Alright. First things first. Gimme a Like and subscribe to my Newsletter.

Note to self: Start a Newsletter.

Second things second: You need the folder with your save data.

C:\Users\(YOUR WINDOWS USERNAME HERE)\AppData\LocalLow\PersonaeGames\BlackthornArena Reforged\Save\ArenaMode\(YOUR MAIN CHARACTER NAME HERE)\SaveData\(YOUR SAVE FILE NAME HERE)

Once in that folder, pick the one named "sav.dat"

You may want to copy the file before you do anything else, and save it in a different folder just in case you screw up big time. You can delete the one you broke and bring the copy back over to start again.

Now open sav.dat. I have no clue what the others do. Play with them at your own peril.

You will probably be prompted to pick a program to open it with. I did all this with regular windows Notepad. There may be other programs that work as well or better but if you're a Boomer or Boomer-adjacent like me, Keep It Simple Stupid.

I suggest you UNCHECK the box that says to "always" use this program when opening files like this. Just to avoid potential future headaches if you ever need to open a similar file with a different program. Spoiled little zoomer brats may be able to do that easily, but us luddites should always play it safe.

Now, once the file opens it's all going to look insane. That's because it is insane. Everything about computers is insane. Try not to stress out about it.

Press Crtl+F. Enter the name of the Gladiator you wish to edit. For some reason, MANY Gladiators not even in your roster can be found in here. I don't know why. I don't care why. I accept the insanity.

After typing the name confirm the search. By default the "Down" Radial dial in your search box is selected. Take note of that, but leave it alone for now. You're now going to hit Ctrl+F again and type "Alchemy". You can technically just type "Alch" and get the same result but that would make you illiterate. Like a Zoomer. Be better than that.

BEFORE you confirm the search, click the "Up" Radial Dial. That's important. If you leave it set to down you're going to end up editing the wrong Gladiator and it might be one you haven't even recruited.

You'll now be in a section of the document that says AlchemyEXP. You'll also see "TrainingEXP" and other similar skills. You're going to want to change the number after all the EXP's to 0. They might all be 0 already. Or most of them will be. Just make sure, then scroll up a bit.

You'll see "training":0,"torture":0,"medical":0,

"Training" correlates to the Gladiator's "Coaching" skill in the game. The others are self-explanatory. The number after all three will be whatever that gladiator's actual skill rating for that skill is. So if that Gladiator has 1 in Coaching, 1 in Torture and 0 in Medical you'll see "training":1,"torture":1,"medical":0

Change them all to 10 or whatever number you want. 10 is the "legitimate" maximum. I don't know what happens if you put it higher. Do so at your own peril. This is why I told you to put all the EXPs at 0. I don't know what happens if you still have EXP in a skill that's already capped out at 10. Probably best not to find out.

Now maybe you're wondering "What about Smithing, Alchemy, and Cooking?"

I don't know why, but those are located much higher up in the document. That's why we used "Alchemy" to do the search. But before we go to edit the last 3 Job Skills, look around this area for other useful stats you may want to edit. PhysicalHealth and MentalHealth both have a natural cap of 100. Obedience has a natural cap of 10. I'm not sure what the natural cap is for Prestige is 1000.

When you're ready to edit the last three job skills...making sure that the "Up" option is still selected...hit Ctrl+F(unless it's still up from before) and search Alchemy again. Now you'll see BSSmithing":0,"BSAlchemy":0,"BSCooking":1

Same deal as before. Just change them to 10. There's other "BS" SKills in this area you should ignore. They are used in the "Age of Reforging" game which uses the same engine as this game. But they don't appear to be used here so it would probably be a bad idea to try adding them.

Scroll up a bit and you'll also notice the Attributes(Strength, Agility, Endurance) are also in this area with a BS in front of them. I do NOT recommend editing those directly because doing it here is likely to cause other issues, since each of those stats impacts other stats that may not update correctly in the game if you edit them here. There's a safer option.

Very near the BS Skills, you'll find "PotentialPoints" and "Skillpoints". Set them to whatever you want. I tend toward the obscene, so I usually go with 3000 for Potential points and 1500 for Skillpoints. Once you go back in the game you'll never run out of either. That lets you increase your attributes and class skills "the right way", ensuring all the secondary stats tied to them also update properly.

You can also change your experience in this area. The level 30 Cap is 253250. Enter that(Or slightly below) and the next time your Gladiator gets XP in-game they'll immediately shoot up to the level cap.

But wait, THERE'S MOAR!!!

In this area you'll also notice the following line...
"skillSet":[202,9,1],"weaponMastery":[0,0,25,0,0,0,0],"weaponMasteryEXP":[0,0,130,0,0,0,0]

The WeaponMastery and WeaponMasteryEXP follows the same formulae as the Skills and SkillEXP stuff from before. Each number in the sequence correlates to a weapon skill. So change the EXPs to 0 and the Masteries to 100. If you want the acheivment weapon skills, change one of them to 99, I guess. Just train it the rest of the way "normally" in game because i'm not sure what the right EXP level would be.

And Skillset? That's how you unlock classes. Take the example above. "skillSet":[202,9,1]
The 9 correlates to the Class of Monk. The 1 is Fighter(Gladiator' as it's called in-game). If you want to add the remaining core classes, simply change it to "skillSet":[202,9,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]

The order of the numbers doesn't matter. You can just as easily make it "skillSet":[202,9,1,2,7,4,5,8,3,6]. Just make sure not to repeat the same number in the sequence, and don't mess with that 200 number.

I don't know what the 200 number means. For each gladiator you do this for, there will be a varying 200 number. Sometimes it's 201, or 205 or 202 like example above. And sometimes it's at the end of the sequence instead of the beginning. When adding Mage Elements(101-106), the 200 number might be in the middle. I don't know what these numbers mean and I don't mess with them. Leave it wherever it is in the sequence and don't change it.

I've not yet figured out what number the other classes in the game correlate to. Like Shapeshifter, Samurai, etc. Presumably logic would dictate you just add 10, 11, 12....etc.

But this game uses the same engine as "Age of Reforging" and the class numbers in that game did not always follow the math. So i recommend you unlock the Classes "the right way" for one of your gladiators and then check to see what number has been added to your save file for that gladiator. Then you can add it to any other gladiators you want.

When you're done, exit and save the file.

Do this for any and all of your gladiators as you see fit and they will become GODS OF THE ARENA!!!

If you can't find your gladiator in the name search, remember to try changing the Up/Down direction of your search.

Presumably you can also change traits in here but i've not yet figured out how. But since they mostly only change stats you can edit directly through these methods, it doesn't matter too much.

I noticed you can also change Gladiator relationships like setting whether or not they have a lover among the other gladiators but i don't understand those formulas enough to advise how it would work. Yet.

Anyway, that's it. Go forth and become glorious.

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