Stardew Valley 1.6 update promises huge change to relationships

We’re all itching to get our hands on Stardew Valley’s Update 1.6 - and for good reason. It’s a whopper.

It’s been eight years since Stardew Valley was released and you have to hand it to developer Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone, he’s still delighting players with generous content updates. Updates that also happen to be free, I should add.

The next of which is set to land tomorrow, on 19 March with a console and mobile release then following “as soon as possible”.

This particular update has quite literally been years in the making. It was revealed in 2022 but what was due to be a modestly sized update has simply grown and grown.

Alas, here we are, finally ready to dive into Stardew Valley’s next evolution.

Take a look at Stardew Valley in action below.

In fact, Update 1.6 adds so much content that Barone recommends that players experience all of this via a brand new playthrough but don’t worry. That’s not mandatory.

Update 1.6 will add a new major festival, two mini festivals, new craft recipes and items, a new type of farm, winter-themed outfits for villagers, new dialogue, hats for cats and dogs, a larger storage chest, extended late-game content, and eight-player co-op on PC.

We can dive into a few specifics in a tad more detail as Barone has been dropping patch note one-liners as teases over on Twitter.

One of the latest confirms a major change for your in-game relationships.

The patch note reads, “Spouses now have a seven-day ‘honeymoon’ period after marriage which prevents them from laying in bed all day due to being upset.”

As reported by Kotaku, this references a rather unfortunate glitch. On occasion, some players would marry only to have their spouse develop a sudden bout of melancholy and retreat to their bed.

Thankfully, we’ve seen the last of this - romance is well and truly alive.

Other interesting patch notes include, “You can now drink mayonnaise,” and, “Reduced the amount of time you need to push against a pet before they start shaking and then let you pass through them.”

One more day, my friends. Then it is ours.