Video game modders add longevity and life to a game. Titles like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Garry's Mod would not have seen the lasting success they have if it weren't for the dedicated community expanding and improving their favorite titles.
While Stardew Valley is an indie game, it's become more popular than ever with the release of the expansion-sized 1.5 update, and the modding scene has taken off. From complete overhauls to small quality-of-life improvements, Stardew Valley's community mods have made the indie gem more replayable and exciting than ever before.
10 Stardew Valley Expanded
When it comes to mods that change the way Stardew Valley is played, Stardew Valley Expanded stands above the rest as a true overhaul of the game. This mod changes NPC behavior and map locations, adds countless new areas and NPC characters, and roughly doubles the size of the in-game map to include new foraging and natural areas.
Stardew Valley Expanded could be called an unofficial expansion, but that doesn't really do the mod justice. Stardew Valley Expanded could easily be its own game due to the sheer amount of new content added to the base title.
9 NPC Map Locations
In the base game, players hoping to finish a quest with a specific NPC need to track them down based on their normal routine. There isn't anything that tells the player exactly where to find them at any given time.
The NPC Map Locations mod adds simple sprites to the in-game map that shows the current location of every NPC. This is especially useful for finding wandering villagers on their birthday to reap those extra friendship points.
8 Lookup Anything
Lookup Anything is a quality of life mod that displays detailed information about, well, anything in the game. Some uses of this mod include seeing how degraded the farm's fences are, when a crop will be ready for harvest, and what an NPC likes and dislikes in terms of gifts. If the game has hidden data for an item or tile, this mod displays it.
Lookup Anything is a must-have for the data-driven player. While the Farm Computer added in 1.5 displays a lot of details about the farm as a whole, this mod shows all the details about everything.
7 Skull Cavern Elevator
Players heading into the Skull Cavern for the first time are in for a bit of a surprise. Whereas the mines save the player's progress every five levels, the Skull Cavern has no elevator, meaning they must start from level 1 every time they delve into the dungeon in the desert.
This mod adds an elevator to the cavern, allowing players to jump back to floors they've already explored. It might seem simple, but it's a quality of life mod that makes this intermediate part of the game much more manageable.
6 Automate
The Automate mod turns regular storage chests into industrial-era factory equipment. A chest with the Automate mod installed pulls and pushes items out of adjacent machines (crystalariums, casks, furnaces, etc) and makes the production of artisan goods a far less complicated task.
This mod also allows multiple machines or artisan equipment to be chained together and work as a unit. As long as one of the machines is adjacent to the chest, and all others are touching too, the chest will automatically populate every single one.
5 Wear More Rings
It's an important and popular fact that humans have 8 fingers...yet Stardew Valley characters can only equip two rings at a time. While this makes sense from a game design perspective, players have wanted the option to equip more rings since the game launched.
Wear More Rings gives the player eight slots for rings instead of the usual two. While this makes the game far easier for someone who can afford many rings, it doesn't break the game completely and adds another sense of progression to the character's equipment.
4 Gift Taste Helper
In the friendship menu, players can see their current relationship level with each NPC. While this screen shows how many gifts have been given to each NPC in a given week, it doesn't show what NPCs like to receive and what they hate.
The Gift Taste Helper mod shows the loved goods of every NPC. Instead of forcing the player to open a new tab and refer to the wiki every time, this mod seamlessly integrates NPC preferences into the game's interface.
3 Part of the Community
Part of the Community is a lightweight mod that improves the rate and methods by which the player increases their friendship level with NPCs. In the base Stardew Valley game, the main ways to improve relationships are to give gifts and complete quests.
This mod adds a variety of smaller systems that improve the player's rate of gaining friendship. The Witness Bonus, for example, gives a small friendship bonus to every NPC who sees the player give a gift. Taking part in festivals, completing bundles, and shipping new items are also new ways to improve friendship introduced with this mod.
2 Yet Another Harvest With Scythe Mod
Despite its name, the Yet Another Harvest With Scythe Mod is the most well-known scythe mod available with over 100k downloads. It does exactly what the label says – makes every crop in the game harvestable with a scythe – but that's much more helpful than it might suggest.
This mod makes short work of even the biggest fields of crops and reduces the time spent harvesting significantly, allowing the player to explore the many other facets of Stardew Valley.
1 CJB Cheats Menu/Item Spawner
While CJB's Cheats Menu and Item Spawner aren't necessarily mods that improve the game's experience, they allow a user to be creative. Without the restraints of gold, relationships, or tools, players can design beautiful farms, make plans for future layouts in their cheat-less games, and really dig into the aesthetic elements of the game.
In certain situations, this mod can be used to supplement a normal playthrough too. Imagine spending the night supplying kegs and then, out of nowhere, you accidentally set off a bomb in the middle of the aging process. This mod can save a player from restarting, but one must be strict with the use of this mod in a cheat-less playthrough.