Recommendations: Creative Difficulty Mods

A list of mods that make the game more difficult in more interesting ways than just increasing or decreasing stats. Some of these have not been tested in 1.5, so check the comments and be careful if installing them into an existing game.

Farming

Watering Grants Experience And Crops Can Wither

Author: Goldenrevolver

Watering Grants Experience And Crops Can Wither, as the name suggests, adds the possibility for crops to wither and die if not watered either by rain or by the player. You can configure how many days it'll take without watering before they'll die.

Animals Die - Old Age - Hunger - Illness

Author: Goldenrevolver

Animals Die - Old Age - Hunger - Illness adds the possibility that farm animals can die by various means, both preventable and unpreventable. Has additional functionality if Animals Need Water is also installed.

Animals Need Water

Author: GZhynko

Animals Need Water adds functionality to the water troughs in barns and coops so that animals will lose friendship if they aren't provided with fresh water each day.

Balanced Valley

Author: o0MrPro

Balanced Valley includes different balance modes; in particular, the "deadline mode" changes crops so that the player must plant only on the first day of the season and harvest on the last day of the season, and removes crop regrowth. (note: works but requires Shop Tile Framework).

Note: The mod's last updated was 2022. It is still playable in 1.6, but has some bugs. Please see mod post discussion for further information.

Seed Shop Progression Mod

Author: 9br3

Seed Shop Progression Mod changes Pierre's shop menu so that he only has a small selection of seeds in Year 1 and improves his stock over time.

Farm Fresh Produce

Author: zombifier'

Farm Fresh Produce rewards you for selling items the same day as you harvest, instead of hoarding them, and sets seasonal goals that encourage a variety of planting over minmaxing.

Friendships

Gift Decline

Author: desto / JustToDownloadThings

Gift Decline changes the gifting system so that townspeople will like gifts less if they are given the same thing too often, requiring the player to be creative in what you gift people.

Enhanced Relationships

Author: Mizzion

Enhanced Relationships (Nexus) / (ModDrop) makes gaining friendship more difficult by increasing the friendship decay rate and adding a loss of friendship points if you don't give someone a gift on their birthday.

Friendship Decay

Author: stardemod

https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/21323 Friendship Decay triples friendship decay and removes decay stopping at max hearts.

Food

Allergies

Author: BarleyZP

BarleyZP's Allergies makes you allergic to certain foods, depending on which allergens you choose. Many custom food mods are tagged with allergens for compatibility!

The Love of Cooking

Author: blueberry

The Love of Cooking overhauls the cooking system in many regards, but also adds the frying pan as a new tool that needs to be upgraded in order to access higher-level recipes, makes food heal over time instead of instantaneously, and adds the chance of burning food at low skill levels.

Spice of Life

Author: KarratKake

Spice of Life reduces stamina gains from foods eaten too frequently, so that you have to vary your diet in order to gain maximum benefits.

Farm Maps

Small Beach Farm

Author: Pathoschild

Small Beach Farm adds a tiny beach map with a river mouth where both ocean and river fish can be caught.

Tiny Beach Farm for 1.6

Author: Dximafe and puchiyang

Tiny Beach Farm has a small area for farming and no greenhouse.

Micro Farm

Author: StarMoon7

Micro Farm is juuuust large enough for a barn, coop, fish pond and greenhouse, plus a small plot for crops.

Permafrost Farm

Author: rkpiotr

Permafrost Farm is a small farm in perpetual winter, so only winter crops will grow, animals will not go outside, and grass won't grow.

An Utterly Atrocious Farm

Author: deleted203499311

An Utterly Atrocious Farm is mostly made of twisted paths to get anywhere, including your one tile of farmland. Have fun!

Combat

Custom Death Penalty Plus

Author: MightyAmondee

Custom Death Penalty Plus (Nexus) / (ModDrop) allows for customisation of the penalty of dying in the mines, Skull Cavern, or volcano, including the option for friendship loss with Harvey and Maru, applying a random debuff, and adding more potential places to wake up other than the clinic or the mines.

Boss Battles

Author: Nature

Boss Battles adds fights in the mines against several powerful monsters.

Personal

Cacti Hurt You

Author: CatCattyCat

Cacti Hurt You (Nexus) / (ModDrop) changes cacti so that you lose health if you run into or interact with one.

Starksouls

Author: FenrirAsonda

Starksouls makes the farmer's health and stamina keep the same values from the day's end in the next day rather than returning to full. The amount of health/stamina recovered is configurable, as is the amount of health/stamina recovered after dying.

Stardew Survival Project

Author: FenrirAsonda

Stardew Survival Project adds various realism mechanics to Stardew Valley such as thirst, hunger, body temperature, and a HP rework.

Other

Hardew Valley (Hard Mode - Plan smart - Risk it all - QoL)

Author: Juanpa98ar

Hardew Valley has options to change the majority of statistics to make the game more difficult.

Challenging Community Center Bundles

Author: Alvadea & Jaksha6472

Challenging Community Center Bundles (Nexus) / (ModDrop) edits the Community Center bundles for increased challenge.

Ferngill Revenue Service - A Taxes and Bills Mod

Author: KarratKake

Ferngill Revenue Service adds a tax system that taxes the player based on your income, your water bill (calculated from the number of sprinklers), and your electricity bill (calculated from the size of your farmhouse, the number of farm buildings, and the number of machines).

Crowcalypse

Author: stardemod

Crowcalypse adds a daily horde of crows who steal anything not nailed down.

Custom Dungeon Floors Updated

Author: aedenthorn and ADumbBagel

Custom Dungeon Floors Updated makes it possible to configure many aspects of the mines and Skull Caverns, including how often monster floors spawn, how many monsters will be present on each dungeon floor, and how many gems, nodes and ores will spawn.

More Random Edition (Randomizer)

Author: Chikakoo, doomdonuts & Tooshi

More Random Edition (Randomizer) randomises many elements of the game, including randomised bundle sets, crafting recipes, crops, item trees, and more.

Restauranteer Continued

Author: aedenthorn and CyanFire

Restauranteer Continued lets you work part-time in the Stardrop Saloon as a short-order cook, fulfilling patron food orders for coins, friendship points, and cooking proficiency.

Project Danger Weather

Author: kath40

Project Danger Weather adds a variety of daily weather-related effects and debuffs.