Stardew Valley‘s recent 1.6.9 update is now live on all platforms, but like many games that implement large patches, the beloved farming sim’s latest update is reportedly causing performance issues for some players.
The 1.6.9 update gives players all kinds of dress-up options for their cats, dogs, and horses, but the feature also seems to be the source of the performance issues some players are facing. But on the bright side, Stardew Valley creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone has offered players a (temporary) solution to the problem: Take the hats off your pets.
PSA: if you are experiencing performance issues in Stardew Valley 1.6, remove all hats from pets. We will address the problem as soon as possible
— ConcernedApe (@ConcernedApe) November 5, 2024
Barone also confirmed that he’s working on a permanent fix for the issue.
Rather than being upset, several players responded to Barone’s tweet asking for the “lore” behind the bug and its temporary workaround. Barone has a history of treating bugs as canonical events that actually occurred in the game, and players have followed suit. According to Barone, the lore behind the bug and its hat-removal workaround involve a contagious rash.
“There’s rumors of a strange rash affecting pets’ ears in Zuzu City and we just want to make sure those ears can breath[e] for a few days,” Barone said in response to a lore-seeking question from a player.
Other bugs reported after the update include an issue with disappearing chickens, and although Barone hasn’t shared chicken-based lore (yet), he has confirmed that he won’t be resuming work on his next game, Haunted Chocolatier, until all the issues with Stardew Valley’s 1.6.9 patch are resolved on all platforms.