Stardew Valley 1.6: how to check if a mod is compatible

With the 1.6 update recently rolling out for the PC version of Stardew Valley, many of you will have been basking in all that delicious new content.

Actually, I’m surprised anyone is reading this instead of leisurely skipping through Ferngill Republic. If you are here (first of all, thanks), then you’re probably wondering about the mod situation. When the new patch was sent out, there may have been some concerns that any mods you had installed for the game would be immediately rendered non-compatible. I did a story recently about how Nexus Mods was asking content creators to make sure they were prepared for the big 1.6 push, adding that a “considerable chunk of mods will be broken” post-update.

Of course, many of them will still be working and/or have been made to run on the new version. Still, if you’re the kind of person that enjoys playing the game with a ton of modifications, it’s best to make sure you know which ones will work and which won’t.

How to check if a mod is compatible

Probably the place to get your fan-made Stardew Valley downloads from is the aforementioned Nexus Mods. If you’re not familiar with it (you’re reading this so you probably are, but you never know), it’s a huge repository for custom mods made by the community that caters to all whims and tastes (yes, that includes NSFW mods).

But before you go gathering a load of them up for your 1.6 playthrough, you need to make sure you’re filtering for compatibility. Fortunately, Nexus does have this option.

First, you need to head to the Stardew Valley mod page (a-doy) where you’ll find the main section. Partway down, you’ll see a small link to the right that says “Explore All Mods.” Click on this to reveal a more comprehensive list. If you don’t have a premium account with the website, you should see 20 items on the page by default.

Once you’re there, you’ll see several drop-down menus, such as “Time,” “Sort By,” and “Order.” Directly beneath this is the “Refine Results” bar with an orange arrow on the right-hand side. Guess what? Click it, yo.

Now, you’ll see a rather large drop-down appear, which has a number of options to select. This is where you can begin refining the results for the mods you want. This can include finding things that are related to the audio, items, interior, fishing, or just the general gameplay mechanics.

Your mileage may vary on this, but my Nexus Mods already has a number of filters applied in the “Attributes” column. As such, I’m getting 14,391 mods listed in total. As I said, you may see something slightly different, but essentially, this is the list that we’re interested in.

Scroll all the way down to the bottom of “Attributes” until you come across the “Version 1.6 Compatible” option. Make sure this is checked and that every other option in this list is deselected. Then press “Apply Filters.” Boom. Now we’re only seeing Stardew Valley mods that are working with the new update.

Eric Barone did post a tweet a few days ago (linked above) before the patch started rolling out saying that “a ton of mods are already updated for 1.6.” According to my Nexus filter results, there are 2,440 out of a possible 14,000 mods. So while a lot are now working, there’s still some work to be done, but content is being updated all the time.

Barone also very kindly posted a link to a mod compatibility page, which gives you a handy, color-coded list of the ones that are working and the ones that are currently broken. If you arrange this list by order of compatibility, it will give you a visual clue of which ones are safe to use, as well as direct links to their respective download pages.

Over time, most mods will eventually be tweaked to make them work on the new version of Stardew. This is just the nature of modding, unfortunately, so it’s best to make sure the ones you have or want are working so you, too, can have a giant, floating penis for your playthrough. No joke. No, I’m not posting the link to that.