Welcome to Hidden Gems, a series where we shine a light on some of the best mods you probably haven’t heard of. These are the mods that have had real care and attention put into them and their mod page while quietly doing something brilliant, weird, or just plain fun and therefore, totally deserve a spot in your load order. So, without further ado, let’s check out our first mod!
The Frenzied Path for Elden Ring
Did you feel that the Madness mechanic in Elden Ring wasn’t fully utilised? Well then The Frenzied Path is the mod for you! Yslaar has done an amazing job overhauling the entire madness system providing new armour, weapons, incantations, talismans and Ashes of War letting you wholly make use of a previously underutilised aspect of the game.
With the addition of a new resource meter, you’ll need to carefully toe the line between “dangerously unhinged” and “just dead.” Inducing Madness in yourself is now not only viable - it’s strategic, as some enemies now take bonus damage from Madness effects. Master the system and your enemies will crumble before you. Miscalculate, and you’ll get front-row seats to another slow-motion ragdoll death.
Plus, this fully realised mod also adds a new, lore-accurate, starting class: The Seeker of the Distant Light. It provides a great stat distribution for the type of build you’d need to conquer the Lands Between. Honestly, this mod adds so much content it’s hard to cover it all here. But if you’ve been looking for a reason to roll yet another character in Elden Ring - one who’s legally not allowed near sharp objects in polite society, you’ve just found it.
Grandpa’s Memorabilia for Stardew Valley
In between harvesting crops and trying to figure out if Abigail actually does eat rocks, how many of you take a moment to remember Grandpa? You know, the guy who gave you the farm in the first place? The one whose legacy you honour by immediately covering everything with mayonnaise machines? That guy.
Grandpa’s Memorabilia by J3ngoa is a gentle reminder that, yes, there was a time before you became Pelican Town’s premiere jam baron. This mod adds new textures to a selection of keepsakes left behind by Grandpa—small tokens of his life, now conveniently available for you direct from Robin’s shop.
Also, in case you’ve been living under a geode, Stardew Valley is now fully supported on the new Nexus Mods App and it works great! Probably better than your sprinkler setup.
So go ahead: Sit down to a dinner of raw blueberries in front of a lovingly retextured fireplace, gaze at the new portrait of Grandpa with mild, undirected guilt and then crawl into bed and try not to think too hard about the fact that he died in it.
And now you sleep there.
Forever.
Back to New Vegas for Fallout: New Vegas
When was the last time you booted up Fallout: New Vegas? If you’re looking to return to the Mojave but it’s been a while and you want something a little more nuanced than “shoot or don’t shoot,”, then Back to New Vegas is the mod for you! Ding2Ding has worked hard to repurpose dialogue checks allowing you to experience this classic title in a new, but not entirely different, way.
With hundreds of dialogue checks now having new requirements - whether that’s making use of different skills or stats - and with some skills even being renamed and reworked (goodbye ‘Barter’, hello ‘Negotiate’!) or just appearing in new places, this mod breathes new life into conversations that longtime players can practically recite in their sleep. Now, instead of always talking your way out of trouble, you might just talk your way into a much larger one - with style.
So if you’re the kind of player who believes roleplaying means more than wearing sunglasses indoors and picking the “sarcastic” option, Back to New Vegas gives you a fresh way to engage with a world that’s still, somehow, held together by duct tape and Brahmin glue.
Maintenance Fees - A Simple Upkeep Mod for Starfield
You know what’s cool? Fees. No wait - sorry, I blacked out for a second. What I meant to say is: fees are typically the opposite of cool. But in Starfield, somehow... Maintenance Fees by Yefreitor actually kind of works.
This mod adds a credit-based maintenance system for your ship, turning every grav jump into a small financial consideration and every visit to a spaceport into a gentle reminder that space isn’t just the final frontier; it’s also full of invoices. In essence, it gives your shiny future-vessel the equivalent of a galactic oil change schedule.
For players who love immersion, survival mechanics, or just the quiet thrill of budgeting in a vacuum, this mod delivers. The more you travel, the more you pay. Fall into debt, and things start to break down as your crew won’t work for free (shocking, I know), and your ship’s performance may suffer. Which is immersive, yes, and also exactly what you’d expect when trying to run an interstellar craft without paying the staff.
Dismiss your crew before the fee hits? Nice try. You still owe for every slot that was filled, which means yes, the mod does account for your attempt to HR your way out of capitalism.
So if you’ve ever looked at your pristine spaceship and thought, “This would be more fun with financial consequences,” congratulations. Your oddly specific wish has been granted.
CyberStunts for Cyberpunk 2077
I wanted to wrap up the first edition of Hidden Gems on a high note, preferably mid-air, possibly upside down, so when I stumbled across CyberStunts by TheManualEnhancer, I knew I had my closer.
If you’ve ever found yourself aimlessly driving around Night City thinking, “This would be better with more airborne chaos,” congratulations! You’re not alone, and this mod was basically built for you (and me!). Inspired by the stunt jumps from GTA V, CyberStunts adds 14 handcrafted jumps scattered across and outside the city, complete with high score tracking and actual rewards. That’s right: Night City now gives you points for driving recklessly, which finally feels honest.
Even better? It comes with an editor so you can create your own jumps or download others’ creations and pretend you came up with them when your friends are watching. So if you’ve been looking for a reason to dust off that Quadra and see how far it can really fly, this is it. And hey, if you make your own custom jumps, send me a DM. I’ll try them out. Probably crash a few times. Maybe even feature them on our socials. At the very least, I’ll applaud your commitment to gravity being more of a guideline than a rule!
That’s it for this first round of Hidden Gems. If you try any of these out, let me know! Plus, I’m always on the lookout for the next under-the-radar masterpiece so send me a DM if you, or someone you know, has made a mod that you feel hasn’t had the attention it deserves. Until next time, happy modding, and remember: just because a mod has a low download count doesn’t mean it can’t absolutely launch you off a ramp and into greatness.
12 comments
It was really fun finding all these absolutely incredible mods and showing them off to the rest of the community.