Stardew Valley romance mods do four things: let you marry new characters, give you longer romances with the game’s singles, change the courtship rules, and bring your spouse and kids to life after the wedding. Among the most popular are Maggs Immersive Sebastian, Romanceable Rasmodia, Platonic Relationships, Immersive Spouses and Unique Children. They all need SMAPI, almost all need Content Patcher, and they work on PC and Steam Deck with version 1.6. Here they’re sorted by what you want to achieve, with the conflicts worth knowing about.
How romance works without mods
It helps to remember the base game’s rules, because many mods change them. According to the official wiki:
- With bachelors and bachelorettes, the friendship meter caps at 8 hearts until you give them the bouquet, which Pierre sells for 200g. That starts the dating stage and unlocks hearts 9 and 10.
- To propose, you need the Mermaid’s Pendant (5,000g), sold by the Old Mariner on the beach on rainy days. First you have to repair the beach bridge, upgrade your house at least once and reach 10 hearts.
- The wedding takes place three days after the proposal.
- Divorce costs 50,000g and is handled at the Mayor’s house.
Changing the courtship rules
- Platonic Relationships (1.5.2): reach 10 hearts with any single without dating them. You still need the bouquet to date and marry, and the romantic 10-heart events only trigger with your partner. Requires 1.6.15 and SMAPI 4.1.10.
- Reverse Proposal (2.0.1): when you reach 8 hearts, the character asks you out, in a scene of its own. For now it only works with the bachelors; the pre-date is only with Sebastian and Alex.
- Wedding Tweaks (0.4.1): changes the number of days between the proposal and the wedding (3 by default), invites villagers as witnesses from 6 hearts, and adds commands to check or cancel a pending wedding.
- Unique Courtship Response CORE: a base that lets each character respond with their own lines to the bouquet, the pendant, a pregnancy or an adoption. It does nothing on its own; you’ll install it because another mod asks for it.
Longer romances with the game’s singles
- Maggs Immersive Sebastian Romance Core (5.0.33): a story-focused Sebastian romance expansion with a reverse confession and proposal, its own wedding and dates after you marry. It comes in three versions: Slow Burn (at least two and a half years, requires a new save), Speed Run (can be completed in the first year) and Lite (for saves with multiple spouses). It requires SpaceCore, Generic Mod Config Menu, Custom Tokens and ScriptCommandPlus, except for Lite.
- Immersive Characters – Shane (3.0.4): around 380 new lines and more than 200 marriage lines, reworked events and a schedule of his own. His tastes change as he recovers. It deals with alcoholism and depression, and with SVE you have to turn off several options.
- Canon-Friendly Dialogue Expansion: about 4,400 new lines for the 34 villagers with hearts, including about 50 marriage lines spread across the spouses and Krobus. It doesn’t remove the original lines and can be configured per character.
If you’d rather the villagers pair up with each other, Life Cycle – Rival Heart Events creates nine couples (Penny and Sam, Maru and Harvey, Haley and Leah…) with events and an optional wedding. Keep in mind that, in practice, it stops you from marrying those characters.
New characters to marry
The big expansions bring their own candidates: Stardew Valley Expanded, Ridgeside Village, East Scarp, Sword and Sorcery (three romances) and Downtown Zuzu. In Sunberry Village you can add candidates with add-on mods. If you don’t want a whole expansion, there are standalone characters:
| Mod | Character | Marriage? | Extra requirements |
|---|---|---|---|
| Romanceable Rasmodia | The Wizard turned into a witch | Yes, with SVE or Romanceable Rasmodius | Cross-Mod Compatibility Tokens |
| Lurking in the Dark | Sen, a shadow being | Yes, or living together | East Scarp Remastered |
| Nora The Herpetologist | Nora, a herpetologist | Romance without marriage | East Scarp |
| Always Raining in the Valley | Sterling, Mia and Henry | Yes, with Sterling | Sunberry Village and Unlockable Bundles |
| Mister Ginger | A ginger cat | No: roommate at 10 hearts | Lumisteria Tilesheets – Outdoor |
A few important details. Rasmodia completely replaces the original Wizard, and you shouldn’t install SVE and Romanceable Rasmodius together. Sen has a platonic option and a pacifist mode, but can cause errors with Polyamory Sweet and Free Love. Always Raining in the Valley deals with heavy themes such as addiction and suicidal ideation. You’ll find more characters in the character mods section and in the expansion mods guide.
Life after the wedding
- Immersive Spouses for 1.6: your spouse leaves the house about four days a week instead of two and goes back to their hobbies. Haley takes photos, Emily does yoga and Leah paints by the lake. Only for base-game spouses; this version fixes them getting stuck at the bus stop.
- Custom Spouse Rooms (0.9.6): moves and customizes your spouse’s room in the house. With Free Love, it allows several rooms at once.
- Custom Spouse Patio Redux (0.4.1): places your partner’s patio wherever you want, even off the farm, with a wizard that opens with F8.
Children
- Unique Children (4.3): your kids look like your spouse, with sprites for the partners from the base game, SVE and Ridgeside Village. It works with the children you already have. In multiplayer, everyone needs the same sprites.
- Unique Children Talk (2.9): your kids talk to you every day and at festivals. You choose what they call you. It doesn’t need Unique Children, though they pair well.
- Babies Take After Spouse: the 2016 classic, with hairstyles and outfits for toddlers. The v2 version also works for adopted children. It doesn’t work well in multiplayer.
- LittleNPCs (2.2.1): turns your kids into NPCs who leave the house and have schedules. It needs a content pack, such as The Farmer’s Children.
- Immersive Family (2.2.7): 35 events with your kids and spouse and more than 340 lines from villagers about your family. Includes a Spanish translation. Single-player only and up to two children.
Combos to get started
If you don’t know where to begin, these combos mix mods that cover different sides of married life:
- Classic romance, deeper: Canon-Friendly Dialogue Expansion + Immersive Spouses + Unique Children + Unique Children Talk. It keeps the game’s candidates and gives them more dialogue and life after the wedding.
- Friendship without romance: Platonic Relationships + Canon-Friendly Dialogue Expansion + Events Expansion, which adds 24 heart events between villagers.
- With East Scarp: the expansion plus Lurking in the Dark and Nora The Herpetologist, two of its best-known add-on characters.
Install each block, load your save and check the SMAPI console before adding the next one. That way you’ll know which mod is failing if something doesn’t load.
Compatibility: what not to mix
- LittleNPCs and Immersive Family are incompatible if your kids have already become NPCs.
- Multiple spouses. Mods like Free Love or Polyamory Sweet don’t have a page on Holymod, but several in this guide mention them: Wedding Tweaks and Custom Spouse Rooms make use of them, the Lite version of Maggs Immersive Sebastian is designed for them, and Lurking in the Dark can cause errors with them.
- Two mods for the same character. If two mods change Shane’s, Sebastian’s or Marnie’s dialogue or events, they overwrite each other. Canon-Friendly Dialogue Expansion has a random mode to coexist with others.
- Portraits. If you use portraits in a different style, check whether the character includes an option for them. Rasmodia, for example, offers the original style, CreepyKat or Nyapu (Nyapu’s Portraits).
- Multiplayer. Immersive Family and Babies Take After Spouse are single-player. For the rest, read the multiplayer mods guide.
More Stardew Valley guides: expansion mods with new NPCs, the best mods for 1.6, how to install mods with SMAPI and quality-of-life mods.
Frequently asked questions
Can I marry the Wizard in Stardew Valley?
Not without mods. With Romanceable Rasmodia the Wizard becomes a witch, Rasmodia, and with Stardew Valley Expanded or Romanceable Rasmodius (not both) she becomes a marriage candidate.
Are there mods to max out friendship without getting married?
Yes. Platonic Relationships lets you reach 10 hearts with the singles without dating them. Some mod characters, like Sen, also have a platonic option.
Can I add a romance mod to an existing save?
Most of them, yes. Some versions require a new save, like the Slow Burn version of Maggs Immersive Sebastian. Back up your saves before installing mods that change events.
Are these mods available in Spanish?
Immersive Family includes a Spanish translation. For Canon-Friendly Dialogue Expansion, Rasmodia, Sen or Mister Ginger there are Spanish translations published separately by the community. Platonic Relationships has almost no text.
Are there mods to have multiple partners?
They exist, like Free Love, although they don’t have a page on Holymod and several character mods warn about errors with them. If you use them, pick versions designed for multiple spouses, like the Lite version of Maggs Immersive Sebastian.