Master Of The Five Ways

If you’re coming back to Stardew after a while or you’re a new player, it’s worth pointing out one of the biggest new additions to the game in patch 1.6.

Once you’re updated to 1.6, a new cave appears in the forest south of your farm, about halfway down the cliffside to the east. If you try to enter it early on, it tells you that “only a master of the five ways may enter.”

This is a new endgame system in the latest patch. The five ways refer to your five skills: farming, mining, combat, foraging, and fishing. When you reach level 10 in all five, you can now enter the cave. This sets you up to unlock a number of new tools and passive buffs that grant you several solid quality-of-life bonuses for Stardew’s endgame. This includes the new “trinket” equipment slot, some high-end blueprints like the Treasure Totem, a new iridium-quality fishing rod and scythe, and the ability to find valuable Golden Mystery Boxes.

There are quite a few other things to see and do in patch 1.6, but the skill mastery system should be your first stop. It makes you better at all the things you were already doing and really smooths out Stardew’s endgame. If you’ve been neglecting combat or fishing, it’s worth grinding them up to level 10 to gain access to the mastery cave.