My Dream 1.7 Update To Stardew Valley
Today I’m going to be discussing my exact list of wants for the upcoming 1.7 update for Stardew Valley that ConcernedApe announced he is officially working on. I have a theme for the update, and a ton of specific requests as well that’s going to probably take me forever to fully explain without rambling, so without further ado let’s jump right into it!
The Theme
For the theme of this update I’m going to take you through the exact vision that I have. Okay so picture this, for the major update that added Ginger Island aka 1.5, we got tons of new features. So for 1.7 I’m proposing it’s more along the style of the update of 1.5, but the theme for this update is… Zuzu City! Zuzu City is mentioned several times throughout Stardew Valley, and you even go there during a few different cutscenes with the villagers. But as a player in the game, you can’t choose to go there.
What I’m proposing in 1.7 aka The Zuzu City Express Update as I’ll be calling it, is that with an upgrade to the bus that you complete using certain resources, which I’ll explain more in a moment, you will be able to fully explore Zuzu City and all it has to offer.
Which in my vision… is actually a lot.
Unlocking Zuzu City
My idea for how you can unlock Zuzu City, somewhat similar to how you unlock Ginger Island via Willy’s boat in the back of his shop with 5 battery packs, 200 pieces of hardwood, and 5 iridium bars after you complete the Community Center or Joja Mart Route, is by upgrading the bus. In my vision to unlock upgrading the bus you must first complete the Community Center or Joja Route and repair Willy’s boat first. Then after that (and if you have more than six hearts with Pam) you will unlock a special letter in the mail that unlocks a cutscene with Pam at the bus stop.
She could explain how she heard at the saloon about how you helped Willy with his boat, and then talk about how she used to be able to drive the old bus all the way to Zuzu City regularly before it broke but now can only manage it on special occasions. You can offer to help fix it and unlock the new quest to do so.
The supplies to fix it could be something like: 500 stones to pave a new road for it, 10 battery packs for the engine, and a dwarf gadget for the bus stop ticket purchaser. Or maybe even something to fix the wheel, like a rusty cog.
Then once you complete it a ticket to Zuzu City since its further away than the desert could be something like 2,000 grams of gold, and since its actually a city maybe you have to actually pay the gold to go instead of being able to craft an obelisk or warp totem.
Or if ConcernedApe wanted to get fancy with it, maybe you could upgrade the train station by the bathhouse and that could have a train driver similar to the bookseller NPC that takes you all the way to Zuzu City which also would make the upgrades more expensive and the area more useful. Plus if it was known as the Zuzu City Express update using a train to get there would be pretty cool and fitting.
Zuzu City Exclusive Gameplay & NPCs
Inside of Zuzu City it could be laid out in a more traditional cityscape, with a fountain, a section where weekly different bands could perform and you could pay to buy tickets for 500 grams per ticket, an townhouse complex system for the new NPCs I’ll mention later, and maybe a JojaMall in the center with a few different shops inside.
As for the shops inside the JojaMall, there could be one JojaMart style shop maybe called JojaStore that perhaps Morris’s nemesis (potential name being something like Parker) runs and maybe if you choose the Community Center route Morris could work there with him as a lower down employee so he doesn’t disappear after. It’s a store full of potions similar to the ones Harvey sells but maybe with better buffs and of course more expensive. Maybe Morris hates it just because it reminds him of his failure in Pelican Town.
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Another store the JojaMall could include is a boutique full of more fashion choices for the player which could introduce a ton of new outfits, and maybe even some exclusive pieces you could buy at a higher price, maybe run by a new female NPC around Jodi and Caroline’s age range named Ivy. Maybe she’s a fashion designer from a small town nearby but she moved to the big city to sell her clothes to more people.
One of the other stores could be a music store where you could buy new songs for your jukebox and even different new music players like a record player and stereo. It could be run by one of our new NPCs named something like Lilith. Lilith could be Parkers ambitious daughter that loves everything musical but doesn’t want to work at JojaMart because she thinks they’re shady but she doesn’t want to hurt her dad’s feelings so she runs her store in the JojaMall to keep him happy. But the fees for owning a booth there are expensive and she’s lowkey struggling to make ends meet so she plays shows on the weekends for extra cash. Also she could be a romance candidate.
The townhouse complex could have one for Lilith and Parker, Ivy, and of course Morris since he currently doesn’t have a house in Pelican Town.
Another gameplay aspect it could add is another small store separate from the mall space where you can purchase exclusive ores and bars to upgrade your tools with at Clints that you could also get from exploring the Zuzu City mines that are locked behind a heart event you get with Morris, I know that this is controversial because heart events with Morris would be weird but hear me out, and he could give you some keys to an abandoned building on the west side of the city aka the kind of run down area, that actually is the opening to secret mines that are more dangerous than the Skull Caverns. Maybe they even start to almost collapse if you stay past 10 pm, limiting your time within the space even more.
New resources from the new mines could introduce a ton of new crafting recipes including armor, that you could also purchase from the small store that sells the ores as well, which is something I think we definitely need in Stardew for mining, because if the Zuzu mines are scarier than the Skull Caverns? Armor is a must have at that point. They could also be just as deep as the Skull Caverns, which is basically infinite.
Also that small shop I mentioned? Could also be run by Marlon’s nephew or ex prodigy Darrin, which could open up another romance candidate and also heart events with Marlon. Which as you guys know as a Marlon lover girlie I would LOVE heart events for him. And maybe even some heart events for some of the other extra characters.
Which brings me to my extra update additions that fit with the theme of Zuzu City but are separate smaller details similar to my Five Things I Would Love To See ConcernedApe add in a future update video which you should check out after you finish this one.
Extra Update Additions
One of the many extra update additions to the Zuzu City Express update aka 1.7 that I would like to see would be a new farm layout, perhaps in the theme of a money making pursuit sort of like how the Meadow Lands farm from 1.6 promotes having animals.
As most Stardew Players know, we make a lot of money from preserve jars and kegs. So having a farm around that with a specialty building, aka a new addition to buildings Robin could build, already built on it that comes with maybe two kegs in it and any future kegs that are placed in there brews the goods faster as well similarly to how the basement in your house ages products.
Another idea I had for a farm would be to promote a different way of making money which might be a bit more on theme with the Zuzu City idea. Aka clothes. So I think you should be able to make clothes that you can sell to boutique in Zuzu City to Ivy to make more money. You could start this farm off with some free cloth maybe, like five pieces and then of course you’ll unlock the sewing machine from Emily pretty quickly.
Plus that could add the addition of building a sewing room onto your house at Robins for another house upgrade. Which would be really cute and give you more space.
Another farm idea is a orchard farm with one tree sapling in the box that Mayor Lewis gives you. The theme of the cabin could have a fruit themed wallpaper, and best of all there could be a dedicated tree growing spot with better soil similar to the blue chew grass added in the Meadow Lands farm that makes the trees produce fruit faster.
Something else I would like added in this update that goes with more things for Robin to do is upgrades to your Greenhouse to make it bigger. Because why not? I mean we can upgrade all the other buildings like coops, barns, sheds etc. so why not the greenhouse too?
Another thing would be another fall festival like maybe a pumpkin patch sort of thing? Or a mini festival like the fishing competitions with pumpkin carving and the best pumpkin wins prizes. Something fall themed like that could be really cute for the player and the villagers to enjoy and add a little something extra to fall as well.
Final Thoughts!
Those are all the ideas I have for the 1.7 update under this theme, but if you want to hear more of my ideas for 1.7 then I can make a follow up post with a list of ten individual ideas for the update as well. I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and if you did, I hope that you’ll consider clapping the post and following me here on Medium.
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