This article is part of a directory: Stardew Valley: A Complete Guide and Walkthrough
Table of contents

Highlights

  • Stardew Valley is a special game made by one person, still getting updates, and loved by players for its depth and charm.
  • The modding community is active, offering free mods to enhance gameplay, manage resources, and even cheat for convenience.
  • Expectations are high for Haunted Chocolatier, with mods adding depth to crafting, visuals, relationships, and more in Stardew Valley.

Stardew Valley is a great game and considering the fact that it was made by one person only, that makes it all the more special. It not only provides players with a fictional inherited farmland escape but also functions as a spiritual successor to Harvest Moon. Even now, the game is still getting updates as a testament to how much its creator cares for it. There's a reason why so many players are expecting Haunted Chocolatier to be a masterpiece as well, given just how immersive and engaging Stardew Valley is.

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Speaking of making the game better, it turns out players can also do that if they wish. Other players in the community certainly did in the form of mods. Much like its original developer, Stardew Valley's modding community is highly active and always ready to make the place a lovelier haven for urban-worn yuppies. The best Stardew Valley mods are totally free of charge, unlike Joja Corporation's offerings.

Updated on March 28, 2024, by Ritwik Mitra: The success of Stardew Valley is a feel-good story that proves why indie gaming has become such a rage in modern times. The fact that one person is largely responsible for the wealth of innovative mechanics in this game is impressive and goes to show how beautiful games can be when they're made to appeal to gamers first and foremost instead of being developed to earn the most profits possible. Stardew Valley is jam-packed with content, to the point where players can't believe that some people are bored of the vanilla experience since they've seen everything the game has to offer. Thankfully, the advent of mods ensures that players won't find it too challenging to wring out as much enjoyment from this cozy game as possible.

1 Generic Mod Config Menu

Downloads: 4,171,360

Generic Mod Config Menu mod for Stardew Valley

There are many great Stardew Valley mods that players can check out to enhance the experience. However, keeping track of all these modifications can become a royal pain after a point, with most players unintentionally breaking their game to the point where simple tasks become a chore to complete. In such an instance, the best course of action to take is to download a mod that helps them manage their other mods.

The Generic Mod Config Menu is one of the most intuitive mods for Stardew Valley that is as simple as they come. Being able to access a wealth of mod settings from within the game and tweaking it to whatever value suits a player's fancy makes it way easier to use these mods, figure out which ones players like, and tweak certain metrics to make for the most perfect playthrough of Stardew Valley imaginable.

2 UI Info Suite

Downloads: 2,718,413

UI INFO SUITE

The UI of Stardew Valley gets the job done and lets players figure out what is happening for the most part. However, after players clock in a ton of hours in this game, they can find this aspect of the game to be somewhat lacking if they want to perfect their playthrough and go through days as optimally as possible. If the regular UI doesn't cut it for veterans, then they can download a simple mod that helps them understand exactly what is going on in each and every facet of the series' gameplay.

Everything from experience gain to the yield of a player's item on the farm can be micromanaged with this mod. It's easy to see why players experienced in how Stardew Valley works should be the only ones who try out this mod, since the inflow of information can be too overwhelming for new players to deal with. Even for players who've spent some hours in the game, this mod can be slightly overwhelming at first. A lot of time and effort is required to ensure that players can easily navigate the changes of this mod without feeling like they're lost.

3 Skull Cavern Elevator

Downloads: 2,398,970

Skull Cavern Elevator

The Skull Cavern is a dangerous dungeon with multiple floors that players can traverse whenever they get the Skull Key and unlock the path to this unique location. It's easy to lose HP here if players aren't careful, leading to the loss of valuable funds that players would want to save up to invest on their farm. Each floor in the Skull Cavern has a ladder that players can use to reach the top once again, letting them escape if things look too dicey.

Stardew-Valley-20-Things-You-Have-To-Do-Your-First-Year
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Most people aren't huge fans of how they have to start from scratch every single time they wish to enter the Skull Cavern, which is why this mod is so perfect for players who want their progress to mean something. With this mod, players can unlock access to an elevator for every five levels they explore of the Skull Cavern. It's a simple way to save a player's progress and make these excursions mean something.

4 DaisyNiko's Earthy Interiors

Downloads: 114,632

DaisyNiko's Earthy Interiors mod for Stardew Valley

The visuals of Stardew Valley are certainly pretty engaging in their own right, and fans love to go through the many indoor and outdoor areas in the game to witness firsthand just how beautiful the sprite work is. However, for players who have spent hundreds of hours in this title, it's easy to see why these visuals can get slightly boring after a point.

For these players, a simple and subtle visual tweak can do a great job of freshening up the visuals quite a bit, especially when it comes to indoor areas. This is precisely what DaisyNiko's Earthy Interiors aims to accomplish, and most people would argue that it succeeds in this goal and then some.

5 Tool Smart Switch

Downloads: 81,860

The Tools to break things with in Stardew Valley

Players will need to access a wealth of tools in Stardew Valley to interact with the game world and figure out ways to maximize the most of the resources that are provided to them. This makes it important to switch between tools and pick the best one to deal with a relevant situation.

It's a great way for most beginners to acquaint themselves with the game, but veterans may get bored of this gameplay loop after a point. Thankfully, this is where the Tool Smart Switch comes into the picture. It's a simple mod that does a great job of streamlining the player's experience and making each run in Stardew Valley all the most accessible.

6 Date Night

Downloads: 312,353

Date Night mod in Stardew Valley

The characters of Stardew Valley are pretty fleshed out, and players can initiate a romance with one of the many characters in this title if they wish. The act of wooing a potential romance can be quite engrossing, but some players might feel that the romantic interactions aren't all that diverse after getting married, which can be slightly disappointing for many players.

Stardew Valley Weather Effects Cover
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Thankfully, Date Night is a mod that allows players to have meaningful interactions with their spouses after marriage in the form of well-written and cute dates. This is a great mod that helps players enjoy the romantic interactions in this game even more, making it a no-brainer for fans who want more content in this department.

7 Adventurer's Guild Expanded

Downloads: 187,631

Adventurer's Guild Expanded mod for Stardew Valley

The Adventurer's Guild is one of the many fun distractions that players can occupy themselves in Stardew Valley. This guild serves as a great way for players to get valuable items, hunt down monsters, and recover their items if their health depletes in a dangerous area.

Players who want more from this guild can download the Adventurer's Guild Expanded mod, which does exactly what is stated in the title. With more quests, NPCs, locations, music, and everything else along the same lines, it's easy to see why this mod is beloved within the community.

8 Better Crafting

Downloads: 126,249

Better Crafting mod for Stardew Valley

Crafting is one of the major gameplay pillars that players will interact with in Stardew Valley time and time again. How crafting is dealt with in the game is pretty intuitive, but it's only a matter of time before players want more depth and ingenuity in this experience.

This is where the Better Crafting mod comes into the picture, with this mod adding an entirely new UI along with several other quality-of-life improvements to make crafting a blast once again. Players who may be getting bored of the vanilla crafting system owe it to themselves to check this mod out.

9 Content Patcher

Downloads: 10,811,735

Stardew Valley Wooden Brazier

There are a ton of content packs that players can download for Stardew Valley. However, there's a mod by Pathoschild that players need to download before that. The Content Patcher mod is critical to make installs as clean as possible. This content patcher is a must-have to install fan-made content packs without facing too many errors.

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An exciting aspect about these packs is that they automatically check to make sure their content is compatible with the version of Stardew Valley that is installed, decreasing the odds that any issues will be encountered.

10 SMAPI - Stardew Modding API

Downloads: 11,130,051

Stardew Valley Player Inside Barn Mod

Mod loaders is a term that most PC gamers invested in the modding scene are familiar with. They're critical to ensuring that mods load in the correct order and don't cause too many conflicts. SMAPI is quite valuable in this regard, allowing modders to go crazy without worrying about any permanent ramifications to their game.

It's a simple and clean solution by Pathoschild to manage the sheer wealth of mods that players can potentially download for Stardew Valley.

11 CJB Cheats Menu

Downloads: 5,891,843

CJB Cheats Menu for Stardew Valley

Sometimes, there's only so much that players can do to adhere to the rules of the game before preferring to take matters into their own hands. With the CJB Cheats Menu, this sense of control can be achieved in the blink of an eye.

True to its name, the CJB Cheats Menu adds an option for players to cheat to their heart's content in Stardew Valley. It's a simple yet efficient mod that completely changes the game's landscape if players wish it to be the case.

12 CJB Item Spawner

Downloads: 4,691,296

CJB Item Spawner mod for Stardew Valley

There are several items that players can take to enhance their enjoyment of Stardew Valley. However, a bunch of the rare items in the game can take a while to obtain, which might not be up to everyone's tastes. This is where the CJB Item Spawner comes into the picture.

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As stated in the name, it allows players to spawn whatever item they want to make the game easier and, in certain cases, more enjoyable. Once installed, players will just need to press a single button to get access to all the items they could need.

13 Tractor Mod

Downloads: 3,206,581

Tractor Mod for Stardew Valley

Given that there's such a major focus in Stardew Valley on farming, it's a shame that the vanilla game doesn't have any tractors. However, this isn't an issue with the use of mods. The Tractor Mod is another excellent download released by Pathoschild that fulfills its exact purpose.

It allows players to use a fully functioning tractor in the game to make their farming activities all the easier and more fun. This mod also adds a tractor garage, which is welcome indeed.

14 Bigger Backpack

Downloads: 1,050,099

stardew valley bag

When players are not tending to their farm, barn, or their in-game spouse, Stardew Valley lets them do some exploring. The difficulty in this aspect of gameplay is that energy is limited in the game and can run out pretty easily. Maximizing one's carrying capacity is a good way to make these trips more worthwhile.

The Bigger Backpack mod by spacechase0 lets players indulge their hoarder mentality without any regrets. It gives players a bag that has a whopping 48 slots, making some exploration or cave trips less of a pain. The catch is that it's not free and costs 50,000g but hey, it's better than a cheat mod.

15 Friends Forever

Downloads: 947,773

Stardew Valley NPC Sika

Apart from growing some plants or crops, players can also cultivate friendships (pun intended) in Stardew Valley. The player character's relationship with the NPCs is represented by a heart meter. Sadly, the people of Stardew Valley are clingier and moodier than others because the friendship meter has a decay rate. That's bad news for introverted roleplayers.

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So, to let the player character focus more on their crops or spelunking, a mod called Friends Forever by IsaacSDev is available. This one removes the decay rate for the said friendship meter so players can introduce themselves and then forget about friends but still keep them. If only that's how it worked in real life.

16 DeepWoods

Downloads: 496,057

deepwoods mod stardew

Sometimes farming can get tedious and even stressful in Stardew Valley, and if players find that ironic enough, then maybe another escape from this escape is warranted. Luckily, most maps in the game have a nice forest for players to explore.

One can then expand that forest to have an even deeper exploration area thanks to a mod named DeepWoods by SVProtector. It's a custom area added to the game that poses all kinds of late-game dangers and rewards. Don't dare venture it early on, focus on farming first.

17 Fast Animations

Downloads: 557,367

SV Skull Cavern

Speaking of adventuring or farming in Stardew Valley players can only do so much before their characters drop tired from fatigue. Some in-game actions are simply too slow to maximize either time or the stamina bar, which can be pretty frustrating indeed.

Fast Animations is a mod by Pathoschild that can remedy this problem. It does what its title says: speeds up all the animations in the game, such as mining or even eating. Players can even adjust the speeds themselves to something realistic or preferable. Given how important quality-of-life changes have become in modern games, it's easy to see why the Fast Animations mod has become one of the most popular mods for Stardew Valley.

18 NPC Map Locations

Downloads: 6,890,443

stardew valley npc mod

Looking for the player's target spouse or that one NPC involved in some special quest can get rather chaotic in Stardew Valley; each one of them has their schedule for the day, and some even take days off or disappear for quite a while. Something like NPC Map Locations by Bouhm can save players some time and brain energy wondering where a specific NPC went.

The mod displays all the locations of NPCs and even farmers on the map page and the minimap. This way, it's easier to stalk the player's potential life partner, which may be a disturbing way of putting things even though this is pretty much what players need to do to lock in a romance.

19 Stardew Valley Expanded

Downloads: 9,485,809

stardew valley expanded

Now, if players want an even bigger fan-made expansion for Stardew Valley that's not just a secret forest within a forest, then the mod Stardew Valley Expanded is one of the biggest additions in the game that will surely add a dizzying number of hours to the playtime.

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The Stardew Valley Expanded mod by FlashShifter squeezes in 26 new locations, 160 new character events, 21 new NPCs, a new village, a new world map, and many other additions. It's a perfect mod to have once players have exhausted the standard map for the game, with the wealth of changes doing a great job of making the game feel fresh and engaging once again.

20 Lookup Anything

Downloads: 4,006,767

stardew valley tooltip mod

With the multitude of things players are allowed to do in Stardew Valley, it can be daunting trying to find out the issue when every single one of those tasks starts giving players challenging problems that require them to do anything short of mind-reading.

Lookup Anything is a mod by Pathoschild that gives players a bit of clairvoyance. It allows for a tooltip to appear with a specific key (F1). This tooltip will then show all the information involved with an object where the cursor is pointed. This can be anything from crop harvest time to a person's favorite gifts.