Learn about the best Stardew Valley mods to try in 2024!
Stardew Valley’s world is full of possibilities where players go to ease off and design the farm of their dreams. Developer ConcernedApe gave life to this beautiful indie game, and his creation is regarded as well-polished and nearly perfect. Still, some fans wish to change a few of its visual elements or gameplay mechanics. And thus, the amazing Stardew Valley modding community was born.
Modding allows players to experience a whole new side of Stardew Valley. Thousands of mods for the beloved farming sim can now be found on sites like Nexusmods or ModDrop, and they keep multiplying. However, some mods stand out due to the quality-of-life improvements they contribute to the game. So here is a list of Stardew Valley Mods that are the best to try in 2022.
Elle’s Farm and Town Animal Replacements
Players who have been ranching for years may feel bored looking at the same animals milling around Stardew Valley. Thankfully, these replacement mods can fulfill their longing for new animal designs and fix their qualms about pigs not being cute enough. Modder Elle provides replacement sprites for the barn, coop, and town animals. Pets like cats and dogs and mounts like horses also have redesigned sprites made by the same modder. This mod also gives you the option to choose from various skins.
If you want to change the default color of your animals, you may open the mod’s folder and edit the HTML text in the config.json file using Notepad. You can view the images in the References folder to choose the skin you want for your animals.
Ghibli Critters
Ghibli Critters can turn every town animal into creatures featured in highly acclaimed anime films. These are the critters that only scamper around town, which you can not interact with, but seeing them now and then as you traverse Pelican Town makes walking on foot worthwhile. Here is a graphics mod that will bring out your inner Miyazaki fan and make the surroundings seem like a whimsical childhood dream.
This mod turns small critters into Ghibli characters No Face and Crow Yubaba from Spirited Away, Totoro and Chu Totoro from My Neighbor Totoro, Jiji from Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Fox Squirrel from Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind, Kodama from Princess Mononoke, and those iconic tiny soot sprites.
DCBurger Portrait Mods
Anime-style portrait mods may be popular in the Stardew Valley modding scene, but several starkly realistic portrait mods have also caught the eye of many players, and DCBuger’s may be one of the most beloved portrait mods out there. The modder just released a high-res version of their creation months ago. DCBurger’s art style is so notable that a couple of modders took inspiration from the gritty appearance of the NPCs’ faces and made DCBurger-style portrait mods of their own. And this mod included redrawn portraits of the NPCs in their swimwear while winding down at Ginger Island’s Beach Resort.
Seasonal Villager Outfits
You may wonder why non-playable characters in most RPGs never change outfits, even as they complain about the teeth-chattering chill in the air or the blistering heat of summer. It would only make sense if game NPCs could change outfits appropriate to the season. And this is why Poltergeister has put together some seasonal clothing mods for the villagers. Seasonal Outfits – Slightly Cuter Aesthetic allows villagers to alter their choice of wardrobe every time the season changes. Furthermore, it has model sprites that can be paired with their character portraits.
CJB Show Item Sell Price
CJB’s creations on Nexusmods are known as the most intricate mods players use to cheat. However, if you do not like the idea of cheating and only use mods to improve certain aspects of games, CJB’s Show Item Sell Price would be right up your alley. This mod can identify the price of an item when you hover over it. And it also tells you the cost of a product if you sell it in bulk. With this, you no longer need to throw your item in the bin and wait overnight to find out how much it costs. A simple yet useful addition that could make the game better should it have been added to the vanilla version.
Better Artisan Good Icon
Cranberry Wine and Blueberry differ in flavors, but they are stored in purple-tinted bottles that are hard to distinguish. Coconut Jelly is supposed to have a translucent color, but you get a jar of red gooey mush instead. The Better Artisan Good Icons mod recolors and retextures pickles, juice, jelly, wine, and honey icons based on the fruit or vegetable used to process them. This mod was made for cosmetic purposes and to help you tell which product it is. Some Artisan Good icons could use a revamp. Another user interface improvement that’s especially beneficial for players who like to sell Artisan Goods for a living.
Sprinting
If you ever need a mod that can boost the speed of your character but will not make you feel like you’re cheating, Sprinting is the perfect mod for you. Sprinting can make your character run faster, but at the cost of your energy. You can sprint by holding the left control key, but you can also configure the key and the movement speed to your liking. Sprinting becomes highly configurable if you use it with the Generic Mod Config Menu mod, which adds an in-game config menu for mods. This mod also makes you gradually recover energy and health, but you can disable this feature anytime.
NPC Map Locations
Sometimes, you want to make someone’s day by giving them a gift you know they will love, but guessing where they are at certain times can be tedious. NPC Map Locations has the solution for that. As the name suggests, the mod shows you where the NPCs are by displaying their avatar on the map screen. The mod also features a minimap you can enable by pressing Tab while the map is open. The neat thing about the minimap is that the avatars move while the NPCs move in real time. You can also drag the minimap around the screen by holding CTRL and right-clicking it.
DaisyNiko’s Earthy Recolor
Stardew Valley already has beautiful pixelated graphics, but what would improve it? A mod that makes the surroundings pleasantly soothing with its warm, earthy colors. This mod looks good with mods with a natural and realistic vibe, such as the Medieval Buildings or Way Back Pelican. DaisyNiko made tweaks in the colors of the trees, grass, stone, and almost everything that covered the terrain. Even the map gets a recolor that changes every season.
Cute Valley
You can never go wrong with pink. And for Stardew Valley players who want to paint the whole town pink, Cute Valley is a must-have. Most items and farm buildings get a makeover with this mod, turning them into creamy white and pastel pink. Who says you can’t slay monsters in caves without looking cute? The mod also replaces your weapons with adorable sprites like a Pikachu sword, giant candy canes, and a huge cat paw! And if you search pink on Nexusmods, you will find plenty of pink-themed mods, including More Buildings For Cute Valley, which can turn Pelican Town into a cotton candy wonderland and complete the pink farm aesthetic you desire.
Attractive Standard Farm
The Attractive Standard Farm mod is a farm layout redesign that provides premade crop fields, ponds conveniently situated beside them, and a few empty spaces to put farm buildings. The Standard Farm’s layout offers a wide area with plenty of spaces to grow crops or place buildings. However, some do not care much about decorating and get easily overwhelmed by how tasking it is to plan their farm layout. Extract the file into the mod folder to play on this farm, launch Stardew Valley, and select Standard Farm when you start a new game.
Everfarm
This is yet another farm redesign mod, although this one focuses more on giving you a land split into various sections with different layouts. If that seems familiar, it is because Everfarm is a reimagined version of the Four Corners Farm. The modified farm type has sections where you can catch ocean fish and forage corals, like in the Beach Farm, and areas where you can chop a lot of mahogany stumps, like in the Forest Farm. Everfarm also has quarry mines similar to the Hill-top Farm, a river fishing zone like the Riverland Farm, and plenty of areas to grow crops.
This mod is the best way to maximize profit using the farm’s versatility, especially if you are playing co-op mode. Since Everfarm replaces the Four Corners Farm, you can choose it just like how you usually select a farm type in the character creation menu.
Magic
When the situation calls for it, the wizard always uses magic to get him out of trouble. Watching him do a neat trick is entertaining, but wouldn’t you sometimes wish to have magical powers, too? Magic allows you to conjure a meteor to destroy any object in your way, throw fireballs at enemies, and grow crops instantly. Those are just some of the spells you can learn and discover, and there is a whole slew of spells available in this mod. Like the skill system in the base game, you can level up your magic skill by casting spells and gaining some professions.
Since tapping into your otherworldly abilities does not come for free, you would not have to worry about feeling too overpowered. For instance, you can not instantly grow crops without sacrificing prismatic shards. This mod is most suitable for seasoned farmers, but new players who are fans of the occult are welcome to give this a try.
Date Night
It has been six years, and you feel like your marriage with Sebastian has gone stale. He has been saying the same dialogue at least ten times the whole summer, and you swear that if you hear him say, “You always look great, even after slopping around in the yard all day,” one more time, endearing as he is, you may replace him with Krobus soon.
Here is a mod that can help you with your marital problems. Date Night allows you to bond with your spouse through various dates. You can hang out with Alex at the beach or spend a romantic library date with Penny. Unsurprisingly, some fan-favorite marriageable NPCs have specialized dates based on their personalities. You will be glad to know that the mod creator is occasionally adding new features to the mod and is also open to new date suggestions. With Date Night, you will always look forward to spending time with your in-game spouse after slopping around in the yard all day.
Moon Misadventures
Moon Misadventures is an expansion mod that lets you explore the moon. It adds extraterrestrial enemies, a space forge, and a bunch of new areas to discover. Without spoiling it too much, you can not start your misadventure on the moon without late-game resources like a Galaxy Soul and Radioactive Bars. Therefore, it is safe to say that this mod will only be relevant to endgame players. Moon Misadventures was released just a few months ago, and it is still in the works, so expect a few bugs here and there. But the mod’s creators deserve a pat on the head for making an expansion mod that is so creative and out-of-the-box that you would not have believed it exists.
Stardew Valley Expanded
This mod may be old, but it is one of the most highly recommended mods for Stardew Valley. To put it mildly, Stardew Valley Expanded, or SVE, is a gigantic beast. This expansion mod showcases beautifully designed new characters with well-written stories to boot. Villagers who refuse friendship gifts in the vanilla version now have heart events, and those who were once non-romanceable can now be wooed and asked into marriage.
SVE also adds minor but remarkable details to the town, making the villagers more alive and the community more fleshed out. So, if you are new to modding, this is an expansion mod you would not want to miss! There is just a lot to unpack here, and there are even hidden characters you will meet halfway through the game.
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