Stardew Valley's developer tweeted 'iridium scythe' and everyone is losing it

Stardew Valley - a player swings a scythe at a patch of grass near a field of peppers and a goat — (Image credit: Eric Barone)

Stardew Valley developer Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone has a habit of being pretty quiet on social media, so when he does speak up everyone pays attention. Today he tweeted just two words: "iridium scythe" which is a nod to a tool upgrade apparently long-desired by way more players than I'd anticipated.

Last we heard, Barone was taking a hiatus from development on his next game Haunted Chocolatier to focus on a 1.6 update for Stardew Valley. At the time, Barone said that 1.6 is "mostly changes for modders" but that it would include some content updates too. So the obvious guess is that he's planning to add a new harvesting tool tier in that eventual update.

Stardew Valley's scythe is initially used to harvest grass for crafting or feeding animals and is also used for harvesting grains like wheat and amaranth. Other tools in Stardew can be upgraded a few times from copper to steel to gold to iridium—Stardew's top tool material—gaining additional functionality at each level. The scythe is different though. There's only the starter scythe and a gold scythe which has an increased cutting radius and damage.

It didn't seem like a particularly egregious omission to me. I thought we were all still maximising profit on ancient fruit wine. Are you all really planting that much wheat and kale? Surely you aren't using the scythe as a weapon in the mines. And yet, the replies and quote tweets are filled with glee.

Here's a sample of reactions to this adjective and noun:

"FINALLY ALL PURPLE"
"Omg????? It’s the little things 💕"
"nature is healing"
"he tweeted 2 fucking words and i’m going batshit over here WTAF"
"YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES!"

That'll show me to underestimate farm sim players. It really is the little things.

Stardew Valley's modding community has done a lot in the last few years to address little annoyances and fixes, some of which you can find solutions to in our best Stardew Valley mods list. If you've fully retired from Stardew, consider this ever-growing list of games like Stardew Valley to change things up. Though hey, might as well shoot your shot requesting some other new features alongside the iridium scythe since Barone won't stop working on new Stardew Valley game updates.

Lauren has been writing for PC Gamer since she went hunting for the cryptid Dark Souls fashion police in 2017. She joined the PCG staff in 2021, now serving as self-appointed chief cozy games and farmlife sim enjoyer. Her career originally began in game development and she remains fascinated by how games tick in the modding and speedrunning scenes. She likes long fantasy books, longer RPGs, can't stop playing co-op survival crafting games, and has spent a number of hours she refuses to count building houses in The Sims games for over 20 years.