Stardew Valley 1.6 punishes players for cheating

A new Easter egg in Stardew Valley’s 1.6 update punishes players who make their way to a particular area earlier than they’re supposed to.

It’s possible to get to the Summit, which is shut off until the player managers to receive a perfection score of 100 percent, without reaching the mentioned requirement with an out of bounds glitch.

Before 1.6, nothing would happen if players went to the Summit early, but now a small surprise awaits farmers who decide to glitch their way in. If you’d like to discover this surprise for yourself, please look away now!

In 1.6, a cutscene with the mysterious Mr. Qi will play the first time a player breaks into the Summit. The background glitches out as Mr. Qi chews you out for cheating your way into the Summit with a monologue.

“Well, well, well… Look who ‘made it’ to the summit. Thought you were really clever, didn’t you? ‘How can I cheat the system for my own benefit?’, you thought. Or, in layman’s terms: ‘Me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me’. Despicable.”

That’s 16 ‘me’s. I counted. Savage, Mr. Qi. He then approaches the player and the screen goes black. Your farmer wakes up at Harvey’s Clinic, after he’s performed emergency surgery on them for the small fee of 500g – the implication being that Mr. Qi tried to murder you with gravity for being sneaky (and also arrogant and self-centred – alright, we get it…).

There’s no mention of this new addition in the lengthy patch notes for 1.6, which meant its existence was only discovered by players who glitched into the Summit once the update rolled out. The update contains many more secrets and Easter eggs, creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone wrote in the patch notes, which has got us curious about what other surprises there are waiting to be discovered.

After two years of development, Stardew Valley 1.6 finally released earlier this week, bringing with it bug fixes, a new major festival, and hats for your farm pets. The huge update has caused players to flock back to the game, breaking its own Steam record in the process.