Stardew Valley 1.5 Patch Update Includes a Mysterious Door in Willy's Fish Shop

I'm always happy to write news about Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone's wildly popular Stardew Valley, but doing so comes with abject danger. It is very easy to get sucked back into Stardew Valley, and very hard to claw your way out of that immense time sink when it happens. I miss my cows and goats—

Ahem. Earlier today, Barone tweeted a quick blurb about the big 1.5 content patch that's coming soon. The tweet includes a screenshot of Willy's fish shop, which has a very curious addition: a door situated behind Willy, and a sign that the door leads to a ship of some kind.

Stardew Valley fans immediately whirred to life and started speculating about Willy's door. "It's a CBD farm!" is a common guess, but that's obviously farfetched. (Especially since Sebastian's bong was edited into a vase.) Since Barone's tweet also promises "This update adds a significant new piece of end-game content and much more," a good guess is that we'll soon have a new region to explore. Stardew Valley already lets us visit a desert area that's off-farm. It's not a stretch to believe a water-based area is in the works.

Barone is otherwise quiet about patch 1.5's contents, and he says he's in a "nose to the grindstone" phase for its development. We don't have a release date just yet. Some good news for potassium fiends, though: Banana trees are confirmed. The fruitful foliage just barely beat mango trees and avocado trees in a poll Barone held in April.

Barone mostly works alone on his Stardew Valley content. Last year, he had a long talk to us about the challenges and rewards of being a solo developer.

I will not get sucked back into the Stardew Valley vortex. I will be strong. I miss Sebastian's coffee, though…