One of the most popular Indie games of the last five years, has to be Stardew Valley. Passion project of single developer Concerned Ape, this cosy farming game is well worth the play if you haven’t already. But, if you – like me- have played this game to death, perhaps it’s time to look into some mods to liven everything up. So, here are 10 Must have Mods for Stardew Valley.
1. Stardew Valley Expanded
One of the first mods I heard about in the scene, was Stardew Valley Expanded. This mod does exactly as its title suggests, expands on the vanilla game. And might I add, by a significant amount! This mod adds a bunch of new content, including whole new farms, areas and NPCS. The other great thing about this mod, is its all of that in one. If you are lazy modder like me, this is the perfect way to get a bunch of content with minimal effort. If you only want to download one mod in Stardew Valley, then this is the one!
2. Tractor Mod
Farming is by far my favourite part of the game, but even I have to admit it can get tedious. Especially when you have planted a lot of crops! Makes you just wish you had something like… a tractor to help speed things up. Well, with this mod you can! On the tractor you can entirely manage your crops: from watering, to planting, to harvesting. Early game, this mod might not seem as impressive, but trust me late game, it’s a life saver!
3. Babies that look like Spouses
One of the less developed areas of vanilla Stardew is without a doubt, the children. After marrying your villager of choice, you will eventually be prompted whether you want children together. Once you select to, even if you have them biologically, they will always end up looking the same. It also never takes into account what your spouse looks like too, which is a shame. So, this mod rectifies that! Babies now actually will look inspired by your spouse, and you can also change their clothing and appearance too, to make them just that little bit less vanilla.
4. Automate
There is a lot of gameplay elements to keep track of in Stardew. From collecting mushrooms in the cave, to keeping tabs on furnaces or crab pots – it’s all too easy to lose track after a while. And that’s where this mod comes in. If you simply place a chest next to any machine with this mod, it will pull any raw items from the chest and them put them into the machine, and then pop it back in the chest when it’s done. This is just such a great system for making sure you are always processing raw materials, and don’t have to constantly check in on them all the time.
5. Simple Crop Label
This is just such a simple quality of life mod that adds so much. There is nothing more annoying than not quite remembering what crop you planted, until it’s too late and its already mostly grown. Or perhaps you thought you planted a cauliflower, but you actually didn’t and now its too late to grow one to give to bloody Jodie so you’ll have to wait all year! With this mod, you will never have to deal with that again! Simply hover over the crop and never forget what you planted!
6. Fishing Made Easy
As someone who doesn’t mind fishing in this game, this is a mod I personally don’t feel I need. HOWEVER, I know others absolutely DESPISE the fishing aspect. But it is a necessary mechanic to progress in the game. So, the solution for you non-fishers, is this mod. Fishing made Easy provides an array of options to make fishing a little easier. This includes making fish appear at all times, making legendary fish actually catchable for every skill level and even increasing fish selling prices. This is just a simple mod to increase the quality of life of those players who find fishing a drag.
7. Horse Whistle
I honestly feel so awful when I leave my horse high and dry somewhere on the map. Luckily, they always find their way home, but wouldn’t it be nice to get the horse to just simply come to you when you call like Roach does in The Witcher 3? Queue this mod! Simply press the whistle key and your horse will magically teleport to you. Those of you who called their horse Roach (like me) will now get to have the full Roach experience in this game too!
8. Stardew Aquarium
Pelican Town has a cinema and a saloon, so why not add an aquarium to the mix? Also, if that’s not enough, just like in Animal Crossing you can actually donate fish you catch and then put on display. On top of adding the Aquarium itself, the mods additions do not end there! It even includes a giant new outdoor beach, rewards for donating every fish and EVEN a new legendary fish to find! This is a mod for the complete opposite player of mod #6 – if you love fishing this is for you!
9. Winter Crops
Winter can get a little boring in Stardew, especially after you have already cleared all the mines. This is made all the worse by the fact that until unlocking the greenhouse, there is very little crop growth in winter. Well, this mod changes that! The Winter Crops mod adds 7 new cops including brussel sprouts and iceberg lettuce, plus 2 fruit trees that will all grow happily in the snow! So, next time you find yourself tempted to just sleep through winter, give this mod a shot!
10. NPC Map Locations
Isn’t it just the worst when you run all over the map trying to find one person for their birthday, and you just never seem to find them? Well, grab this mod stat and never search willy-nilly again! This mod simply pops the faces of each villager on the map to show where they are located in real game time! It also has an optional minimap feature, to make sure you know the second Sebastian finally leaves his house for a change!
So there my picks for 10 Must have Mods for Stardew Valley.
Were there any amazing Mods for Stardew Valley that I missed? Share them in the comments below! Also, feel free to check out the rest of the posts in my mod list series, including my recent post on must have Sims 4 mods!
