After 8 years, Stardew Valley creator decides "game feel is way more important" than being accurate and fixes a combat issue that "always bugged me"

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The downward sword swing's area of effect is being increased

Stardew Valley
(Image credit: ConcernedApe)

There's something about Stardew Valley's combat that's always irked its creator, Eric 'ConcernedApe' Barone, and it's about to be fixed in the forthcoming 1.6 update.

Over on Twitter, Barone shared yet another patch note from 1.6, explaining an issue related to combat that was intended for visual accuracy, but is now being tweaked to prioritize the feeling of playing the game instead. Specifically, the patch will "extend the area of effect of downward facing melee attacks."

"Ever notice that swinging the sword downward put you at a big disadvantage?" Barone wrote. "It's always bugged me, but I had tuned it that way so that the area of effect would match the visual. For 1.6, I decided that game feel is way more important than precise visual accuracy."

Barone isn't the only one who's been desperate for a change to the sword's downward swing radius. For years, players have complained about this specific motion and area of effect, and have even come up with their own solutions via mods.

Likewise, on Tuesday Barone confirmed a longstanding theory that harvesting from left to right, as opposed to right to left, is actually more efficient and said a fix for that is on the way in the 1.6 patch as well. And in perhaps the biggest 1.6 change Barone's teased so far, Stardew Valley will soon give you saplings when you cut down trees that will grow faster based on the quality of the fruit borne from the tree you chopped down.

The 1.6 update is due to launch on March 19.

Here's everything we know about the Barone's Stardew Valley follow-up, Haunted Chocolatier.

Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.