Farm animals gain more happiness if you close their door at night in Stardew Valley

With the influx of new features and updates that came with version 1.6, it’s hard to keep track of every change. But did you know that in Stardew Valley farm animals will gain more happiness if you close their door at night?

Stardew Valley 1.6 allows farm animals to gain happiness if their doors close at night

I originally came across some online posts discussing this new feature that was initially described as farm animals losing happiness points if their doors are open at night. It’s actually the opposite, since now in Stardew Valley farm animals will gain more happiness points if you close their door at night.

If you forget and leave the door open there’s no negative consequence, but now you should remember to shut their doors at night for bonus happy points. Whether it’s the chicken coop, which you get for free with the Meadowlands farm or the barn, shut their doors before you head to sleep. Although it’s easier to keep them open at all times so you don’t have to do it yourself, why not make your animals more happy?

The faster they grow hearts with you, the faster you’ll gain high-quality animal products. It’s also better to have your animals in their barn/coop in the mornings since it’s easier to find and pet them all when they’re confined to a room. Then once you’ve collected their products you can let them out.

Your animals all automatically enter their barn/coop near the end of the day so you don’t have to wrangle them back inside. Just start to make it a habit of closing all your barn and coop doors before heading to bed. Most players won’t know about this change since it was buried within the changelog, but now that you know, make use of this feature!

If you’re still trying to find out what new things have come to Stardew Valley since the 1.6 update, you may be interested in learning about the Mastery system or all the new Books you can collect and read.