From the beginning, Stardew Valley has been an ambitious project: it's an in-depth farming sim with a calendar system, wide-spanning catalog of seasonal crops, and a host of fleshed-out townsfolk for your farmer to make friends with. It would have been a lot for any team, but Stardew Valley wasn’t made by a team at all – it was made by Eric Barone, better known as ConcernedApe.
The game still gets updates from time to time, but the biggest was in December 2020 which added, among other things, Ginger Island. You’ll need to complete the Community Center and bring a host of items to Willy, but once you do, a whole new world unlocks — literally.
There were plenty of things introduced in the update that players can only find on the island. There’s a lot going on there — a feral child, birds that speak only of walnuts, and pirates, to name a few things you'll see — but there are island-exclusive items as well. Whether it’s enemies, crops, or challenges, here’s a look at some stuff you can only access once you’ve landed on the shores of Ginger Island.
10 Not One But Two Golden Foods
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Hidden amongst the shrubbery of Ginger Island are two new items, each of which serve vastly different functions. Golden Coconuts can be cracked open at Clint’s shop like geodes, while Golden Walnuts serve as a kind of currency on the island, as they’re how you’ll unlock all the new things there are to see and do.
Golden Coconuts are oftentimes visible on the palm trees from which you shake them, but Golden Walnuts are a bit more convoluted. You’ll receive them for completing any number of tasks around the island, and can use them to enhance its features.
9 New Recipes Aplenty
The update came with a bevy of new recipes for you to try making yourself. Gus sells the Tropical Curry recipe at The Resort if he's visiting once you’ve reopened it, the Volcano Dwarf will teach you to make Ginger Ale, and the Island Trader will sell a recipe for banana pudding. At four hearts, Leo will share how he makes poi, and will send you his recipe for mango sticky rice at seven.
But ConcernedApe didn’t stop at food, though – we got new item recipes as well. Not only can you buy the island warp totem recipe from the island trader, but the bird sells one for Deluxe Retaining Soil as well.
8 Tropical Bungalow Furniture
Half the fun of getting further along in Stardew Valley is slowly but surely buying decorations for your house and dressing it up in whatever style best suits your farmer. There are a number of ways to get furniture back on the mainland, sure, but the Island Trader will offer a selection of furniture with a much more island-centric feel.
The bluebird will barter with you for things like a Tropical TV, Jungle Torch, Wild Double Bed, Tropical Bed, and Oceanic Rug (but you'll have to come by on Saturdays for that last one).
7 A New Wardrobe
There are a LOT of ways to style your farmer, but your options expand once you arrive on the island. Between the Island Trader and the Volcano Dungeon, you’re in for a host of new wardrobe options. The Island Trader’s clothing stock rotates every day, while the Volcano Dwarf keeps his constant on the fifth level of the dungeon.
Additionally, in the Volcano Dungeon, you can find two kinds of chests: both common and rare. Naturally, the rare ones have better stuff in general, but each one can potentially offer you clothing, rings, or weaponry during your crawl to the caldera.
6 A New Kind Of Slime
Longtime players of Stardew Valley are no strangers to the annoying little creatures called Slimes that attack you in the game’s many dungeons. We’ve long had slimes of the Green, Yellow, Frost, Purple, Red, Black, Copper, and Iron varieties, but Ginger Island added a new slime to the roster: Tiger Slimes.
But not only are they the newest, they’re also the toughest. They’ve got an HP of 415, double the previous toughest slimes’, and do 23 damage to your farmer if they hit you. Once you beat them, though, their loot is usually pretty good. Most of it is island materials, but they can also drop diamonds, jades, and Tiger Slime eggs you can stick in the Hutch, too.
5 And Other Island Enemies, Too
But Tiger Slimes aren’t the only new meanies you’ll have to fight on Ginger Island, because once you step into the Volcano Dungeon, your world is flipped on its head. You won’t see any familiar faces as you scale the fiery behemoth, because the Volcano Dungeon is populated entirely by brand-new enemies.
Dwarvish Sentries hide in crates to attack when you break them, False Magma Caps bait you to come closer by looking like mushrooms, Lava Lurks spit fireballs at you from lava pools, and Magma Sprites and Sparkers will follow you around the map to attack (with Sparkers able to inflict burn), just to name a few.
4 The Volcano Dungeon, Specifically The Forge
We’ve alluded to it already, but Ginger Island brings a new dungeon for you to best, referred to as the Volcano Dungeon. It’s like The Mines and Skull Cavern in that you plod through its levels, fighting enemies and gathering resources, but although this one is much shorter at only eight cave-spelunking levels, that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
The enemies here are really tough, and, like in Skull Cavern, the layout of each floor is randomly generated on entry. Once you reach the top, however, you’ll locate the Forge, which can enhance your weaponry in brand new ways. Tinkering with different add-ons and improvements will make you that much more effective in battle.
3 Tropical Island Crops
A farming sim wouldn’t be complete without crops, of course, and we got a handful of new ones in this update. In theme with the tropical vibe of the island, they’re all notedly exotic: your farmer can now plant taro roots by the water, pineapples in spiky plants, as well as both banana and mango trees.
And because they're from the island climate, if you take them home, all four crops thrive only in the summer. Now, your farmer is able to enjoy island crops all year round by holding onto some of these tasty new offerings.
2 Qi's Walnut Room, And All Its Challenges
Mr. Qi is an interesting character. He operates the Casino in the Desert and invites you via a series of oddball tasks, but he has another property on Ginger Island: Qi’s Walnut Room. You’ll need to have found 100 Golden Walnuts to enter, but he makes it worth your while.
Because here, not only can you track your perfection progress, but Mr. Qi offers challenges to your player. They'll be anything from combat challenges, fishing ones, fetch-quests, or more social in nature. Each one pays out a number of Qi Gems, which you can trade for high-powered items like Pierre’s Missing Stocklist (which allows Pierre to sell all his seeds all the time, regardless of season), or the Key to the Town (which lets you go into any building in Pelican Town at any time).
1 A Brand New, Year-Round Farmstead
With farming being the primary mechanic of a game like Stardew Valley, it’s no surprise that players wanted more options for their homestead, and ConcernedApe more than delivered. Not only can you inhabit a beach-centric farm back in Pelican Town, but Ginger Island is where you’ll be able to unlock a second farm, too. And we advise you to do it fast, since every crop can be grown all year round on Ginger Island.
No more will you get to Day 28, just to realize you miscalculated, and your crops won’t be done in time to harvest before the season changes. The greenhouse is still good for this with 120 plots, but the Ginger Island farm boasts an impressive 878 farmable tiles of land. Pair that with Pierre's Stocklist, and you've found a moneymaking venture on Ginger Island for sure.