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The sandbox survival game Stranded Deep is rife with beautiful, dangerous islands to explore. With an active modding community and hundreds of options available to gamers, many Stranded Deep fans want to know what the best mods are, and how they can install them into their game.
Many games have a wide variety of mods to choose from, like groundbreaking Skyrim gameplay mods that are just a small handful available to fans of the 10-year-old title. Conversely, an overwhelming proportion of Stranded Deep mods are for new maps, as players look for areas to explore. Here are the best mods, presented in no particular order, along with instructions for getting them installed.
Updated April 27, 2022 by Ritwik Mitra: Stranded Deep is a pretty engaging game that any fan of the survival genre should check out. There was a time when the very release of this game was in doubt when its publisher, Telltale Games, shut down.
However, Stranded Deep found a footing of its own soon enough and was finally released to great fanfare. Here are some great mods made by the community that can enhance one's enjoyment of this title even more!
How to Install Maps On PC & Mac
Though it may be a different game, players should familiarize themselves with the biggest mistakes gamers make when modding Fallout 4, as most of these tips apply to adding mods to any game. Once players are comfortable and have found a map they like, they must install the mod into Stranded Deep in order to access it. Steam provides the easiest route, as players can simply navigate to the Workshop in the Community Hub and click on the plus symbol (+) beside the maps in order to add them to the game.
Having done this, players must then start Stranded Deep, click on the Cartographer menu option, drag each island onto the World Map, and click “Apply.” Once players exit the Cartographer screen, they can start a new game with their chosen maps.
For mods that are downloaded from another source, such as Nexus, the steps will vary between PC and Mac.
On PC:
-
Uncompress the archive
- For Stable branch, extract the file into \Documents\Stranded Deep\Data\Editor\Maps
- For Experimental branch, extract the file into \Documents\Stranded Deep\Data\Experimental\Editor\Maps
- Start Stranded Deep
- Navigate to the Cartographer screen
- Drag island onto the World Map
- Click Apply
- Start a game
On Mac:
- Find Stranded Deep: /Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/common/Stranded Deep
-
Show package content of the file "Stranded_Deep_x64"
- For Stable branch, extract files into /Contents/Data/Editor/Maps
- For Experimental branch, extract files into /Contents/Data/Experimental/Editor/Maps
- Start Stranded Deep
- Navigate to the Cartographer screen
- Drag island onto the World Map
- Click Apply
- Start a game
Kawailoa
There are several custom maps made for Stranded Deep that can spice up the gameplay experience quite a bit. The vast majority of these map mods are made by Skirow, one of the most popular modders in this game's community.
This modder has made several maps for the game, with Kawailoa being one of the many great mods he has made for Stranded Deep. It's a pretty clever map, with the cavern in the middle serving as a great hub while players explore this isolated island and try to survive.
Alinton Islands
This cluster of three islands makes for a great place to start a game of Stranded Deep. There's a cavern at the center of these three islands, making it perfect for a makeshift base of operations.
Of course, players need to be on top of their game and survive through any means necessary. It's imperative for them to survive in such a harsh landscape where a single misstep could prove to be costly.
Fisherman's Horizon
Before anyone asks, this map is not a reference to the classic town from Final Fantasy 8. It's actually a custom map that can prove to be a great place for beginners to start.
Resources are aplenty and players can even experiment to understand how the game works here. All in all, Fisherman's Horizon is a fun map to explore when players don't want their game of Stranded Deep to feel too stressful.
Tora-Tora
Just like Fisherman's Horizon, Tora-Tora is another great map where players can breeze through the game with ease. The abundance of resources and safe spots means that players can enjoy the mechanics of Stranded Deep without feeling trapped.
It's a great island that is perfect for people new to the game to check out. It provides enough items to the player for them to easily mess around with the crafting system and figure out what all is possible from the get-go.
High Tide Fortress
Some custom-made maps in Stranded Deep tell really immersive and engaging stories. Exploring the ruins of the High Tide Fortress is one such map that is going to be pretty enjoyable indeed.
The map isn't the hardest area to survive in, but players still need to be wary and take care of themselves at all times. Survival is worth it for players to explore a fortress that is teeming with rich secrets and goodies to find.
La Selva (The Jungle)
Skirow has created over a dozen mods for Stranded Deep and boasts that “La Selva (The Jungle)” is their largest project yet. There are more than 40 animals and over 1,600 plants and trees across a landscape that varies from sprawling jungles to beach shores.
There is also said to be a cave hidden somewhere on the massive island which contains special loot for anyone with the patience to seek it out. With an abundance of loot and buildable land available, it's advisable for Stranded Deep players to learn how to get container walls before traveling to this lush island.
Hidden Utopia
Another large map for players who love exploration, “Hidden Utopia” by HerjaEldgrim is not for the ill-prepared. The loot and resources may be bountiful, but this island paradise built by survivors while waiting to be rescued has few places for players to erect shelters, and can only be accessed via underwater caves.
The modder poses one question for fans brave enough to attempt an expedition: “Can you make it there in one breath?” For PC players who aren't confident they can, there's always the option to use Stranded Deep cheat console commands.
Starlight
Another mod from Skirow, this map isn’t an island, it's a large abandoned ship, so Stranded Deep players must know how to build a raft to get to it.
There’s plenty of loot for players to scavenge, but the truly compelling aspect of “Starlight” is the mystery of its missing crew. Players who want to know more will have to travel to the island of Albara.
Albara Island
Continuing the story that players first discover on the Starlight, Skirow takes players to the eponymous location in “Albara Island.” Fans can learn more about the ship, its mission, and what happened to the crew.
Along with “Starlight,” this mod is more than a simple map addition, offering gameplay for scavengers, explorers, and amateur sleuths alike. With such an intriguing mystery to explore, PC players may want to invite a friend for Stranded Deep co-op play.
Double Stack Size, Longer Day-Night Cycle, Or Both
For games like Skyrim, even the worst mods are varied, but non-map mods are comparatively rare for Stranded Deep. The “Double Stack Size and Longer Day-Night Cycle” mod by Carlitox25 may be invaluable for anyone new to the game. Many players find the quantity restrictions to their inventory to be prohibitive, making the game more inaccessible than challenging. Additionally, some fans prefer for the day-night cycle of the game to be a little bit longer.
On the Nexus page for this mod, players can choose to download one, or both files in order to see their inventory stack size increased from four to eight, and the day-night cycle lengthened for exploration and survival purposes.
This mod operates differently from map mods, and as such, has different installation instructions to those provided for the other mods on this list. To install this mod:
- Place the file, “Assembly-CSharp.dll,” in: X:\Steam\steamapps\common\Stranded Deep\Stranded_Deep_Data\Managed\
- Start Stranded Deep
- Start a game
Stranded Deep is available now on Linux, macOS, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.