Stardew Valley fan expansion adds tons of animal friends

Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley collide in a new expansion over on Nexus Mods, which promises to add dozens of new creatures (and a brand new location to house them all in) to Stardew Valley’s base game.

"Nature In The Valley" is a brand new expansion from mod author w8AwA8w that adds “butterflies, beetles, frogs and countless other creatures” to Stardew Valley.

Mod author w8AwA8w describes Nature In The Valley as “a gameplay expansion mod” and boasts that it “adds 84 animals as semi-randomly spawning interactive creatures, along with systems like a new net tool to catch and sell these creatures, or donate them to the new Insectarium building.”

The inclusion of an insectarium building and a net tool will undoubtedly give away the mod’s Animal Crossing influences, which w8AwA8w openly describes as the inspiration for the expansion.

You can visit the new building once you make your way over to the ticket machine at the bus stop, which also houses a brand-new character and, most importantly, lore.

“The insectarium has a slight story behind it…” explains w8AwA8w, “featuring a new NPC Ivy. Animals donated to the insectarium will wander around a specific room / location which resonates with where you found them.”

They also promise that, much like the museum in the base game, completing the incestarium will come with extra bonuses.

“As creatures are donated you'll also receive specific milestone rewards similar to the museum. Additionally, the more creatures are donated the more decorated the insectarium becomes!”

If you think this all sounds way too good to be true and far too impressive an undertaking, then check out the trailer for the mod on YouTube.

And hey, if you’re not keen on making Stardew Valley more like Animal Crossing, you could always make it more like Dark Souls instead by using the “Boss Battles” mod from the same author.