Highlights
- Stardew Valley mods like Loved Labels and Experience Bars enhance gameplay for players, making tasks like animal care and leveling up skills easier.
- Mods like Chests Anywhere and Tractor Mod improve convenience, allowing players to access containers and automate tasks efficiently.
- Essential mods like SMAPI and Content Patcher are crucial for ensuring a smooth experience with fan-made content in the game.
Stardew Valley has had great modder support from day one. One-man dev team ConcernedApe makes mod compatibility a point. The game certainly isn't lacking in content, but there's a tremendous amount of fan-made add-ons. Mods range from simple sprite changes to completely new characters. Since Stardew Valley is a popular game that's easy to work with, sifting through mods can be a chore.
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Players will be confused, especially if they're new to the modding scene and have no idea out it works. Should they start with simple gameplay tweaks or go for expansions that add hours of playtime? Looking at the number of endorsements on the popular mod site Nexus is a good way to gauge which mods are on top. They're the most recommended mods players can download to ensure their version of Stardew Valley is as unique and tailored to their interests as can be, without going too far and breaking the game. Of course, reading the instructions for these mods is important, since the last thing players need when trying to boot up a spruced-up version of Stardew Valley is for the game to not even boot up.
Updated April 23, 2024 by Ritwik Mitra:Stardew Valley is one of the most popular farming sims that players can get into. The sheer amount of love and charm oozing out of this game's every pore is amazing to witness, and players can get lost for hours on end as they fix up the dilapidated plot they've inherited, form a long-lasting bond with the town's inhabitants, and engage in the many gameplay loops that are well-constructed and don't overstay their welcome.
It won't take long for Stardew Valley players to tinker around with mods that add even more things to do, with these changes ranging from incremental additions to massive gameplay overhauls that completely reshape the way players approach this cozy game.
25 Loved Labels
Endorsements: 17,848
- Creator: Advize and Jinxiewinxie
- Download Link
To get better animal products and therefore get more profit, players will need to increase their friendship level with their animals. This means players have to pet their animals daily to make sure they receive their share of love. With big farms, however, it's easy to lose track of which animal has been interacted with on that day.
The Loved Labels mod tells players exactly which animal still needs love, and which ones have been petted that day. This Stardew Valley mod even works for the player's farm pet. It's a simple and intuitive way to cut out some of the frustration from this task, especially if it starts getting repetitive.
24 Experience Bars
Endorsements: 28,066
- Creator: spacechase0
- Download Link
Gaining experience is the top priority for new players in Stardew Valley. It lets players advance their key skills, unlock recipes, get access to professions, and become more efficient with farming and other activities. However, tracking that experience can be a hassle given the game doesn't have a clear XP tracking bar.
The Experience Bars mod introduces much more accurate and detailed experience tracking bars into the game. Players will be able to see at all times how much they've gained and how much they still need to attain the next level in a set skill. It's an incredibly useful Stardew Valley mod.
23 Better Artisan Good Icons
Endorsements: 32,303
- Creator: Cat
- Download Link
There are many food items that players can make from different materials in Stardew Valley. However, while their properties may be different, the icon representing them in the game is the same throughout, which can be quite irritating for some players.
This issue becomes a thing of the past with the Better Artisan Good Icons mod. It adds icons of different colors for wines, jelly, honey, pickles, and juice based on the raw material they're made out of, which is helpful for obvious reasons.
22 Canon-Friendly Dialogue Expansion
Endorsements: 34,731
- Creator: Ben and ParadigmNomad
- Download Link
There are many amazing characters in Stardew Valley, and players will love interacting with them. Helping these characters out and bonding with them increases their heart level, which can lead to everything from deeper relationships to full-blown romances.
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However, veterans of the game may quickly recognize that some characters are repeating the same line of dialogue over and over. This can be averted with the Canon-Friendly Dialogue Expansion mod, which adds over 2600 lines of dialogue for each major NPC in the game.
21 Better Ranching
Endorsements: 40,360
- Creator: Urbanyeti
- Download Link
Taking care of cows and sheep is a staple part of the game, but it can get pretty infuriating for players trying to shear or milk their farm animals. Sometimes, players will miss the target and do the animation without receiving an item in return.
The Better Ranching mod will tell players exactly when they're in the proper position to perform these activities. No more standing around and trying to shear or milk the air! It's honestly a quality-of-life change that should be in the game by default.
20 Chests Anywhere
Endorsements: 40,766
- Creator: Pathoschild
- Download Link
One of the more tedious features of Stardew Valley is the fact that players have to walk around to get to various containers and chests. Thankfully, this Chests Anywhere mod lets players open their chests and other containers like the fridge from just about anywhere.
It's a major time-saver for players, who can even open up any of their containers while adventuring in the mines or fishing on the beach. With the Ginger Island update, this Stardew Valley mod comes especially in handy.
19 Stardew Valley Anime Mod
Endorsements: 50,196
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- Creator: OhoDavi
- Download Link
Players tired of seeing the same portrait on Pelican Town's classic characters should try the Stardew Valley Anime Mod. This completely changes the portraits of the characters to a more anime-friendly style, perfect for fans of anime shows.
Even though the change is quite noticeable, each character still retains their classic, easy-to-recognize appearance. So, even with this Stardew Valley mod active, players won't get confused about who they're romancing or speaking to.
18 Seasonal Outfits
Endorsements: 52,346
- Creator: Poltergeister and various artists
- Download Link
Stardew Valley goes through many seasons, making the game's visual variety shine even more. However, for the most part, the characters in the village don't change their outfits in accordance with the weather, which is a shame.
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The Seasonal Outfits mod ensures that this aspect of the game's immersion is heightened. Now, everyone will change their outfits each season, which makes for a simple yet welcome inclusion in a game that sells itself quite a bit on its charm.
17 Winter Grass
Endorsements: 57,294
- Creator: Cat
- Download Link
Grass plants don't survive Stardew Valley's winter. Makes logical sense, but it's a pain for livestock lovers. When Spring comes again, all that grass has to be replanted, and it'll take some time for the meadow to come back. Without a Silo, farmers have to buy hay from Marnie, and the cost adds up.
Cat's Winter Grass mod makes the grass hardier. It won't spread during the winter, but it can be reaped and grazed. The grass sprite also turns a seasonally appropriate icy blue, which is a nice touch. It's a nice way to make different seasons of Stardew Valley feel more unique than they already are, which is a great way to increase player engagement and immersion.
16 Gift Taste Helper
Endorsements: 66,979
- Creator: Tyler
- Download Link
If players are sick of having a Wiki window open whenever they play, then the Gift Taste Helper will be right up their alley. This Stardew Valley mod displays a tooltip showing a character's favorite gifts when hovering over their social page entry. A simple mod, sure, but it's effective.
There's also a "progression" mode. Favorite gifts will only show in the tooltip if the player gave the gift already. And it's compatible with every language, so this mod has room for every kind of player. If players don't like the idea of guessing the perfect gift for every character all the time, then this mod is a must-have to negate that frustration altogether.
15 Skull Cavern Elevator
Endorsements: 70,437
- Creator: Lestoph
- Download Link
In the Stardew Valley mine, there's a convenient elevator that takes players to every fifth floor they've visited. This isn't in Calico Desert's Skull Cavern. That means players have to start from the very first floor whenever they go mining. It's a pain, and the Skull Cavern is already painful enough.
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The Skull Cavern Elevator mod is exactly what it says on the tin. It adds an elevator to the Skull Cavern. Dr. Harvey will probably appreciate it on his repeated trips to drag fainted farmers out of the mine.
14 UI Info Suite
Endorsements: 75,337
- Creator: Cdaragorn
- Download Link
According to creator cdaragorn, UI Info Suite is "designed to help players be aware of what's going on without feeling like they're cheating." That last part may be subjective, but there's no doubt this mod is helpful. It provides a variety of quality-of-life changes that will make farmers wonder how they ever managed before.
Some of the things this Stardew Valley mod can do include displaying an icon above unpetted animals, highlighting items needed for bundles, showing EXP gains, and displaying the watering range when placing sprinklers. Each change can be turned on or off individually as the player sees fit.
13 Automate
Endorsements: 76,762
- Creator: Pathoschild
- Download Link
Ever used a Hopper for automatic smithing or cooking in Minecraft? The Automate mod is very similar. Placing a chest next to a machine like a furnace will pull raw items from the chest and place products back in. Multiple machines can be connected to one chest, and paths can link objects together across a distance.
Chests can link up with much more than crafting machines. Fruit trees, bee houses, and even wild berry bushes work. It's also compatible with many other custom machine Stardew Valley mods.
12 Tractor Mod
Endorsements: 77,783
- Creator: Pathoschild
- Download Link
There's something about tilling fields by hand that's a little too Stone Age. 21st-century farmers should check out the Tractor Mod. Robin can build a garage with an included tractor in exchange for a small fortune in Iridium and Gold. It's very much endgame content, but it kicks farming efficiency into high gear.
The Tractor doesn't just till - it harvests, plants, and waters depending on what tool is active when it's selected. With a melee weapon equipped, running over monsters will damage them. This is disabled by default due to being "overpowered and not recommended [for] a balanced playthrough." But it sure sounds fun.
11 Generic Mod Config Menu
Endorsements: 99,015
- Creator: spacechase0
- Download Link
Any modder would attest to the fact that having the option to configure a mod from within the game itself is a boon. As a result, many mods for Stardew Valley come with support for the Generic Mod Config Menu.
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As the name suggests, this mod adds a section in the menu that allows players to customize the variables of any fan-made content and tweaks added to the game. It doesn't take a genius to realize why this mod can be so helpful, especially since players don't want to exit Stardew Valley every time they wish to make a simple tweak or anything else along the same lines.
10 Farm Type Manager (FTM)
Endorsements: 99,093
- Creator: Esca-MMC
- Download Link
Players who have played through Stardew Valley many times and don't want to make a farm from scratch can use this mod to great effect. It may count as cheating, but many players have already put hundreds of hours into Stardew Valley and don't want to go through the early game for the umpteenth time.
It's a simple yet great mod that players can use to customize their game in no time flat. As long as players aren't worried about taking the ethical route, FTM can be a downright godsend because of its utility!
9 Expanded Preconditions Utility
Endorsements: 100,189
- Creator: Cherry
- Download Link
Making complex mods for Stardew Valley is easier said than done, and most players simply won't have the coding knowledge to program specific things that are carried out when certain triggers are activated. While this mod may benefit players less, the help it gives to other modders in programming certain functions is pretty useful.
Players should download this mod mainly for support purposes since some other mods for Stardew Valley use this as a framework of sorts to run. Without this, downloading these mods will have no effect on the game, and can even break it.
8 Lookup Anything
Endorsements: 101,264
- Creator: Pathoschild
- Download Link
Seeing a bit of a trend? Many Stardew Valley mods provide the player with extra information to help them have a bit more control. Lookup Anything is the mother of all these mods. When they say anything, they truly mean anything.
Pressing F1 while pointing the cursor at something will display its data. The mod shows ideal gifts for characters, monsters' stats, and how long a fence will last before it decays. It also has a data mining option that displays the raw code to help out those making their mods. Like Gift Taste Helper, there's a progression mode.
7 Stardew Valley Expanded
Endorsements: 113,225
- Creator: FlashShifter
- Download Link
Stardew Valley Expanded - SVE for short - is quite a different breed from the other popular mods. Most are minor gameplay tweaks or quality-of-life changes. Meanwhile, SVE is a massive content expansion, boasting 24 new NPCs and an alleged 30 extra hours of play.
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This Stardew Valley mod is a lot. Not just stopping at new characters, it adds new fish, extra farm layouts, and an additional JojaMart storyline. Creator Flash says their goal is to "give the player the magical feeling they had when they first played Stardew Valley." And it's not even finished yet - updates come out pretty regularly.
6 Json Assets
Endorsements: 117,832
- Creator: spacechase0
- Download Link
Most mods for Stardew Valley require something to help them run without facing too many complications. In the case of custom packs that add more content to the game, a lot of them use Json Assets to make sure that it is added to the game as smoothly as possible.
Without this mod, none of this additional content will show up, making it one of the first things that players can download to make things easier for themselves. It's not an exciting mod, but a necessary one that will ensure Stardew Valley is stable while loading up a wealth of fan-made content.
