Stardew Valley Expanded
We’re starting it out with arguably the best mod of not only last month, but likely of the year so far. This mod expands Stardew Valley in a way that feels like it comes straight from Eric Barone himself.
Not only are the visuals improved, but tons of new content is added as well. This includes:
- 12 new locations (five exterior and seven interior).
- 38 new character events.
- Over 500 location messages.
- Reimagined maps and festivals (all maps).
- Remastered Immersive Farm 2.
- And a new town map reflecting all changes.
Each main NPC has a whole new story event that adds background to their character and lore to the community of Stardew Valley itself. All of these events are interactive and contain sub events within them, so your choices will affect how the NPC event plays out.
Tiny new details have been added everywhere across the map, and the seasonal events have been adjusted with new dialog and decorations too.
There is also an optional download that lets you try a totally remastered immersive farm, with a new layout and several secret areas. The map is a remaster of zanderb14’s Immersive Farm 2 map, which released earlier this year in January.
In all, this mod is absolutely massive and is perfect for returning players who want Stardew Valley to feel fresh and new again. New players will get an even better experience if they download this mod before trying out the game as well.
It’s already at almost 100K downloads on Nexus Mods at the time of writing, even though it only released in early April.
Wizard Style House
Add some magic to your farm with a new house sprite mod that makes your home look like it’s inhabited by witches and wizards.
The sprite changes with the four seasons, and adjusts the look of the greenhouse to match as well. It was created to be similar in style to the Wizard Tower located to the east of town.
It has a ‘Hagrid’s Hut’ vibe to it for sure.
Ship Anything
Ever wanted to ship all that extra furniture you have lying around on your farm? Spare rings, old weapons, or even drab wallpaper? This mod allows you to ship and therefore sell any item you want, not just crops, minerals and other basic items.
It’s sure to help you make the most money you can by getting rid of all your extra items you aren’t even using.
Colored Seeds
One of the most helpful mods out this past month, it changes all the colors of the seeds based on the season you can grow them in.
Now just based on looking you can quickly know exactly when a certain seed can be planted. Seeds that can be planted in multiple seasons will be split into multiple colors.
Spring seeds are light green, Summer seeds are pink, Autumn seeds are brown, and Winter seeds are blue.
New Crow Animals
With this mod, you are able to purchase crows as coop animals for the first time.
You can choose between two different color variants. Grey eyes, or normal red eyes that match the in-game crows.
Instead of eggs like the chickens, feathers like the ducks, or foot wool like the rabbits, crows will produce driftwood and broken glasses every so often. However, there is an optional file that allows you to change broken glasses to pearls if you want your crows to be a bit more profitable.
New Character, Shiko
It’s always fun to add a fresh face to Stardew Valley. This mod adds a new NPC named Shiko Takahashi, a retired model who moved from Zuzu City to Pelican Town for a quieter life.
She crashes in Gus’ Saloon for a place to sleep, and has her own unique schedule she follows every week.
You have to option to marry her if you want, and she comes with tons of custom icons showing off all her different emotions dependent on the situation.
Another New Character, Popuri
Following Shiko, another new character mod released last month is NPC towns-person Popuri.
She works at Harvey’s Clinic as a secretary, and can be married with her own special events and lines of dialog.
The actual character Popuri and the sprites used for her in this mod are actually from Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town where she is a eligible bachelorette NPC. In that game she lives on the poultry farm with her brother after her father left town to help her sick mother find treatment.
Hi-Res Portraits
This mod adds new hi-res portraits for all the NPCs in Stardew Valley. The portraits come in several different variations to showcase the emotions of the characters as they speak.
The new style is described as ‘bouncy, anime-like,’ and strives to add more detail to the original pixel sprites.
It was one of the most popular mods out last month, with almost 5,000 downloads at the time of writing.
Garden Pot Retexture
This retexture mod for the garden pots that Evelyn gives you comes in two colors: dark wood and white.
It’s a nice change because the base game garden pots tend to stand out a lot when you pair them with mods that changes the interior and exterior locations of your farm.
They have a very cutesy looks, and the new colors match with almost everything.
Interaction Tweaks
This mod adds a few tweaks to the way your character can interact within the world for the sake of efficiency. These changes include:
- Choosing between eating just one item or as much that are needed to gain full health and stamina.
- A new button in the carpenter menu for farm buildings allows you to buy missing stone and wood. The price of the building is increased accordingly.
- Can now see the values (damage, speed, etc.) of the weapons in your inventory to compare them to the ones at the Adventurer’s Guild.
- You can buy and sell your slingshot in the Adventurer’s guild.
- You can sell fishing rods at the fish shop.
- You can sell the items bought at Marnie’s ranch back to her.
These changes seems small, but they make the game that much easier to play without chancing any actual gameplay mechanics.
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