Stardew Valley 1.7 Finally Lets You Marry Clint and Sandy

For ten years, Stardew Valley players have asked the same question in forum threads, Reddit posts and Discord servers: why can't we marry Clint? Why can't we marry Sandy? The answer finally arrived, and it did not come through a press release or a developer blog. It was tucked into the game's 10-year anniversary video, where Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone confirmed that both characters will become marriage candidates in the upcoming 1.7 update.

The reveal, reported by Polygon on Feb. 26, 2026, sounds like a modest line item. In practice, it says something considerably larger about where Stardew Valley sits a decade after launch, and about how long its creator intends to keep building on it.

What Was Actually Announced

The anniversary video was primarily a retrospective. Barone walked through the game's early development, the long arc of post-launch updates and the fan response that shaped them. The marriage candidate news arrived as one of the few forward-looking notes in an otherwise reflective presentation.

The two additions are Clint, the blacksmith who runs the shop in Pelican Town, and Sandy, who operates the Oasis in the Calico Desert. Both will become romanceable when the 1.7 update ships.

Barone offered little explanation for the choice. He did not detail heart events, dialogue or how either romance will be structured. As of reporting, 1.7 has no announced release date or release window. It is confirmed to be in development, and Barone most recently teased it in September 2026 with a riddle.

Why Clint and Sandy

These are not random picks. They are the two most obvious candidates left standing after years of player requests, and both carry narrative complications that make them more interesting than a simple checkbox addition.

Clint has spent the game's entire lifespan nursing an unrequited crush on Emily, who is herself a marriage candidate. That creates an awkward, faintly comedic wrinkle: players can now court the man who has been pining after another romanceable NPC for a decade. How the game handles that overlap is one of the more intriguing unknowns. For readers weighing the character's divisive reputation among the community, our breakdown of why Clint's new romance option is a controversial choice digs into the history behind that reaction.

Sandy presents a different puzzle. She never leaves the Oasis, which raises a genuinely novel question about what marriage to her would even look like. Sandy's entire identity is tied to a shop in the Calico Desert. Polygon flagged this as a potentially interesting dynamic, and it is easy to see why: schedules, routines and the geography of married life all become open design questions.

Players have modded their own marriage candidates into the game for years, and the modding community has produced impressively polished romance expansions. An official addition from Barone still carries different weight. It is canon, it is supported, and it will work on every platform the game ships on.

Ten Years, 41 Million Copies, and a Stardew Valley That Isn't Finished

Stardew Valley launched in 2016. The official blog notes that the game has been publicly available for 10 years, while Barone has worked on it for almost 15. In that time it has sold over 41 million copies across PC, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox and mobile.

Barone has been clear that he does not view the game as complete. He told NPR he never wants to "definitively say that the book is ever closed" on Stardew Valley. That quote has aged into something like a mission statement.

The 1.6 update in 2024 was substantial enough that some fans read it as a farewell, a final major content drop before Barone shifted his full attention to Haunted Chocolatier. The 1.7 announcement disproves that reading. This is a game that is still being built, not one being politely maintained.

What This Means for Haunted Chocolatier

The obvious follow-up question is what 1.7 costs the studio's other project. Barone has said the 1.7 update won't get in the way of Haunted Chocolatier, according to GameSpew's reporting.

The follow-up has been described as more of an action RPG than Stardew Valley, a departure from the farming sim template. Barone has spoken candidly about the pressure of that development, saying he has been 'struggling' to make Haunted Chocolatier because Stardew Valley set such a high bar, including in our report on ConcernedApe opening up about the perfectionist grind behind the project.

None of this amounts to a schedule. There are no release dates for either game. The reassurance is simply that 1.7 is not coming at Haunted Chocolatier's expense. ConcernedApe has previously made clear that he intends to shorten the gap between the PC and console rollout for 1.7, according to GamingBible.

What Players Should Expect (and What's Still Unknown)

The confirmed feature list for 1.7 includes two new marriage candidates; Barone has not detailed the rest of the update. Everything beyond that is speculation.

The open questions are substantial. Will Clint and Sandy get full heart event arcs? What happens to Clint's Emily storyline if the player marries either of them? How does a marriage to a shopkeeper who never leaves the desert actually function day to day? For a broader look at what else may be in the pipeline, our Stardew Valley 1.7 Update overview covers the candidates alongside other rumored changes, and our guide to Clint's redemption arc and a decade of farming evolution traces the character's history and the game's evolution in more depth.

One caution worth stating plainly: some coverage has implied a dated or imminent release for 1.7. The confirmed position remains that the update is in development with no date or window announced. Treat dated claims circulating online with skepticism until Barone or the official channels say otherwise.

A Blacksmith and a Shopkeeper Walk Into a Farmhouse

On paper, letting players marry two NPCs is a small change. In context, it lands as a statement. Ten years, 41 million copies and five platform families later, Stardew Valley is still growing, and its creator is still adding the things players have been asking for since the beginning.

The anniversary video may have been a look back, but the marriage candidate reveal was a look forward. Watch for official 1.7 news from ConcernedApe's channels rather than rumor, and keep an open mind about what else the update might be holding back. If Clint and Sandy were the headline, the rest of the patch notes could be worth the wait.