Stardew Valley is getting a competitive farming tournament

By Emily Morrow Updated April 25, 2023

ConcernedApe, the creator of farming sim megahit Stardew Valley, has announced the first Stardew Valley Cup. The competition, created in partnership with prominent Stardew Valley Twitch streamer UnsurpassableZ, will take place at 9 a.m. PT on September 4 and will feature a prize pool of over $40,000. Four teams of four players will compete in a variety of in-game farming challenges to see who will take home the Cup.

The competition comes on the heels of Stardew Valley‘s big multiplayer update, which allows players to build the same farm together, as well as the news that the game will be coming to Xbox Game Pass sometime this fall.

In collaboration with @UnsurpassableZ, I'm pleased to announce the 1st official Stardew Valley Cup! It's a competition of skill, knowledge, and teamwork, with a prize pool of over $40k. See some of Stardew's most dedicated players in their element! Main event is Sept. 4th 9am PST pic.twitter.com/qtDW5e5LvD

— ConcernedApe (@ConcernedApe) August 21, 2021

While ConcernedApe’s video announcing the competition didn’t say exactly what the challenges will be, he mentions that the Cup will test the chosen players’ “skill, knowledge, and teamwork.”

UnsurpassableZ later took to his own YouTube channel to explain the Cup in more detail. He said that the challenges will explore “all parts of Stardew Valley,” and each will be worth a different amount of points based on its difficulty. At the end of the competition, the team with the most points wins. The challenges include a huge variety of tasks like cooking a dish, catching 20 different fish, and reaching level 10 in a skill.

The creation of a competition involving Stardew Valley is an odd choice, as the game is explicitly designed to be relaxing. Like many simulation games, it has an eventual objective, but most of the game involves simply building up your farm the way you see fit, tending to your crops and animals, and befriending the locals. To involve competition in the game seems to run counter to its design philosophy, but that hasn’t stopped many of the streamers and personalities involved in the Cup from attempting world records or perfect runs in the game.

Topics

Tech News

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Emily Morrow is a games journalist and narrative designer who has written for a variety of online publications. If she’s…

Gaming

Where to find the bookseller in Stardew Valley

The bookseller in Stardew Valley

Books are not completely new to Stardew Valley. Prior to the 1.6 update, you could find lost books that gave some background details about Pelican Town but didn't give you any in-game benefit. Now, there is a new collection of books that grant your character some nice buffs or abilities. You can find a few of these new books hidden in the world, like the new Powdermelon seeds, but there are some exclusive ones you need to buy from a new bookseller NPC. Despite not making any business sense, they are only open for brief windows of time in a specific place. Here's when and where to find the bookseller.
Where to find the bookseller

The bookseller sets up shop north of Joja Mart and the museum just up some stairs. If you go on any day you like, odds are you will find the place deserted.

Gaming

Stardew Valley cheats: all glitches, codes, and secrets

best Mac games

You might not think a cozy game like Stardew Valley would even need cheats. After all, the entire point of the game is to relax, build up your farm, and make friends with the other townsfolk, right? Sure, but there are also a lot of challenging and time-consuming objectives that have been added over the many years of support. Plus, sometimes people just want to play a game on their own terms. In either case, cheats can help you farm up some fun times, so let's harvest every one there is to enjoy.
All Stardew Valley cheats
We're going to use the term cheat a bit loosely here since Stardew Valley doesn't have cheats in the traditional sense, but more exploits and glitches you can use to cause some cheat-like things to happen.
Infinite energy glitch

Every action you take in Stardew Valley costs some energy, so wouldn't it be nice not to have to worry about running out? There's a simple way to do it by exploiting that small step forward your character takes whenever they swing a weapon or tool. If you go into the Spa and swing your weapon against the wall until you clip through it, you can then go out of bounds over to the pool. Once there, put any post down in the water and touch it. After that, you can return back to the bounds of the game. However, the game will be tricked into thinking your character is swimming, and thus, you won't spend energy using weapons!
The Galaxy Sword glitch
If you did it the long way, you could get the Galaxy Sword by taking a Prismatic Shard and holding it between three pillars in the Calico Desert, but who has time for that? Instead, if you purchase the catalog from Pierre's General Store and buy the green wallpaper. Take this into the desert, and if you stand in just the right spot, it will inexplicably function like a Prismatic Shard and spawn the Galaxy Sword for you.
The Junimo Plush
This is purely a secret item, but one most players will never find without help. Secret Note #13 holds the clue to it, but all you really need to do is go to the bush on the northwest corner of Pelican Town on the 28th day of any season. If you right-click on it precisely at noon, you will get the rare plush.
Infinite fishing time glitch

Gaming

Stardew Valley 1.6 update: everything you need to know

A decorated home in Stardew Valley. There are yellow sofas around a TV, plants around the border, and the character is standing in the middle of the frame with the kitchen on the left.

For a game made by a single person, Stardew Valley has an unbelievable amount of content already. Despite that, years after launch, we're all still eagerly anticipating yet another content update coming to the game that will bring it to version 1.6. This update was announced in April 2023 but ConcernedApe has been rather tight-lipped on the full scope of features and additions this update will bring. With so many possibilities and rumors floating around, we've collected only the freshest bits of info you need to know about what you can look forward to.
When is the 1.6 update coming out?
https://twitter.com/ConcernedApe/status/1762192764899627457

The 1.6 Stardew Valley update will be available on March 19 for PC players. As far as console and mobile players are concerned, we don't know when you can get this update just yet as ConcernedApe simply stated that they "will follow as soon as possible."
Everything new in the 1.6 update