The cozy farming sim "Stardew Valley" will receive its biggest update to date on the PC version on March 19 The update includes so many fixes, improvements, and updates that developer Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone encourages fans to launch a new save file "to see how everything is going" But what exactly is included in the long-awaited update 16?

To build excitement, Barone is posting a line of patch notes on X every day for a week leading up to the release of update 16, offering players small but impactful ideas for tweaks In the process, he confirms longstanding conspiracy theories about the game's harvesting mechanics, promises fixes to make combat easier, and heralds a new "honeymoon period" for Stardew Valley's newlyweds Originally announced in April 2023, Barone announced in January that update 16 has since been scaled up and is now a much larger update than originally planned

Here are the patch notes that have been revealed so far:

For years, players have suspected that right-to-left crops were clearly slower than left-to-right crops, but the discrepancy was never addressed by Barone or in previous patch notes With update 16, Barone not only confirmed that the bug had been in "Stardew Valley" since launch, but also that it would be patched soon

"The left-facing harvest animation was 100 milliseconds longer than it should have been," Barone said at X

"The harvesting animation was not working as expected Now, harvesting will be the same speed regardless of the player's orientation In other words, the update will allow players to harvest the fruits of their labor "just as fast" rather than "just as slow" in either orientation, he clarified

Barone is also using this latest update as an excuse to address a long-standing problem he has had with combat in "Stardew Valley"

"Have you ever noticed that swinging your sword downward puts you at a major disadvantage?" Baron wrote "It's been on my mind for a long time, but I've been adjusting the area of effect to match the visuals, and in 16 I decided that game feel is much more important than exact visual accuracy

Another major change Barone has teased so far is that the saplings created when players cut down trees will grow faster, depending on the quality of the nuts they cut down Update 16 also adds a post-marriage "honeymoon" period for 12 bachelors and bachelorettes During these seven days, new husbands and wives will not be so depressed that they sulk in bed all day The purpose of this adjustment seems to be to avoid certain gameplay oddities that puzzled players when their spouses, married just a few days earlier, were already trying to rethink their marriage

If you're looking for more great titles like "Stardew Valley," be sure to check out our roundup of the best Switch games and best PC games