Stardew Valley players discover scary secret under the Mayor’s house

The Stardew Valley 1.6 update is full of surprises not covered in the patch notes. One of these secrets is lurking beneath the Mayor’s house, and it’s so bizarre I can barely believe it’s in the game. Stardew Valley players have discovered a scary secret under the Mayor’s house. Let me show you how to find it yourself.

How to get into the Mayor’s Basement in Stardew Valley 1.6

Before we begin, I want to mention that we’re entering spoiler territory. Reddit user u/Mahou-Shoujo-No-Koe described this Easter Egg on the Stardew Valley subreddit, so they deserve full credit. 

For the first part of this spooky secret, you must enter the Mayor’s basement. There are no stairs, so you must bring a staircase yourself. You can craft a staircase from 99 Stone and must have at least level 2 Mining Proficiency for the recipe. If you’ve started a new save to enjoy the new Meadowlands Farm, you can quickly reach the required proficiency by smashing rocks around the Farm and Mines.

Head into the Mayor’s house and place a staircase in the bedroom to the right (pictured above) to access the basement.

How to reach the purple shorts in the Mayor’s Basement in Stardew Valley 1.6

There’s a maze of barrels in the Mayor’s Basement, and your prize, the Lucky Purple Underwear, is sealed off. The maze is straightforward, and you’ll quickly reach the bottom-right corner. I tried using a Bomb to break the barrels in front of the Underwear, but they wouldn’t budge.

After some trial and error, I found a secret passage in the bottom left corner of the maze. You can walk underneath where I’ve marked on the map above to reach the Underwear.

How to escape the maze

The moment you pick up the Lucky Purple Shorts, you’ll be attacked by a sentient pair of floating Shorts. I’m not kidding. 

As far as I can tell, the Shorts are unbeatable and hurt if they hit you. The moment you grab the Lucky Shorts, retrace your steps out of the maze. I’ve done this a few times and find that running to the exit is better than trying to avoid the Shorts, as there’s little room to dodge.

Once you reach the exit, the staircase will disappear. Funnily enough, this secret is repeatable, so you can accumulate a mighty collection of Lucky Purple Shorts if you’re into that.

What can you do with the Lucky Purple Shorts in Stardew Valley 1.6?

You can trigger some hilarious events with the Lucky Purple Shorts. If you put them on your display at the Stardew Valley Fair, Mayor Lewis will disqualify you. He’ll also offer you a bribe of 750 Star Tokens to keep their origins a secret!

If you give the Mayor his shorts at Ginger Island, he will wear them for an entire Season. You can even offer them as an ingredient in the Luau Festival Soup for unique responses from the Mayor and Governor. 

The Mayor’s Basement is a well-hidden secret, but most new additions to Stardew Valley are easier to find. That said, some are obnoxiously tough to figure out, like how to get the Terraria crossover sword.