The massive Stardew Valley 1.6 update saw the game receive a significant boost in players, and mods have kept things chugging along.
Stardew Valley is easily one of the most inspiring success stories in the indie game scene. Brought to life by a single developer, the game continues to get free updates as it approaches its eighth anniversary. The Stardew Valley community easily ranks among the most loyal and committed in gaming.
One of the ways the community has remained fresh for so long is the modding community. Stardew Valley’s simplicity makes it the perfect canvas for mods, and Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone has been very supportive of modders. Even in 2024, Stardew Valley still offers some fun mods to spice up the gameplay.
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The best Stardew Valley mods in 2024
Stardew Valley’s best mods include everything from major content additions to streamlined UI options. For a long while, some of the go-to mods were improved HUDs and some extra visual elements. A handful of these were folded directly into the base game with the 1.6 update, or made redundant by other additions. There are still plenty of great options to expand the content and overhaul its aesthetic.
Stardew Valley Expanded
While ConcernedApe packed Stardew Valley with content, modders always look for new ways to expand the game. Few other mods do it as extensively as FlashShifter’s Stardew Valley Expanded mod. The mod adds several new NPCs, locations, and character events and even reimagines multiple aspects of the vanilla game.
All these additions remain tonally consistent with Stardew Valley’s chill vibes. The modder even recommends players finish a playthrough of vanilla Stardew Valley to appreciate the base game’s charm. For players who want to revisit Stardew Valley, this is the best mod for the job.
Elle’s Cuter Animals
Stardew Valley is already a cute game, but what if it was even cuter? Elle has created several mods to make the farm animals even cuter than before. Each animal has multiple skins, lovingly crafted in Elle’s adorable style. The diversity of skin helps make the world feel livelier and varied.
So far, Elle has made cute mods for dogs, cats, horses, coop animals, barn animals, and other miscellaneous critters players may find. Players may even want to check out Elle’s other mods to keep the game aesthetically consistent.
Range Highlight
Sometimes, the best Stardew Valley mods are the simplest ones. One of the most annoying aspects of in-game farming is guessing the range of items like bombs, scarecrows, and sprinklers. Jamie Taylor’s Range Highlight mod solves this issue with a simple fix.
Players can now clearly see the range of multiple items. These appear automatically once the item is equipped or highlighted in the world (in the case of Junimo huts). There are also handy hotkeys to showcase the range of items without having them equipped.
Date Night Redux
Fans of Stardew Valley have their fair share of favorites when it comes to romance. However, some players recognize that the chase is often more satisfying than the marriage from a gameplay perspective. Once the wedding ends, the romanced character becomes a homebody who doesn’t do much besides watch the farm or kids.
AgentLyoko remade LiveOnSupert’s Date Night mod to work with modern updates. The mod adds multiple dates post-marriage to add some spice to married life. Players can even create their dream dates through the mod for maximum immersion.
Automate
Tedium is part and parcel of the farming game experience, but some actions really don’t need to be done manually. Pathoschild’s Automate mod does what it says on the tin. Players place a chest next to a machine, which makes it automatically pull raw items from said chest to process into items.
Industrial-minded players can even connect multiple chests and group these setups for a veritable assembly line at the farm. The modder provides detailed tutorials on creating amazing setups and easing the player experience for the foreseeable future.
Lookup Anything
Some games feel like wiki games, and Stardew Valley fits that category to a tee. Whether it’s farming, dating, or monster hunting, players will often have to open up a browser to check on what to do next. Pathoschild’s Lookup Anything mod brings the wiki to the game world.
Players can hover over anything in the game, be it a villager, crop, or animal, and press F1 to see all the information about them. Players can also press shift + F1 to open a search bar and look for information themselves.
Cornucopia
Stardew Valley offers plenty of farms, flowers, and fauna, but there’s no such thing as too much plant life. After all, hundreds of thousands of plant species exist out there, so a few dozen more wouldn’t hurt. MizuJakkaru’s Cornucopia series adds new crops, flowers, and even artisan machines to the game.
These new plants have unique requirements and also offer new materials for items. Players can also customize these crops with an in-game configuration menu added through the Generic Mod Config Menu mod.
Happy Home Designer
People spend so much time farming, fishing, and monster hunting that their home gets neglected. Four wooden walls and a bed end up being enough for most on the road, but one mod may change all that. Tiltookilakin’s Happy Home Designer mod adds a plethora of features to make home decoration even more expansive.
Notable additions include more textures, placing furniture without opening the catalog menu, one-click placement of walls and floors, and many other handy features. For players who want homes as beautiful as their fields, this is the mod to get.
Immersive Family – A Children’s Events Expansion
Like any good “Not Harvest Moon” game, Stardew Valley lets players start a family, children included. However, children in Stardew Valley don’t really have a lot of interesting things to do, unless the player feels like being evil. Xiaoleiwen’s Immersive Family mod brings new depths to family life.
The mod adds 35 new events for children, with 340 new lines of dialogue across vanilla and mod NPCs. Some of these events also cross over with iconic mods like Stardew Valley Expanded and Ridgeside Village. Players who want more out of Stardew Valley family life should get this mod.
Ridgeside Village
Unlike Stardew Valley Expanded, which expanded upon things already found in the base game, Ridgeside Village carves out its own spot in the Stardew Valley mythos. With over 50 new NPCs, a new location, and in-game events, Ridgeside Village makes Stardew Valley feel like a new game.
Most Stardew Valley mods focus on the local village. Ridgeside Village adds a whole new facet to the world outside of the base game. Even so, it fits perfectly into the main game and even crosses over in interesting ways.