Stardew Valley Players Think They've Figured Out What Causes Prismatic Shards to Disappear

gamerant.com:

Stardew Valley players have been trying to piece together just what triggers the bug in the 1.6 update that has been causing their valuable Prismatic Shards to disappear from storage containers. Now, one Stardew Valley player thinks they may have the answer.

The Stardew Valley 1.6 Update brought an all-time-high player count to the cozy indie title when it released in March 2024, attracting fans with fresh content such as three new annual festivals, a new farm type, a mastery system that grants additional perks, and a bunch of new NPC dialogue to add some extra immersion to Pelican Town. However, one item that's been added to the game seems to have been causing problems for players by making some of their hard-earned resources go missing.

The item disappearance bug seems to affect items placed into the Big Chest, a new, upgraded version of the regular storage chest that increases storage capacity from 36 to 70 items or stacks of items. Players have been reporting that items placed in a big chest, most notably Stardew Valley's valuable Prismatic Shards, occasionally go missing, but no one seems to have pinned down exactly why this has been happening. Reddit user ClassyLassieRed has introduced a theory about that based on their experience in the game, believing that placing a Prismatic Shard in a Big Chest, starting a new day, and then restarting the day is the trigger that's making players lose their resources.

While Prismatic Shards seem to be the most high-profile item on the list of lost goods, other players are reporting that the bug may also extend to other items placed in a big chest. One player in the thread stated that they had a stack of Solar Essence go missing, while another player who had recently started a new run of the game lost four early-game Cloth items. While Stardew Valley Update 1.6 is full of surprises for longtime players, such as the ability to feed carrots to horses and gain stat boost by chugging down jars of mayonnaise, this bug has soured