Stardew Valley’s 1.4 Update is Live, With Patch Notes Fresh From the Farm

Stardew Valley, the casual pixel-based farm simulator that surprised fans with its surprising amount of depth, received its highly anticipated 1.4 update today. It comes with an array of new features, such as new quests, new items, additional music soundtracks, character customization options, and building options.

For those who take a closer look at the 1.4 patch notes, this update feels like more akin to an expansion pack than a simple update.

A partial downside of the update is it will not make its way to console or mobile quite yet. The developer, ConcernedApe, is a team of one, and as such has only made it available to PC players at this time. There is no exact timetable for the mobile or console 1.4 update just yet, but the rollout for 1.3 took months, so don’t get your hopes up just yet if you’re not a PC player.

The 1.4 update adds an end-game quest involving an abandoned building that ConcernedApe has left up to the community to discover and learn how to access.

Players can change also their character with new clothing through the tailor system. There are several new helpful items to use around the farm, and the player can double the interior size of their shed.

We’ve shared the complete patch notes below, but do be warned: there are spoilers filling in the full patch notes. If players would prefer to avoid spoilers, make sure to check out the spoiler-free post ConcernedApe posted to his website.

New content and features

Stardew Valley Update Patch — ConcerenedApe

Multiplayer changes

Added optional separate money in multiplayer.
Added support for private chat messages.
Added more multiplayer “server messages”.
Added a /ping chat command which prints the current ping to the host (for farmhands) or to each farmhand (for the host).
Added a /kick <farmer name> chat command.
Added /ban and /unban chat commands. Bans are per-farm, and the command can be called with a farmer name, user ID, or IP address. in all cases it will ban the user, not the farmhand character.
Added multiplayer synchronization for…
- daily luck;
- bulletin board quests (in most cases);
- trains;
- lightning bolts;
- mine fog events;
- lost book collection;
- merchants’ limited stock;
- drum/flute blocks;
- adjustments to the fishing bobber’s position while it’s midair;
- the animation when a player has a fish on the line.
When creating a new multiplayer form, the Starting Cabins option now defaults to 1 instead of None.
Each player now has a separate mailbox and spouse porch area.
Each player can now build a separate cellar.
When a player drops an item in multiplayer, other nearby players now have priority for picking it up.
You can now see other players’ scores during certain festivals in Multiplayer.
Quests in multiplayer now set difficulty based on the highest-level player.
In the Skull Cavern, mine shafts now drop players to the same level in multiplayer.
In multiplayer, many random checks now use the team’s average luck instead of only the host’s luck.
If connecting to a multiplayer server fails, the game will now retry internally before giving up.
The reward for completing the Bulletin Board bundle is now applied to all players in multiplayer.
Moving a Shipping Bin no longer leaves behind its lid for other players on a multiplayer farm.

Quality of life changes

Added ability to rearrange the museum artifacts (without donating a new one).
Added ability to reread received letters anytime via the collections tab.
Added ability to rotate the toolbar (using Tab and Ctrl+Tab by default).
Added ability to fill existing stacks in a chest from your inventory.
Added notification when a tool being upgraded is ready.
Added tabs to the Catalogue and Furniture Catalogue.
Added current Qi coin balance to Calico Jack minigame UI.
Added support on Linux for pasting invite codes via an onscreen button (requires xclip).
Added upcoming weddings to in-game calendar.
All events should now be skippable.
Gates can now be attached to one piece of fencing (instead of needing fences on both sides), which allows for double-width gates.
The hallway to the spouse’s room in a two-story farmhouse now matches the bedroom flooring.
Changed interaction cursor when pointing at farm animals you haven’t pet today.
Giving datable NPCs a gift no longer makes your spouse jealous unless you’re currently dating them.
You can now construct/move farm buildings onto tilled dirt and tree seeds.
Trying to construct/move farm buildings onto an animal now poke them out of the way.
Collapsing in the mine no longer makes you forget levels.
After collapsing in the mines and losing items, a list of lost items is now shown and you can pay Marlon to recover one of them.
You can now remove horse hats (by interacting with the horse while holding another hat).
You can now trash copper pans and slingshots.
You can now buy copper pans from Willy’s shop after receiving the first one.
You can now stack craftable items in inventories (like kegs or furnaces).
You can now attach baits, tackles, etc. to your fishing rods directly from a treasure chest.
You can now shift-click items to move them out of the toolbar.
You can now hold down the interact button without retriggering the eat item prompt. That lets players quickly refill rows of kegs/preserves jars without being interrupted by the prompt.
You can now go to sleep while holding an item.
You can now pause Junimo Kart by pressing Enter or P.
You can now play Junimo Kart entirely with the keyboard.
Made it easier to collect milk/wool from farm animals. Animals now have a larger hitbox, and using shears/pail while facing multiple animals now finds the best match instead of the first one.
Interacting with a Mill that only has one type of item in it now automatically collects the item instead of opening a chest menu.
Pointing at an inventory item needed for a bundle now makes the Junimo bundle button pulsate.
Pointing at an item to sell in the shop menus now shows the “Gunther can tell you more” text if the item hasn’t been donated yet.
Mushroom tree sprouts are now distinguishable from other trees.
Wild Bait now provides a chance to catch two fish at once.
Pets no longer spawn in positions that block the farmhouse door or corridors.
When exiting a Junimo bundle menu, the cursor highlights the bundle that was exited.
Farm animals standing on crops no longer prevent the crop from being harvested.
A message now appears when fruit tree growth is prevented by a surrounding obstruction.
When an NPC walks over a chest, it will now dump its contents out instead of destroying them.
When viewing a bundle, inventory items for completed slots are now grayed out.
Jumping down a mineshaft just above level 100 will no longer drop you below level 100 in the Skull Cavern.
Players can now “push” through NPCs at festivals, to avoid getting trapped in some cases.
Queen of Sauce reruns will now choose an already-aired recipe that a player doesn’t know.
The animation played when finding a new lost book is now only played once per player.
Unclaimed bundle rewards can now be picked up from a Junimo bag in the Community Center.
Wild tree seeds can now be placed in any diggable tile outside of the farm without needing to hoe it first.
When you dismiss the map by clicking on it, you’re now returned to the previous menu tab (if any).
Wilted trellis crops no longer block movement.
The Hat Mouse now sells hats you’ve won in festival competitions.
Moving the cursor over a crab pot while holding the action button no longer picks it up.
Moving the cursor over a farm animal while holding the action button no longer opens the inspection menu (so it’s easier to pet animals).
Improved the ‘Organize Inventory’ logic. Now properly handles empty spaces on Linux, and sorts stacks from highest to lowest quantity.
Changed processing time of tapped mushroom trees so that they’re harvestable in the morning (instead of midway through the day).
Obelisks now have a 3×2 footprint instead of 3×3. (Their sprites are unaffected.)
Dropping an item when collecting rewards from Gunther now throws the item downwards instead of upwards, to prevent players without magnet rings from dropping items into out-of-reach positions.

Balance changes

Fruit trees no longer need the surrounding tiles to be empty to increase in quality once fully grown.
Fruit trees are no longer blocked from growing by non-colliding objects (notably artifact spots).
Mushroom trees no longer drop wood (and debris chunks are now white instead of brown).
You can now increase friendship by talking with NPCs at festivals.
Trains now drop more items.
Some items no longer appear in random shop stocks: void eggs, void mayonnaise, and sweet gem berries.
The quarry now spawns oak & maple trees.
Charcoal kilns now require 2 copper bars (instead of a gold bar).
Cheese now sells for more.
Cloth now drops more often from mummies.
Dressers now cost more.
Looms can now produce multiple cloths when higher-quality items are input.
Pancakes can no longer be bought from Krobus before winter Y1.
Sturdy Ring is now easier to craft.
Journey of the Prairie King has been rebalanced.
Calico Jack and slot machines in the casino now statistically favor the player. (Previously the player was more likely to lose.)
The Forester profession now causes 25% more wood to drop from trees/stumps/logs, instead of raising the value of wood by 50%.
Speed-Gro and Retaining Soil can now be applied to crops anytime.
Basic and Quality Fertilizers can be applied to seeds (but can’t be applied once a seed has sprouted).
Rebalanced the frequency that secret notes are dropped.
Fishing tackle now sells for less once damaged, depending on its remaining durability.
Sweet Gem Berry can no longer be bought from the traveling cart (you can only buy the seeds).
Bean Hotpot now grants max energy +30 and magnetism +32, instead of showing “max energy +2” but granting nothing.
Spring Onions quality is now determined at the start of the day.
The Legend can now only be caught once.
Made bottom edge of fishing bobber bar slightly more generous.
The effect of fishing level on fish size no longer caps at 10.
Debris now respawns at the start of spring in Cindersap Forest, town, and the Railroad.
Reduced cases of items splashing into water when they’re visually on dry land.
Lightning rods are now always harvestable immediately the day after being struck.
Wheat now has a 40% chance to also drop hay on harvest.
Wild Bait can now be obtained from fishing treasure chests if you know the crafting recipe.

Improved controller support

Other changes

Various copyediting, improved text, tweaked sprites, and tweaked map tiles.
Made some optimizations that may improve performance on some machines/platforms or in some cases.
Improved many translations and fixed missing font characters in Korean.
Changed midnight from 12:00 to 0:00 in Japanese.
Added an open sprite to the fridge.
Adjusted the mail received after collapsing to more accurately reflect timeline changes in the game.
Adjusted a dialogue option in Penny’s 2-heart event to be more considerate of George’s perspective.
Removed the Junimo Note/Community Center Button from non-inventory screens.
Improved Elliott’s cabin interior design a bit.
Items found in the trash now pop out of the trash instead of going directly into your inventory.
Updated credits.
In single-player, the mines now reset as soon as you leave instead of waiting for the next 10-minute update.
NPCs now destroy trees in their path (and will trample wild tree seeds underfoot).
NPCs now close their eyes and do a sleep pose when they go to bed.
Players now close their eyes when they go to bed.
Penny no longer randomly reveals Pam’s taste for alcoholic items.
Fish sold to Willy are now resold in his own shop (fish are no longer sold at Pierre’s).
Tweaked hoed dirt color on the beach in fall.
Made David’s cage look more appropriate for guinea pigs.
Reduced splash effect of small cosmetic debris to make it easier to distinguish splash of actual items.
Added animation when digging through trash.
Adjusted sound made when picking up forageables, eggs, etc.
Added changes for modders.
Added log for unexpected network disconnects (in a separate DisconnectLogs folder).
The ordering of the items on the collections page is now consistent between languages.

Fixes for gameplay

Fixes for player interaction

You can now collect Lost Books even if your inventory is full.
Fixed horses being unmountable if they’re very close to a pet.
Fixed being able to trash items from the crafting menu even though the trash can is invisible.
Fixed answering dialogues on a small screen causing the cursor to interact with the toolbar.
Fixed interacting with objects in the world while holding an item sometimes causing both the interaction and object to be used at the same time.
Fixed interacting with a fireplace sometimes not toggling it.
Fixed interacting with objects so that objects behind the character are longer interacted when the character is facing upwards.
Fixed interacting with a trash can on horseback simultaneously dismounting the horse and searching the trash (now just dismounts).
Fixed issue where players couldn’t harvest or pick up items by clicking and holding the tool button with a melee weapon or scythe in hand.
Fixed issue where attempting to charge an upgraded watering can to the left of a body of water on the farm would prevent the farmer from charging it.
Fixed unable to fill water can from the left side of the water trough in the greenhouse.
Fixed issue where depositing ore into two nearby furnaces could activate both of them.
Fixed large rotated furniture being placeable on top of tables, causing them to disappear.
Fixed issue where players could move while warping out of the Witch’s Swamp.
Fixed issue where players couldn’t push through farm animals in some cases if they were offset by half a tile.
Fixed issue where interactable furniture like fireplaces couldn’t be picked up with left-click when standing close to them and holding a non-tool item.
Fixed issue where it was hard to click on NPCs if you went into a festival while holding a placeable item.
Fixed crawling-stage babies in the crib not being interactable.
Fixed minor issue where you could cause the farmer to stop shaking during a tool charge by pressing a movement key.
Fixed being able to interact with NPCs when your farmer is set to be immobile. (For example, this prevents you from trying to gift your spouse a second gift immediately after kissing them and getting stuck in an erroneous animation frame.)
Fixed opened gates orphaned by destroying the fence post they’re attached to not blocking movement.
Fixed wild tree seed placement cursor not accounting for seed-placeable rules.
Fixed crab pot placement cursor always green, even if an invalid placement tile is selected.
Fixed palm trees not shaking and dropping leaf debris when interacted in winter.
Fixed the “Warrior” option not being selectable during Sebastian’s 6-heart event in Korean.
Fixed being able to use the dagger while bathing.
Fixed museum reward collection menu not dismissable using the exit hotkey.
Fixed museum donation screen issue where panning the camera would cause the cursor to scroll off of UI elements.
Fixed issue where watering a small tree sapling played a scythe sound.
Fixed issue where hitting a fence that has a torch on it would destroy the torch instead of dropping it.

Fixes for festivals, events, and quests

Dismissing a quest letter no longer discards the quest. (It’s now added to your quest log to avoid permanently missing out on quests.)
You can no longer place objects at the beach while the Night Market is occurring.
Removed invisible trees from festivals.
Fixed exploit where you could pause time when the night market sub was ascending/descending to skip the wait time.
Fixed exploit where you could watch the night market mermaid show while time was paused (the show now pauses too).
Fixed exploit where you could fulfill the requirements for a gathering quest by taking items out of a chest one-by-one.
Fixed players getting stuck on doors or placed objects during cutscenes in some cases.
Fixed players getting stuck in Harvey’s 8-heart event if it was triggered when leaving his bedroom.
Fixed players getting stuck in Harvey’s 10-heart event if a train came by.
Fixed introductions quest not considering Willy done after you meet him to receive the fishing rod.
Fixed Mr. Qi’s Challenge not considered complete if you fulfilled the conditions before getting his letter.
Fixed the egg in Lewis’ truck not being accessible during the egg hunt.
Fixed time not passing for machines inside of farm buildings during festivals.
Fixed players getting trapped in the hospital until the festival starts if they were knocked out for the first time on a festival day.
Fixed time passing during festivals not reflecting when the player(s) started the festivals.
Fixed some out-of-season items appearing as targets for item delivery quests.
Fixed bug limiting which NPC would request gathering, slay monsters, or fishing quests.
Fixed Help Wanted quests not reflecting that they pay 3x the market value, instead of 2x.
Fixed occasional spacing issues with the messages on the daily quest board.
Fixed Robin sometimes thanking you for the wrong item when completing a billboard quest.
Fixed winning festival events not counting towards farm’s total earnings.
Fixed Penny’s 6-heart event not triggering after purchasing the Community Upgrade.
Fixed Sam’s 8-heart event being silent if you skipped his 2-heart event.
Fixed “A Winter Mystery” quest not triggering if exiting the farm from the bottom tile of the exit to the bus stop.

Fixes for shops and shipping

Fixed merchants refilling limited-stock items when you reopen their shops.
Fixed traveling merchant sometimes having the same item for sale for two different prices.
Fixed items bought from shops being sellable at a different price than produced/grown versions.
Fixed issue where honey would sometimes sell for more than expected.
Fixed pressing Alt + Enter while buying from Pierre destroying the held item.
Fixed selling animals not counting towards farm’s total earnings.
Fixed issue where you couldn’t buy animals while Robin was upgrading the pertinent building.

Fixes for NPCs

Fixes for multiplayer

Fixes for visual or cosmetic issues

Other bug fixes

All mine songs now show up in the Jukebox list.
Fixed crash on startup if no audio output device is detected.
Fixed resolution issues for some players.
Fixed music not properly playing at the start of a new day.
Fixed Junimos not behaving properly after completing the community center.
Fixed issue where other players could affect the music that’s playing in the mines.
Fixed various bugs caused by simultaneous buffs and debuffs.
Improved confusing error if certain game files are missing.
Fixed issue where players wouldn’t get museum achievements until the next time they donated something themselves.
Fixed Master Angler achievement awarded before catching all fish.
Fixed issue where the music in Leah’s house didn’t stop after leaving her house.
Fixed issue where the wallpaper and flooring would shift rooms as you upgraded your house.
Fixed skipping an event sometimes making the player wait on a black screen for a while.
Fixed placing a bomb and leaving the screen before it explodes causing a buggy sound effect.
Fixed options menu being scrollable while a dropdown list is active.
Fixed an issue where a female character’s pants could have their color changed to black during a wedding ceremony.
Fixed issue where you’d need to click twice to clear the dialogue that appeared after falling down a mineshaft.
Fixed issue where hotkeys (like opening the inventory) triggered after sending a chat message.
Fixed issue where dialogue couldn’t be advanced using keyboard inputs.
Fixed issue where the music would sometimes briefly play again after you had turned the volume down.
Fixed issue where rebinding the menu key closed the options menu.
Fixed Prairie King game over screen only accepting input every 1.5 seconds.
Fixed Prairie King music overlapping if you use the zombie powerup multiple times in quick succession.
Fixed mouse repositioned when clicking HUD zoom buttons, making it harder to zoom in/out multiple times.
Fixed issue where loading a save would play the furnace and fireplace sounds.
Fixed volume levels not properly applied when connecting to a game as a farmhand.
Fixed rare crash or invisible grass caused by grass sizes becoming invalid.