The Stardew Valley 1.6.4 update is now live on PC and it is surprisingly beefy, including new content, balance changes, visual improvements, fixes, and gameplay tweaks.
The 1.6.4 update was announced on April 10 with virtually no detail, as is the Eric Barone way, except that it would include "a new fishing thing, and some new mining-related stuff" and was expected to be ready "sometime next week," which of course is now this week.
The mine stuff includes 20 new "alternate" mine layouts and 20 new volcano mine layouts, which appear after you've met certain conditions, while the fishing thing is a "fish frenzy," which I assume means something like a group of piranha going bonkers, minus any actual deboning of cows—this is Stardew Valley, after all.
There are also four new "fairy styles," a new cutscene that will play after you've helped your new neighbors expand their family, space for eight additional non-fish items in fish tanks, and more options in the Raccoon Shop. The Chinese, Russian, Portuguese, Hungarian, Turkish, and Korean translations of the game have undergone edits, and there are numerous fixes for mod makers and users.
One of the more interesting items in the patch notes (for me, at least) is the addition of "two inappropriate names to the list to exclude from the name generator." Call me a Nosy Nelly if you will, but I am really curious what those names are.
Other bits in the patch notes, quite frankly I just do not understand, but I'm glad everyone is having fun.
No one can accuse Barone of goofing off since the release of the big 1.6 update to Stardew Valley that landed in March, but some players are wondering about the status of 1.6 on consoles, which is still pending. Barone said earlier this month that work on the 1.6.4 update "will not slow down the console release" of the 1.6 update, nor will it have any impact on the mobile version, but there's been no further word on when they'll be out.
The full Stardew Valley 1.6.4 patch notes are below.
New content & features
– Added 20 new ‘alternate’ mine layouts, which can start appearing after reaching the bottom of the mines.
– Added 20 new volcano mines layouts, which can appear after you’ve unlocked the shortcut between the caldera and the volcano entrance.
– Added fish frenzies.
– Added a special cutscene after you’ve helped your new neighbors grow their family to the max.
– Added 4 new fairy styles.
– You can now place 8 additional non-fish items into fish tanks.
– Raccoon shop now includes a trade for mystery boxes and golden mystery boxes.
– Vinegar can now be poured onto trees to stop them from ever growing moss.
– Shaving enchantment now causes tree-specific drops: (fern → fiddlehead fern, mushroom → red mushroom, mahogany → hardwood)
Translation changes
– Many edits and improvements to the Chinese version (中文翻译问题说明和修改日志)
– Edits to the Russian, Portuguese, Hungarian, Turkish, and Korean translations.
– Changed the Chinese fonts to make them more appealing and readable.
– Changed Hungarian number spacing character from a comma to a period.
– Some improvements to Russian font.
Balance changes
– When you load a save, you’ll now unlock missed Steam achievements if needed (e.g. achievements gained while playing offline).
– Added mini-shipping bin as an expensive Qi gem shop purchase.
– Added more variety, and improvements, to Skull Cave treasure chests.
– Life elixirs now only restore health, and energy tonics now only restore energy.
– Wild seed spots are now rarer, but yield more seeds.
– Doubled the Iridium Golem’s chance to drop iridium.
– The monsters in the volcano entry level are now randomized each day.
– Using a treasure totem indoors no longer works. This prevents them from being wasted.
– Going down a level in the mines now makes you invulnerable for 1 second.
– Increased raccoon mystery box reward from 4 to 5.
– Farming experience now contributes to mastery experience at a 50% rate.
– Ice orb will no longer freeze a spider while it is in the air jumping.
– Removed red snapper from winter fishing quest pool, and sardines from the summer quest pool.
– You will no longer get calico rating points from going down the normal mines.
– Golden mystery boxes now have a small chance to yield an auto petter.
– Slightly reduced chance to find mystery boxes.
– Mine barrels and coal carts will now “refresh” at the start of each year.
– The order of mystery box rewards is now randomized per-player instead of per-save.
Visual improvements
– Qi club coins now show up in the shop menu.
– Various map edits and fixes.
– Removed Maru’s glasses from all beach portraits for consistency.
– Improvements to signage in some non-english languages (i.e. Chinese, French, and Russian)
Quality of life changes
– Added a 1.2-second delay after dropping an item, before it’s picked back up by the same player.
– Napalm rings are now non-destructive on the farm and inside the slime hutch (i.e. the explosion will only damage monsters).
– Added ctrl + right-click as an alternate toolbar drop hotkey.
– Receiving a “special notification” (e.g. first geode message) will no longer cancel out player actions such as eating or warping.
– Flopping fish no longer fall back into fish ponds.
– Crab pots now have a short time period after harvesting from them during which they can’t be removed (750ms).
– The Junimo bundle menu now only highlights items that can actually be placed in the selected bundle.
Other changes
– Minor optimizations.
– Added two inappropriate names to the list to exclude from the name generator.
– You can no longer give gifts to NPC’s during green rain year 1 (prevents incongruous attitudes). This also prevents a portrait issue with Demetrius.
Gameplay fixes
– Fixed disappearing pets bug.
– Fishing splash zones and ore pan points are now removed overnight.
– The prize ticket machine now consumes your ticket when you get the reward, rather than when you first press the button.
– For the purposes of perfection, the level 100 mines stardrop now has a more robust way to check if it’s been acquired.
– Fixed Monster Compendium not actually doubling all loot.
– Fixed geodes no longer dropping on the farm in normal circumstances.
– Fixed rare crash when spawning items overnight.
– Fixed player colliding with stuff during event cutscenes.
– Fixed pre-1.6 forged weapons having reduced stats.
– Fixed not being able to put a torch on the sprinkler you get as a CC reward.
– Fixed various bugs/crashes related to building a cabin.
– Fixed wild seeds in garden pots putting their final crop in the top-left corner of the map instead of the pot.
– Fixed “lost and found” chests (from night market and elsewhere) not working anymore in 1.6.
– Fixed a duplication bug with the “lost and found” chests.
– Fixed slime hutch floors reverting to the default after reloading a game.
– Fixed malformed casino shop red fireworks ID.
– Fixed pet adoption catch-all case only working with the animal catalogue, and only applying in year 2 specifically, rather than for any year 2 or beyond.
– Fixed ‘use legacy randomization’ option applied inconsistently when loading a save, which caused weird issues like broken green rain days.
– Fixed the case where you could permanently miss the ancient seed recipe if you grabbed the ancient seed packet but not the associated recipe, and then closed the museum rewards menu. Missing recipes will also be restored upon loading a file.
– Fixed issue with duplicated animals & building interiors from pre ~1.3 saves.
– Fixed end tables not being rotateable.
– Fixed an issue where empty barns/coops could not be removed by Robin on old saves.
– Fixed slime egg incubators letting you reclaim the egg before it hatches.
– Fixed farmhouse placement bounds to match the object placement restrictions around it.
Multiplayer fixes
– Synced some NPC Gift data in other languages.
– Fixed fireworks (and possibly other sprites) drawing behind stuff in multiplayer.
– Fixed “Build a Silo” quest not being completed for farmhands.
– Fixed Raccoon quest not being removed for all players.
– Fixed double trinket issue when a farmhand disconnects/reconnects.
– Fixed double and/or missing derby participants sprite issue in multiplayer.
Display text and localization fixes
– Many edits and fixes in translation text.
– Fixed a text parsing error for Asian languages which caused them to incorrectly wrap in some cases.
– Fixed spacing issues in Asian languages.
– Fixed several localization issues
– Fixed Russian line break issue.
– Fixed events not consistently handling gender-dependent text.
Cosmetic fixes
– Adjusted the draw order of basic objects so that debris will not be drawn underneath them as often.
– Placeable grass now offsets vertically a little if it would clip through a front-layer tile.
– Fixed seasonal world map not working for non-English players.
– Fixed flying monsters not being draw above things on the farm & volcano.
– Fixed reward icon in completed quest menu being visually offset.
– Fixed george’s TV clipping with farmer during green rain.
– Fixed movies not showing layered sprites (e.g. the eyeball in Mysterium).
– Fixed Qi club coins drawn below the lightmap.
– Fixed Qi coin overlay drawn during minigames.
– Fixed crane game audio not stopping when the game is forcefully closed.
– Fixed some tooltip padding issues.
– Fixed movie theater display issues on the world map.
– Fixed repeated dialogue selection sound if a control was plugged in but you are using a mouse.
– Fixed quest reward icon input offset issue.
– Fixed Joja Warehouse roof drawing above the weather (and possibly other similar cases).
– Fixed various map tile issues.
– Fixed a visual issue with a shadow in the farm house.
– Fixed able to swap two chests of the same type.
– Fixed machines sometimes wobbling when they’re not processing anything.
Changes for modded players
– Improved debug commands:
– Added debug commands to change pet types/breeds, to allow migrating older saves (setPreferredPet and changePet). This replaces the former toggleCatPerson command.
– The filterLoadMenu <search> command now keeps the original save slot numbers.
– Combined removeNpc and killNpc commands. The unified command removes all instances of an NPC, to help fix duplicate NPCs.
Changes for mod authors
– C# mods can now hide specific animals from the animal social menu (e.g. animals owned by NPCs) via the FarmAnimal.hideFromAnimalSocialMenu field.
– In Data/Buildings, you can now add furniture via IndoorItems.
– In Data/FarmAnimals, added fields to set the sleep sprite and whether they eat golden crackers.
– In Data/Locations, added fields to set effect of fish-specific bait and whether fish can be caught using a training rod.
– In Data/Machines, added option to only let the machine complete overnight.
– In Data/Powers, added CustomFields field.
– Added missing Id fields in Data/FarmAnimals and Data/Pets.
– Added a warning when a farm animal’s spritesheet size is invalid, which would previously lead to the animal silently freezing.
– You can now use tokenizable strings in event scripts and dialogue text.
– De-hardcoded forest waterfall fish into Data/Locations.
Fixes for modded players
– Fixed some wallpapers and flooring not appearing in mod item lists.
– Fixed pre-1.6 farm maps having broken warps to the bus stop.
– Fixed errors and crashes due to mods adding items without a name.
– Fixed softlock when a warp leads to an invalid location.
– Fixed crash when playing events that use the replaceWithClones command.
– Fixed crash if an NPC has invalid temporary dialogue.
– Fixed world map showing a glitched texture for custom farm types which don’t override it.
– Fixed another case of NPC duplication involving the movie theater.
– Fixed crash when loading a save if a farm Junimo wasn’t properly removed before saving.
– Fixed crash if the lost & found contains null items.
– Fixed disconnect for Steam players when using mods that send messages before a farmhand has been approved.
– Fixed crash on save if shipping bin has empty slots.
– Fixed riding the bus to the desert instantly warping you back if mods added warps on the desert road.
– Fix multiplayer crash if some players don’t have the same NPC textures.
Fixes for mod authors
– Fixed farmhands’ cellars not applying cellar data from Data/Locations.
– Fixed crash if a farm animal has no entry in Data/FarmAnimals.
– Fixed festivals ignoring year suffixes for <setup>_additionalCharacters and name fields.
– Fixed issues with farm animals which have a custom home building.
– Fixed hardcoded assumptions about farm animal spritesheets which could cause counter-intuitive behavior with custom animals.
