Stardew Valley is an already great game and considering the fact that it was made by one person only, that makes it all the more special. It not only provided your fictional inherited farmland escape but also functioned 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.
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Speaking of making the game better, it turns out you can also do that for yourself. 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. Take a look at the best they have to offer, free-of-charge, unlike Joja Corporation's offerings.
10 Bigger Backpack
When you're not tending to your farm, your barn, or to your in-game spouse, Stardew Valley lets you do some exploring. The difficulty in this aspect of gameplay is that energy is limited in the game and can run out pretty easily. That's why maximizing your carrying capacity is a good way to make your trips more worthwhile.
The Bigger Backpack mod lets you indulge your hoarder mentality. 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.
9 Friends Forever
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 introvert roleplayers.
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So, in order to let your player character focus more on their crops or spelunking, a mod called Friends Forever is available. This one removes the decay rate for the said friendship meter so players can just introduce themselves and then forget about friends but still keep them. If only that's how it worked in real life.
8 DeepWoods
Sometimes farming can get tedious and even stressful in Stardew Valley and if you find that ironic enough, then maybe another escape from your 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. 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.
7 Fast Animations
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 in order to maximize either time or the stamina bar.
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Fast Animations is a mod 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.
6 NPC Map Locations
Looking for your target spouse or that one NPC involved in some special quest can get rather chaotic in Stardew Valley; each one of them has their own schedules for the day and some even take days off or disappear for quite a while.
Something like NPC Map Locations 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 your potential life partner.
5 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 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.
4 Lookup Anything
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 posing players with challenging problems that require them to do anything short of mindreading.
Lookup Anything is a mod 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.
3 Automate
While on the topic of better management in Stardew Valley, having a farm is another task that can easily become mundane especially when paired with tasks like processing. It also consumed more energy for the character to do so.
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That's why mods like Automate came to the rescue. This is one's a helpful little script mod where players can merely place a chest full of raw materials next to a furnace or other machines. The said machines will then automatically process all the raw materials in the chest provided they can. Say goodbye to manual labor.
2 Seasonal Villager Outfits
Next to the farm and the dynamic game world, the NPCs are the heart of the game and they make town trips and interactions a worthwhile distraction from all the farming and fishing. As it is, these NPCs have interesting personalities already but they can be even more unique...
The Seasonal Villager Outfits will do just that. Just as the seasons change in Stardew Valley, so too will the daily attire of the said NPCs to reflect the weather or climate. It also includes event outfits for festivals and even weddings.
1 Farm Type Manager (FTM)
Farm Type Manager is not just a mod, but a mod you can use to create your own custom mods as well. This powerful tool right here allows players to spawn any personalized feature from Stardew Valley's farm type resource pool such as buildings, ores, and foliage.
The best part is that they can do that anywhere in the game world. It lets players change the map as they see fit and even create their dream farm or home without much trouble. Whether it counts as cheating or not depends on player restraint.
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