Top 15 Stardew Valley Most Popular Mods

There is a ton of content to discover in Stardew Valley, but mods are something extra that elevates the gameplay experience even further. In this article, we'll dive right into the world of popular Stardew Valley mods, where imagination has no limitations. But let's start by answering the burning issue on every farmer's mind: what exactly are mods, and why are they so much fun?

Modifications, or mods, are player-made add-ons that improve and extend the base game. They provide new elements, creative adaptations, and innovative twists that give Pelican Town's well-known landscapes new life. Mods offer a limitless sandbox of possibilities for every player, with anything from charming new creatures to distinctive farm layouts and updated gaming features. Therefore, get ready to discover new content as we examine the most well-liked Stardew Valley mods that have won the hearts of people all around the world.

15-FarmhandFinder

This mod makes an effort to address the problem of chasing after friends while playing multiplayer yet having trouble readily locating them. It has a compass that directs players toward an icon that is floating on the screen in their general vicinity.

What's Fun About FarmhandFinder:

• It shows you where your friends are without having to look at the map.
• The compass changes to reflect players' current appearance, so if someone changes their hair or adds a hat, it will be on the compass.
• It turns transparent when going over a UI element such as the inventory.

FarmhandFinder details: 

• Requires: SMAPI- Stardew Modding API
• Works with Stardew Valley 1.5 on Windows.
• Works only on multiplayer.

Find the mod here.

14-TimeSpeed

With this mod you can control the flow of time in the game: speed it up, slow it down, or freeze it altogether. This can happen automatically or when you press a key in the game.

What's Fun About TimeSpeed:

• Freezing time will stay in effect until either you choose to unfreeze it or you move to a different location. This is great when working on your farm late at night but you need more time to finish your work.
• You can choose between speeding or decreasing time up by 1 second per 10 game minutes.
• All of the keys are configurable so you can choose which key setup suits you best.

TimeSpeed details: 

• Requires: SMAPI - Stardew Modding API
• Works with Stardew Valley 1.5.5+ on Windows, Linux, and Mac
• Works in single-player, multiplayer, and split-screen modes.

Find the mod here.

13-Farmer Helper

With the option to prohibit late planting, this mod aids players by alerting them when it's too late to plant a seed and by informing them of any plants or animals that require attention before bed.

What's Fun About Farmer Helper:

• Seeds are labeled as too late in the season to plant when there isn’t enough time to grow and harvest them
• Get warnings about unwatered plants
• Get warnings about animals that are outside or need petting

Farmer Helper details:

• Requires: SMAPI- Stardew Modding API
• Works with Stardew Valley 1.5.5+
• Compatible with Mod Updater for automatic updates.
• It is available in multiple languages: German, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, and Turkish

Find the mod here.

12-Low Hedge Fence

With the help of this mod, the game gains a low, seasonal hedge fence. There are three variations: one that changes the skins of all fences, one that swaps out a specific fence type, and one that adds additional elements for the spring and summer hedge variations.

What's Fun About Low Hedge Fence:

• Comes with seasonal variations for spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
• There are three versions available, including one for Alternative Textures that enables you to change the color of any particular fence. One for Content Patcher, which will use the hedge in place of a specific kind of fencing. Another is for JSON Assets, which introduces the spring and summer variations as completely new craftable objects.

Low Hedge Fence details:

• Requires: SMAPI- Stardew Modding API and Alternative Textures

Find the mod here.

11-(SF) Shyzie's String Lights

If you enjoy string lights, sometimes known as fairy lights, then this mod will quickly become one of your favorites. To adorn your farm, use a selection of fairy string lights that truly work as lights! You may also move between them from below.

What's Fun About (SF) Shyzie's String Lights:

• There are currently 13 different skins to choose from, some being animated!
• The lights come in 3 different sizes, and 3 different base colors and can be purchased from Robin as buildable structures on the farm.
• There’s even a version of fairy lights with Pokémon balls

(SF) Shyzie's String Lights details:

• Requires: SMAPI - Stardew Modding API and Solid Foundations

Find the mod here.

10-NPC Adventures

In this adventure mod, which essentially adds a new game mode, players can choose a companion to accompany them on both existing and brand-new events and tasks. There are various prerequisites that must be fulfilled in order to gain followers. In order to recruit any recruitable NPC, you must first reach level 20 of the mines, gain admission to the Adventurer's guild, receive the letter from Marlon inviting you to meet, which will start the Introduction event, and have 66% of the necessary heart levels. You can then ask the locals to follow you after this..

What's Fun About NPC Adventures:

• With their own swords and fighting prowess, each recruited follower can combat alongside you!
• The following followers presently use their special personal skills: Warrior, Fighter, Doctor, Forager, Fisherman, Spirituals, and Scared.
• At any point, you can provide things from your inventory to a follower who is presently being recruited.

NPC Adventures details: 

• Requires: Expanded Preconditions Utility and SMAPI- Stardew Modding API
• Works with Stardew Valley 1.5.6 on Windows, Linux, and Mac. It doesn’t support the Android version.
• Only works in single-player 
• It is available in multiple languages: Portuguese, Spanish, and Korean.

Find the mod here.

9-The Stray Catfe

Twins named Theo and Tabitha recently relocated to the valley. Together with her practical twin brother Theo, bubbly Tabitha moved to Pelican Town to open a cafe. Discover whether Tabitha's motivating can-do attitude is sufficient for success and more as you converse with, befriend, and even fall in love with your new neighbors.

The twins are dateable and marriable NPCs with unique schedules, activities, and dialogue. They can be discovered at the bus stop down a new southern route in the Stray Catfe, a brand-new map area. From their dialogue to their overworld graphics, these characters were created with the intention of blending in as naturally as possible with the base game.

What's Fun About The Stray Catfe:

• There are 10 new heart events, 5 for each character.
• Over 300 lines of dialogue in total.
• 2 new maps, accessible by a new path that leads south from the Bus Stop.
• A new shop, the Stray Catfe, sells coffee, tea, and baked goods for lower prices than the Saloon.

The Stray Catfe details:

• Requires: Content Patcher, SMAPI - Stardew Modding API, and Expanded Preconditions Utility,
• It is available in multiple languages: Mandarin translation, Portuguese

Find the mod here.

8-Fresher Food

With the objective of creating a more unified look, the Fresher Food mod offers complete re-sprites of all the non-alcoholic beverages and food items in the game. Although this look isn't exactly traditional vanilla, the goal was to create sprites that could be used in practically any load sequence.

What's Fun About Fresher Food: 

• It includes retextures of Stardew's food to give it a more believable, lore-friendly feel.
• Plates, bowls, pots, and more can all be matched.
• There are numerous alternatives available for how the food is presented because many sprites have alternative variants that are accessible via your config file.

Fresher Food details:

• Requires: Content Patcher and SMAPI - Stardew Modding API

Find the mod here.

7-The Sushi Project

With vanilla ingredients and custom NPC support for gift flavors, this mod provides a ton of sushi recipes to the game. This mod, which showcases some of the most well-known and inventive forms of sushi, will appeal to any fan of the cuisine. Every Tuesday and Saturday, a fresh booth will be set up where customers may buy sushi and recipes. It is located in Cindersnap Forest on the arrowhead island over the Hat Mouse's store.

What's Fun About The Sushi Project:

• 33 Sushi Recipes are added.
• Although the recipes are brand-new, they incorporate tried-and-true ingredients like rice, seaweed, and fish, of course.
• You can purchase 6 random sushi items and a random selection of 6 recipes from a fae vendor. Therefore, make sure to stop by often to gather them all.
• More sushi dishes, including vegan sushi, will be added in upcoming mod releases.

The Sushi Project details:

• Requires: Content Patcher, SMAPI - Stardew Modding API, Json AssetsShop Tile Framework
• It is available in several languages: Japanese and Mandarin.

Find the mod here.

6-Elle's New  Animals Mods

Since 2016, Elle has been a fantastic modder for Stardew Valley. We highlight three of her most well-known animal mods because they are so well-liked: Barn Animals, Coop Animals, and Horses. These mods are brand-new Content Patcher animal skin replacements that alter the appearance of the various farm animals.

What's Fun About Elle's New Barn Animals:

• The skins are quite cute.
• For each species, there are a variety of skins to pick from.
• The animal products that have been dropped have also been recolored to match the hue of the respective creature. For instance, the color of wool and cloth objects varies depending on the hue of the animal.
• An optional saddle overlay with 20 color options is included with the horse mod.

Elle's New Barn Animals details: 

• Requires: SMAPI- Stardew Modding API and Content Patcher

Find the mod here.

5-Stardewvalley Anime Mods

The addition of OhoDavi's Stardew Valley Anime portraits mod brings the villages, bachelors, bachelorettes, and minor characters to life in a wonderful anime-style. The mod gives well-known characters a new spin and infuses them with fun and excitement, giving gamers a completely new perspective on Pelican Town's beloved residents. The Anime Portraits mod infuses your Stardew Valley adventure with happiness, fun, and a vivid new aesthetic, whether you're an anime fan or just looking for a unique and enchanting experience.

What's Fun About Stardewvalley anime mods:

• The portraits have all the characters in anime style for each situation, with facial and clothing changes.
• There is a fun extra portrait for the female version of the Wizard, Rasmodia.
• The mod includes portraits for Stardew Valley Expanded characters.

Stardewvalley anime mods details:

• Requires: Only the base game

Find the mod here.

4-Canon-Friendly Dialogue Expansion

For all 34 characters with a heart level, this canon-friendly mod adds more than 2600 extra lines of dialogue to the game. This mod will be a breath of fresh air for gamers who have been playing Stardew Valley for some time, as the standard character speech probably grew boring over time. Characters tend to open up more frequently and become more intimate, vulnerable, and/or philosophical as players raise their heart levels by 2 units at a time. While bachelors and bachelorettes receive the majority of the extra lines, smaller characters also see a doubling, triple, or quadrupling in the number of lines they receive.

What's Fun About Canon-Friendly Dialogue Expansion:

• There are over 600 new marriage dialogue messages among the potential 12 partners and housemates. This also applies to bachelors and bachelorettes, who get a little more flirty with 10 hearts.
• After Year 1, there are approximately 400 new dialogue messages for festivals. Years 2 and 3 each receive a brand-new set of dialogue, while Years 4 and up randomly select from the three sets.
• It is more likely that, like vanilla, conversational options will frequently shift with the season.
• There are also a dozen or more brand-new dialogue prompts with numerous choices.

Canon-Friendly Dialogue Expansion details:

• Requires: SMAPI- Stardew Modding API and Content Patcher
• It is available in multiple languages: French, German, Korean, Spanish, Mandarin, and more.

Find the mod here.

3-Seasonal Outfits - Slightly Cuter Aesthetic

Regardless of the season or the weather, characters in the standard vanilla game always wear the same outfits. This is one area where the game falls short despite its many realistic features. Thus, a mod was made to provide all the characters with seasonal attire in order to address this. Each character now has a unique clothing they wear during each season that suits them thanks to this mod, which completely overhauls all character sprites and portraits for a somewhat prettier aesthetic. There are also mods with a similar aesthetic for SVE and East Scarp.

What's Fun About Seasonal Outfits - Slightly Cuter Aesthetic:

• It includes one outfit for each season, as well as attire for the Flower Dance and Spirit's Eve celebrations and outdoor spaces in the winter.
• The farmer can be configured to switch between different seasonal outfits and wear things like long or short-sleeved attire, boots, or half-shoes.
• Players can choose to delete the portraits folder to use only the sprites or vice versa, and it is compatible with other portrait or sprite mods.

Seasonal Outfits - Slightly Cuter Aesthetic details:

• Requires: Content Patcher and SMAPI - Stardew Modding API

Find the mod here.

2-Ridgeside Village

Ridgeside Village is a popularly huge extension mod for the Stardew Valley game that elevates the appeal and immersiveness of the game without being overly obtrusive. It adds a number of new NPCs that you can befriend and some of whom you can even fall in love with, offering quality and quantity in a variety of features and content. With the visual and narrative of the main game in mind, there are new objects, fish, weapons, events, storylines, missions, and even late-game difficulties and rewards. You will also be greeted by a theme composed especially for the town as well as original musical compositions made especially for each marriageable NPC.

What's Fun About Ridgeside Village:

• Unlockable New Farms, Greenhouses, and Caves
• There are hundreds of discussion options and over 50 New NPCs, 22 of which are new marriage candidates.
• It has brand-new structures, including a hotel, a restaurant, and various stores.
• You can find a company that can organize events like wedding receptions and birthday celebrations.
• There are new unlocked dishes and drinks to uncover in addition to new fish and critters.

Ridgeside Village details:

• Requires: Multiple requirements including Content Patcher, Custom Companions, Custom NPC Exclusions, and Json Assets.
• It is available in multiple languages: French, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Polish, and more.

Find the mod here.

1-Stardew Valley Expanded

Stardew Valley Expanded (SVE) is yet another wildly popular expansion mod. There are countless new features in this mod, including new NPCs and character events, settings, redesigned vanilla places, new music, questlines, items, crops, festivals, and much more. It is advised to complete the original Stardew Valley before exploring the universe of SVE. It's also necessary to start a fresh save file.

What's Fun About Stardew Valley Expanded:

• Over 20 brand-new completely developed NPCs have been added, and these NPCs have a variety of features like animated personalities, schedules, backstories, personalities, events, and more. There are even more in the works!
• To further the narrative of the characters in Stardew and the world's stories, there are around 270 additional events.
• Interestingly enough, SVE has a longer Joja plot! This is going to be an amazing bonus for anyone who decided to play the JojaMart route in the base game.
• All maps, old and new, interior and exterior, are now filled with location messages for you to discover and experience as it changes with the seasons. There are more than 900 of them worldwide.

Stardew Valley Expanded details:

• Requires: Multiple requirements including Content Patcher, SMAPI- Stardew Modding API, Custom NPC Exclusions, Expanded Preconditions Utility, and Json Assets.
• It is available in multiple languages: French, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Spanish, and more.

Find the mod here.