There’s a lot more to Stardew Valley than meets the eye. At first, this cosy life sim seems like a piece of cake; all you need to do is farm produce, sell it, expand your homestead, and hopefully make some friends along the way. But the reality is that there are so many ways to go about this and so much more under the surface that it can sometimes feel like you have no other choice but to check the wiki for help.
Looking at the wiki or guides for extra information is by no means a bad way to play Stardew Valley—I spent a good deal of time searching for what certain villagers like and dislike so I could get them the best presents. But after being inspired by a HardDrive post (think The Onion, but for games), one player decided to make a mod that would do away with these helpful tips for good.
The modder, who goes by Sylvie Nightshade, made a SdvHardcoreMode mod which will delete your save file if you so much as dare to open the wiki. “It does this by scanning the title of every window open on your computer and erasing everything if any window contains ‘Stardew Valley Wiki’ in its title,” Nightshade says in the description. “I taught myself SMAPI in two hours for this.”
Despite this mod being nicknamed Hardcore mode, it’s more of a joke than anything seriously difficult. Considering it doesn’t account for other guides or Google searches, as long as you tread carefully, you should still be able to search up whatever you need to know without the fear of losing everything.
If anything, this jokey mod highlights just how incredible the Stardew Valley Wiki page is. Tended to by diligent fans, it really does have the answers to pretty much any Stardew Valley question imaginable. Stardew Valley does a great job at telling new players what they need to know, but unless you pay close attention to the TV or what other villagers say and write to you, it’s easy for some facts to slip between the gaps. Whether that be knowing how to get Prismic Jelly or realising that if you want someone to dance with you at your first Flower Dance, then you have to put the work in beforehand, befriending people with their favourite gifts.
If you’re willing to risk everything just to train yourself out of searching the Wiki, however, then this mod will certainly help with that. But I’ll keep my 37-year-old farm far away from the possibility of being sporadically deleted just because I forgot what gifts Sam likes best.