Stardew Valley player turns "hardcore mode" joke into reality, creating a mod that ruthlessly deletes your saves if you dare to use guides

Stardew Valley character known as Elliott, a man with long auburn hair and a red coat, smirking with his body turned to the side.

Following an online joke regarding a "hardcore mode" in Stardew Valley that counters wiki use by destroying guilty players' saves, one genius modder has made the gag difficulty option reality.

A few days ago, satirical news website Hard Drive (think The Onion, but gaming) posted an article referring to a "new hardcode mode" in Stardew Valley that detects when players open the game's wiki and then promptly wipes their save files. The joke made its rounds through the farming sim's community online before landing in the lap of a mastermind modder - who managed to make a fully functional "hardcore mode" that matches the one described in Hard Drive's post.