currently using
ui changes
- Custom Menu Background: I love keeping this on the random setting and getting a totally different menu background every time I boot up the game.
- Script Font: Pretty font! Probably harder to read, but pretty!
- Dialogue Box Redesign: Removes the dialogue box in favor of floating dialogue text & character portraits, so you can see more of the screen while talking to someone. I find this especially useful when playing on my Steam Deck, because the dialogue box normally covers up a lot of the already-small screen.
qol features
- Generic Mod Config Menu: Really useful if you play with any mods that have configuration options.
- NPC Map Locations: I can’t be bothered to remember all the NPC schedules, so it’s nice to be able to see where they are on the minimap if I need to find someone.
- Deluxe Journal: I love to-do lists in video games. It’s a little annoying using this on a Steam Deck, but a nice mod regardless. You can write down tasks and notes to show on the screen with an overlay (which you can quickly toggle on/off), but the best part to me is the “smart” tasks — for example, you can make a task to “gather 500 wood” and it’ll keep track of how much wood you’ve gathered automatically to check the task off when you’ve completed it.
- Daily screenshot: Saves automatic screenshots of your farm at configurable intervals — I’m not sure how well this will work when I play on my Steam Deck, but I’d like to try setting it up to take weekly or monthly screenshots so I can look back and see the progression of my farm.
recolors & retextures
- Vibrant Pastoral Redrawn: I have nothing against the look of vanilla Stardew, but this is a lot easier on the eyes to me. This recolor also covers interiors and minimaps, and adds some seasonal holiday decor to a few buildings as a nice bonus touch.
- DaisyNiko’s Earthy Interface: I really like the DaisyNiko mods too, but since I’m using Vibrant Pastoral right now I figured I’d just go for the interface recolor.
- Simple Foliage + 1.6 update: Just some retextures that I like for trees and bushes and stuff. It supports a bunch of recolors, including the one I’m using now.
buildings
- Some Building Edits - Seasonal: Slightly different versions of all the farm buildings, with some cute seasonal decorations.
animals
I’ve always liked Elle’s animal sprites and how many different options there are so you can get the exact kind of cat or horse or duck or whatever you want. These seem to be new versions of the old mods that have something to do with a 1.6 “skins” feature that I don’t know anything about, so I guess I’ll try them out and see what happens.
- Elle’s Cuter Barn Animals
- Elle’s Cuter Coop Animals
- Elle’s Cuter Horses
- Elle’s Cuter Cats
- Elle’s Cuter Trinkets
characters
- Seasonal Outfits: This mod gives all the NPCs a bunch of new outfits so they can wear seasonally-appropriate or festival-specific clothes, in both the sprites and portraits.
- Nyapu’s Portraits + Seasonal Outfits: Some very cute character portraits that I like, plus some additions that work with the seasonal outfits mod above.
clothes
- Fashion Sense: Usually required to install if you’re gonna use any clothing or farmer appearance mods.
might use
ui changes
- Portraited Changing Skies: Obviously incomptabile with the dialogue box redesign above — I’ve never used this, but adding the current weather conditions to the character portraits is such a cute idea! I’ll probably try this at some point later.
recolors & retextures
- DaisyNiko’s Earthy Recolor: There are a lot of pretty nice-looking map recolors, but this is the one I tend to go for because it’s been extended to the interiors, minimaps, and game UI so everything feels nice and cohesive.
characters
- Ohodavi’s Anime Portraits + Seasonal Outfits: This is another portrait option I like — less cutesy than the Nyapu one.
item sprites
- DSHi Item Retextures: Stardew’s item sprites are already fine imo, but these ones look pretty nice too — and I appreciate that they’ve done just about every item in the game, because I think if you’re gonna use mods like this you might as well be as consistent as possible. It’s kinda weird when some items look way different from others.
- Lux’s Sprites: These food sprites are gorgeous 😭
clothes
- Shardust’s Animated Hairstyles: So unnecessary but also so fun.
- LooneyLuny Mods: Lots of other very cute fashion mods that I haven’t tried yet but might take a look at.
- Animated Cozy Scarf
- Basic Cape and Oversized Hood
- FFXIV Paladin Cape: “I created this for my friend so his Paladin oath could be extended to Stardew Valley.” (cute lol)