Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone, AKA Concerned Ape, has been discussing the origins of the "extremely useful" community center tip that he revealed eariler this week.
As you're probably aware, completing community center bundles is one of the main objectives in Stardew Valley, which makes this surprisingly obscure feature particularly handy.
In a tweet sent out Tuesday, Barone advised players to watch out for a small yellow icon to the right of the inventory screen, which will gently pulsate if you're hovering over an item that's needed in the community center. Here's the tweet with the icon circled by Barone:
TIP: this icon will pulsate if you are hovering over an item that is needed in the community center. It can be very useful pic.twitter.com/Oxwp4mbc3RJuly 20, 2021
It's actually been around for a while - according to Barone, at least as far back as update 1.4, "if not earlier" - but because it's such a subtle effect, a lot of folks aren't even aware it exists. He said in another tweet: "No, it's been in the game for at least the last two updates, maybe longer (I can't remember). A lot of people miss it because it's a very subtle effect, but it's extremely useful"
If you're just starting out in Stardew Valley, one of the first things you'll want to do (along with checking out these clutch Stardew Valley tips) is start completing community center bundles. For each one you complete, you restore another room in the community center as well as an area of Stardew Valley itself. For that reason, knowing about and utilizing the pulsating icon is key to your efficiency early on when you're still working on restoring the OG community center, and also with update 1.5's remixed community centers.
The icon will only pulsate when you're looking at an item you need for a currently unlocked community center set, so you should have an easy time knowing which items you've already collected and which ones you still need to find - without having to go back to the community center all the time to check the bundles.
Again, this isn't a new feature or anything, but it's clearly one that a good portion of the Stardew Valley community doesn't know about, as Barone himself wouldn't have flagged it otherwise. And as something that could potentially save you hours of time and frustration, it's definitely worth spreading the word.
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