The Stardew Valley 1.5 mobile update is almost ready

Better late than never

Stardew Valley 1.5 for mobile just missed its promised “end of 2022” release date, but it’s finally almost here nonetheless. Stardew creator Eric Barone said on Twitter that he’s submitted the Android and iOS storefronts and that the farm-sim’s update should start rolling out “over the next few days” on mobile devices.

It’s been two years since Stardew on mobile’s last substantial update, but there’s a good reason for the delay – aside from Barone also making at least one other new indie game, Haunted Chocolatier. The 1.5 update is more of an expansion than a regular patch, adding a brand-new area, more characters, a new farm location and dungeon, and more crops, items, and recipes. Even that doesn't quite do the update justice.

Barone also said the process of releasing 1.5 on mobile necessitated a new rewrite of the app, which means there may be a stable of unexpected bugs that weren’t there before. One player who got the update early said the screenshot function isn’t working, for example. Barone and his mobile team are working to fix issues as they pop up, and a new forum exists where players are encouraged to report any bugs they encounter.

On the bright side, he said it should make porting version 1.6 to mobile much easier, at least in theory.

1.6 is still in development for PC and consoles, with no anticipated release date, but it likely won’t be as substantial an update as 1.5. Barone previously said the next patch will mainly exist to simplify the process of modding the game, which is mainly of use for the PC version and not so much for everyone else.