One of the best aspects of any life-sim game is the opportunity to customise your experience and appearance. Stardew Valley offers many options to do just that and included with update 1.6 was another option – Bobber styles.
As I recently admitted, to you but also to myself, I do enjoy a spot of fishing in Stardew Valley and one of the things I particularly enjoy about the exercise is choosing a cute Bobber.
There are a total of 39 Bobber styles to unlock and in order to unlock all of them, players must catch a total of 76 different fish, which can be seen in the Collections tab of the menu (and the 5 legendary fish relatives from Extended Family). That’s all of the fish currently in Stardew Valley minus one, but more on that in just a second.
You begin the game with only the default Bobber style available to use and for every two new fish you catch, you unlock another Bobber style, which explains why the last fish you catch won’t count towards any further Bobber styles. While they don’t do anything to change the experience of fishing itself, they do at least help you to express yourself in a small way while fishing.
How to change your Bobber style in Stardew Valley
In order to select a new Bobber, head down to the beach and into Willy’s Fish Shop, which is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Once inside, go to the back right corner of the room and interact with the Bobber Machine.
Every possible option available to you will be shown here, including the default red and white Bobber that you start the game with. There are a number of very cute designs to choose from, including a rubber duck (my personal favorite), a Golden Animal Cracker, and a cat.
You can also choose to randomize your Bobber, which will result in a different Bobber appearing each time you cast your line. To do this, select the dice at the end of the regular options.