5 best Stardew Valley mods and how to download them

Players often compare Stardew Valley with Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Hokko Life. True, all three titles have a lot of similarities, however, mods give Stardew Valley an edge over its competitors.

From cheats to different farm layouts, or a portrait, there are tons of mods available on the internet right now, which work on several devices, including Windows, Android and even macOS.

ConcernedApe's farm simulator is a fantastic title and mods enhance its gameplay and add an element of surprise. With tons of mods available on the internet, the subsequent section will highlight how to mod the game and what are the best mods in 2021.

How to mod Stardew Valley

It is important to note that these mods don't work on consoles like Xbox and PlayStation but work perfectly fine on Android, Windows and macOS.

However, players need to put in a little effort for these mods to work. The aforementioned platforms require a loader called SMAPI, which is available on the official website.

Even though the mods are available all over the internet, two of the most popular websites are:

Best Stardew Valley mods available on the internet

1) Expanded

As the name suggests, Stardew Valley's expansion adds a ton of new features to the title, including new locations and new events.

Expanded mod expands the farm area in the game (Image via ConcernedApe)

It adds a total of 32 new locations, which is a significant expansion compared to titles like Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Hokko Life.

Not only does it expand the farm area, it also introduced an array of new events. You can download the mod here.

2) Gift taste

It isn't possible to marry or build a relationship with a character in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, something that has been heavily criticized.

In Stardew Valley, too, players struggle to level up relationships. Giving gifts is a way of pleasing the character but deciding on a gift is a struggle of its own.

Gift taste helper enables players to always gift what the character likes (Image via Nexus mods)

Gift Taste Helper displays what a character likes when players hover over them on their social page or birthday on the calendar. This makes maintaining relationships fairly easy in Stardew Valley.

3) NPC map locations

Players know how tough it is to locate a character when they have to initiate a conversation or give them a gift.

This mod allows players to locate every character in the game (Image via Nexus mods)

It's like looking for a pin in an ocean. The NPC map location mod, however, tells players exactly where the characters are.

4) Experience bars

This mod is truly a game changer. While enhancing a skill, players never know how far they are from their goal.

Experience bar informs players exactly how much time it will take to level up (Image via Nexus mods)

For instance, they never know if they have to catch 5 or 30 fish. The experience mod comes in handy in such situations.

Players can locate it in the top left corner of their screen, and it appears as a battery bar, indicating exactly how long it will take for players to level up in Stardew Valley.