Last week, I explored how I love cheating in Stardew Valley. I think it only made sense then, that I explored a couple of “cheating” mods. I tried both the CJB Item Spawner mod, as well as the CJB Cheats Menu mod. I decided to create a new save because, by my own rules, using these mods would be actual cheating, unlike my use of the Wiki, and I didn’t want to cheat on my main save. I made a new save and decided to play the mods.
It was not fun. I interacted with the CJB Cheats Menu more than the Item Spawner mod. I tried out almost all of the cheats: I set my move speed to three the entire time, I reversed time, I set myself to infinite energy, and I was warping whenever possible. There are tons more things you could do with these mods but I mainly explored these ones. I thought I would like it because it seemed like I could create a house like in the game Sims, but I didn’t enjoy it as much.
The Cheats Menu Mod
Using the mods the way I did originally, changed the entire game; it was like the difference between Minecraft survival mode and Minecraft creative mode, except I don’t think Stardew is made for creating, particularly not indoor spaces- it leans more towards designing outdoor spaces if anything. There weren’t as many furniture options as I had hoped, which is one of the only things I used the Item Spawner mod for, so decorating wasn’t as fun. There also wasn’t as much freedom in designing the layout of the house like there is in a game like Sims; it was a little disappointing.
Then I went back to my original save, the mods were still downloaded as well as an extra mod that made the scarecrows into Disney princesses- very cute, I highly recommend- and I found ways I could incorporate cheats in smaller ways. I could always be really fast or I could warp, and travel would become less of an issue; I could add 100,000G so I could afford my housing upgrade. Yet, I didn’t turn on anything in the cheats menu, it felt like real cheating. But I could see how someone could use it to make the game easier. You can incorporate all the parts of the game you like- maybe you really enjoy giving gifts to townspeople so you set the cheats menu to “give gifts anytime”- and exclude all the parts you don’t like- if you don’t want to grind for fish to sell, then you can just add a certain amount of money. This mod is truly a mod in the sense that even within it there is a certain kind of freedom. You can check and uncheck cheats at your leisure. Whatever you decided is cheating within the rules of your game, can be exempted within the cheat menu. There are even levels to money: you can add 100G, 1000G, 10000G or 100000G. If you only want to add enough money to buy a backpack upgrade, but not to buy the whole town, you can do that. These cheating mods make the game personalized in a way that they might have not been before and it happens all within two mods.
The scarecrows!
