Sorry, lovers of hats on pets; Stardew Valley creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone has warned players to stop adorning their fluffy friends with fancy headwear, as doing so currently appears to be causing performance drops in the latest version of the farm life sim.
The ability to put hats on pets is, of course, arguably the most significant feature to be added to Stardew Valley (or indeed any game ever) as part of this week’s chunky 1.6 update
Barone shared the news in a post on social media, telling players, “If you are experiencing performance issues in Stardew Valley 1.6, remove all hats from pets.” There’s probably a very sensible, serious technical reason for the performance drop, but because this is Stardew Valley, fans have demanded an official in-game lore explanation for the sudden required removal of pet hats, and Barone has happily obliged.
“There’s rumours of a strange rash affecting pets’ ears in Zuzu City,” Barone explained, “and we just want to make sure those ears can breath for a few days.” Thankfully, pets won’t be permanently denied their adorable headwear and Barone has promised, “We will address the problem as soon as possible.”
Hat-related performance drops are far from the only bug to emerge following Stardew Valley’s 1.6 update on consoles and mobile, but it’s so far the most amusing, even in a game where chickens are suddenly vanishing en masse. But the good news is fixes are in the works – and mobile players can even try out a (no longer) secret multiplayer mode while they wait.