How Stardew Valley’s Beach Farm Changes Gameplay Difficulty

Fans of virtual farming games got a treat this holiday season with the surprise release of Stardew Valley’s 1.5 update for the PC. The update comes after months of secretive teasers from developer ConcernedApe, who held a poll and released a handful of curious screencaps to keep players on their toes. The update was worth the wait, adding an array of new content to the game, and players will have plenty of new things to do in the well loved farming simulation. Stardew Valley has also added a beach farm map, which increases the difficulty of gameplay substantially.

The beach map has many interesting additions, like other specialty maps for Stardew Valley, making it entirely unique from other farm layouts. Players are surrounded by water which artfully breaks up the farmable land. The greenhouse is now isolated on its own little island, and besides a small patch of grass and dirt at the bottom of the map, the ground is primarily sand. Regular trees can grow on the sand, so players still have access to the much needed supply of wood to get things started.

However, players will encounter a few restrictions in Stardew Valley’s beach map which enhance the difficulty of gameplay a great deal. The first is the much smaller farming space. Players will need to consider how to use their farmable land wisely between raising animals and planting crops. The other new challenge players will face is sprinklers can’t be placed on sand. This alone makes earning money off crops a tricky business, as the amount a player can grow will cost a lot more in time and energy. Gamers will have to water every crop they plant by hand, save for the small space of dirt that is arable in the bottom corner of the map.

Stardew Valley’s Beach Farm Map Makes Gameplay Challenging

Picking what players might want to to raise will be extra difficult with Stardew Valley’s 1.5 update, as it added new trees, crops and animals. Players can now farm ginger, taro and pineapple as well as plant mango and banana trees. Players can also hatch and care for a flock of ostriches, as the birds have been added as a new farm animal. With these additions and many new maker machines, space will be a limited and valuable thing, which will make earning money quickly much more difficult.

The raised difficulty in space management and earning money will be a fun challenge for veteran players of the game, as it requires them to rethink strategies which were effective on other farm maps. It puts a whole new twist on Stardew Valley’s gameplay and deconstructs algorithms fans have found that allow them to earn money quickly. Stardew Valley continues to improve its content for fans both old and new with every update, and the 1.5 content addition will have players exploring new areas and challenging their farming skills differently than they ever have before.

Stardew Valley is available on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, Android, and iOS.

About The Author