Are you new to Stardew Valley Expanded? Interested in knowing more about the character additions before experiencing them firsthand? Want some new romanceable options? And finally, would you like to know some of the more scandalous things added, especially surrounding The Wizard? Then you’ve come to the right place! Stardew Valley Expanded (created by FlashShifter) is the biggest expansion for the game, and for good reason. This article goes over the character additions and/or changes that I think most heavily influence the course of the game. There’s a pretty good wiki for it, linked here.
The Wizard
Stardew Valley Expanded fleshes out the base game character The Wizard, also known as M. Rasmodius. SVE gives him a full name: Magnus Rasmodius, as well as making him romanceable. His tower gets a makeover in addition to giving him outfits and hair colors that change seasonally. He also finally gets to leave his tower, something he does not do in the base game! Occasionally he will meditate outside or check his Ancient Fruit crops (also modded in.) In Year 3 or later his schedule gets even more diverse with the addition of Morgan, his new apprentice. More on them later. He also gets some new dialogue, but unlike some of the other new characters, it doesn’t tackle any heavy topics. Another new character he interacts with is Olivia, who occasionally joins him in the tower and on those occasions seems to sleep in the same bed as him. It’s not actually mentioned anywhere on the wiki, but I did find a screenshot of them together.
Morgan
Morgan joins the valley at the beginning of Year 3. They’re from Everton, a village somewhere to the north of Pelican Town. The wiki accurately describes them as “a child torn between their duty to study and learn to protect people, and the desire to just be a kid.” You don’t find out the depth of that until the six heart cutscene. They also have a (in my opinion really well done) four heart cutscene, where they’re playing hide and seek with Jas and Vincent and the player helps them explain why they use they/them pronouns. When I played through the scene, there was an excessive amount of “oh poor baby. You can do it!” being verbally said. Their previously mentioned six heart event somehow tugs at your heartstrings more when they tell you that you are the only person who acknowledges them when you’re in the tower, and that they miss their parents and weren’t really given the option to stay at home.
Marlon
Like The Wizard, Marlon is a base game character. However, he is now a fully fledged NPC with the full ten hearts (so no romancing, but I’m sure there’s a mod for that.) He’s now the guy who gives you the sewer key to meet Krobus. He’s mostly mentioned because the new storylines surround the Adventurer’s Guild, and he’s one of the co-owners. There’s a couple cool new heart cutscenes for him, but he really serves as a base for Lance. (No shade! It’s an important role.)
Lance
My beloved. Lance is a new character who works with Marlon in the Expanded Adventurer’s Guild. You don’t meet him until you get to the Caldera at the top of the Volcano, but once you do, you open up brand new storylines required for perfection. He is a member of The First Slash Guild, which he will bring you to at eight hearts. Funnily enough, the ten heart scene is reliant on dating him, but it’s like the game doesn’t know you’re dating. It’s even sillier post marriage: you wake up, he’s in the house, then you go outside and he’s on the doorstep to start the cutscene.
There you have it! Pretty short, but in my opinion there’s really only these four that influence the storyline. Check out the wiki or the mod itself to learn more about these and the over 20 new characters added!
