In the most important Stardew Valley update of all time, Eric Barone lets players "pass through" adorable pets a whole 0.75 seconds faster

Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone has revealed yet another patch note from the forthcoming 1.6 update, and while it might sound minor at first, it's both a quality of life improvement and a time saver.

In case this is the first story you're reading in my apparent daily Stardew Valley column, Barone has been drip-feeding daily patch notes in the lead up to 1.6's March 19 launch. The latest change will reduce the amount of time it takes for you to "pass through" a pet when pushing up against them, from 1.5 seconds down to .75 seconds.

Again, it might not seem like much at first blush, but it's little details just like this that add up and make for a generally more pleasant, less frustrating experience. I'm a casual Stardew Valley player and thus don't encounter pathway-blocking pets enough to really be bothered, but my sister has like 900 hours logged in this game - I can only imagine how much time this will save her cumulatively. Not to mention, just from a quality of life perspective, 0.75 fewer seconds spent bumping up against pixelated animals is 0.75 more seconds spent enjoying the game. Over time that'll add up! Surely.

That's about the size of it for today's update on update 1.6. On Wednesday, we got word of an incoming fix for a long-standing issue with sword combat, and on Tuesday we learned that the theory about harvesting from left to right being fast is true (and being fixed), and on Monday Barone revealed a proper "game changer" of a patch note related to chopping down and re-planting trees.

Here are some games like Stardew Valley to keep the chill vibes flowing until 1.6 and beyond.