Stardew Valley 1.6 update lets you drink mayo — and you should

A day before Stardew Valley’s 1.6 update release date, developer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone posted a line from the update’s patch notes on X (formerly Twitter): “You can now drink mayonnaise.” The Stardew Valley community was shook. It’s just… why? Once the update launched on March 19, the answer became clear: It’s actually a pretty good early game item thanks to Stardew Valley’s new Meadowlands Farm, which lets you start your farm with two chickens.

Those two chickens mean two eggs per day. And two eggs per day means lots of mayo much earlier in the game than on other farms. You can sell it for a nice profit, but it has an unforeseen benefit: Drinking mayo gives you 50 energy points and 22 health points, and those stats only go up with the mayo’s quality. This makes it a pretty hefty snack to take with you into the mines.

Mining is an important part of Stardew Valley’s progression; it’s where you’ll find many of the resources you need to upgrade your tools and build stuff for your farm. However, in Stardew Valley, you get tired when you’re performing tasks like hitting rocks, so consumable items like mayo are essential to staying in the mines longer. (There are also enemies in the mines, so you risk draining your health, too.) Having a Mayonnaise Machine early on, paired with the Meadowlands Farm chickens, means you’re able to create a lot of energy and health with very little investment.

Of course, getting mayonnaise requires a Mayonnaise Machine, which does take some work — you need to be at farming level two, have a copper bar, an Earth Crystal, and some wood and stone. If you work quickly — like, very quickly — you can get a Mayonnaise Machine in under 20 minutes. (Thank you, mayo speedrunners.) It’s worth spending the time early on during a Meadowlands Farm run working towards this so you’ll be able to spend longer periods of time in the mines.

If you become bored of drinking mayonnaise in the mines, you can become an enemy of the public by drinking mayo in front of Stardew Valley citizens, who hate the practice. (As they should.)