Stardew Valley expansion mods add new towns, areas and characters without changing the game’s style. The most complete are Stardew Valley Expanded, Ridgeside Village, East Scarp (with its add-on Sword and Sorcery), Sunberry Village, Visit Mount Vapius and Cape Stardew. They all need SMAPI on PC (Windows, macOS, Linux or Steam Deck), and almost all of them can be combined with each other, according to their own pages. There are no mods on consoles. In this guide we go over what each expansion brings, what it requires and which ones it plays well with. To see only the must-haves in each category, check out our guide to the best Stardew Valley mods.
Before you install an expansion
- Game and SMAPI version. The current SMAPI version is 4.5.2, which requires Stardew Valley 1.6.14 or later. The latest game version on PC is 1.6.15 (as of October 2026). If you don’t have SMAPI yet, start with our guide to installing Stardew Valley mods.
- The common base. Almost every expansion requires Content Patcher and Farm Type Manager (FTM), and many also need SpaceCore. Always install the latest version of each framework, and only one copy.
- Backup. SMAPI keeps a daily backup of your saves in
Mods/SaveBackup, but it’s a good idea to make your own as well before adding a big expansion. - Language. Almost none include Spanish in the main file. Community translations are published separately on Nexus Mods and must match your version of the mod.
The big expansions compared
| Expansion | What it adds | Version | Requirements besides SMAPI |
|---|---|---|---|
| SVE | 28 NPCs, 58 locations, 278 events and 43 fish | 1.15.11 (97.6 MB) | Content Patcher and Farm Type Manager |
| Ridgeside Village | A town with 50+ NPCs, romances, shops and festivals | 2.5.17 (53.1 MB) | Content Patcher, Custom Companions, Farm Type Manager and SpaceCore |
| East Scarp | A town with marriageable NPCs, 100+ events and areas like Lore’s Cove | 3.0.9 (38.9 MB) | Seven: CP, FTM, SpaceCore, MEEP and three tilesheets |
| Sword and Sorcery | Three romances, five spellcasting skills and a 30-floor dungeon | 2.3.10 (68.4 MB) | East Scarp, SpaceCore, MEEP and Lumisteria Tilesheets |
| Sunberry Village | A town south of Pelican Town, 15+ NPCs and 80+ events | 1.1.2 (13.8 MB) | Six, including Custom Companions and Item Extensions |
| Visit Mount Vapius | The village of Glimsap, a market, a nature reserve with a museum and bundles | 2.0.0 (11.2 MB) | Nine frameworks |
| Cape Stardew | A coastal region with 38+ maps, sea caves and two NPCs | 7.2.8 (11.0 MB) | CP, FTM, SpaceCore and Unlockable Bundles |
| Downtown Zuzu | Zuzu City, a resort, an airport and marriageable NPCs (in beta) | 0.9.4 (111.7 MB) | Six, including Mail Framework Mod and BusLocations |
The big town expansions
Stardew Valley Expanded
Stardew Valley Expanded, by FlashShifter, is the most popular expansion. It enlarges the valley and redesigns areas you already know, with 28 NPCs, 58 locations, 278 events, 43 fish and new music. It comes with optional farms in separate files, such as Frontier Farm, the one the author recommends. Since 1.14.25 it no longer uses frameworks like SpaceCore or Shop Tile Framework, so it only requires Content Patcher and Farm Type Manager. For 1.15 the author recommends a new save. If you add it to an existing save, you’ll have to reset trees, bushes and debris in outdoor areas, except on your farm.
Ridgeside Village
Ridgeside Village adds a mountain town with more than 50 NPCs, marriage candidates, shops, festivals, quests and its own music. It’s the best option for an existing save, because since 2.2.5 it has a progressive mode that keeps all the events from hitting you at once. It requires four frameworks: Content Patcher, Custom Companions, Farm Type Manager (FTM) and SpaceCore. The authors advise against installing it with managers like Vortex. Its latest update is from November 2024. Its world map is still in beta.
East Scarp and Sword and Sorcery
East Scarp, by LemurKat and a large group of contributors, was remade in 3.0 (East Scarp Remastered). It adds characters such as Dale, Edith or Jasper, more than 100 events and areas like Deep Mountains or Lore’s Cove. It has the most requirements: MEEP, HxW Tilesheets, Lumisteria Tilesheets – Indoor and Lumisteria Tilesheets – Outdoor, on top of the base. Built on it is Sword and Sorcery, by DestyNova: a fantasy expansion with three romance candidates (Mateo, Hector and Cirrus), five new skills (artificer, druid, bard, sorcerer and paladin) and The Deep Dark, a 30-floor dungeon with a final boss. It doesn’t work without East Scarp.
Sunberry Village
Sunberry Village, by skellady and sophiesalacia, was released in March 2025. It adds a town south of Pelican Town with more than 15 NPCs, more than 80 events, its own mines, a clothing shop and a cat café. It’s one of the strictest about the game version, because it requires 1.6.15. It doesn’t work on mobile. When updating it, delete the previous version first.
Visit Mount Vapius
Lumisteria Visit Mount Vapius takes you to Mount Vapius and the village of Glimsap, with a twice-weekly market, an inn, caves and a nature reserve with a museum. You can date Gavin and Helia, although you can’t marry Gavin. It requires nine frameworks, including BETAS, Item Extensions and Unlockable Bundles. If you’re coming from an older version, 2.0.0 adds two new requirements (BETAS and Custom Museum Framework).
Downtown Zuzu
Downtown Zuzu takes you to Zuzu City, the city the protagonist comes from: a mall, Joja headquarters, a nightclub, a resort and an airport, with more than 20 music tracks. It’s still in early beta, with unfinished areas, and hasn’t been updated since November 2024.
Area and adventure expansions
If you don’t want a whole town, these expansions are smaller and usually easier to add to a save you already have:
- Cape Stardew: a coastline with sea caves, five tougher monsters, two NPCs (Annetta and Jelli), secret notes and hidden rooms.
- Stardew Aquarium: an aquarium and a beach you reach by train. You donate fish to fill the tanks and unlock rewards. It can be added or removed at any time and accepts fish from SVE, Ridgeside and East Scarp.
- DeepWoods: a randomly generated forest, with wood as the main resource and increasingly strong monsters. It only requires SMAPI and is designed for the late game.
- Adventurer’s Guild Expanded for 1.6: turns Marlon’s guild into the center of a story, with more than 30 events, romanceable NPCs and a friendly monster that can live on your farm.
- Community Center Reimagined: brings the restored Community Center to life, with villager gatherings on rainy days, a classroom for the kids and cooking classes. It pairs well with Kid’s Treehouse, a treehouse for Jas and Vincent that’s only 13 KB.
New NPCs without installing a whole expansion
If you just want new faces in town, there are single-character mods. You’ll find more in the character mods section.
- Jorts and Jean the Helper Cats – New Custom NPCs: two talking, pro-union, anti-Joja cats with schedules all over town. If you have Ridgeside, Sunberry or East Scarp, they add visits and events.
- Mister Ginger (cat NPC): a ginger cat who follows Jas around. At 10 hearts he can move in with you as a roommate, but it’s not a romance.
- Lurking in the Dark: Sen: a shadow creature who moves in under the East Scarp inn, with 9 story events. Requires East Scarp.
- Nora The Herpetologist (East Scarp): a hard-of-hearing herpetologist who lives in East Scarp, with about 14 events. You can date her, but not marry her.
- Always Raining in the Valley – Custom NPCs for Sunberry: three NPCs for Sunberry Village. The author warns that it deals with heavy themes, such as addiction.
So the original villagers don’t fall behind, Canon-Friendly Dialogue Expansion adds about 4,400 lines of dialogue true to the game’s tone and Events Expansion adds 24 events between villagers.
Compatibility: which expansions can be combined
This is what the mods’ own pages state:
- East Scarp states it’s compatible with SVE, Ridgeside Village, Sunberry Village, Downtown Zuzu and Visit Mount Vapius. It’s probably not compatible with Seven Deadly Sins or Uncanny Valley.
- Ridgeside Village includes fixes in its changelog for coexisting with SVE (at festivals, for example) and with East Scarp.
- Sunberry Village: its authors say it should be compatible with everything, and they mention SVE, Ridgeside, East Scarp and Visit Mount Vapius.
- Visit Mount Vapius has specific compatibility with East Scarp and Sunberry Village.
- Sword and Sorcery works with SVE and Ridgeside, according to its author. It tends to cause problems with PolyamorySweet.
- Cape Stardew and Adventurer’s Guild Expanded state they’re compatible with SVE. AGE is also compatible with Ridgeside and fixes its compatibility with East Scarp.
- Community Center Reimagined works with SVE if you turn off its rainy-day schedules or enable the option that replaces SVE’s map with its own.
- DeepWoods lists SVE as compatible, but crashes with Save Anywhere.
Several expansions share frameworks. For example, Custom Companions is required by Ridgeside, Sunberry, Stardew Aquarium and Downtown Zuzu, and Unlockable Bundles by Cape Stardew and Visit Mount Vapius. One copy of each, in its latest version, is enough. If an expansion asks for one you already have, don’t duplicate it.
Expansions in multiplayer
According to the official wiki guide, mods that add NPCs, areas or items must be installed by every player, in the same version. Expansions are no exception: if the host plays with SVE and Ridgeside, farmhands need the same mods and their frameworks. On top of that, some have their own limitations:
- In Sword and Sorcery, the boss fight is locked so only one player can take it on at a time.
- DeepWoods works online, but not in split-screen.
- In Sen, farmhands have to wait for the host to finish the story.
We explain this in more detail in our guide to Stardew Valley multiplayer mods.
Mobile and consoles
There are no mods on Switch, PlayStation, Xbox or iOS. On Android there’s only SMAPI for Android, an unofficial, experimental port. Not all expansions port equally well:
- Ridgeside Village built in mobile support in 2.5.2.
- Stardew Aquarium works; there, donations are made from a shop-style menu.
- Adventurer’s Guild Expanded added Android support in 2.3.2.
- East Scarp probably doesn’t work 100%.
- Sunberry Village doesn’t work on mobile.
If you want to try it, first read our guide to Stardew Valley mods on Android and consoles.
Tips for a new save with expansions
- Start with just one. Install the main expansion and its requirements, open a test save and check the SMAPI console. If any red errors show up, fix them before going on.
- Add the rest one at a time. That way you’ll know which mod is failing if something breaks.
- Pick the right moment for each one. SVE wants a new save, Ridgeside has a progressive mode and Stardew Aquarium can be added at any time. DeepWoods, on the other hand, is best left for when you’re further along.
- Watch out for translations. A translation made for an old version can leave text in English or cause errors.
- Update carefully. Sunberry and AGE ask you to delete the previous version before copying in the new one. Don’t update an expansion mid-season without backing up your save first.
If you’re looking for more content, there’s the full list of Stardew Valley expansions and all the mods compatible with 1.6.
Pair this guide with our pick of Stardew Valley quality of life and UI mods.
Frequently asked questions
Can I play with SVE and Ridgeside Village at the same time?
Yes. Ridgeside has specific fixes for SVE and East Scarp states it’s compatible with both, so many people play with all three. Install each one’s requirements and start a new save, because SVE recommends it.
What’s the best expansion for an existing save?
Ridgeside Village, thanks to its progressive mode, or small expansions like Stardew Aquarium, which can be added or removed at any time. SVE can be added, but you have to reset the outdoor terrain.
Do expansions come in Spanish?
Almost never out of the box. Kid’s Treehouse includes Spanish since 1.7.1 and Stardew Aquarium comes with its translation. For the big ones, like SVE, Ridgeside or East Scarp, you have to download the translation separately on Nexus Mods.
Do I need SpaceCore for Stardew Valley Expanded?
No. Since 1.14.25, SVE only requires SMAPI, Content Patcher and Farm Type Manager. Ridgeside, East Scarp, Cape Stardew and others do need it, so you’ll probably end up installing it anyway.
Can I install expansions on Switch or PS5?
No. Stardew Valley doesn’t support mods on consoles or iOS. They can only be used on PC and Steam Deck, and experimentally on Android.