Hidden Stardew Valley 1.6 Update Makes Traveling Much Faster

Summary Carrots in Stardew Valley 1.6 have a hidden buff that wasn't mentioned in the patch notes.

Feeding carrots to a horse increases its movement speed, potentially a more valuable use for carrots than simply selling them.

It's a small addition but shows attention to detail and care from the developer.

Following Stardew Valley's 1.6 patch, which has made several major additions to the game, players have begun to discover hidden features and interactions that weren't specified in the update's patch notes. Among the major additions introduced by the patch, which included several new crops, seasonal outfits for NPCs, expanded multiplayer, and a number of visual improvements, players have begun to discover some less obvious additions - including one trick that could significantly speed up in-game travel times.

As was discovered by some players shortly after the release of the patch, including Reddit user Hansekins, using the new carrot crop while riding a horse will now feed the carrot to the horse, giving the horse a day-long buff that increases its movement speed by around 40%.

As of the current patch, the newly added carrots, which can only be planted in Spring, are the only crop to have this interaction, making them uniquely valuable as a way for players to get around their farm faster and get more work done in a day.

Other items, like coffee, can also buff a player's general movement speed, which does stack with the increased speed from riding a horse, but have relatively short durations and can't be fed directly to the horse like carrots can.

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While the ability for players to feed their horses and get some extra movement speed is a fairly minor addition compared to everything else included in Stardew Valley's 1.6 update, it's a nice touch for players who are more attached to their farm's animals, and provides a good mechanical incentive as well, giving carrots a unique value aside from how much money they're worth. It also pairs nicely with 1.6's new farm type, the Meadowlands Farm, which starts players out with two chickens and plentiful grazing land to help players focus on ranching.

Related One Stardew Valley 1.6 Update Makes One Crop Better Than The Rest 1.6 changes a lot about Stardew Valley, and the introduction of one new feature makes a previously inessential crop necessary for maximizing profits.

For players who commonly use their horses to get around, stockpiling carrots during the Spring season can be a good decision, even if other crops might technically make more money. It's something of an investment in the future, as horses won't be immediately available, but once they are, the faster movement speed will help get more done every single day, rather than focusing on short-term profit.

The release of update 1.6 for Stardew Valley has revitalized the game's playerbase with the addition of several long-requested features, including unique NPC reactions to gifts, new crops, and multiple new events. Comparatively, being able to feed carrots to horses for a movement speed buff is a small change, to the point that many players likely won't even notice that it's possible without looking it up, but it's still a nice touch that shows the developer's care and attention to detail when it comes to even the smaller touches in Stardew Valley.