Terraria's latest update, 1.4.4 "Labor of Love," recently brought a substantial amount of new content, quality of life features, and balance changes into the game. Tucked away among the many changes and additions that arrived with the Terraria update are a few clever references to another hit indie game, Stardew Valley.
First released back in 2011, Re-Logic's pixel art survival crafting game has always been compared to Minecraft, although over the years the game has truly stood out on its own for fans of creative exploration games. Featuring randomized 2D environments, a staggering number of craftable items and objects, and lots of side activities to pursue, Terraria has only grown bigger over time thanks to the developer's continued support. Despite being around for over a decade, Terraria is still receiving major updates that go above and beyond simple bug fixes or minor adjustments. Many of these updates add new items to discover, bosses to challenge, or painstakingly rework existing features.
Terraria's new 1.4.4 update was released at the end of September and brought an extensive number of additions that rival some of the game's biggest patches to date. Some Terraria players may have noticed a few references to Stardew Valley, a beloved pixel art Animal Crossing-like life sim game. Stardew Valley's wholesome farm town is being encroached upon by JojaMart, owned by the Joja Corporation, the player's previous employer. Cans of Joja Cola could be acquired as junk through fishing in Stardew Valley, and now cans of Joja Cola can be fished up in Terraria's waters.
That's not the end of the Stardew Valley content in Terraria, however, as holding Joja Cola near the Dryad NPC will give the option to "purify," resulting in one of Stardew Valley's Junimos jumping out of a portal and pulling a Stardrop from the ground that can then be used to summon a Junimo pet. Terraria players can also acquire a Blue Chicken Egg which summons the Blue Chicken pet, yet another nod to Stardew Valley. Blue Chicken Eggs can be purchased from the Traveling Merchant NPC for 25 gold.
This isn't the first time Terraria has crossed over with other games, such as Terraria's crossover with Don't Starve. Terraria has crossed over with numerous other games such as Minecraft, Worms 3, Pixel Piracy, and Dungeon Defenders 2, along with an interesting collaboration with Yoyo manufacturer One Drop. Many years after its release, Terraria continues to show that it is a true labor of love as Re-Logic continues developing meaningful additions.
Terraria is available on Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
