How to swap Farm & Overhaul your character!

Overview

Did you pick the wrong farm? Wish you had chosen another farm before you put hours of work into your save? Maybe you would want to swap out your pet? Or perhaps you are unhappy with your characters apperance? In this guide I’ll go through how to change everything from your Farm to your Characters apperance and traits!

Disclaimer!

I am not responsible for breaking your save. This has worked for me and many others. Editing the save file, which is sensetive, and using a save editor to optimize your farm after changing it should not cause any issues. But theres always a chance.

So to avoid any damange, make a backup of your save file, located in:
C:UsersINSERT_PC_NAMEAppDataRoamingStardewValleySaves

The steps in my guide should keep you safe as long as you don’t edit any other values or variables than specified.

Update:
Since writing this guide, and adding a theory update in “Character Re-Creation 2 [WIP]” today, i have since then moved on to other games. Hence, it’s only theory that has been added to the bottom of that section.

Changing Your Farm

So I’m gonna make this simple. To swap farm your gonna need to go to your save location. For steam users it is the following location:
C:UsersWalkerAppDataRoamingStardewValleySaves

1. Select the save that you want to swap farm on. It’s the name of your character, followed by a string of numbers.

2. Once your in there, select your save file with the string of numbers, i.e. “Ageha_137966237”

3. Right click the file, and edit with Notepad++, Brackets, or your prefered editing software.
Note: If your using Brackets, it will freeze and take some time to load all the text. Should at most take 1 – 2 minutes.

4. Go to the bottom of the text field, and the second line from the bottom is the following:
(If it isn’t a regular script setup, but everything just piled together into a gigantic wall of text, it’s located at the last or second last line.)

0 = Standard Farm (If your using a farm mod, this is most likely to be the modded map)
1 = Riverland Farm
2 = Forest Farm
3 = Hill-Top Farm
4 = Wilderness Farm

Swap to your desired farm. As you can see from the image, it’s lined down with the data values from left to right / 0 – 4. Pretty simple, right? 🙂

Optimizing Your New Farm

Now then. Seeing it as you’ve swapped farm, you have buildings standing around, paths on the ground, etc. They will stay in place, so say you swap to Riverland, you can suddenly have farm buildings, crops, etc. in the water.

To swap this out, you need to download a Save Editor. The save editor you want to use is called “Stardew Valley Save Editor” made by Rusty2266 on Nexusmods.

[link]

When downloading this and launching it, you need to update the editor. It goes through a update server, so you just need to click a button up in the right corner of the software.

The reason we want to use a save editor, is because it has a map editor for your farm. This makes it so that you can drag and drop your buildings, paths, crops, trees, etc. Additionally, you can delete it. Do keep in mind that the soil fields (should you have any), will remain in place. I’m not sure if this can be removed in the save editor. If not, it should decay. Worst case, you have to remove them before swapping farm space (should anyone point out that it doesn’t dissapear).

Once you’ve finished editing your farm, save the file and your good to go!

Additional Changes

If you want to do these additional changes, i recommend that you have optimized your farm first. That is because if your text was a big wall of text, clashed together, the save editor will polish it into a real script layout. It’s much easier to locate the lines, and I’ll describe based off that. However, it is optional to use “CTRL + F” to search for the lines / values aswell!

I’ve got them listed under in smaller sections so that their easier to locate. It’s right to the point, only giving line name, and then you just have to edit the names within the brackets. That way it’s faster for you to change, instead of reading a long guide on everything. I think the farm swap is grounds enough to start swapping the other values around as well.

Name, Gender, Farm Name, Favorite Thing & Pet

Disclaimer!
Name and Farm name CAN be changed in the save editor, this is just how I did it, but I still felt it’s nice to have in the guide.

If you wish to change these values, you also need to edit Ageha_137966237 and SaveGameInfo file. The SaveGameInfo file will always be a mess and a wall of text clashed together. It’s spread out, unlike the other save file.

For the main save file: Ageha_137966237
Line 4, Name Swap:
<name>Ageha</name>

To get it in full effect, you also need to re-name the folder and the save file with your characters name. Keep the string of number afterwards. So the folder and save file name would go from:
Ageha_137966237 to CreativeName_137966237

Do not use my numbers, it’s sensetive, so you need to keep the numbers given to you by the game.

Line 1333, Gender:
<isMale>false</isMale>
true for male, false for female.

Line 1202, Farm name:
<farmName>Himegi</farmName>

Line 1203, Favorite Thing:
<favoriteThing>Modding</favoriteThing>

Line 1204:
<catPerson>true</catPerson>
true for cat, false for dog.
(More on pet in the next section)

For the SaveGameInfo:
So. To make it easier, just hit CTRL + F and type in your Name, ismale, farm name, Favorite Thing, catperson. For me that would be the following list to search for:
Ageha, ismale, Himegi, Gaming, catperson.

Again, just change the name within the brackets, and hit save.

Change Pet & Recieve Pet

Let’s say you want to change the pet, or just swap names. Heck, my current save resulted in me getting no pet for some reasons. So i had to thread in and make some changes.

First off, you want to change the basics of line 1204 in Ageha_137966237
<catPerson>true</catPerson>
true for cat, false for dog. Note that this has to be changed in both save files.

Now, for more in-depth pet swapping / re-claiming, etc.

The “Cat” can be swapped out for “Dog”. Do use upper and lower cases AS written in the script, Swapping out lower and uppercase letters WILL result in coruptiion, as the XML is very sensetive from my experience with it.

Please note that if you have the pet, you only need to swap the two above lines in the already exsisting script. However, if you didn’t recieve your pet, heres what you wanna do.

Edit the two top lines (as explained above). Then seach for “Leah”. It’s mentioned a few times, but you know your on the right one when you see these brackets:
<NPC>
<name>Leah</name>

Once there, scroll down untill you see the NPC bracket closing / </NPC>

Click behind the backet, hit ender, and paste this code:

<NPC xsi:type=”Cat”>
<name>Need a Name</name>
<isEmoting>false</isEmoting>
<isCharging>false</isCharging>
<willDestroyObjectsUnderfoot>false</willDestroyObjectsUnderfoot>
<isGlowing>false</isGlowing>
<coloredBorder>false</coloredBorder>
<flip>false</flip>
<drawOnTop>false</drawOnTop>
<faceTowardFarmer>false</faceTowardFarmer>
<faceAwayFromFarmer>false</faceAwayFromFarmer>
<scale>1</scale>
<timeBeforeAIMovementAgain>0</timeBeforeAIMovementAgain>
<glowingTransparency>0</glowingTransparency>
<glowRate>0</glowRate>
<Position>
<X>1344</X>
<Y>1152</Y>
</Position>
<Speed>2</Speed>
<IsEmoting>false</IsEmoting>
<CurrentEmote>24</CurrentEmote>
<age>0</age>
<manners>0</manners>
<socialAnxiety>0</socialAnxiety>
<optimism>0</optimism>
<gender>0</gender>
<id>-1</id>
<homeRegion>0</homeRegion>
<daysUntilBirthing>-1</daysUntilBirthing>
<daysAfterLastBirth>-1</daysAfterLastBirth>
<birthday_Day>0</birthday_Day>
<moveTowardPlayerThreshold>0</moveTowardPlayerThreshold>
<isInvisible>false</isInvisible>
<followSchedule>true</followSchedule>
<datable>false</datable>
<datingFarmer>false</datingFarmer>
<daysMarried>0</daysMarried>
<DefaultFacingDirection>0</DefaultFacingDirection>
<DefaultPosition>
<X>3456</X>
<Y>512</Y>
</DefaultPosition>
<IsWalkingInSquare>false</IsWalkingInSquare>
<IsWalkingTowardPlayer>false</IsWalkingTowardPlayer>
<friendshipTowardFarmer>762</friendshipTowardFarmer>
<CurrentBehavior>1</CurrentBehavior>
</NPC>

Note: It may not appear the next day, or instantly. I passed a few days before it appeared behind my house. I don’t know how long, or if it will apear for you, though it appeared the day after an event with another NPC.

Character Re-creation part 1

As far as I can re-call, the save editor crashes if you try to change the characters apperance or color, so thats why I’ve added this in two sections. One is curently working as a solution, and one is unstable (Re-creation part 2).

I’ve moded my game, so i have more values to add to it in terms of hair, shirt, etc. In-case your wondering about the high numbers on some of them.

In the vanilla game, theres 24 skin tones, 32 hair styles, 112 shirts and 20 accessories to choose from.

Line 1209 – 1213:

To get these changes, these values have to be changed in the SaveGameInfo as well. Because it’s messy, just hit “CTRL + F” and search for Shirt. It is a one of a kind apperance, and the last 4 values on the list is after it.

Thats the easiest way, considering that there are multiple places in the script where some of the other values (i.e. Hair) is written. Due to that, it can seem confusing or disorienting on where to swap the value.

Character Re-creation Part 2 [WIP]

DISCLAIMER!
I have yet to find a decent way to pack the ARGB color value (PackedValue), so far i’ve not been able to figure out an exact way. I’m keeping it here, so that people are free to try it out themselves. Due to the packed value, I haven’t tried it yet (cause i like to have an idea of what I’m doing before breaking stuff).

This is to change color of Hairstyle, Pants and Eye Color.
You can by default creation use RGB, despite it being ARBG format of the colors. DO NOT change the <A>255</A> value at all. Only RGB.

To change colors of Hairstyle, Pants and Eyes, edit line 1214 – 1234:

To decompress the Packed Value to HEX value (8 values):
[link]
Insert the Packed Value into “Decimal”.

I have yet to find a site that reads and gives an output for an 8 valued HEX code.

Note: To get these changes in effect, you also have to edit these values in the SaveGameInfo. Again, just hit “CTRL + F” and search for HairstyleColor, PantsColor and NewEyeColor. Change the values, and save it in both files.

To my experience, with theory, the <A>255</A> value will always remain the same, and you should be able to just change between the RGB value, ignoring the A in ARGB color values if the theory is correct. IF there is a problem, it will be conflict with the <PackedValue>.

Conclusion

I’ve noticed there is a gender swap guide already on the forum while I was writing this guide. I’ve recently gotten back into modding games again, and since i didn’t play in ages, i started on one farm, and later modded the standard farm. I then realized that there is no way you can swap between farms through editors or in-game. So I started editing the save files, and reading the script and editing it in different directions. I first found the farm change, which was my main goal. I talked to a few friends who seemed interested in this, and also asked me if there is a possible way to edit more of the save file. Thats how i came across and tested and looked into the values and changes in this guide.

All the content of this guide has been discovered by me, if there is another guide with content similar, then it is by chance, such as the guy who had the gender change guide.

As for the layout of the guide, it was originally made to be just a farm swap guide, but because my friends asked me to make a guide, and asked me about other things, i decided to include everything into one guide.

Hope this can be of help to some of you!
-Walker

Stardew Valley Guide