Stardew Valley developer ConcernedApe finally completed his own game

Stardew Valley was released just under 9 years ago, and developer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone finally unlocked one of the game’s hardest achievements, allowing him to reach 100% completion on his farming life simulator. “Finally got 100% achievements in Stardew Valley,” Barone posted on X Tuesday, with a photo of the 100% unlocked achievements. The last achievement Barone needed to complete the game was “Fector’s Challenge,” which requires the player to beat in-game minigame Journey of the Prairie King without dying.

On Steam, only 1.2% of players have the Fector’s Challenge achievement; the only achievement with a lower percentage is “Perfection,” which requires the player to complete everything there is to do and make in Stardew Valley. The achievement simply to beat Journey of the Prairie King — even with deaths — only has a 1.7% completion rate.

The top-down, twin stick shooter is basically its own game inside of Stardew Valley — you begin with four lives, though if you’re looking for the achievement, you won’t need the extras. Enemies attack in waves, and all of them must be killed to move forward to the next level. There are three stages with different locations, with multiple areas within each stage. Each level ends with a boss fight. Beating the game is hard — so beating the game without dying is even harder.

Barone posted some tips to beating the game in his X replies: “You need money, so don’t use the “‘nukes’” because the enemies don’t drop anything from that. Purchase the best item you can afford in this order: ammo > revolver > boots,“ he wrote. ”Save a machine gun powerup for fighting fector, you can take him down before he even has a chance to attack u.” He added that he was “deliberately” working on beating Journey of the Prairie King to be able to 100% the game.

Responding to a fan who posted cheekily about Barone noticing his own achievements, Barone said “the dev gave me a pat on the back.”