Stardew Valley is truly one of the best indie games on the market. The vanilla version offers hundreds of hours of gameplay, a unique take on farming simulators and an in-depth story you truly care about. While the vanilla version is incredibly replayable, it can also get somewhat repetitive and you may crave a new experience. This is where modding comes in.

Modding is a great way for players to be creative, expand the limits of the game, and be a part of a community. Stardew Valley has a rich modding community, with a ton of cool mods that creators have put a lot of work into. I have compiled a list of popular Stardew Valley mods that can be used to inject a lot of life into the base game.

15) Lookup Anything

Image Credit: Pathoschild

If you are a player that has trouble keeping track of your relationships, farming progress or simply want to see what’s inside a rock, this mod is for you. This mod gives you the ability to look up anything pertaining to any items in the game. This is great for new and seasoned players alike, who want to make their gameplay experience relaxing and more organized.

Why is it fun?

• It eliminates the need to memorize and keep track of hundreds of items.
• Able to see everything about a villager, increasing the ability to become friends quickly.
• Keep better track of your farm; check crop progress, selling prices, animal happiness, and how long fences have left.
• Can be combined with other mods for a truly unique experience.

Link to mod

14) Happy Birthday

Image Credit: Omegasis

In Stardew Valley you spend a lot of time learning villager’s birthdays if you want to make friends. Gifting NPCs their favorite item on their birthdays is the quickest way to build a relationship. What about you? With this mod, you can choose your own birthday! Not only will you have a day to celebrate, you will also be given gifts and receive well wishes! For anyone who is tired of always being the gift giver, this mod is for you. Time to take a selfish and let the villager’s treat you for once.

Why is it fun?

• Allows you to celebrate an in-game birthday of your choosing.
• You will receive birthday letters from your parents.
• You will receive gifts and well wishes from villagers.
• Receive gifts, instead of giving for once.

Link to mod

13) Elle's Cat Replacements

Image Credit: junimods

If you own cats, or just love cats, this mod is for you! With this mod, you can customize the pet cat that Marnie brings you. Design your real-life cat so they can live on your farm with you! This mod includes 51 cat skins, three cat textures, 20 collar colors, and the ability to change the cat head icon in your menu. If you prefer dogs to cats, there is a Dog Replacement mod available by the same creator.

Why is it fun?

• You can create your real-life cat within the game.
• Choose your breed and personalize its look.
• Choose different color collars to personalize your cat's look.
• It is compatible with the Dogs and Cats mod, which allows you to have more than one animal on your farm. 

Link to mod

12) Tractor Mod

Image Credit: Pathoschild​

This mod gives you a tractor to use on your farm! Farming in Stardew Valley, especially early on, is an incredibly important job to make a lot of gold. Farming can also get very tedious and labor-intensive once you start planting large fields of crops. Cleaning up the land and hoeing large areas for crops is time consuming and will eat up tons of energy as well. A tractor is an amazing addition for anyone who prefers to make their gold through farming crops. 

Why is it fun?

• You no longer have to clear the land of rocks, twigs or debris.
• You can fertilize and plant seeds in a very large area using almost no energy.
• Harvest crops, fruit trees, flowers and clear dead crops.
• Easily collect milk from your animals.
• It waters crops!! You don’t have to waste energy watering, or resources making sprinklers.

Link to mod

11) Part of the Community

Video Credit: thatdenverguy

If you’re a player who didn’t really focus on creating friendships or relationships on your first playthrough, this mod is a perfect way to change it up! With this mod, you get to truly join the Stardew Valley community and participate in their lives. This is a great way to simulate and learn about what life is like in a small town. You will truly become a part of their close-knit community with features like villagers listening to your conversation and gaining friendship points passively just by being present.

Why is it fun?

• Gives you the ability to increase friendships with your spouse’s family by giving your spouse gifts. 
• When you ship a new item, you get a small friendship increase with all villagers.
• Visiting shops will increase your friendship with the shop owner.
• Attending festivals will increase your standing with every villager.

Link to mod

10) Magical Family

Image Credit: fellowclown

If you are a fan of mystery and magic this is a great mod for you. It introduces a brand-new NPC, Valerie, her mother, plus a brand-new plot to play through. You get to follow Valerie as she investigates a disappearance and even romance her along the way if you’d like. This mod is perfect if you are hitting a boring spot with your farming and want a new story, new events, and new people to meet.

Why is it fun?

• Brand new plot to play that includes elements of magic and mystery.
• New mystery and romance events to complete.
• Meet and get to know two new NPCs.

Link to mod

9) Stardew Aquarium

Video Credit: Turin

When you are far into the game, an extremely fun addition is the Stardew Aquarium. Just like the Community Center, you get to restore the aquarium by donating items to the collection. As you complete the collections, the aquarium will vibrate to life with full animation. This incredible mod includes new maps, new shops and new achievements. It’s the perfect mod if you enjoy contributing to collections and love the beach.

Why is it fun?

• Beautiful, fully animated aquarium after you donate all the fish.
• Includes a brand-new beach next to the aquarium.
• New achievements to unlock.
• New shops to explore, including an ice cream shop!

Link to mod

8) Artisan Valley

Image Credit: paradigmnomad

Artisan Valley is a beautiful and expansive mod if you enjoy the production and goods side of Stardew Valley. This mod adds 20 machines for you to craft, and use to upgrade your farm. In addition to the machines, there are over 200 new artisan goods to produce.  If you want to run a vineyard or just create an extra bougie farm, this mod is perfect for you. Artisan goods are an excellent way to make gold and give villagers luxury items they will love.

Why is it fun?

• Fun new machines including, a dehydrator, ice cream machine, yogurt jar, soap press and much more!
• Make all kinds of new artisan goods like butter, beeswax, kombucha, schnapps, and SO many more items.
• Sell all kinds of beautiful artisan goods that will make you tons of gold.

Link to mod

7) DeepWoods

Image Credit: SVProtector​

DeepWoods provides a leveled deep forest experience similar to the mines. If you enjoy combat and exploration, DeepWoods is the perfect late game mod. DeepWoods is filled with all kinds of new secrets and challenges to explore and overcome. As you explore deeper, you will encounter new monsters, new creatures and new items. You can even get lost after level two, so be careful!

Why is it fun?

• The levels are infinite, and they generate as you explore, so each exploration can be totally different. 
• Defeat new monsters, including ones that are buffed and can kill you with one shot.
• New fun items to discover and creatures to find.
• Lots of magical elements to have a ton of fun with. 

Link to mod

6) Animal Husbandry

Image Credit: Digus

After playing the base game a few times, raising animals only to use them for one product can get a little monotonous. Animal Husbandry adds an entirely new and upgraded way to farm. Now you can inseminate and raise animals with the intent of also using them for meat instead of just one single product. It also adds a brand-new TV channel that gives tips about your animals and a new animal contest event. This mod helps Stardew feel more like a normal farming simulator.

What makes it fun?

• Use a cleaver to get meat from your animals; the more they love you, the more meat you will get.
• Learn new recipes that include meat.
• Inseminate and raise animals for meat and their normal products.
• Use the feeding basket to give your animals treats so they will love you more!

Link to mod

5) Diverse Stardew Valley

Image Credit: minervamaga & tenthousandcats & Airyn​

In this mod, all the villagers of Pelican Town will be edited to add gender identity, ethnic and cultural diversity. A lot of small towns lack diversity, and unfortunately, Stardew Valley is no different. If you’re bored with everyone in town looking similar, this is the perfect mod to add a new dimension to the game. Not only does it add diversity, there are a ton of other detailed features that make this an amazing aesthetics mod.

What makes it fun?

• Every villager will look totally different and be very diverse.
• New, weather appropriate outfits for every season, and swimwear for on the beach.
• Linus gets a cute service dog!
• Engaged couples will wear mermaid pendants, and pregnant characters will have maternity outfits.

Link to mod

4) The Love of Cooking

Image Credit: bblueberry​

The Love of Cooking completely rebuilds the cooking menu from scratch. It offers a totally new menu and an upgradeable frying pan to cook with. With this mod comes the ability to search for recipes by name or the buff they provide. This mod is perfect if you have always wished the cooking aspect was more immersive and in-depth. Cooking is now much more rewarding, less time consuming and will no longer eat up gold star ingredients.

What makes it fun?

• Receiving a family heirloom cookbook that changes everything about the cooking menu.
• Food heals over time instead of all at once which can be helpful when farming, mining or fishing.
• When you become best friends with a villager, you can cook in their kitchen!
• You can choose to enable a feature that causes food to burn on bad luck days.

Link to mod

3) Ridgeside Village

Video Credit: Ridsgeside Village

Ridgeside Village is an amazing expansion mod, it adds an enormous amount of content while organically building on the base game. This mod truly reinvigorates the game by adding a totally new town to explore. The town has over 50 new NPCs, two new festivals, new foraging, new quests and so much more! If you are stuck in a gaming rut, Ridgeside Village is truly wonderful and unique.

What makes it fun?

• Offers over 50 new NPCs, including six bachelors, seven bachelorettes and four unlockable marriage candidates.
• New foraging items and fruit trees.
• New locations to explore outside of the town.
• A great expansion that builds well on the lore of the base game.

Link to mod

2) Skip Fishing Minigame

Image Credit: dewmods​

Stardew Valley is by far my favorite indie game ever and I love almost every aspect of the base game. Except for fishing. I have truly never had a harder time fishing in any game (and I love fishing in games). To that end, I can’t recommend the Skip Fishing Minigame enough. It allows you to fish while completely skipping the certain struggle of trying to reel fish in. This mod adds so much to the replay value of Stardew because fishing is truly a tedious slog.

What makes it fun?

• Totally skip the fishing minigame while still getting the satisfaction of catching fish.
• You are still able to gain fishing XP.
• You are still able to catch legendary fish.
• Totally skip the fishing minigame while still getting the satisfaction of catching fish!!

Link to mod

Stardew Valley Expanded

Video Credit: FlashShifter

Stardew Valley Expanded is the pinnacle of expansion mods for Stardew. The mod adds a crazy amount of new content, essentially serving as a reimagined Stardew Valley. This expansion is perfect for after you 100% the base game because it basically provides a brand-new game. It offers all new locations, NPCs, character events and so many more fun additions. Offering 100s of hours of extra gameplay, SVE is truly like starting a new game.

What makes it fun?

• Offers a total overhaul of the base game while remaining true to the original lore and spirit.
• Adds 50 new locations to find and explore.
• Adds 27 new NPCs while also changing aspects of the original characters.
• New configuration options that will change your gameplay experience.
• It is compatible with at least nine other fun mods.

Link to Mod

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• [Top 10] Stardew Valley: Best Crops (2020 Edition)
• Stardew Valley Best Fishing Spots (Top 5)
• Stardew Valley Best Farm. Which Stardew Valley Farm is Best?

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