Stardew Valley 1.5 Update Will Add a Beach Farm Option, Game Modifiers

One of the most popular farming games in the western world continues to amaze. Stardew Valley's developer has revealed the first details on the games next update, including a new beach option for your farmland.

Over the weekend, Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone, the sole developer behind Stardew Valley posted a picture on their Twitter page, showing the game's new game screen. On it, we see both a new farm variant option and an Advanced Game Options menu. Both features will be new additions to be added through the next update.
 

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. 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.

In Stardew Valley, the player can choose from a variety of farm options to play the game on. Each option has different pros and cons. The river farm, for example, has less open land for farming and buildings but offers a better resource for fishing.

With a closer look, we noticed that the graphic provided more information about the beach farm option. There will be plenty of land to work with, and opportunities to fish and forage. Occasionally, care packages will even wash ashore. The catch, however, is that crops grown in the sandy soil will not be watered by the automated sprinklers. Instead, players will need to water them by hand.

The other change is the Advanced Game Options. This new menu will allow the player to tweak the requirements the games main challenge system has, as well as mine rewards.

The main goal of the game is the community center, where the player must complete item bundles to unlock new areas and beat the game. The first modifier will alter what is required to complete these bundles. When Remixed is selected, the items the community center asks for will no longer be the same items as before, but a randomly selected bundle of relevant items. This would add more variety to repeated playthroughs. The checkbox below that will toggle whether the player can complete the community within one year.

Barone explains that the one year checkbox is due to a previous requirement for Red Cabbage. In the base game, getting red cabbage seeds before the first year is a rather rare occurrence, only happening via the travelling trader. Checking that box will make the seeds available within the first year. This in turn will make completing the community center within the first year much more possible.

If past Stardew Valley updates are any indicator, this will only be the surface of many new components that come with the 1.5 update. Past updates have added multiplayer, new partner options, a clothing system, new crops, and more. Though what else Barone has planned for 1.5 remains a mystery.

Not that well have to wait too long. According to Barone, the update could be released as early as this year for PC, and early 2021 for consoles. No official date has been given, however.

It seems like every time I get away from this game, they find a way to bring me right back in.