Hacking your level

How to max your stats using Cheat Engine

Why hacking

Normally, hacking is a bad thing, but in this case i do have a few reasons to do so here.

• Leveling up in this game fairly takes quite a load of time, while you'll be stuck with the same, limited gameplay. On the opposite side, games like KF2 or 7D2D are better balanced so leveling up actually gives you a sense of completion.
  
  
• This game is like a B Movie, it just doesn't have this much content to grind for. Mixing graphical styles also prevent me from taking it seriously. Still, it's a decent game for its price tag.
  
  
• By hacking your level, you're not getting any advantage over other players, except for saved time.
  
  
• Remember, hacking your level is Your decision that may cause loss of interest or dissatisfaction
  
  
• By messing with your game, you take responsibility for any possible consequences, no matter what they can be.
  
  
• Note: using cheat engine takes concentration and patience.
  
  
• Note: there's a trainer somewhere on the net, it seems to have boost xp function; but this guide is about Cheat Engine. Besides, i don't trust external programms.

Save file location

All your stats are stored in

C:\Users\user\AppData\LocalLow\TerrorDogStudio\Ultimate Zombie Defense\steam_userdata

Do a win+R, type %appdata% and navigate your way to the destination folder.
Inside, there'll be your steam id folder that holds the skill.save file.
Editing that file with hex editor will only break it and reset all the stats.
Make a copy of the file, so you can use it if you mess something up.
You may also need to disable steam cloud sync, so it won't overwrite your fancy save with the old, low-level file.

Prep 1 (Cheat engine)

Cheat engine is a powerful tool that lets you edit game values that are currently in your RAM

This guide takes some basic cheat engine skills, yet the program itself is quite easy to use.
If you haven't done it before, just watch a 5-min YT tutorial and you'll understand the basics.

Prep 2 (getting to level 2)

Before you get to hack the XP, you may wanna play a little, so your level differs from 1.
Your character level can be a vital indicator. If you overdo the value alteration, your level will be reset back to level 1, and you won't even know that you just found the right value.

I prefer the mall map for it being bright and open.

Actual hacking

Now, you may restart the game, so RAM doesn't have any remaining unwanted values.
Start the game and the cheat engine, then select the right process


Now, start an offline solo game, finish the first wave, then scan for an unknown initial wave.

You'll get around 633M values. But don't worry about it.

Now, finish the second wave and scan for increased value. That should narrow the number of values.
Additionally, you can also try scanning for an unchanged value since you don't get zombie kills during the buytime, that helps narrow the search.
Scan for increased value when you complete another wave, just be careful pressing the button at the right time, it's quite easy to mess it up if you're not paying attention.

I suggest dying after wave 5 or 6 and starting a new solo game, using the same parameters. Do not touch the cheat engine though, your XP is stored in the same part of your RAM.
Complete the first wave and scan for increased value again. At some point you will only have 200-500 values to choose from. It took me around 5 games (5 waves each) to narrow the search to 390 values

Removing obviously unwanted values
Having the power of experience "hacking" this game, i know what the XP value should look like.
Any number that was 0 or 10, or even 50 000 at the beginning, is certainly not what you're looking for.
So you can remove them from your scan list.

Do a few more waves.

Now you should have under 400 values left. Here comes another tedious part. Manually messing with game values, editing them. When you think you're ready, pause the game and add the values to address list and start editing them. Personally, i keep the same amount of digits in a number, but i replace the first one with 7 or 9. Unless it was 7 by default, then i add 1 at the beginning of the number.

After you've edited a value, unpause the game, press tab and check your level.

Most of the time it'll remain the same level you had before.
I suggest only editing 1 or 2 values at a time, so you'll know which one is actually responsible for your XP.



Look for long numbers that start with 11. Those 2 values look promising.
After changing 1127953386 to 1197953386 my level turned from 2 to 34.



That means i found the right value. Just be careful editing it. If you play with first digits, your level may go back to 1, so i suggest only editing 3rd and 4th digits.
Now, edit it to become a 21 heavy. In my case, i needed the value to be 1185553386
Then, i can upgrade game skills.

Conclusion

It took me under 2 hours to hack a single skill tree and see how seek the XP value. But other skill trees took me under 40 mins to hack each. This is still tedious, but it beats hours of grinding.

Now you can explore the unlocked skills. Remember to save the skill.save file
Alternatively you can use a trainer, if you really feel like cheating. (I know it exists, but i don't feel like trying it)

Remember, cheating is your decision, in this guide i just wanted to share my own experience skipping the XP grinding.

Thank you for reading, and have a good day!