Confessions of a Hacker

[Djehuti]

So after raising a FOnewearl to 95 and a HUnewearl to 88 naturally slow I couldn't bare the thought of investing that much time into another character just to pick up and play online with from time time. Using the resources at my fingertips I found a number of neato answers to my problems after only about an hour of effort. That hour yielded me more power in the game than I had even hoped for. There are so many cheats out there...

Now, some of you may be saying "Djehuti, why on god's green Coral would you want to make such an easy game even easier?"

Well thats just it, this game isn't really a question of difficulty, its a matter of time investment and dedication. Lets face it, I put in more hours than I'd care to admit before I started using alternate methods. I still enjoy playing the game, but after leveling a character to SH efficiency the old fashioned way I'm rather bored of doing the same things over and over and am ready for a new character.

So, I implemented 64x EXP and 2x run speed. I can clear a mission in record time (offline only of course) and when I complete the single player campaign normal mode I have a character thats approx lvl 88-91.

Discovering this, I added another copy of the file to my memory card and started 3 new files. To me, cheats make the game more interesting- they allow theory crafting to be more than just theory, for one.

Codes also relieve the frustration of hunting boosted monster variants for items. I invested 30 hours of gameplay strictly in Ozette in the interest of finding a shuriken for my FOnewearl. The things I could have been doing but procrastinated were catching up with me; I still didn't have anything to show for it, and was growing bored with the game. Again, codes to the rescue. Now, I can make any item, weapon, armor, tech, slot unit, mag, you name it. I just make a code. So now you're probably saying "But Djehuti, thats just not fair! What about stats and elements and PA's? and armor slots that are inherently random?"

Well, thats a valid point. I do my best to keep all that honest, never having anything but 0 across the board for stats. I choose a PA that I like and assign an element that I like, being careful to set the element level no higher than the max allowed for that weapon (and never using heaven). For instance, I won't make a Riverman Missouri with level 7 celeb, or anything, and my armor only ever has 4 slots. That way, even though I do have a slight advantage over others, nothing in my files exceeds the norms for the game, assuming that this site is accurate with things like max grind and assigned elements for rare weapons. I do have some video game ethics, especially in games that involves online play.

I did, however, make one exception for the sake of fun. A Hocho with 99/99/99/99 with 99 for acuracy and 127 grinders. Over end PA and level 5 celeb. I wanted a cool sword to play around with offline, since it equips at 20. Again, you won't see it online.

So, no max stats, no level 508 mag, no ridiculously overpowered equipment, thats the rule. Now, obviously most cheaters don't care much for honesty which is why I'm refraining from listing certain things by name here or how to find them. I request in advance that those of you who know what I use by my description to refrain from naming it.

And now, I have a total of 9 files with characters all exceeding level 90. I can play whatever strategies I want, whenever I want, for whatever mood I'm in. It may not be the way the game was meant to be enjoyed, it is however, very entertaining. If I'm not mistaken, entertainment was the purpose of playing the game in first place. Having played too much of it and gotten sick, but still wanting my fix anyways I found a creative solution.

Assuming that I'm telling the truth about not going beyond the games normal limits, I can't help but wonder if the PS die hards are still offended by the thought of cheating.

[Bad Dirt Marvel]

I don't object to codes or cheats at all, in single player. As for cheating in an online game; you're already unbalancing the game. Why limit yourself to mostly what's possible normally? Unbalanced is unbalanced regardless of the degree.

[Djehuti]

I'm certainly not denying that its unbalanced, there is no argument there. What I'm saying is that I keep the balance in favor of less power over more. I don't play the game to be the strongest person in the room.

[Bad Dirt Marvel]

I understand, and I'm not passing any moral judgement. It's just my preference that cheating stay in the realm of single player. I feel that online games should offer an equal playing field. Am I going to get mad at you for cheating? Absolutely not. You're entitled to your own beliefs as well. I just probably won't want to play with you.

[Hatrix]

Although I never used any code devices or anything on PSO, I have cheated by shop duplication methods on GCN Ep.1&2, and who has'nt run rampant with hacked Spread Needle
back on Dreamcast? I understand the whole time invested thing, I lost 8 characters on Ep1&2
due to being corrupted joining open games and fsod during the save, several characters that
where Lv.150+. So in turn I duped my items to back up. But honestly cheating sucks the fun right out the game in the end Djehuti. You wont have the satisfaction of hitting Lv.100 and finding the cool weapons through hard work and dedication.

[Djehuti]

I think what you mean to say is that you won't find that satisfaction, which is ok. Most gamers won't and I wouldn't if the game were a little more depthy. Honestly, I've never once used cheats on a traditional rpg. That does take the fun out of it. But this is a different type of game entirely. I just don't get the same kick out of searching endlessly for items as I do taking down a massive boss thats nigh unbeatable and takes 45 minutes to finish. I enjoy playing the game with as many different strategies and hybrid characters I can think of.

But the fact is, this game lacks depth. Its all time investment and random luck.

[Pavichokche]

Good work, man, I could take up on your confession and confess some sins of my own in hope that God will forgive me. I used the 2x EXP code for a little while but I've stopped now because I realized that it will make playing the game shorter since I'll reach lv 100 with all my characters too fast. And I've been using the 2x moving code (offline) to go through dungeons faster, especially the eterna tower which would have taken at least 2 hours more to clear...

[Djehuti]

The run speed is easily one of my favorites.

[Hatrix]

Damm you gotta be flying with double the speed, I'd like to that in action for the purpose of a
good laugh thoi.

[Djehuti]

It would ruin online play, though.

Bosses, traps, even basic enemies... nothing can keep up with you.

Even when Humilias manages to hit you with slow, you're still moving pretty good.

[16085k]

I do have a slight advantage over others
This is enough reason for me to hope that your action replay or whatever you're using breaks your game. Not everyone immediately starts out at end game. It's people like you who completely destroy the entire early-mid phases of the game. If you don't like looking for equipment and building a character, I think you might be playing the wrong game.

[ironman24682]

My personal belief is that cheat codes and stuff are fine as long as you don't use em' or bring the gear you got with them online. (Except for skin hacks those are harmless...unless your playing something like red team vs. blue team and you're on red but skin hacked to look like a blue >_>)

I just hope your hacking/cheating of the game doesn't bore you. I got Fallout 3 when it came out and loved it death, then a friend showed me all the cheats I could do with it (like run and jump once and be halfway across the world when you land, and the room with every possible item in the game in it), but after a day or two I couldn't play the game again, I've already done everything there was to do with it. So while I did have a bunch of fun for a little while I lost out on fully enjoying a game that would've lasted me weeks or months. :/ Needless to say that was the last game I ever hacked/used cheat codes on...

...Except for the grand theft auto games...those are supposed to be hacked :P
*looks outside building and sees traffic jam in a busy intersection*
*opens phone...types in code*
*Speedboat comes crashing down out of nowhere and kills everyone* :P

[pso_crash]

So after raising a FOnewearl to 95 and a HUnewearl to 88 naturally slow I couldn't bare the thought of investing that much time into another character just to pick up and play online with from time time. Using the resources at my fingertips I found a number of neato answers to my problems after only about an hour of effort. That hour yielded me more power in the game than I had even hoped for. There are so many cheats out there...

Now, some of you may be saying "Djehuti, why on god's green Coral would you want to make such an easy game even easier?"

Well thats just it, this game isn't really a question of difficulty, its a matter of time investment and dedication. Lets face it, I put in more hours than I'd care to admit before I started using alternate methods. I still enjoy playing the game, but after leveling a character to SH efficiency the old fashioned way I'm rather bored of doing the same things over and over and am ready for a new character.

So, I implemented 64x EXP and 2x run speed. I can clear a mission in record time (offline only of course) and when I complete the single player campaign normal mode I have a character thats approx lvl 88-91.

Discovering this, I added another copy of the file to my memory card and started 3 new files. To me, cheats make the game more interesting- they allow theory crafting to be more than just theory, for one.

Codes also relieve the frustration of hunting boosted monster variants for items. I invested 30 hours of gameplay strictly in Ozette in the interest of finding a shuriken for my FOnewearl. The things I could have been doing but procrastinated were catching up with me; I still didn't have anything to show for it, and was growing bored with the game. Again, codes to the rescue. Now, I can make any item, weapon, armor, tech, slot unit, mag, you name it. I just make a code. So now you're probably saying "But Djehuti, thats just not fair! What about stats and elements and PA's? and armor slots that are inherently random?"

Well, thats a valid point. I do my best to keep all that honest, never having anything but 0 across the board for stats. I choose a PA that I like and assign an element that I like, being careful to set the element level no higher than the max allowed for that weapon (and never using heaven). For instance, I won't make a Riverman Missouri with level 7 celeb, or anything, and my armor only ever has 4 slots. That way, even though I do have a slight advantage over others, nothing in my files exceeds the norms for the game, assuming that this site is accurate with things like max grind and assigned elements for rare weapons. I do have some video game ethics, especially in games that involves online play.

I did, however, make one exception for the sake of fun. A Hocho with 99/99/99/99 with 99 for acuracy and 127 grinders. Over end PA and level 5 celeb. I wanted a cool sword to play around with offline, since it equips at 20. Again, you won't see it online.

So, no max stats, no level 508 mag, no ridiculously overpowered equipment, thats the rule. Now, obviously most cheaters don't care much for honesty which is why I'm refraining from listing certain things by name here or how to find them. I request in advance that those of you who know what I use by my description to refrain from naming it.

And now, I have a total of 9 files with characters all exceeding level 90. I can play whatever strategies I want, whenever I want, for whatever mood I'm in. It may not be the way the game was meant to be enjoyed, it is however, very entertaining. If I'm not mistaken, entertainment was the purpose of playing the game in first place. Having played too much of it and gotten sick, but still wanting my fix anyways I found a creative solution.

Assuming that I'm telling the truth about not going beyond the games normal limits, I can't help but wonder if the PS die hards are still offended by the thought of cheating.

You cheated and you don't care. I don't really care either. Now that you've accomplished everything you could want you can move on to the next game.

[Donnikun]

you have the right to use AR, we have the right not to. I dont mind what you do as long as you respect players wishes who prefer not to interact with an AR user. Because that crosses the line from your own rights into invading other peoples rights and desires. Now if people dont care that you use AR and wanna play with you, thats cool. people like me prefer t only play with non modified data, even harmless skin changes, so the way i see it, you respect me and i respect you, and we can play togeter if you use non modified game data, if not, im not gonna hate you as long as no one's desires are disrespected, so for now, ill call us aquaintences.

[Djehuti]

Well, that all went about as expected.

People's dedication to things like this always make me laugh. But, to each their own.

[ironman24682]

You know most people don't even read lol, they just see "I cheated" and start typing. Talking about hacking/cheating a game that has online capabilities makes people automatically think "zomg he uses action replay codes to get 1 hit kills and leet m3ga haxor weaponz, get outta here noob" and stuff like that. Taking about hacking/cheating a online game doesn't go over very well, which I'm sure you realized. Thanks for the post though it was a good read. And I know you already know this but keep the cheats offline please. ^^ (even the ones that could be obtained in the game [example: creating 4 slot armors, etc...])

[Djehuti]

Yeah, I still keep my original two files fully legit, I couldn't bare to chance corrupting them, as one poster wished on me.

Nuts to him.

[Trina]

This is enough reason for me to hope that your action replay or whatever you're using breaks your game. Not everyone immediately starts out at end game. It's people like you who completely destroy the entire early-mid phases of the game. If you don't like looking for equipment and building a character, I think you might be playing the wrong game.lol. everyone certainly seems to start out at endgame on the irc chat.

One day you see them starting with a fresh character at lv14, next day they're doing SH runs at level 66, previously powerlevled by other players via H shrine runs

[Djehuti]

Yahbut... thats not cheating.

Thats doing something in the game that was not intended to be done in order to speed up the process of leveling, in order to jump to SH earlier than what would have been possible or likely.

Oh wait... thats what I did too. I guess I'm just not ashamed.