Highlights
- Stardew Valley fans were disappointed to discover that sprinklers cannot fill pet bowls on the farm.
- While there is no negative outcome for not filling pet bowls, players hope for an option to use sprinklers in the future.
A Stardew Valley fan has pointed out that sprinklers lack the ability to fill pet bowls. The discovery disappoitned the player, and many have agreed that it's something that they'd like to see added to Stardew Valley.
When a new player starts Stardew Valley, they're asked if they prefer dogs or cats. In the early days of the game, the player will eventually meet Marnie on their doorstep, who offers them the chance to adopt whichever type of pet they selected on that screen. If a player does adopt a cat or dog, they can interact with the animal, give them water, and gain affection, similar to other animals on the farm. However, one fan was surprised to discover that what seemed like a great idea didn't work at all.
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Stardew Valley player Genoooos shared their discovery that sprinklers can't fill pet bowls. Sprinklers are generally used on farm plots to keep crops healthy without having to water them manually, saving the player time and energy. However, they can also be used for things like filling water troughs for slimes, so it struck some fans as odd that the same doesn't work for pet bowls. Genoooos had cleverly set up a sprinkler to sit in the middle of multiple pet bowls, hoping it would fill them, to no avail.
The Potential Pros and Cons of Automatically Filling Pet Bowls
Fans in the comments were quick to point out that watering one's pet helps to increase affection, which can take a long time to build with a pet due to the limited interactions that count per day. With that in mind, it seems logical that a method of automatically filling a water bowl wouldn't have the same impact on the pet. While this could be a problem for some players, the Stardew Valley 1.6 update added the option to adopt multiple pets after the player's original pet reaches max affection. It seems reasonable, then, for the sprinklers to at least work on the additional pets' bowls, or all of them, considering the first pet's relationship will be maxed out by that point.
This lack of interaction with Stardew Valley's pet bowls may have been intentional on the developer's part, though some players pointed out that there is a potential middle ground. When it rains, the pet's bowl is automatically filled for the day. In theory, sprinklers could fill water bowls the same way, without adding any affection points to the relationship.
Adding water to a pet's bowl in Stardew Valley is completely optional, and there's no negative outcome for not doing so. With the ability to now adopt a ton of pets in Stardew Valley, though, it might be useful to have an automatic option to fill all the bowls at once with a sprinkler, if only for the visual appeal. Time will tell if developer ConcernedApe tweaks this or adds a new option for automatic bowl filling.
Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley is a hit Indie release that spawned a cult following thanks to its similarities to titles like Harvest Moon and The Sims. Players will take control of their own characters as they are dropped into the eponymous Stardew Valley and given an old dilapidated farm. They'll cultivate new crops and relationships with the NPCs scattered around the area, as well as combat monsters and embark on other quests.
