Must Have Mods?

[Donald j. Trump]

Starting to mod the game. What should I get?

[Sstavix]

In my experience, it is best to play through the game at least once without mods. Even so, it is hard to pass on the one that adds an elevator to the Skull Cavern. If there is such a thing as a "must have" mod, it would be that one.

[CalhounMKZ]

Any mods that you want. Unlike a Bethesda title where the first 40-50 mods are usually bug fixes there is no need for that level of mods in Stardew Valley.

[EleventhStar]

UI info suite 2 is a huge QoL increase, but ofc QoL usually detracts from slight rough edges that give authenticity.

[Suzaku]

Definitely a fan of Stardew Valley Expanded, Automate, and Lookup Anything.

[Bruce]

A list of all my mods follows. The ones marked with asterisks are "must haves" in my opinion. Don't forget that you also need SMAPI for all of these and Content Patcher for a few of them.

*Automate
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/1063

Automatic Gates
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/3109

Better Ranching
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/859

Better Watering Can And Hoe
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/23946

*Billboard (Calendar and Help Wanted) Anywhere
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/492

Canon-Friendly Dialogue Extension
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/2544

*Chests Anywhere
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/518

*CJB Cheats Menu
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/4

CJB Show Item Sell Price
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/5

*Combat Controls
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/2590

*Generic Mod Config Menu
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/5098

GMCM Options — accommodates complex options (To-Dew)
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/10505

Gift Taste Helper Continued X2
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/21001

*Lookup Anything
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/541

Loved Labels Redux
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/8880

MixedBag's Tilesheets (works with Vibrant Pastoral Redrawn)
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/15707

*Mouse Move Mode
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/2614

*NPC Map Locations
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/239

Simple Crop Label
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/314

Skip Intro
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/533

Stardew Notifications
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/4713

*TimeSpeed
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/169

To-Dew
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/7409

Tractor Mod
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/1401

Vibrant Pastoral Redrawn
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/6367

*Yet Another Fishing Mod
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/20391

Here's a plus: All of these have been updated this year, have been installed in conjunction with the latest SV game version, and none appear to conflict with each other. (Except for alphanumeric keyboard shortcuts from other mods activating when typing words in a couple of the mods, but that can be worked around.)

The only one that I can't personally vouch for is Tractor Mod. I have not earned the privilege yet! But, that seems to be a very popular mod and is quite reliable.

Correction: Combat Controls has not been updated since 2021. However, it still appears to work. This is the mod that you want if you are using a mouse and you wish your character to face in the direction of where you are clicking before performing an action. The designer intended it for combat, and it certainly works for that, but I found that it's great for hoeing and fishing, too! (There is a newer version for this, tagged "Redux," but that author includes some other features that I consider to be unnecessary complications.)

[BirbNotBird]

Visible Fish, Upgrade Empty Cabin, Non destructible NPCs

There are plenty that helps your experience.

[Wolfox]

I can recommend this one, my new favourite
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/29818
it lets you transmute all kinds of quality stuff like crops for making more profitable artisan goods

[76561198228000512]

> Automate (huge time space saver)
> Better crafting (allows you to sort recipes by not crafted yet, which saves you the time to mouse over everything)
> Chests anywhere (this mod alone saves you so much time and gold)
> CJB cheats (just in case and/or if you hate certain mechanics)
> Data layers (where can i plant rice? is this crop safe from corws? can the bee hive reach this flower? can i walk through those hidden tiles?)
> Lookup anything (checks item uses, gift tastes, if i need it for quests, crop status, etc.)
> Tractor (how did i play so many modded runs without this?)
>> Pony weight loss (for tractor, i never used the actual horse)
> any mods that spare me a visit to stardew predictor

[lov3_yourz]

mod equals cheating dude

[BirbNotBird]

引用自 lov3_yourz：

mod equals cheating dude

Some is, some not. Like cosmetics mods.

Simplified it down misses the nuances and present you as individual lacking wisdom.

Then again, should you really care about cheating in single player game, or even advise other people how to play?

[Joe da Immortal]

Seasonal Cute Characters, and Canon Friendly Dialogue Expansion are my favorites.
Simple Crop Label, Better Ranching, and Skull Cavern Elevator are helpful.

[Bruce]

I am reading about Skull Cavern. I have not been there yet except for the taste of it that you get by accepting a challenge at the Desert Carnival. One Reddit thread is titled "Are the Skull Caverns supposed to be this impossible?"

If it's that tough, I figure to add to my list above the Skull Cavern Elevator. But first, I will try the Warp to Location feature in CJB Cheats Menu; in it, you can start at any level of Skull Cavern. Perhaps I can gather my goods that way, with a taste of hard combat instead of a long and frustrating slog.

For, and this is no aspersion to die-hard (literally) players, but I play games to have fun, not be frustrated. I enjoy a mild challenge but when a game designer throws in a feature to suit such players, I don't enjoy banging my head against a (cave) wall.

And to the moralists who perceive some of these mods to be cheats: You play the game your way, and I will play it mine. What difference? Do I or you rate manhood on whether one can conquer Skull Cavern unaided? If so, we need to get a real life.

[Bruce]

In answer to my own post above, oh yeah. After a random visit to a level in Skull Cavern where the mummies don't stay dead, I am convinced. One way or the other I will avail myself of assistance, but I will probably start with the elevator mod because warp to location seems too "easy."

House rules, you see? You can pick and choose which mods to use and when to use them and, in the case of CJB Cheats Menu, you can ignore some offered features altogether. You get to a point where you say, "That seems fair." All in all, I am very happy with my Stardew Valley mod management.

[human resource]

I only use a handful so far but they've already made the game so much more enjoyable.

1. [CP] Combat Made Easy Suite. Because I really don't like the way combat works in this game or the fact it's there at all, really. Allows you to scale incoming and outgoing damage any way you like and also has some added optional quality-of-life changes such as making furnaces faster or allowing Clint to sell iridium ore. The game often feels like it loves to waste as much of my time as possible even with all of these tweaks enabled, but it helps.

2. NoFenceDecayUpdated. Because f*** having to micromanage hundreds of tiles of mostly decorative fences on top of everything else the game expects me to micromanage.

3. NPCMapLocations. I'd rather not waste precious time trying to figure out where the NPC I have an item for could be hiding right now when I have roughly 70 other things I should be doing if I want to afford some of the late game items before I die of old age in real life.

4. TimeSpeed. This one's just blatant cheating, it allows you to set how fast the game clock ticks so I mostly use it to give myself SLIGHTLY more time to get everything done. You can also pause the clock entirely (without blocking most actions or events). It doesn't COMPLETELY break the game though because when the clock is stopped it also pauses any machines, but if you use it subtly it makes the game feel a lot less hectic if that's what you want. I know I do.

[Korhal]

Id say, do not download Stardew Expanded. Not because its bad or otherwise, but the game is already big enough and fun, while STE kinda "blows" the game out of proportion and it makes it more like a job in certain ways. I personally also do not like certain elements of the mod, yet I can see, why people want more of the "Stardew"-feeling all in all. At least for a first try, I would vote against it, but you may read about it on nexus or look up a few vids on youtube, whats the mod all about. If you although like more places, you could also check out "Ridgeside Village" or "East Scarp".