Many of the most current Stardew Valley mods are compatible with Content Patcher, a tool which loads a whole host of mods without changing the XNB files, making install and uninstall easier, as well as reducing the likelihood of conflicts between mods.

It allows you to easily activate and deactivate specific mods without having to remove the files completely, giving you more flexibility if you want to try something on this list out but potentially not keep the mod forever. This will help you install and update SMAPI, as well as keep track of all of your mods. There's also a great community-made ModManager tool created by modder yuuki called SDVMM. You can download SMAPI on the Stardew V alley mo dding forum, and I'll be sure to mark which mods require it to be used. It's a slightly bigger hassle to install these mods than the XNB ones-as you first need to install SMAPI and then download DLL mods to place into SMAPI's mod folder-but it also allows those mods to make much deeper changes to the game. This is a community-made API that is frequently being updated and allows you to use DLL mods. Mods that make more complex changes may require the 'Stardew Modding API', or SMAPI for short.

Mods stardew valley wiki