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 for content, but there’s a tremendous amount of fan-made add-ons. Mods range from simple sprite changes to completely new characters.
Because Stardew Valley is a popular game that’s easy to work with, sifting through mods can be a chore. Should they start with simple gameplay tweaks or go for expansions that add hours of playtime? Looking at the number of endorsements on popular mod site Nexus is a good way to gauge which mods are on top.
15 Loved Labels
In order 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 on a daily basis 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.
14 Experience Bars
Gaining experience is the top priority for new players in Stardew Valley. It lets players advance their key skills, unlock recipes, 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.
13 Better Ranching
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.
12 Chests Anywhere
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 definitely 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.
11 Stardew Valley Anime Mod
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.
10 Winter Grass
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 a little 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.
9 Skull Cavern Elevator
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.
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.
8 Stardew Valley Expanded
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.
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.
7 Gift Taste Helper
Sick of having a wiki window open whenever you play? Try the Gift Taste Helper. 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.
6 Tractor Mod
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.
5 UI Info Suite
According to creator cdaragorn, UI Info Suite is “designed to help you be aware of what’s going on without feeling like you’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: display an icon above unpetted animals, highlight items needed for bundles, show EXP gains, and display watering range when placing sprinklers. Each change can be turned on or off individually as the player sees fit.
4 Automate
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.
3 Lookup Anything
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 own mods. Like Gift Taste Helper, there’s a progression mode.
2 CJB Cheats Menu & Item Spawner
This entry actually covers two Stardew Valley mods, but they’re made by the same person and work similarly. The item spawner spawns items, naturally. Any item in the game can be given out, and there’s an option to adjust quality.
The cheats menu is a bit more interesting. Sure, there are the typical cheats like free money or max friendship. Some of the “cheats” are more tweaks, though. A feature common in the Story of Seasons series is time-freezing when players enter a building. This isn’t in Stardew Valley, which is a bit of a grievance for some. CJB Cheats Menu has an option to add this.
1 NPC Map Locations
With over 45,000 endorsements and 2.3 million downloads, this is the most popular Stardew Valley mod on Nexus. It’s a humble mod - it shows the current location of each character when pulling up the map. Considering how annoying it can be to track down certain townsfolk, this is a massive help, and it’s such a small change it’s hard to call it a cheat.
Many little things set this mod apart. There’s an included minimap function. The mod is also compatible with many recolor mods as well as mods that change characters’ sprites. It also tracks players, which is very useful for multiplayer mode.
Stardew Valley was released on February 26, 2016, and is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, and many other platforms.
