Stardew Valley Expanded!

Most people think of Stardew Valley as a simple farm simulator type game. I say those that do have completely missed the point of the game, why it was created, and the underlying themes that have made the game such a phenomenal success and so loved and revered.

_{the new Immersive Farm 2 mod, with complete backyard}

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Its a simple story really. You take a young man who is tired of his daily existence. Working in the city, surrounded by a sea of people and yet unhappy. He's unfulfilled and alone.

One day when he can't take it anymore he decides to do something radically different. He moves to a small town and takes up restoring his grandfathers aged farm.

It is there in the small village of Pelican Town where he starts to make sincere friendships. He learns to take care of crops, a dog and his farm animals.

_{Already thinking ahead and got all the stuffed plush toys for the forthcoming kid I plan to raise with Haley. Yes I plan to put the skeleton in the corner of the kids room. Kids need to learn to be tough!}

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Via that, he learns to love and take care of himself. Stardew Valley is not a simple farming game. It is the story of a persons journey of self discovery, growth and transformation.

I feel it is for these reasons that the game has been instrumental in so many players lives to treat depression and comfort others during difficult and transitionary periods.

The game is surely a fun farming simulator too, but it's so much more nuanced than that. It is the product of the deeply introspective thoughts and a labour of love by a single developer named Concerned Ape. His name says it all if you really look at the game that way.

Rejoice as your character builds friendships, stability in his life, gets their first kiss from their prospective romance partner. Have pride as your character develops life skills and learns new talents.

To me as a musician is the extrordanary music and scoring in the game. Up beat tunes to hauntingly sad ones and everything in between all of the music was created by the single developer. And to me that is quite an admirable and noteworthy accomplishment.

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Stardew Valley is truly an exceptional game which is why fans everywhere have devoured practically every bit if this classic game. Which leads me onto Stardew Valley Expanded. It is a massive addition to the base game by a person named FlashShifter. It adds new dimensions and content to the game giving it completely refreshing feel for fans who have seen and done it all in the vanilla base version.

The town is a little larger and it now sprawls extensively to the east where its intended to link up with another mod currently in development for a second full sized town to be added to the map called Gramplton.

_{Bridge to Grampleton}

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There are new community gardens in the expanded mod. In fact all of the houses in town have their own veggie gardens which adds to the realism of the farming community theme the game has.

_{The mayor gives me this in town garden plot to do as I wish with!}

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One of the mods I recommended combining with Expanded is called ImmersiveFarm2. It makes your property massive with several farm plots, fenced in fields, and a totally redesigned layout. For instance your green house has moved. You have a waterfall and stream on the property and some extra woods.

At first it will feel overwhelming, but as soon as you start scheming you'll find plenty if good uses for all that land.

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In town, you'll find new homes and families added, and even Marlon and the Adventures Guild has been relocated into town down along the riverside.

_{New digs for the Adventures Guild}

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There are many more characters you can interact with in the expanded version. Even original characters have added storylines and dialogue.

And of course all the original content is still there too for the nostalgic.

_{classic cut scene of Shane passed out drunk again}

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Our favourite villain, Morris's the schmucky Joja corporate stooge, is even more obnoxious waving coupons directly in front of Pierre's general store in the expanded mod. Although, I am told you can redeem Morris and convert him into a good person if you play the game intending that. Personally I look forward to converting Joja Mart into a movie theatre. Which is also something you can do in Stardew Expanded.

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One of the things that makes Stardew Expanded worth a try is that almost all of the map has been built out and extended. There are lots more places to roam around and explore and with it many hidden secrets to uncover.

The forests are bigger, huge in fact. You can initially get turned around in them until you learn the map a little better. You can not simply run through the entire map in a single in-game day like you used to. Its too big for that. The deserts and mountains are dramatically larger and offer much more to do.

There is a second secret forest on your own property if you know where to look and a second set of mines in the rock quarry once you unlock it.

_{new mine at the quarry, with demon skulls that attack you}

_{The new mine will reward you however with a Golden scythe if you brave the creatures within!}

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One of the most impressive things about the expansion is that there was so much care put into keeping it as much in tune as possible with the original developers work that its hard to tell exactly where the expanded bits are if you've never seen the original to know the difference. A true work of fan art, this expansion seemlessly integrates with the original. It a very classy move in my opinion and demonstrates a tremendous amount of respect the expanded developers have for Concerned Ape, Stardew Valley lore and the game its self.

The expansions to the map and game are also very thoughtfully made. The beach doesn't dead end but now you can walk up the coastline and come along new shore side farms.

_{one of several new farms and NPCs in the expanded edition}

There are passages and foot paths that better connect previously semi-disjointed parts of the map.

All in its hard to say anything negative about this expansion. It's superbly done.

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So lets dive into my play through of Stardew Valley Expanded. I'm in the spring of my second year. I've got my chickens and ducks happily clucking and quacking in my upgraded coop. I've got an orchard growing alongside the pens and my upgraded barn.

_{Farm and recently built coops and barns. Assortment of fruit trees planted in a tidy orchard near the house}

I've named them after some of my favorite youtube personalities. For instance here's Robbaz the chicken. And Shad. Named after the mideaval youtube historian and expert from the channel Shadiversity. Others are named after good friends of mine.

<sub>robbaz. I think Robert would be touched I named a chicken after him. Sorry Robbaz there are no walrus in the game

Shad the mideaval chicken. I need to keep him away from my sword collection.</sub>

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My game plan is to use the next field over to create a massive pig truffle farm. I know where the money's at.

_{picture two barns and 16 pigs digging up truffles in this here field. Cha ching!!!}

My farm boy can't make the living he deserves simply making cheese and mayonnaise all day. As it is, right now my character is the town mayo king! I crank out six jars of the good stuff a day!

I have 400 star fruit growing and am waiting wrack up the big bucks come harvest. Sprinkler set up is inspired by Hives own venerable gaming blogstress @kaelci.

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I took the liberty of running the more fish mod. Which adds 93 extra fish that you can catch. It truly makes the fishing function much more fun. I'm catching all sorts of stuff from mimic octopus to zebra eel.

Even something out of the mountain lake called elephant fish. It sells for a fortune.

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Romancing in the game. I haven't tried any of the new characters yet. Although i probably will try. Of the new characters, there's the community milf whos a wealthy ex Joja executive. But shes also a wino. A pink haired gamer girl who runs a winery, although shes veeeery shy. A strong independent woman who lives up in the mountains by the railway and a few more. But I can give advice to some of the players who are new to the game about some of the original characters you can romance.

This is Penny. Shes sad and down on her luck. Penny is a trap. Don't fall for her moping. She will make you feel bad for her so that you'll romance her. Then she does jack in the relationship and cheats on you with her best friend. Stay away from penny. Even robbaz made the same mistake.

Instead court Haley. Shes superficial at first but eventually loves the farm and enthusiastically takes care of the animals over time. She even knows how to help you relax at the end of a hard day if you know what I mean. Nudge nudge wink wink.

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Anyways, I digress...

As it is now, I'm almost finished fully refurbishing the community center. When I do. I will send Morris the corporate stooge packing and turn his mart into a movie theatre. I'm also about to explore an additional mod called mermaid island which I will feature in an upcoming post continuing my Stardew Expanded adventure.

In the meantime I have a truffle oil empire to establish over the summer season and a get rich quick scheme to exploit.

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Hoping to see you all on The next installment and thank you for reading. Stardew Expanded is definitely worth the effort of downloading. Especially if you have devoured all of the base game already and are looking for a refreshing replay of the game.

Best,

Hidave

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All photos are in game screenshots taken by hidave of the game Stardew Valley running the Expanded and ImmersiveFarm2 mod.