Stardew Valley is a massively popular farm sim, where you take over your late grandfather's farm as an escape from the overwhelming city life. If you haven't played Stardew Valley before, your options aren't limited, as it can be played on nearly every modern platform, in addition to now having more features like multiplayer that weren't present some years ago. Here's everything you need to know about how to play Stardew Valley.
Stardew Valley is available on nearly every modern and popular platform. This includes Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC, iOS, and Android. It can be played on Xbox Series X|S and PlaySation 5 via backward compatibility, and will likely be playable on Nintendo Switch 2 via backward compatibility, though this is not yet confirmed. It typically costs $15, and is on Xbox Game Pass for both console and PC.
Stardew Valley currently does not have cross-platform multiplayer, and it seems likely that it never will. That means if you want to play multiplayer, everyone will need to be in the same family of platforms, like Xbox or PlayStation. If one person is on Nintendo Switch and the other is on PC, for example, you cannot play together.
Stardew Valley developer Eric Barone--also known as ConcernedApe--has not commented on cross-platform multiplayer in recent years, but did mention back in 2018 that "technical barriers are very high," expressing that it's a feature that he would want to add, but it might not be possible. The developer's comments are reminiscent of those from Bethesda's Todd Howard, who discussed why Fallout 76 doesn't have cross-play, citing difficulty in adding it to a game that wasn't initially designed for it.
If you are on the same family of systems, you can play multiplayer with up to four people total. This can be done either online via the internet, or in-person via split-screen, which does support four players. One person must be the host, either creating a new multiplayer save or converting an existing save by having Robin build additional cabins. Other players can join via an invite code online or by turning on an additional controller and hitting the menu button for split-screen.
It's important to note that on mobile, playing multiplayer requires jumping through a few hoops, like entering the Konami code on the main menu and knowing the host's IP address, but it does work.
One of the other important things to know about Stardew Valley multiplayer is that multiplayer saves are stored by the host. That means in order to play on your co-op save, the host needs to be present. Otherwise, you cannot access the save file.
Many players wonder whether Stardew Valley allows for mods. It does, but only on PC. Stardew Valley has a built-in cheats system/debug menu, but the most current version requires you to enable the cheats in your save file in order to access them. To do this, use Windows Key and "R," which will open a run box, where you should type %appdata%.
Scroll through the results to see all the files on your computer and look for Stardew Valley. Click through and find the saves file. Look for your save, which will be the name of your farm followed by a series of numbers, if it contains the word 'old,' it's an older save and not what you are looking for. Opening that will open a text file containing information about the save, control "F" to search for "allowChatCheats" which will take you to a line likely reading "false." Change that to true, save and exit, and you should be able to access the commands in the game by hitting "T."
Proceed with caution, as these are developer tools that can break your game, depending on what you choose to do. The primary two cheats are "/money," which will give however much money you write as the number, so "/money 10000" gives 10,000 gold. The other is "/debug item" which will add an item to your inventory, corresponding to the item ID number placed after the text. You can find a complete list of item IDs on this website and you can find more debug commands on the official wiki.
PC players can also install mods and the mod community for Stardew Valley is quite active, with expansive content mods, smaller quality-of-life mods, and silly things, like adding the characters from Baldur's Gate 3. You can check out GameSpot's list of the best Stardew Valley mods, in addition to mod websites like Nexus Mods.
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How to play Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley is available on nearly every modern and popular platform. This includes Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC, iOS, and Android. It can be played on Xbox Series X|S and PlaySation 5 via backward compatibility, and will likely be playable on Nintendo Switch 2 via backward compatibility, though this is not yet confirmed. It typically costs $15, and is on Xbox Game Pass for both console and PC.
Does Stardew Valley have cross-play?
Stardew Valley currently does not have cross-platform multiplayer, and it seems likely that it never will. That means if you want to play multiplayer, everyone will need to be in the same family of platforms, like Xbox or PlayStation. If one person is on Nintendo Switch and the other is on PC, for example, you cannot play together.
Stardew Valley developer Eric Barone--also known as ConcernedApe--has not commented on cross-platform multiplayer in recent years, but did mention back in 2018 that "technical barriers are very high," expressing that it's a feature that he would want to add, but it might not be possible. The developer's comments are reminiscent of those from Bethesda's Todd Howard, who discussed why Fallout 76 doesn't have cross-play, citing difficulty in adding it to a game that wasn't initially designed for it.
How to play Stardew Valley multiplayer
If you are on the same family of systems, you can play multiplayer with up to four people total. This can be done either online via the internet, or in-person via split-screen, which does support four players. One person must be the host, either creating a new multiplayer save or converting an existing save by having Robin build additional cabins. Other players can join via an invite code online or by turning on an additional controller and hitting the menu button for split-screen.
It's important to note that on mobile, playing multiplayer requires jumping through a few hoops, like entering the Konami code on the main menu and knowing the host's IP address, but it does work.
One of the other important things to know about Stardew Valley multiplayer is that multiplayer saves are stored by the host. That means in order to play on your co-op save, the host needs to be present. Otherwise, you cannot access the save file.
Stardew Valley cheats, mods, and item IDs
Many players wonder whether Stardew Valley allows for mods. It does, but only on PC. Stardew Valley has a built-in cheats system/debug menu, but the most current version requires you to enable the cheats in your save file in order to access them. To do this, use Windows Key and "R," which will open a run box, where you should type %appdata%.
Scroll through the results to see all the files on your computer and look for Stardew Valley. Click through and find the saves file. Look for your save, which will be the name of your farm followed by a series of numbers, if it contains the word 'old,' it's an older save and not what you are looking for. Opening that will open a text file containing information about the save, control "F" to search for "allowChatCheats" which will take you to a line likely reading "false." Change that to true, save and exit, and you should be able to access the commands in the game by hitting "T."
Proceed with caution, as these are developer tools that can break your game, depending on what you choose to do. The primary two cheats are "/money," which will give however much money you write as the number, so "/money 10000" gives 10,000 gold. The other is "/debug item" which will add an item to your inventory, corresponding to the item ID number placed after the text. You can find a complete list of item IDs on this website and you can find more debug commands on the official wiki.
PC players can also install mods and the mod community for Stardew Valley is quite active, with expansive content mods, smaller quality-of-life mods, and silly things, like adding the characters from Baldur's Gate 3. You can check out GameSpot's list of the best Stardew Valley mods, in addition to mod websites like Nexus Mods.
Source