Update 1.7 for Stardew Valley is perhaps the most anticipated release of the indie segment in 2026. Eric Barone (known online as ConcernedApe) made the community boil again when he rolled out fresh marriage candidates. Clint and Sandy are not an obvious choice. The fans are arguing themselves hoarse. But while the patch is still brewing in the depths of the studio, publisher FanGamer has thrown up a great alternative for the most impatient players.
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The official prequel Stardew Valley: Before The Farmer is a graphic novel about the life of Pelican Town
If plot holes are bothering you, the officially licensed prequel Stardew Valley: Before The Farmer will close this gestalt. This is a 144-page volume comic book written by Chihiro Sakaida, detailing the lives of his neighbors a year before your farmer even set foot on these lands. Ups, downs, local holidays — and, of course, the creeping expansion of the Joja Corporation. The reading turned out to be dense. Besides, this is a rare chance to look at familiar NPCs from a new angle.
The book is sold for $30 on the FanGamer site, and it looks frankly premium. The 5.5-inch x 8.5-inch hardcover, wood-textured cover, and gold lettering will delight collectors. They print the novel on textured cream paper with brown ink to create the very craft vibe. The text is available in two languages at once: Japanese and English. A bonus was the pleasant little things: the dust jacket unfolds into a full-fledged poster, and in the box there is an authentic letter sealed with wax, which was sent by Grandpa, and beautiful art of your future home. The familiar Pelican city has never been so tangible.
And this tangibility is not just a beautiful picture, because the book literally reshapes the canon, closing the very plot holes that the original game tactfully avoided.
How the Joja Corporation Destroyed Pelican Town: Lore from the Official comic
In the game itself, corporate monopoly is presented as a given — the concrete JojaMart is already working, slippery Morris dictates the terms, and the abandoned Community Center is slowly rotting. The comic turns the film backwards. He shows the mechanism of disaster in dynamics — and it all starts with a triumph. Mayor Lewis threw the perfect Luau festival to impress the Governor. The party was a great success. The irony here is as evil as possible: it was this success that set off a chain reaction, because a satisfied official personally brought Morris and the Joja corporation to the valley. One cool event and the city is doomed.
Then the events rush like an avalanche. Aggressive dumping by JojaMart instantly stifles local trade. Shane, for example, runs into wild debts — it is the financial stranglehold, not free choice, that drives him behind the cash register of the hated supermarket. The same Community Center is not turning into ruins from old age — the residents simply ran out of money to support it. Plus, the authors hint very strongly at the reason for the destruction of the local museum.: Apparently, this is the dirty work of Joja Corp. mercenaries. The accusations don’t sound like a direct text, but the “show, don’t tell” rule works out here one hundred percent.
What Before The Farmer says about the residents of Pelican Town
Familiar characters also acquire fresh details — we see a couple of canonical facts for the first time. Take the same writer: it turns out that Elliott comes to Pelican Town only in winter — just a couple of weeks before the start of the main game. In fact, he’s just as much an outsider in the valley as you are.
Krobus gets his moment of fame too. In one of the winter scenes, Abigail, Vincent and Jas stumble upon strange footprints in the snow — they lead straight into the sewer. This is the first official confirmation that the shadow trader settled under the city long before the farmer appeared.
But Junimo’s forest spirits appear in a completely different light. They stay in a hut and, in addition, the creatures clean the abandoned area with their own hands and carefully leave the starting parsnip seeds. A gift on the first day is not a game design convention, but a conscious gesture by spirits who perfectly remember their Grandfather. By the way, the novel itself starts with a powerful flashback — a small child rushes through the garden beds with an old man. For the lore of the game, this is the only official shot of their relationship before your move.
What ConcernedApe intentionally left a secret in the Official Prequel
Despite the abundance of insiders, some things remain in the gray area — and this is done intentionally. Throughout the 144 pages, the farmer flashes in the frame without a face. Even in the finale, when the bus is already rushing the main character to the valley, the exterior is hidden.
There is no laziness of artists here — this is a fundamental veto of the developer himself. Eric Barone (aka ConcernedApe) firmly believes that your character’s backstory is your personal role—playing territory, and you can’t dictate the canon here. As a result, the comic does not rewrite the established ENT, but is jewelishly integrated into it — exactly within the boundaries that the game itself allows.
Stardew Valley 1.7: Release date and fan predictions for 2026
Eric Barone doesn’t have an official deadline yet, as is usually the case. The man is pulling two gigantic projects at once — including the promising The Haunted Chocolatier — so he has nowhere to hurry. However, analysts from Reddit have already calculated everything.
The user with the nickname Surax gave out quite working mathematics, based on past patches. See for yourself: version 1.6 was released on April 16, 2023, and it was released on March 19, 2024. The entire production cycle took about 11 months. Considering that the first teaser of the update occurred in August 2025, the release window in 2026 is not a blind faith, but an absolutely logical forecast. Moreover, the shows of new characters clearly hint at the active stage of development.
Will the hype subside? At first, we don’t think so. But for now, it’s time to make some tea and unwrap a new comic.
