After completing the Community Center packages, you’ll need to stock up on Willy before you can navigate.
Stardew Valley added a new island to explore with update 1.5 on PC and it is surprisingly complete. There are many things! If you are looking for a direct start guide to the object, nothing works here.
To get to the island, you will need to complete the Community Center packages (or the equivalent JojaMart search line), which means there are a lot of settings if you start a new save file for 1.5.
When you have completed the goal of the Community Center or Joja, Willy will send you a letter stating that he has unlocked the back camera in the fish shop. Inside, you will find a decades-old boat in need of repair.
[Note: I’m not sure if there are any other requirements before Willy sends the letter, but I happened to have a safe file with an almost-finished Community Center. Preparing the final bundles did the trick. On this particular file, I didn’t catch every type of fish, so thankfully that’s not a prerequisite for the boat.]
To repair the boat, you will need to bring:
- Five iridium bars to fix the anchor.
- Five batteries to repair the ticket machine.
- 200 pieces of hardwood to repair the hull.
It’s a one-time expense, but if you’re not stocked – It certainly wasn’t! – then the boat is a pig of resources. I had to travel a lot in the secret forests, although fortunately I had some spare batteries.
Once you repair Willy’s boat, you will be admitted to the fish shop at 8:00 every day if you can pay 1000g for a ticket to navigate the new area just like you can take a walk in the desert.
Before taking off with Willy, make sure you bring a watering can – You’ll need him.
Your destination? Ginger Island. You will see a nice sailing scene.
Without revealing too much about the area – you can consult the gallery below for more screenshots with spoiler-y – there are several things worth noting, including an NPC and a volcanic dungeon. I just scratched the surface, but I like that there is a new story here. Blocked paths are interesting.
The first time I tried to explore the dungeon, I didn’t bring a watering cup, so I couldn’t get far. When I returned, I was almost immediately wiped out by some of the new creatures. Curse yourself, Eric!
Click to open the photo gallery:
