Stardew Valley cheats: item codes and what counts as cheating

Two things actually cheat in Stardew Valley: an old naming trick that spawns item codes straight into your inventory, and a pair of chat commands, /money and /debug, that the official 1.6.9 update added in 2024. There's no permanent cheat console behind them, no menu, and no launch flag that flips on a debug mode.

Here's the one thing to sort out first. Those chat commands ship switched off, and turning them on means hand-editing your save file, so copy the save somewhere safe before you change a single character.

Spawn items with the naming trick

This is the route we'd reach for first, since it needs no file editing and no mods. You put internal item ID codes inside a name, and the game hands you those items the first time the name shows up in a dialogue box.

The farmer-name version fires once, at save creation, because you can't rename your farmer later without a mod. Naming a fresh animal, pet, or child works the same way and repeats as often as you like, though buying an animal costs gold each time.

Triggering it also prints one of five random flavor lines, such as an NPC calling your name "fishy". That part is cosmetic and changes nothing about what lands in your bag.

The native chat commands (patch 1.6.9)

The 1.6.9 update added two hidden chat commands you can run with no mods once you switch them on. The official 1.6.9 changelog describes them as hidden cheat commands available only on platforms where a save edit is possible.

The /debug bridge is the strong one. It reaches the same internal developer commands the game uses under the hood, so it can grant items, unlock recipes, and max out friendship from the normal chat box.

That's separate from the older SMAPI Console Commands feature, which uses similar debug syntax and opens with the tilde key but needs SMAPI in place first.

How to enter cheats

There's no built-in cheat menu or debug-mode key combo in a normal copy of the game. The two native routes are the naming trick and the 1.6.9 chat commands.
For the naming trick on PC or Mobile: at new-character creation, set the farmer's name to up to three item IDs in square brackets, e.g. [645][499][(O)163]. Each coded item lands in your inventory the first time an NPC says that name in dialogue. On phones, Stardew Valley tops our best cozy mobile games roundup.

To repeat it, name a purchased farm animal, pet, or newborn child the same way, e.g. [114][123][66]. The items are granted once that name next appears in dialogue.
The chat commands need one manual step first. Close the game, open the save file (Saves folder) in a text or save editor, change allowChatCheats from false to true, then reload. Editing save XML by hand can corrupt the file, so keep your backup until you know the edit worked.

Press T in-game to open chat. /money <amount> adds gold (e.g. /money 500); /debug <command> runs the internal developer commands, e.g. /debug player_add name "Galaxy Sword".

If you want more than the native routes, the free CJB Cheats Menu mod adds a toggleable in-game menu of cheats, with item spawning handled by its companion CJB Item Spawner. Both need SMAPI, the third-party mod loader, which is outside the scope of this guide.

Platform and version limits

The naming trick is PC and Mobile only in the current version. The official Stardew Valley Wiki states the exploit was removed from console versions back in patch 1.3, so it won't fire on PlayStation, Xbox, or the Switch build. Our Stardew Valley crossplay guide guide explains which players can join a co-op game.

The chat commands carry their own gate. They ship with allowChatCheats set to false, and the changelog limits them to platforms where a save edit is possible, which leaves the closed console platforms out. One poster on the official Stardew Valley forums reported the save-edit route didn't work on Switch, so on console both the naming trick and the chat commands are effectively off the table. The Switch version is still one of our favorite cozy Switch games regardless.

What cheats do to achievements and saves

Here's the honest part. No official statement from ConcernedApe or Steam confirms or denies whether cheats affect achievements, so treat this as an honor-system situation rather than a hard rule.

Player reports on the Stardew Valley Steam Community forums line up on a few points. Running SMAPI with a mod like CJB Cheats Menu doesn't technically switch off Steam achievement unlocking, and players report still receiving achievements while a cheats menu is active. Several of the same players add that money and skill achievements are better earned normally, since spawning the requirement in doesn't fit the game even though nothing blocks it.

When achievements fail to unlock on Steam, the usual cause is launching a modded (SMAPI) game without the Steam overlay running, not the cheats themselves. Away from cheats, Stardew Valley is a mainstay on our best cozy PS5 games list.

The one detail that is unconfirmed

Patch 1.6 added type-qualified item IDs, such as (O)163 for an Object, (F)0 for furniture, or (BC)219 for a big craftable. Whether the naming trick can read those qualified codes to spawn non-Object items is unconfirmed. The official wiki says qualified codes work inside names; a secondary guide, stardewvalleyids.com, says the trick only reads plain Object numbers. We'd lean on the wiki, but plain numeric codes for base items are the safe bet until you check it in your own save.