One gamer has posted a slideshow showcasing a trick to make talking to an NPC in Stardew Valley a little more interesting. A lot of strange things happen in Stardew Valley and this newly discovered trick fits right in.
Stardew Valley is a game that lets players customize almost anything about their characters, including every aspect of the character’s appearance, the character’s favorite thing, and the character’s pet preference. Players can adjust these customizations at the beginning of the game before the adventure starts or at the Shrine of Illusions at any time during their playthrough. One of the main aspects players get to customize is the character’s name. For players who find it nerve-racking to choose the name of their characters, a new trick makes it so the game will choose the name of the character for them.
A new slideshow posted on the Stardew Valley Sub Reddit shows that if the player inputs “%name” in the name field when customizing the character, a randomly generated name will be given to the player every time they interact with an NPC. The slideshow starts off with Stardew Valley’s loveable mayor Lewis calling the Reddit user’s character “Gritse.” It then shows them interacting with Penny, where she calls the player “Bracka.” Proving that a new name will be given to the player with each interaction, the slideshow also shows the player talking to Demetrius two different times, with both “Melli” and “Corta” being used to address the player.
Arguably the most hilarious interactions showcased in the slideshow are from Stardew Valley’s very own Elliott and Haley, with Haley referring to the player as “Grimie” and Elliott greeting the player with “Hello, Janurt.” The last image in the slideshow points out that this naming trick only works when interacting with NPCs and not with the letters the player receives in the game, as the top of the letter simply states “Dear %Name.”
There are a lot of unsolved mysteries in Stardew Valley, but how this naming trick works is not one of them. As pointed out by one Reddit user in the comments, “%name” is a variable that many programmers use as a template during the coding process of making a game. So essentially, using this trick enables the player to access the existing name list through a universal nametag. However, possibly the more important mystery that needs to be solved here is why are there no normal names on this list. To be fair, being normal is not Stardew Valley’s style.
Stardew Valley is available on Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.