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Daggerfall Hacking Guide

19 February 2011

Want to know the hex location in the save game to give yourself tons of gold or that nifty item. Perhaps the format of the Daggerfall IMG files. Well here you can find that and much, much more. Please note that all the information/links contained on this page is third party information and as such may contain errors.

Major Topics, Seperate Documents
TEXT.RSC Indexs - 25 May 2002
Lists the indices of texts in the TEXT.RSC file.
BSA File Formats - 5 April 2002
Description of the BSA files MAPS.BSA, ARCH3D.BSA, and BLOCKS.BSA, which contain most of the map and 3D object information for the game.
WOODS.WLD Format - 20 November 2000
Description of the WOODS.WLD format which appears to give information about the creation of landscape within the game.
Image Formats - 20 November 2000
Close to complete formats for all of the IMG, CIF, Texture, PAL, and COL image and palette files.
Quest Hacking Guide - 26 July 1999
A text file detailing the formats of t/he QRC and QBN files which contain the quest data.
Map Hacking - 12 October 1998
List of all map areas and their indices used in the game.
Hacking FALL.EXE - 30 May 1998
How to allow attributes and skills to exceed 100 by hacking the v2.13 FALL.EXE file.
SAVEGAME.DAT Description - 28 March 1998
A good partially complete description of the format and structure of the save game file.
Quest Pseudo Codes - 28 March 1998
Lengthy description of the pseudo section used in the QBN quest files.
Custom Artifacts - 28 March 1998
Information on the format of the MAGIC.DEF and how to add artifacts into the game.
TEXT.RSC Format - 28 March 1998
Describes the structure of the file TEXT.RSC.
Book Format - 12 December 1997
The almost complete format to the book files found in the ARENA2\BOOKS directory.
Texture Files - 12 September 1997
Information on deciphering some of the texture files, mostly on changing woman clothing images.
Save Game Offsets - 19 April 1997
A close to complete listing of hex offsets and their description in Daggerfall save games.
DFQEdit Manual - 19 April 1997
The HTML manual page for the start of a close to complete quest editor for Daggerfall.
Hacking Items - 19 April 1997
A very complete guide telling one how to change around item images to those not normally seen in the game.
Minor Topics, Listed Below
Running Without a CD - 7 March 2002
Run the game without requiring the CD for greater speed and convienence.
Advancement Multiplier Stats - 10 January 1999
Stats on how much each disadvantage/advantage affects the level multiplier.
Changing Item Materials - 23 November 1998
How to hex-edit the savetree.dat file to change an items material and appearance (make a daedric cuirass out of a steel one, which looks like ebony!).
View Distance Info - 26 October 1998
Lots of information on hacking the view distance.
Becoming a Lich - 30 May 1998
Bored of being a vampire or werebeast...change your character a bit and become a lich!
Wagon Weight Limit - 30 May 1998
Can't carry enough loot in your wagon, check this hack out!
Change into Monsters - 12 September 1997
Possible hack on how to change into the monster of your choice.
View Distance - 3 January 1997
Double the maximum allowed view distance in Daggerfall by hex editting the SAVETREE.DAT file.
Negative Spell Points - 13 November 1996
How to fix your character's spell points when they go negative (due to a bug).
Monster Reflexes - 13 November 1996
Location of the bytes in the SAVETREE.DAT file to modify the monster reflex variable set during character creation.
Editing Items - 13 November 1996
Hex edit the savegame files to 'fix' the bug and any object that needs repairing.
Repairing Items - 13 November 1996
More information on repairing items via a hex editor.
Hacking Programs
DFTEXT.ZIP - 50kb - 2 October 1998
Add, modify, extract, or delete texts from the file TEXT.RSC, DOS program.
DEFEDIT.ZIP - 80kb - 2 October 1998
Add, modify, or delete magical items+artifacts from the MAGIC.DEF file, DOS program.
WinQEdit.ZIP v1.4 - 320kb - 2 October 1998
Good versatile quest editor for Win95.
ANDYPIC.ZIP - 43kb - 1 October 1998
An improvement over the DagPic utility allowing one to view just about all IMG, CIF, and texture files in the game. Cannot yet successfully import pictures into all texture formats (if you don't change the images size it works better). Same command prompt syntax as DagPic with several expanded options.
BOOKEDIT.ZIP - 101kb - 2 October 1998
Edit and add your own book in the game, DOS program.
DFITEM.ZIP v0.1b - 80kb - 2 October 1998
DOS program to edit any item in you savegame! Change name, uses, cost, enchantments, type, picture and more. Unzip into your Daggerfall directory.
DFHACK.ZIP - 280kb - 18 January 1998
Save game editor for Windows. Can edit/view just about everything including items, reputation in addition to the normal stats/skills etc...
EDITBIO.ZIP - 111kb - 28 January 1997
Edit your biography file created during character creation.
Hacking Links
Save Game Hex List - 19 April 1997
Contains a good list of hex codes for the save game to give yourself items, armor, weapons, etc...
HR

Running Without the CD
7 March 2002

Daggerfall can be run without the CD to improve game speed and prevent the annoyance of having to switch CDs when playing various games.

  1. Install the game with the largest install size.
  2. Copy all the files from the DAGGER/ARENA2 directory on the CD to the ARENA2 directory on your hard drive where you installed the game. There are some large files which are not installed by the largest install size.
  3. Install the latest patch as desired.
  4. Edit the Z.CFG file in your Daggerfall directory. Change the PATHCD value to match that of the PATH value.
  5. To run the game don't use DAGGER.EXE as you would normally, but instead run the command FALL.EXE Z.CFG. You can create a batch file to prevent having to type it each time, but don't name it DAGGER.BAT.
  6. Some say you need to add the line set dos4gvm=@dagger.vmc to your Autoexec or your custom batch file, though the game will run without it.

Becoming a Lich
30 May 1998

I thought I'd put a slight new twist in the game and try to become a lich. This would be essentially similar to a vampire with a few differences. The first step is, of course, to become a vampire as one normally would. Once that has been accompished you'll need to edit several files.

  1. Change your face into that of a lich. Vampire faces are contained in the file VAMP00i0.CIF. I've created a skeleton like face which is available on the Daggerfall Graphics Page which will work fine. You will need to use Andypic and play with the X and Y position of the picture to get it right. Probably the easier way is to extract your vampire face and load it up into an editor. Copy the skeleton face into it and shift it until the eyes match up. Feel free to create your own 'lich' face, I'd love to see it.
  2. Change your body into that of a lich. I've created a semi-decent skeleton also available on the Daggerfall Graphics Page. Find your body image which can be found in the BODY0?i?.IMG files. You will probably need to change the size and position of the image a bit to match depending on your race. The skeleton was made for a male Redguard. It doesn't fit everthing 100% since everything is much skinnier than normal so you'll have to wear things to cover it up....of course you'll have to wear things anyways otherwise people would be fleeing in terror.
  3. Edit your savegame to make yourself immune to poison and disease. Your undead now and can't be affected by either. Also make yourself resistant to shock since this has a lesser effect on you.
  4. Give yourself a critical weakness to fire...very deadly to undead. Also give yourself low tolerance to cold (wouldn't want those bones to shatter now would we). Any previous weaknesses/resistances etc... other than those mentioned can be left as is.
  5. Give yourself a bonus to hit undead. Since you are one of the more powerful undead yourself, you have 'insight' or power over the other beings. Give yourself a phobia of humans since they generally want to kill you in nasty ways.
  6. In order for your reputation not to drop (you are a walking skeleton after all), you must do several things. First, ensure that you are covered as much as possible from head to toe at all times. Next, to futhur ensure people don't recognize you for who you really are, make a magical item to 'disguise' your looks. It can be any magical item really, just make it give it powerful enchantments including the soul of a lich. It probably should have a spell that is cast at all times although I find this annoying, I'll leave it up to you.

That is it really, not too much different than a vampire, but your character portrait is now real cool. Feel free to make comments or suggestions on this.

Changing the Wagon Weight Limit
30 May 1998

Changing the size of the wagon is simple, once you know the location of the bytes. In version 2.13 of Daggerfall the offset is 0xDFE13. Note that you must multiply the desired max weight by four when changing it (ie, a max weight of 1000 lbs is the hex code A00F). The max value for the weight is most likely in the area of 16000 lbs. To change the text that goes along with this, check out the offset 0x1B06AC, making sure not to exceed the length of the string that is there. If you don't want to do this hex-editting yourself, check out the utility DFWAGON.ZIP which allows you to change the value and the text string.

Repairing with Hex Editing
November 1996

I can't find my write up so here it is again. Pardon me if I cover points you already know. If you need a hex editor, I recommend Hex Workshop, which I got off the net from a Excite search (+hex +editor +win95). Remember it's always a good idea to backup the file first (HW will prompt you to do a backup if make changes).

The save games are in the Dagger directory under subdirectories SAVE0 through SAVE5 in the following order according to the save screen....

SAVE0 SAVE3
SAVE1 SAVE4
SAVE2 SAVE5
The save game file is savetree.dat.

The "name" of the save game is in a file called savename.txt if you want to verify that you have the right save.

Look for the item you want to repair (like %it of Orc Strength or Leaping %it), your items will generally follow your name and class name. Locate the beginning of the name then count forward 44 bytes. Position 44-45 are current status and 46-47 are max status. I generally set these 4 bytes to FF7F FF7F. This gives 32000+ uses before breakage. To help insure you are in the right place, for magic items, the two bytes right before that (42-43) usually start with a 2 (2###).

This works for ALL item, not just magical ones. One of these days, I'll play with those other two bytes and see if I can't figure out how to MAKE magic items ;-)

Original Text Written by Shadow Jack - dlhonis@tribeca.ios.com.

Fixing the Daedric Cuirass Bug + 'Repairing' Items
November 1996

Someone asked if you could use a hex editor to fix the broken Daedric Cuirasses and occasionally broken Daedric Greaves that the shops sell or that you find on monsters. Yes. In your hex editor find the beginning of the word Cuirass. In the file SAVETREE.DAT from your SAVEn directory Words 44, 45, 46 and 47 offset from the C in Cuirass will be something like 00H 80H 00H 80H. These two 2-byte hex words are "hits remaining" and "max hits" for the Cuirass. When it's new they should match. Once it's taken damage the hits remaining is reduced by the amount of the damage. Unfortunately, the word 8000H when taken as a signed integer is negative and the program believes anything that has a negative value is broken. Therefore the cuirass is broken, even though it's new. So, to make the new Cuirass not broken, change the values to FFH 7FH FFH 7FH for the words offset by 44, 45, 46 and 47 respectively. (This is reducing the max hits for the Cuirass from 32768 to 32767.)

You can also use this information to "fix" magic items (just use a hex editor to ake the two hex words match) until Bethesda fixes the "repairs objects" magic enchantment so that it works in the patched versions.

Be sure to make a backup of SAVETREE.DAT before messing with it. NOTE: This is fixed in patch v1.79.

Changing Item Materials
23 November 1998

Ok, so you're at bytes 44 or so doing "self repairs" on your magic weapons and armor, right? Well, you get to thinking about how ugly that leather cuirass looks. You decide to change it. So, you go down from the 44th "repair byte" to byte 50. This controls the style of the armor. You have to experiment to find out which is which, but if you go too high or too low, your armor disappears. Keep that in mind. Anyway, so you change it to look like that cool breastplate. But then you think, "wait... wouldn't it look better as, DAEDRIC?" sure it would! So, you move over 4 bytes to a 0#. Change this to a 09 (these numbers actually coorospond to the ones on the biog*.* edit list, cool huh?). Now, this WON'T change the color. So if you like the ebony color better than the daedric, hop over two more bytes (all this is to the right btw). Here you'll see a 1#. change this to a 17 (this matches the color of the type of material, aka 19 for daedric, 18 for orc, etc). Well, that's it. Have fun with that daedric!

	Bytes 44-47: Repair Bytes
	Byte 50: Armor Style (Leather, Plate, etc...)
	Byte 54: Armor Type (Steel, Silver, Daedric etc...)
	Byte 56: Armor Colour

Somthing to add to Changing Item Material Via Hex-editing In addition to the offset from Start of Item Name,

	Byte 57 - Item Weight (Weight = Byte value X 0.25 lbs)
These Byte modifications are only Valid with Plate armor and do not work with Chain/Leather armor. Other artifact characteristics (Net worth, embedded magic) are not effected by the byte change, so if you modify a cheap iron dagger into a feather weight Daedric Dagger, its selling price is still only as a cheap iron dagger.

One important thing to note: byte 54 is the Armor Material, and byte 55 is the armor TYPE. 0 is leather, 1 is chain, 2 is plate. I believe 3 is Crystal, 4 is Glass, and 5 and up are weird things like "of Lightning" and the like. Values past 2 add obscene amounts to your armor rating - like +58, or +2470. Of course, there is a maximum practical value, beyond which the game seems to ignore any further armor ratings. (This could simply be like the AD&D 'natural 20' rule, where a certain percent-score on the to-hit check results in an automatic hit, regardless of defenders' AC.)

Original Text Written by Leonard Miyata - lkmiyata@earthlink.net
J. Carl Smith - smithjc@popalex1.linknet.net
and Matthew O. Avent - moa1@cornell.edu.

Fixing the Negative Spell Point Bug
November 1996

This is a bug - nobody anticipated it because you shouldn't be able to select both low magic ability and no magic in daylight at the same time. What happens is that the "No Magic" part reduces your spellpoints to zero, then the low magic tries to further reduce that. Result is you have -32768 SP.

If you have a hex-editor, you can fix it. Use the editor to find your character's name in the savetree.dat file. Then count 565 bytes toward the end of the file from the first letter in your character's name - this byte should have a value of X3 where X is:

	0 if you have 3X Int in SP
	1 if you have 1X Int in SP  (SP = Int)
	2 if you have 2X Int in SP
	4 if you have 1.75X Int in SP
The 3 is because you selected both no magic and low magic. Change the 3 to a zero if you don't want either of these limitations. Make it 1 for no magic in daylight or 2 for low magic in daylight (or just make the whole byte zero - that gives you 3X INT in SP and no magic handicaps).

Original Text Written by Jim Okamura.


Monster Reflex Byte Location
November 1996

The monster reflex byte is location 130 bytes (82 bytes HEX) from the beginning of the character's name in the file SAVETREE.DAT found in the save game directories. The byte values range from 0 (Highest) to 4(Lowest). Alternatively you can download a program to do this automatically from the Files Area if you aren't familiar with hex editted binary files.


Increasing View Distance
3 January 1997

The first thing that really got on my nerves when I ventured into the wonderful world of Tamriel, was the limited view. I figured I had to fix that particular "bug". In the file savetree.dat, Daggerfall stores the sound/music/detail settings as vars. Now, the program itself does not allow you to enlarge the red bar beyond the limits of clicking-area, but a simple hex-editor does, if you only manage to locate the vars. As the size differs slightly from time to time, one cannot use the same offset for every savefile. To find the vars, just max the bars, save, let your hex-editor search the savetree.dat for these hex-values 7F,7F,00,7F,00 (the first byte being the detail, you may have to search for 7E's instead), and change the detail to FF!!!! When you load your game, you'll notice that your range has been doubled making everything look much better! (Not as good as unlimited range, but beats the hell out of the first one :))

Original Text Written by Thor-Eirik Larsen - irenee@online.no


View Distance Information
26 October 1997

I first hacked to 0xFF, the max viewing distance and ran everywhere (dungeons, outlands, towns...) to observe the effects:

Original Text Written by Danibene - danibene@mail.dotcom.fr

Changing into Monsters
12 September 1997

Dunno if this would be in everyone's game. As I've said before, I hack considerably at my .exe [which I'd release if Bethesda would let me, cause I'm playin' a different game now. The 'Collectors' version, per se. (I've over 550 different items on my ship, as well as 150+ different paintings.)], but in my game, if one gets hit in at range while having The Wabbajack equipped, you are polymorphed into some other creature. I've screenshots of me being a rat, a lich and something else. Sometimes (often) when you go to view your character on the stats screen, it'll crash, which makes be beleive I didn't miss something when I was reading about the artifacts. It's interesting, because it TOTALLY skews your stats, and it RESETS the character. I don't know if any of these mutants would be playable due to stability.

Original Text Written by m00se - m00se@wwa.com

Advancement Multiplier Stats
10 January 1999

0x266 (614 decimal) Over=Advancement multiplier in saved game

Format: ## ## 0! (! is the whole number) (#'s are other numbers) +/- 655 per 0.01 advancement point (ie: a value of 655 would be 0.01, 65536 would be 1.00, etc...).

Basic (nothing special, 8 HP char) = 1.00 or 65536
Each add HP + when 8+ cost: 3277 each (from 8 to 9 or 9 to 10, etc.)
Each sub HP - when 8- bonus: 6554 each (from 8 to 7 or 7 to 6, etc.)

Disadvantage Type Bonus
Critical Weakness: Disease45875
Critical Weakness: Fire 45875
Critical Weakness: Frost 45875
Critical Weakness: Magic 45875
Critical Weakness: Paralyzaion 45875
Critical Weakness: Poison 45875
Critical Weakness: Shock 45875
Damage from Holy Places 19661
Damage from Sunlight 32768
Darkness Magery: Lower in Light 22938
Darkness Magery: None in Light 32768
Forbidden Armor: Chain 6554
Forbidden Armor: Leather 3277
Forbidden Armor: Plate 16384
Forbidden Material: Adamantium 16384
Forbidden Material: Daedric 6554
Forbidden Material: Dwarven 22938
Forbidden Material: Ebony 13108
Forbidden Material: Elven 29491
Forbidden Material: Iron 3277
Forbidden Material: Mithril 19661
Forbidden Material: Orcish 9830
Forbidden Material: Silver 19661
Forbidden Material: Steel 32768
Forbidden Shield: Buckler 3277
Forbidden Shield: Kite 3277
Forbidden Shield: Round 3277
Forbidden Shield: Tower 3277
Forbidden Weapon: Axe 6554
Forbidden Weapon: Blunt 6554
Forbidden Weapon: Hand to hand 6554
Forbidden Weapon: Long Blade 6554
Forbidden Weapon: Missile 6554
Forbidden Weapon: Short Blade 6554
Inability to Regenerate SP's 45875
Light Magery: Lower in Darkness 32768
Light Magery: None in Darkness 45875
Low Tolerance: Disease 16384
Low Tolerance: Fire 16384
Low Tolerance: Frost 16384
Low Tolerance: Magic 16384
Low Tolerance: Parlysis 16384
Low Tolerance: Poison 16384
Low Tolerance: Shock 16384
Phobia: Animal 13108
Phobia: Daedra 13108
Phobia: Humanoid 13108
Phobia: Undead 13108

Advantage Type Bonus
Acute Hearing 3277
Adrenaline Rush 13108
Athleticism 13108
Bonus to Hit: Animals 19661
Bonus to Hit: Daedra 9830
Bonus to Hit: Humanoid 19661
Bonus to Hit: Undead 19661
Expert in: Axe 6554
Expert in: Blunt 6554
Expert in: Hand to hand 6554
Expert in: Long Blade 6554
Expert in: Missile 6554
Expert in: Short Blade 6554
Immune to Disease 32768
Immune to Fire 32768
Immune to Frost 32768
Immune to Magic 32768
Immune to Paralysis 32768
Immune to Poison 32768
Immune to Shock 32768
Increased Magery: INT 6554
Increased Magery: 1.5 13108
Increased Magery: 1.75 19661
Increased Magery: 2 26214
Increased Magery: 3 32768
Rapid Healing: General 13108
Rapid Healing: Darkness 9830
Rapid Healing: Light 3277
Regen Health: General 45875
Regen Health: Darkness 32768
Regen Health: Light 19661
Regen Health: In water 6554
Resist Disease 16384
Resist Fire 16384
Resist Frost 16384
Resist Magic 16384
Resist Paralysis 16384
Resist Poison 16384
Resist Shock 16384
Spell Absorb: General 45875
Spell Absorb: Darkness 39322
Spell Absorb: Light 26214

Original Text Written by Silent - BIRKSHI@gte.net


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