STARDEW VALLEY
EXPANDED
BringingsurprisesbacktoStardew.ByLaurenMorton
A good view from
the top of the valley.
EXTRA LIFE
NOW PLAYING I UPDATE I MOD SPOTLIGHT (^) I HOW TO I DIARY I WHY I LOVE I REINSTALL I M U S T P L A Y
though, I quickly find myself lost.
The mod doesn’t just add new areas,
it reimagines existing ones.
FORAGING FOR FRIENDS
I walk through town, looking for
fresh new faces, and am almost
immediately turned around. Like a
stair step that’s just a quarter inch too
short, I feel myself suddenly off
balance. I walk into the house that
Alex the athlete shares with his
grandparents, dumbfounded because
I thought I was at Mayor Lewis’
place. It takes a few circuits of the
townformetofindmybearingsand
get used to the new layout.
I introduce myself to the pink-
haired young woman named Sophia
who seems to run a winery west of
the beach. I find Andy, a local forage
farmer who is apparently a fan of the
local JojaMart and sporting a blue
Joja cap to prove it. Beside Pierre’s
grocery store is a huge new house
with a gate where a young man
named Victor and his mother Olivia
live. Victor has just returned from
university and hasn’t landed a job yet
while his mother is a retired Joja Co
bigwig. Susan, another local farmer,
lives up north by the train tracks.
At first glance, all of Stardew
Valley Expanded’s new characters
have their archetypes cranked up to
- Compared with Stardew’s main
cast, who represent slightly more
timeless expressions of tropes, SVE’s
new characters are a bit more extra.
Cute but shy Sophia is a pink-
haired, choker-wearing cosplay
W
hen I installed the
Stardew Valley
Expanded mod, I
hadn’t played Stardew
in several months. I’d
yet to try the enormous ‘everything’
update that added a plethora of
new items, crops, clothes and bug
fixes. If I were to succinctly explain
SVE’s level of quality: I didn’t know
the difference between what had
been added in the official update,
and what was part of the mod.Stardew Valley Expanded, true to its
name, does what a proper expansion
can for any other game. It adds new
characters, new locations, events, and
feels like it could have been a part of
Stardew Valley from the start.
I start a new farm and, having
apparently evaporated every ounce of
creativity in my body, name it the
Expanded farm. I’ll remember which
is my modded save file, at least. After
all the usual introductions, I plant my
allotted starting parsnip plants and
immediately set out hunting down
SVE’s new townsfolk.
One of the first quests in Stardew
Valley is introducing yourself to all
the locals. My first day of SVE,QUALITY PEARS Mods to go with Stardew Valley Expanded
SEASONAL
VILLAGER OUTFITS
For a bit of flavour, this
mod changes every NPC’s
outfit for each season.
No more cold shoulders
in winter!DYNAMIC
NIGHT TIME
This mod gives a more
varied light cycle to
Stardew with dawn and
dusk lighting at their
appropriate times.CLIMATES
OF FERNGILL
The climates mod adds
new weather patterns and
types, including blizzards
and something called
‘thundersnow’.NPC MAP
LOCATIONS
You’ll never lose track of
a character you need to
talk to with their face on
your map showing where
to find them.THE MOD
DOESN’T JUST
ADD NEW AREAS, IT
REIMAGINES
EXISTING ONES