One of the best things to do with any sandbox game is to change it up to keep the experience fresh and entertaining. The same situation pops up in Starbound, where a dedicated community of modders has shifted and molded the game to make it much better. If you are looking for the absolute best mods you can use in your game, we have compiled a guide to show you of some of these and how to activate them.
How to install a mod
If you are using Steam Workshop, simply find the mod you want, click Subscribe, and the rest will be taken care of for you. If you do not know how to use the Workshop, all you need to do is open Steam, go to the Community tab, and click Workshop. In the search bar, type “Starbound” and you can see all the mods available to you.
Installing mods manually in Starbound is rather easy given that there is a built-in mod loader for the game. To start off, download any mod of your choice. Once downloaded, find it on your PC and copy it. It should be a .pak file, which makes this process exceptionally easy.
Open your Starbound folder by going to [Steam directory]\SteamApps\common\Starbound and create a new folder named “mods” if there is not already one. Drop your .pak file in and you are good to go. Let’s take a look at some of the best mods we have come across.
Frackin’ Universe
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Frackin’ Universe is a massive mod that has been in the works for years. It adds in new biomes, hundreds of monsters, thousands of decorations, and so much more. Downloading this mod also includes the popular Frackin’ Races mod that adds abilities to races in Starbound. If you have a universe you care about and think you might not keep Frackin’ Universe forever, be sure to back up that file as if you delete this mod as it will crash your entire game.
A.V.I.A.N.
This mod is more of a cosmetic change that adds a little more personality to the game. You can change out the AI for each race to a blue bird with unique dialogue and animations. It is not nearly on the same scale as Frackin’ Universe, but a nice addition nonetheless.
Crew Improvements
Do you feel that recruiting crewmembers is not worth your time? Be sure to download this mod to increase their usefulness aboard your ship. With this mod, each crewmember will have higher damage output, more health, can apply field buffs from further away, and active crewmembers will be increased to three at a time. You can also customize your members with new uniforms and head items, making each crewmember stand out more than they did before.
Perennial Crops
Some people are not the biggest fan of farming in games, and that’s where the Perennial Crops mod comes in. With this mod, you will only need to plant a crop one time, no matter what it is; each time you harvest it, it will immediately revert back to its first stage of growth. There is even a patch available on the community page for this mod that will support crops added in Frackin’ Universe.
Efficient Watering
Here is an added mod to help make your farming process more bearable. With this mod, you will no longer have a cooldown when watering crops; you can water your crops while walking, the area of effect of your watering will be increased, and the time that it takes to water the crops will be decreased. It simply takes your time into consideration.
Borderlands Random-Gen Weapons
If you play Starbound and think, “You know what this could use? Some Borderlands,” then we have the mod for you. This mod randomly generates weapons and parts to be more in the line with the popular looter shooter. Legendary weapons in this mod will also have unique colors and names as an added nod to the Borderlands series.
More NPC Ships
If you want a little more variety in the NPC ships you encounter, give this mod a try. It adds in a variety of new friendly and hostile ships you encounter. On the friendly side, you can now trade with merchant ships, or you can get into combat with new alternate pirate ships. If the space portion of the game is starting to feel stale, changing up encounters is a good place to freshen things up.
Cutebound
Want Starbound to have 100% more cute anime girls? Then download Cutebound. Character faces, bodies, armor, accessories, hairstyles, and anything else cosmetic-wise have been altered to give the game a cuter aesthetic. This mod also introduces monster girls, and colors have been adjusted as well.
