Stardew Valley Expanded is one of the most popular mods for Stardew Valley, massively expanding the content in ConcernedApe's hit farming-sim RPG. The Expanded mod adds new villagers, crops, locations, and even farm layouts.
Stardew Valley Expanded offers two new farm layouts for players to try, Grandpa's Farm and Immersive Farm 2 Remastered. Both of these options come with more features than the vanilla Stardew Valley farms, and players may have a hard time picking between them.
Grandpa's Farm
Of the two farm layouts in Stardew Valley Expanded, Grandpa's Farm is the closest to the farms in vanilla Stardew Valley. Despite being considerably larger than either, Grandpa's Farm combines elements of the Original and Forest farm map, with a good-sized area for crops in front of the farmhouse and a large area of forest to the southeast. The Farm also features a river as well as a small pond, allowing players to catch a greater variety of Stardew Valley's fish.
There are a couple of fenced-in areas on Grandpa's Farm, which will make it easier for players to start raising animals in Stardew Valley once they've unlocked Barns and Coops. Finally, Grandpa's Farm has a new area called Grandpa's Shed, which players will be able to reach once they've acquired a Gold Pickaxe. Grandpa's Shed appears in all the Stardew Valley Expanded maps, and features a quest to restore and rebuild the shed, making it usable as a second greenhouse and cellar.
Players who are looking for a vanilla-improved experience from Stardew Valley Expanded should choose to start at Grandpa's Farm. The small changes that the layout makes only enhance the Stardew Valley experience, and the farm is neither too big nor too small to cause difficulties.
Immersive Farm 2 Remastered
While Grandpa's Farm sticks generally close to the layouts of the original Stardew Valley farms, Immersive Farm 2 Remastered makes much more extreme alterations. Firstly, the Immersive Farm is several times bigger than the vanilla Stardew Valley farms, incorporating small and large rivers, multiple ponds, and a huge forest area full of hidden paths.
Several of the more advanced areas of the Immersive Farm require at least an upgraded Steel Pickaxe to reach, but can be more than worth the effort. In the south-west corner of the map is a rowboat that leads to a Quarry-like area for gathering stone and metals. Additionally, there's a waterfall pond in the west of the forest area that has the ability to restore energy and health in the same way as Stardew Valley's farm.
The biggest problem with the Immersive Farm 2 Remastered, at least compared to Grandpa's Farm, is that it gives the player access to far more than the original Stardew Valley farms. While this can be ideal for large groups or players looking for a New Game Plus-type experience, new players should avoid the Immersive Farm if they want to experience the challenge and gentle development of Stardew Valley's award-winning gameplay.
Stardew Valley is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, and many other devices.