How to change difficulty in a hex editor?

[Alph]

Is there a way with a hex editor or cheat codes?

I can't load the online save editor in my browser, is it working for anyone else?

 

Edit: I think I figured it out!

 

Edit 2: Nope, the following creates a problem when you start a new chapter many of the enemies will have no weapons available when I did a Hard to Lunatic+, however new enemies generated with a Reeking Box seem fine.

So don't try this yet

 

1. Take your save file i.e chapter1

2. Decompress it with FEST by dragging the save file onto the FEST exe: https://github.com/RainThunder/FEST
3. Open the decompressed save with HxD
4 Near the start of the save you will see two bytes 78 02 followed by either 00, 01, 02 or 03
5. Let's say your save is on hard mode currently, it should show the three bytes as 78 02 01 (Where the 01 is the difficulty)

However there is another byte that you must also change, a little further down in the hex code you will see these 3 bytes repeated 78 02 01 (You need to change the value of this second 01 also)

In fact this second 01 byte is the one that actually changes the difficulty setting, the first one seems to be just a display value, but both should be changed.

So if you want to go from hard to lunatic, find both instances of the byte sequence 78 02 01 and change both  the 01s to 02

The second 01 byte that needs to be changed will be a little father down in the code, but you will see it in the pattern of these 3 bytes again.

 

Usually the first 01 byte is at offset D and is preceded by the 78 02, but sometimes it will be preceded by 78 01 on very early saves, so the sequence will appear as (78 01 01) instead.

You should get the idea of what you're looking for.

 

6. Finally save the file after changing those two bytes to the desired difficulty, then re-compress it by dragging it onto the FEST exe, then put the new save into the game's save folder, load the game and go to the world map and save to the file again, then reboot the game and load it, it should work and show the new difficulty. I tested it and the enemies are way more powerful, so it works, but you may need to summon new ones with Reeking Box or start a new chapter for the new ones to appear.
 

00 = Normal

01 = Hard

02 = Lunatic

03 = Lunatic+

Edited September 29, 2020 by Alph

[GamerMan8010]

I tried your method & it works! Except instead of the 2 bytes being 78 02, mine was 7E 02. I did notice the bug with some of the enemies not having any weapons equipped when I start a new chapter. However, I do hope that's not the case for the remaining chapters in the game (I'm on Chapter 11 right now).