Stardew Valley Player Accidentally Misses an Entire Season

Highlights

• Stardew Valley players can lose entire seasons by accidentally leaving the game running in the background.
• Calendar system in game reflects real-world seasons, impacting crop cultivation and animal care.
• To avoid losing progress, players can put items in the shipping bin at the start of each day.

A Stardew Valley player shared the embarrassing mistake they made that led to them losing an entire season of the game. Stardew Valley doesn’t have many absolutely mandatory requirements for players to fulfill, allowing them to choose how they want to play it. Still, planning for seasons in advance is a common tactic among fans, but this fan ended up losing the entire season.

Stardew Valley follows a simple calendar system that divides the seasons up as they are in the real world. Certain crops can only be planted and harvested during select seasons, and animals can only head outside during the warm seasons. For Stardew Valley perfection speedrunners, every day counts, but it’s rare to hear of someone that managed to miss out on an entire season.

Enter Stardew Valley player chooseauser_namee, who shared the mishap with fellow fans. The fan plays Stardew Valley on the PC, and apparently made the mistake of thinking that they had paused the game by entering their inventory, when in reality, they hadn’t. This allowed the title to continue running in the background, letting the days pass one by one. The player ended up leaving the game while it was summer and came back to discover that enough time had passed for it to now be winter in Stardew Valley.

How Stardew Valley Players Can Lose Days, Seasons, or More

Fellow Stardew Valley players were sympathetic but also confused by the occurrence. Many thought it wasn’t possible for time to accidentally pass in the game past a single day, as the title brings up a confirmation screen showing the player their level progress, if any, and what their sales netted them for the day. However, if the player doesn’t level or put anything in a shipping bin, the game simply saves when the day completes and continues on to the next one. Apparently, they hadn’t done this when they stepped away from the PC, and it proceeded to let the days pass until winter.

While some mistakes in Stardew Valley can be reversed by quickly quitting out without saving the day, this isn’t one of them. The game automatically saves at the completion of each day, so there’s no restoring the lost season for this player. The player didn’t mention if they ended up losing any important crops, but their chickens did suffer a bit, as they weren’t fed for the entire season that passed by. Their coop ended up being completely packed with uncollected eggs, as well.

As Stardew Valley player Thick_Suggestion_ noted, it’s not a bad idea to put something simple into Stardew Valley‘s shipping bin at the start of any day that the player thinks they might get distracted by something. That fan accidentally fell asleep while playing the game and woke up to an entire year having passed. This simple tip will ensure that at most, players only lose a single day’s worth of time.