“PSA: if you are experiencing performance issues in Stardew Valley 1.6, remove all hats from pets,” Barone wrote on X. “We will address the problem as soon as possible.”
Stardew Valley’s 1.6 update — originally released for Windows PC in March, then for consoles and mobile on Monday — adds the ability for players to put hats on their in-game pets. (You’ve likely already had that ability in real-life.) It’s one of many things added to the game with the bigger-than-expected 1.6 update, and very cute. It’s a bummer that it’s potentially causing issues for console and mobile players, but Barone has a silly lore explanation that just makes sense: “There’s rumors of a strange rash affecting pets’ ears in Zuzu City and we just want to make sure those ears can breath for a few days,” Barone said in a response to an X user asking for a lore explainer.
See? It just makes sense. So, folks, take hats off yours pets and let those ears breathe. Barone hasn’t posted a timeline for the fix, but he’s been addressing bugs consistently since yesterday; there’s already a 1.6.10 bug fix patch that adjusted a few problems. One other issue Barone and the Stardew Valley team are working on is with opening barn doors on a chicken coop on the first day it’s placed; doing that makes the chickens disappear. There’s a lore explanation for that, too: “There is a wild coyote on the farm,” Barone wrote. Keeping the door closed on the first day will save the chickens.
