mode for yourself, first make sure you’re playing a compatible version of Stardew Valley on mobile devices.

Multiplayer is supported on Android and iOS, but not the Apple Arcade version which is named Stardew Valley+.

On the main menu screen, where you can see options like New and Load, take note of the four leaves located on the Stardew Valley logo.

Each leaf points in a specific direction. Clockwise from top-left, it goes Left, Up, Right, Down.

Tap the leaves in this order: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, then press the question mark in the bottom-right of the screen.

Exit the question mark menu, and you’ll see co-op is available to access from the menu screen. From here, you can choose to Host or Join a game.

Barone warns there are some issues with connectivity on mobile platforms, so proceed with caution.

He recommends regularly backing up your save file, and also making sure you and your friends are playing on the same version of the game.

Still, it’s nice that mobile players are able to farm together as PC and console players have been able to for years.