Mods for Stardew Valley can improve the experience for new players or give veterans a breath of fresh air. Mods improve Stardew Valley significantly in many ways.
The most popular farming simulator in the gaming industry has a robust modding community that provides anything from additional crops and skins to new playable characters. Mods for Stardew Valley can range from minor enhancements to the game’s existing features to a complete remake.
Stardew Valley: How to Add Mods
Most PC users that play Stardew Valley have done so through the popular digital distribution platform Steam. This article explains how to get Stardew Valley add-ons for Steam.
- Go to the Stardew Valley page on Nexus Mods.
- Get the most recent SMAPI and Content Patcher versions from their websites.
- Launch Stardew Valley by navigating to its Windows folder
- Place the SMAPI archive in the Stardew Valley folder.
- Launch the installer (found in the SMAPI folder), but do not close the window.
- After installation, copy the installer’s instructions for where to go and what to do to the clipboard.
- Open Steam Library, right-click Stardew Valley and choose Properties
- On the “General” tab, copy and paste the installer’s destination and command into the “Launch Options” box.
- Go back to the Stardew Valley folder and find the Mods folder that was just added.
- Put the Content Patcher files in the Mods folder.
- Extract the downloaded mods into the Mods folder, keeping each one in its folder
First, get SMAPI and Content Patcher to modify Stardew Valley. Nexus Mods has the best mods. Stardew Valley stability is degraded without the latest SMAPI and Content Patcher.
It’s recommended to use SMAPI as a starting point and then to add the Content Patcher to the Mods folder that SMAPI will create. Make sure Stardew Valley is set to launch via StardewModdingAPI.exe after that. The SMAPI installer provides a command that makes this process simple. You should see something like this if you exit the installer without transferring it:
“C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Stardew Valley\StardewModdingAPI.exe” %command%
The command is the path to the SMAPI installer’s StardewModdingAPI.exe file. Add this command to Stardew Valley’s Steam start settings to enable SMAPI. This, together with the Content Patcher, will allow gameplay modifications. Unpack downloaded modules into the Modules folder. Unorganized Mods folders affect playability.
Reskin mods may not necessarily go in the main Mods folder. Stardew Valley mods often reskin NPCs and animals. Many can be implemented by replacing Stardew Valley’s Content folder files. This should be on the readme and download page.
Conclusion
There is a large and active modding community for Stardew Valley, but it is not the only one of its kind. If you have any other long-forgotten video game passions, there are probably thousands of mods out there just waiting to be resurrected by you.