How To Cheat at Robo Defense on Android
Posted by Greg Bulmash in Techno Thoughts, tags: cheat, cheat code, hackSo far, there's only one game on my Samsung Moment that I considered worth paying for. I paid $2.99 to get the full version of Lupis Labs' Robo Defense.
It's a tower defense game with lots of degrees of difficulty, different maps, and you can spend points earned in the games to buy upgrades like increasing the speed of fire of your rocket launchers or increasing the strength of your guns. You play again and again, gradually beefing up your strength so you can complete more and more difficult levels.
But what if you want to get your fire rates or bullet strength up to massive levels without having to spend all that time accumulating the necessary points? I Googled for cheat codes, but all I found were game sites saying they didn't have any yet.
I'm not an Android developer, but I had seen a file on my microSD card with the filename "robo_defense_full.bak". I decided to look at the guts to see if it could be used. Loading it up in a plain text editor showed some odd characters. I wasn't sure what it all meant. So I opened it up in a hex editor (using HexFiend for Mac).
Of course, the "Edit this file at your own risk!" at the beginning was fun, but I decided to poke around. as I did, I noticed that all of the upgrades were listed (as Rewards). On the line marked 456 on the screenshot above, you'll see an entry start: ADReward:Faster Antiair Reloadw.........t. But if you look at the hexadecimal information to the left, those dots are represented as 08 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 16. The number 16 in hexadecimal is 22 in decimal, which is the level my Faster Antiair Reload was at. As I went through the file, the pattern was the name of the reward, then the 8 dots represented by 08 00 00 00 02 00 00 00, then a hex code with the level I was at.
I made a backup copy of the file, just in case I screwed things up, then I changed a number of my levels, randomly picking levels between 55 and 99. I saved the file and then uploaded it to my microSD card, replacing the original. I unmounted the card and ran the game. No dice.
I deleted the game and its internal data files, then downloaded it again from the Android store (using the "my downloads" option on the menu). No dice.
So I tried wiping the file from my SD card and deleting the game, then redownloading the game and seeing if I could get it to start from zero. That worked and it created a new robo_defense_full.bak file. I erased that and replaced it with my hacked version.
When I started the game again, I had bullets at level 154, explosives at 104, antiair reload at 119, etc. I could basically play level 80 with a couple of rocket launchers and a couple of antiair guns because I pretty much killed everything the moment it came on screen. Sadly, now that there was no challenge, the ability to win the game with a handful of towers got old fast. The game I'd spent hours and hours playing was now a bore.
So, if you're bound and determined to cheat, I've just told you how. But hopefully, you'll view this account as a cautionary tale and choose not to do it.
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That's so sad. You could always just reinstall and throw on the file you originally backed up. I hate to see someone not enjoying this game. It seems so...wrong!
Can you email me your hacked file? Jtrizay@Gmail.com
Just a follow up. I was in the process of making the same HEX mods to the file when I stumbled upon this post, so I wanted to contribute by saying that I was able to set the values of the upgrade attributes to "FE" or 254 and this allows one to play at levels far above 500 if one wants to do so, but it does take the fun out of the game.
I had a little trouble following the prescribed order of operations, but here's what I did (and it worked for me):
1) make a backup copy of the .BAK game file off of the SD card (make 2 copies in case you make a mistake). 2) uninstall the game (full and free, if you have both). 3) reboot your device (in my case, the G1). 4) modify your BAK file as instructed above. 5) copy the new .BAK file to the SD Card root. 6) reinstall the game from the Market. 7) Play game and enjoy your modifications.
Is there any possible way you could send me the hacked copy of your file. I'm lost on what to do. I would like to try to play it with those levels you were talking about. Thanks a lot.
Sorry, don't have it anymore.
I would love some help with this. I had an SD card die on me after playing this game for months! It would be sweet to get back to approximately where I was.
Am I supposed to change the last place of 08000000 02000000 perhaps to 08000000 0200000060?
Any help would be much appreciated!
Nvr mnd got it. I just changed the "reward points" field to give myself enough money to purchase all the upgrades I had. Although this didn't correct all my achievements, it got me back to just about the same spot I had been. Thanks for the article! I agree be careful not to ruin the game for yourself! After I bought all the upgrades I had lost, I fixed the file to return my rewards points back down.
Hope you can help. I had to replace my SD Card as well. I am trying to follow this thread to get back to where I was but can't seam to get it to work. Do you have a copy of your file or exactly what you edited to increase your reward points.
what line did you edit to have enough money to get back to where you where thanks
For editing the value of reward points, what did you edit the code to?
all I want is infinate money cheat
Note: If your Health Reward is too high, the gave save / quickload feature will fail. I'm not sure what the limit is, but I'm guessing it's 255. Since you starrt with 20 health, I'm betting that if your reward goes over 235, you run into a situation where the game cannot save your health remaining in the space provided (FF)... I'll test it and report back. Also, you can't have more than 251 bonus to any of the upgrades without causing an overflow bug that screws up your money (negative price for upgrades), although I'm testing this as well. Will report back what I find. For Tom, you change the value AFTER the 3rd set of 00's, following the 02 value.
Just FYI, I boosted some upgrades to where their price went negative. When I then bought them in-game, that price was added to my cash reserves.
How do I alter the reward points ? What field # is it ?
You don't need to edit that file. You have to edit a file called AndroidDefense.xml located in the directory /data/data/com.magicwach.rdefense/shared_prefs.
Oh, and I forgot to say, you also have to delete the backup 'robo_defense_full.bak'.
That file and directory are not on the SD card, so I'd assume they are in the primary filesystem. Do you need root access to edit them? My solution, although a bit cryptic doesn't require anything but access to the SD card.
You said you need to delete the game and its internal data files (including AndroidDefense.xml) and install it again for the changes to take effect. I'm saying it's easier for me to open a shell using adb.exe and follow these easy steps:
adb.exe shell - This gets access to Android's Linux shell.
cd /data/data/com.magicwach.rdefense/shared_prefs - This sends us to the game config directory.
cp AndroidDefense.xml /sdcard/AndroidDefense.xml - This copies the file to the SD card.
Now we can edit the file using Windows notepad.
cp /sdcard/AndroidDefense.xml AndroidDefense.xml - And this copies the file to the phones memory.
i tried it, but all i get is permission denied or read only filesystem when i try to copy the xml file back to the shared_prefs directory. i'm on an archos 5 as i'm sure that make some difference
Im not understanding. I have Robo Defence (FREE VERSION). I pulled up the file in a hex-editor and for instance I see "ADReward:Faster Antiair Reloadw.........t" 08 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 16. Now I only changed where the 16 is to 64 to make it 100 but no matter what it just will not work. Man this is so frustrating o.0 -.-" >.<'
well, screwing around with it ruined it, but not in the way mentioned by the author. i have spend weeks playing and thought i would play around with upgrades, but then switch back to the original. well, i have successfully reset all my stats and cannot get them even back to normal. so now i have a game i will also quit playing because it's not worth it to build everything back up. if anyone has some kind of a way to get it to work or has done it on an archos 5 then let me know so i can enjoy it again
update, figured i had nothing to lose, so i kept screwing with it, on the archos, maybe others, i had to edit the bak file, uninstall, reboot, reinstall, replace the bak, then reboot again, for the bak to get recognized. so it's working and i would assume i can edit over and over the same way
cool, thanks !
(won't cheat it though)
Ok, first of all I have had this game for about a week now and I think the funnest part of the game is saving up your rewards points to spend on upgrading your towers. I'm highly against cheating because it defeats the whole purpose. I'm not telling you guys not to hack, do whatever you want, but what I am saying I would love to hear some strategys you guys have on tower placing, and some overall strategy tips, keep me posted
I downloaded this game as the marketplace listed it as popular. Boy is it addicting. For strategy, I'm still in the lower levels, but placing my towers in formnation to build a maze for the ground units while focusing the slow and missle towers on the center column of air traffic seems to be working quite well.
I use a one row/two row approach for placing the towers so that the land bot need to travel fuirther across screen allowing for more attacks.
Here is what I use (Im playing the free version):
This gets the file and saves it to your computer
adb pull /data/data/com.magicwach.rdefense_free/shared_prefs/AndroidDefense.xml AndroidDefense.xml
This puts it back
adb push AndroidDefense.xml /data/data/com.magicwach.rdefense_free/shared_prefs/AndroidDefense.xml
@ How Walker:
Think dude!
Make sure you've got SDK installed, go to the tools folder, and from cmd.exe do -> adb shell
Then go to the folder for these commands to work -> cd /data/data/com.magicwach.rdefense/shared_prefs
U have to mount and unmount again and again.
When you grab the file you and write it to your SD-card, you must UNMOUNT your SD. i.e. DO NOT use you phone in disk mode for your PC. -> cp AndroidDefense.xml /sdcard/AndroidDefense.xml
Then mount it so you can view and edit the file.
After you edited the file, unmount again to write the file back -> cp /sdcard/AndroidDefense.xml AndroidDefense.xml
I uploaded an example XML file, with level 20 towers and fully unlocked towers: http://pchulpzutphen.nl/AndroidDefense.xml
You could use that file and copy it to the folder. If you've got the free version there are other posts in here to help you on that.
Good luck dude.
Tried all of these and nothing seems to work. Can someone give a step by step process in a language a 5 year old could understand?
My basic strategy is to create a single line across the map. I let the units walk in a Straight line to the other side and biuld towers on either side using only slowdown towers and missles, that way ALL of my towers are concentrating on both ground and air units, so far I have made it to 30 on basic and 20 on the ruins using this method, and I only upgrade the power and speed of the missle towers and occasionly money and health, let me know what you think...
My strat is, I make the path snake back and forth but I leave a return path on the bottom of the map so if the ground bots survive the snake path I can sell a gun that opens the return path and then place a gun in the way of the end of the snake path which forces ground bots to go all the back through the maze and then back down the return path. If the ground bots survive going through the maze again I sell the gun that blocks the snake path and block the return path again which forces them to go all the way through the maze again. I place a slow tower every other spot in the path of the flying bots and upgrade rocket towers to anti-air when I can afford them. with this strat i can skip 5 levels every game and get to basic level 200 in just 40 rounds from start. mines are not worth the price of upgrade, better to spend money on stronger bullets, explosives, and faster reload of rockets and anti-air, start cash, and health. don't waste a dime on faster artillery or longer flame burn as both are lame compared to rockets and anti-air in the long run. longer slowdown is helpful somewhat. Teleport tower is useful around level 60 if you're skipping 5 levels every round because flying bots get pretty strong compared to your upgrade rate for stronger missiles and faster anti-air. Place 3 to 5 teleporters at the entrance in line with flyers and snake your path from there always leaving a return path for those hard to kill walking bots. For ruins, factory, courtyard, VR training etc, you can usually make a return path with a little creativity but teleporters are sometimes not worth it since there are more exits, so I usually spend my cash on more rockets and slow towers, anti-air, and force hard to kill ground bots back through my return path(s). With a good return path, you don't need as much firepower for ground bots and can spend more on anti-air. I hope they make this in 3D before I'm old and gray...
How do you do your return path for courtyard??? I tried it on basic ruins and kind of on factory and it work out magnificently, I just don't have the slightest clue on where to start on the courtyard, and let me know when you get that video of the titan posted, I would like to see that, thanks
HELP HELP HELP! I can't spend my reward points! The only button I have is the GO BACK button and it doesn't charge the points or give me the skills. ANY IDEAS?? I love this game!
Usually, if you can't spend reward points, it means you don't have enough points to buy anything. Any item that costs more than you have gets its button greyed out.
It seems to me that the Titan is "triggered" to come out only under certain conditions. I killed him on Basic Level 70-93 with 35 health and I believe I started with 35 if not 36. Others killed him in The Ruins around level 25 or 30. I tried to keep him alive long enough to get a screen shot of him but I had too much firepower on the ground and my slow towers kept him translucent and I didn't have time to sell off my weaponry and towers to get a clear shot before he died. He was approximately 8 to 10 times stronger than a "hulk" because he got the same distance through my snake maze as 8 to 10 hulks did. I didn't see how much he was worth. I'm guessing he was worth quite a bit but unfortunately I wasn't really paying attention since I had it on fast forward and was watching Jon Stewart, only glancing at my phone once in a while to see if I needed to recharge a teleport-pad or not.
Where did y'all have your Titan experience? Have you ever seen him twice or do you only get to kill him once? My theory is that once he's dead, he's dead and you don't get a second shot at him. I also believe that it doesn't matter what screen you're playing for him to show up. You're not really looking for him so much as waiting for your stats to trigger him to come out. Hopefully I'll see him again...
If I was tasked with making the next version of this game I'd make at least a few simple improvements:
1) Add at least 1 more achievement that proves you are a true master of the game: "KILL 100 TITANS IN THE COURTYARD ON LEVEL 100-100 WHILE HAVING NO INDIVIDUAL UPGRADE CATEGORIES EXCEEDING 30 REWARDS POINTS AND WITHOUT USING ANY TELEPORT-PADS". I know I could pull this off if they would let me. (Think: "Return paths")
2) User defined levels (Think: "Lode Runner")
3) More sound effects and the ability to change volume levels on each.
4) Bigger screens of course and more different types of upgrades and different enemies, etc...
can anyone send me the file? i tried doing with hex editor n its getting me confused =S i dunno how to do it
Everytime I try to push the .xml file back to the shared_prefs dir I get a permission denied.... Any idea?
Found an easier way
1. you have to root your phone
http://theunlockr.com/2009/11/07/how-to-root-your-cdma-htc-hero-sprint-verizon/ (You may have to search unlockr.com for your phone. This is for my sprint hero)
2. Download root explorer from market place on your phone
3. Download SUFBS root file manager from market place on your phone
4. Use root explorer to navigate to /data/data/com.magicwach.rdefense/shared_prefs
5. Now change the permissions on AndroidDefense.xml on a hero this is done by a long click on the file until a dialogue box pops up with permissions as one of the choices your phone may be slightly different
6. click on permissions then make sure all boxes are checked in the permissions dialogue box
7. close root explorer
8. Open SUFBS root file manager and navigate back to the AndroidDefense.xml file. open it up. Choose page editor from menu options in SUFBS you can now edit the xml file by changing the "adreward" values. The will be the number in quotes after adreward antiari reload "39" etc..
9. You will have to reset permissions after every time you run the game because game changes xml back to read only.
note....there is probably a root file manager that both changes permissions and edits xml file. Just haven't found one that works for both yet.
ps above method works great because you don't have to move .xml file around and you can edit values up or down to suit preferences. Also won't tank game (on a Sprint hero anyway)
Well, I messed with this quite a while tonight. I've been addicted to the paid version of the game for a solid week now, so I figured I'll kill the addition with cheating. It's a good way to ruin a good game after a bit of fun, so off I went.
I used to edit hex files of computer games back 15+ years ago, so this made perfect sense.
Unfortunately, I couldn't get the backup to ever restore for some reason.
Anyway, pulling the XML, making edits, and pushing it back definitely works. I found that going to a billion dollars will crash the program, so $999,999,999 is the limit. Also, setting some of the upgrades to too high of levels causes a negative reading interestingly enough, but when I played the game with negative starting cash, I actually started with $490 using a "93" value in the XML, so not sure why it shows negative.
Other than that, I had trouble editing the file on the phone itself. I could make the edits, but they didn't seem to take. Had the same problem when pushing a revised file onto the phone with anything but a basic starting file on the phone.
So in the end, after several hours, it seems that this is the magic recipie that works for me:
[] pull a valid game file (e.g., adb pull /data/data/com.Magicwach.rdefense/shared_prefs/AndroidDefense.xml .
[] Edit the xml file on the pc
[] THESE NEXT STEPS SEEMED TO BE REQUIRED SOMETIMES, NOT SURE WHY:
[] Uninstall the program
[] Remove the /sdcard/*.bak hex file
[] Reinstall the program
[] Open, and play a game, and save some changed settings, forcing the xml file to be created.
[] Kill the program
[] push the file to /data/local (e.g., adb push AndroidDefense.xml /data/local/)
[] su - on the phone
[] To be careful with ownship and permissions, I catted the contents to the actual file, and that seemed to work for me (e.g., cd to the shared_prefs directory, then cat /data/local > AndroidDefense.xml)
[] I rebooted for good measure.
Then played the new file.
Now I got things to work several other times, but the above procedure was repeatable like clock work. Its an overkill, but when I didn't do some of the above steps, I either got a crash, or the program would bring up my old data, seemingly from no where, given that the xml and the bak file was gone.
Anyway, that's what I did. Now off to ruin the game for myself. I just won lvl 10 while typing this with just a handful of rocket launchers which fired hilariously fast. Essentially a stream of rockets at lvl 94 (value 93). Pretty funny.
I think I'll finish up the achievements that I couldn't get before (e.g. I never could beat lvl
lol, you got cutt off dude, "lvl...." ??
Ha! I don't know what happened. I was saying that I could never beat level 60. I was also legitimately addicted to the game, but that's been cured now with all my powerups at 93.
I played it up to about lvl 220 and then got quite bored with it because all I had to do was build a couple of rocket launchers.
Anyway, this is a seriously great game ... until you intentionally ruin it by cheating
@Dick Macgurn:
You were asking about Titan above. I've seen him about half a dozen times, but never more than once on a single level. I'm not sure what triggers him, but its always been on the basic level for me. I never saw him before I implemented my cheats He's about 3x times taller than the other bots and significantly stronger.
Yeah, Titan is worth 1000 instant points and so far for me he only comes out when my health is either perfect or one shy of perfect and between waves 73 and wave 97 of Ruins or Basic, I want to see if he comes out in VR Training, Factory and Courtyard, I'm pretty sure he will. The last time he came out I sold all my rocket launchers and built a harmless maze for him to walk around in and shot a couple of short videos of him walking around with no towers to make him translucent. I'll post those videos soon.
I really can't wait till they make this game in 3D!
My encounter with the titan was on vr training A, I set it to level thirty so I could complete the 30 30 achievment, I started with 35 lives and lost 5 by the end so I was perfectly at level 30, round 30, with 30 lives, I'm not sure if it was just coincidence that he appeared then but it was really cool, tried multiple times after and I could not make him appear again, I never got a good look at him though. I had to many rockets so he was covered up the whole time and died before I could even see him
I have no idea you mean by hex editor.I'm playing this on my moms phone.