Installing Mods

It is incredibly easy to mod Stardew Valley thanks to the hard work of the community's dedicated modders. This page contains a quick overview for people who are intimidated by the idea of any kind of modding, but we promise that modding is safe, easy, and fun - provided you use Smapi.

Official walkthrough

Detailed instructions can be found on the official wiki. Especially helpful if you want to install on a Mac or Linux, have questions about installation folders, want more information about smapi, etc.

Basic walkthrough

1. Install Smapi.
2. Pick out some fun mods! Good places to start are NexusMods and ModDrop.
3. Pay attention if the mod you're downloading has requirements. This means you need additional mods to make it run properly. Just download those mods as well.
4. The mods you downloaded should all be in zip, rar, or some other file container format. Extract them to the Mods folder in your Stardew Valley folder. Leave folder and file names exactly the way they are when you extract them.
   1. If the file is a .rar and you don't know what that is, it's just like a .zip but made by a different program. Download 7zip to open it and extract the contents.
   2. Do NOT put the zip files in the Mods folder, and do NOT use an option to create a new folder with the same name as the zip file. Just "extract here" or "extracts to Stardew Valley\Mods"
5. Run Stardew Valley using StardewModdingAPI.exe, which will be in your Stardew Valley folder after installing smapi.
   1. If you are on Steam, this means you will need to edit the launch path. See the official wiki for specific instructions.

That's it! Once you've done it successfully, you'll be amazed you ever thought it was hard.

FAQ

What if I have a save that I don't want to use mods on?

No problem! Run Stardew Valley normally (that is, via "Stardew Valley.exe" instead of "StardewModdingAPI.exe") and you won't have any mods. Using Smapi means all of your original game data is untouched and mods only load when you run them through Smapi.

If you're interested in other options for how to play a save without mods after installing, check out the tutorial on Switching between modded and vanilla (no mods).

Can I use different mods for different saves?

Yes, but it's slightly complicated and you'll have to remember which save goes with what. The easiest way is to create several folders named something like "Mods_Farm1", "Mods_Farm2", etc. Then, depending on which save you're planning to play, rename the corresponding folder to just "Mods". Smapi will use whichever folder is named "Mods" to decide which mods to load.

Note: This also applies if you have the same mods but different configurations.

If you're interested in other options for how to switch mods between saves, the other wiki has instructions on setting up modgroups.

This mod has options! How do I change them?

Check out Configuring Mods for more information.