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Stardew Valley has a battle royale mod, because of course it does

Farmer free-for-all

A gentle breeze lapped against the hay bales. Farmer Wyatt leaned against his porch, soaking in another day of rural paradise. Pigs snuffled, chickens chirped. Then one of the 99 other farmers caved his skull in with a hoe.

Stardew Valley modder "Ilyaki" has brought battle royale to the nominally peaceful farming-sim. Time to sharpen your pitchforks.

It works exactly like you'd expect. Up to 100 farmers start off in random places across the valley, then eschew foraging for berries in favour of swords, slingshots, bombs and healing items - "and sometimes horses or even hats". The map constricts around an increasingly small play area, and the last farmer standing wins.

Fortnite fans will be pleased to see the inclusion of tactical building, as shown off in this video of some "high-level play".

Watch on YouTube

You can download the mod here, though fair warning - I couldn't get it to work. Or rather, I couldn't get the separate server browser mod to work, and noticed a few others complaining about the same issue.

As such, I can't comment on how easy it is to find a game, or how many farmers you'll be facing off against if you do. Or indeed whether this is actually any fun: Stardew Valley's combat is best described as 'functional'. It's fine for fending of slimes and such when you're digging your way towards a broader goal in the actual game, but it's a clunky means to a more abstractly satisfying end. You don't need me to tell you this is mostly a novelty.

Still, there's a lot to be said for incongruous agricultural assassination.

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