Do you need to start a new character to fully experience 1.6?

[C O R P S E Y]

For reference, I played at launch, 'completed' the game, and haven't really touched it since then. Trying to decide if I should pick up on my old character or start a new.

[Coffee Addict]

no you do not need to start a new save to get all the benefits of 1.6 though it is recommended

[red255]

you should start a new game. I've never had fun picking up an old farm, its either my current farm or start a new one. Olds ones just...don't work.

[Stardustfire]

when it really is a release save i woud recommand a new farm. the patches shoud be upgradeable, but there where some hicups with new stuff from patches. scarecrow as one example: the old saves dont got a marker for if you got all scarescrows and only looked if you actual got all after the patch came out. so if you lost one of the museum reward ones to some cirumstances in the old save, you never got the check for the completion and never got the master scarecrow recipe. in a later patch the saves keeped track of that, but that dont helped with saves older than the master scarecrows implementation.

long story short, if you dont want problems with mechanics newer than your save and want to see all the new stuff unfolding, start anew.

[Necrisha]

A save that old would probably miss some stuff that's been implemented since there's stuff that wasn't tracked back then. A save started post 1.5 would be worth picking up from.

But otherwise I would recommend a new save and checking out one of the newer farm types available.

[Ants!!!]

Absolutely start over! So many things have happened since launch, and even the experience of a new save from 1.5 and 1.6 feel different enough to be worth it to me.

[BirbNotBird]

High recommendation of choosing new save file over old.

Reason: You will miss most of the new features + No incentives for you to discover them.

[Cheato1]

To fully experience 1.6 you MUST play a new farm, THE new farm to be exact. It offers a completely new early game experience via starting with a coop, chickens and not drugged grass.

[Maya-Neko]

No, it is definitely not 'necessary' (no matter how much people try to insist on it). There are no mechanics that need you to be a new player and things will just pop up as like you've seen it the fist time, literally the same way as it would be on a new farm.

The only difference is, that you might be able to just buy or build anything right of the get go and that some new features might not be as impactful anymore, but that's what you've to decide yourself if you want it. If you feel like you don't have the motivation to rebuild your whole farm for the next 50 hours, then feel free to just not do it.

And obviously, if you want to play the new map, then you've to start over as well.

[Cheato1]

Originally posted by Maya-Neko:

No, it is definitely not 'necessary' (no matter how much people try to insist on it). There are no mechanics that need you to be a new player and things will just pop up as like you've seen it the fist time, literally the same way as it would be on a new farm.

The only difference is, that you might be able to just buy or build anything right of the get go and that some new features might not be as impactful anymore, but that's what you've to decide yourself if you want it. If you feel like you don't have the motivation to rebuild your whole farm for the next 50 hours, then feel free to just not do it.

And obviously, if you want to play the new map, then you've to start over as well.

The question however wasnt is it necessary to play the new farm to enjoy the update, the question was is a new game necessary to fully experience the update. How can you fully experience the update if you dont play the new farm?

[maestro]

Originally posted by Cheato1:

The question however wasnt is it necessary to play the new farm to enjoy the update, the question was is a new game necessary to fully experience the update. How can you fully experience the update if you dont play the new farm?

Or ANY farm for that matter. He said he played on launch. this means he has the classic farm and has never seen ANY of the other farms.

[Maya-Neko]

Originally posted by Cheato1:

The question however wasnt is it necessary to play the new farm to enjoy the update, the question was is a new game necessary to fully experience the update. How can you fully experience the update if you dont play the new farm?

Define "full experience" though. Do you need any specific tools to enjoy a festival? Do you need to have no money to experience the new buyable items? Is it necessary to not have access to iron to appreciate the potential existence of a bigger furnace?

In the end, this question can be answered in as many ways as there are players playing this game and i find it quite confusing when people tell, that the only possible way to experience is to ditch the farm someone has played dozens of hours, just to have a run that it 95% the exact same as the previous one, just with some more upgrades.

That said: For so long we've told people that there's nothing that can truly be missed (except for 1 heart event of sam), but now since 1.6 came out, people tell the exact opposite of that? Simply doesn't make sense to me.

[Kayette]

I'm doing both just to see what the differences are between new and old. I love my meadowlands farm though and recommend it to anyone who prefers animals to gardening!
So far I haven't run into any problems; my old farm is from after 1.5.

[TamanduaGirl]

There is new dialog added, so it's possible you will miss out on some of that if not starting with people from the start. So it depends how fully you mean fully.

Originally posted by Kayette:

I'm doing both just to see what the differences are between new and old. I love my meadowlands farm though and recommend it to anyone who prefers animals to gardening!
So far I haven't run into any problems; my old farm is from after 1.5.

I am doing both as well. I'm jumping between my old farm for end game content and new achievements and new farm for the, new farm and early stuff I might miss otherwise.

[TamanduaGirl]

Originally posted by Maya-Neko:

it quite confusing when people tell, that the only possible way to experience is to ditch the farm someone has played dozens of hours, just to have a run that it 95% the exact same as the previous one, just with some more upgrades.

You do know the game lets you make as many farms as you like right? Starting a new farm doesn't make your old farm vanish. You need to manually delete a farm if you no longer want to play it any more.

[Silverbane7]

On PC, I always start a new game.
but that is because i use mods (stardew Valley Expanded ect)

on Switch, i have 3-4 farms i won't delete.
but i will definately make a new save for playing the new farm type.
you should be able to enjoy everything but that farm layout, on your old saves