Help/Support [HELP] Finding Character Points value/function in The Silent Archivist - a Unity IL2CPP game

Dark Light · August 21

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to find the Character Points value/function in The Silent Archivist , a Unity IL2CPP game using iGameGod. My ultimate goal is to obtain a very large or effectively unlimited amount of Character Points, so that I can recruit characters without having to worry about the normal Character Point limitation. I'm not an experienced reverse engineer, so I may be approaching this completely wrong... I've managed to investigate quite a bit with iGameGod, but I've now reached the limits of what I know how to do and would really appreciate some guidance.

What I've found so far :

Searching the game's methods for Hire gives me:

Building::CanHireCharacter

RVA 0x26C12F4

KeepAdventureDialog::TapHireButton

RVA 0x275B61C

I initially tried putting a breakpoint on:

KeepAdventureDialog::TapHireButton

but the breakpoint never triggered, even after pressing the Hire button several times and even after actually recruiting a character.
I also found:

CharacterPointCellView::TapMinusButton

RVA 0x275BD7C

CharacterPointCellView::TapPlusButton

RVA 0x275BD04

CharacterPointCellView::Start

RVA 0x275BA18

Interestingly, CharacterPointCellView::TapMinusButton does appear in the Stack Trace when interacting with the Character Point UI.
I also investigated CharacterPointCellView::Start. It appears to be mostly concerned with initializing the Character Point UI/cell and configuring its buttons rather than actually modifying the underlying Character Point value.

What I'm really trying to find is the underlying Character Point value and/or the function that actually changes it.

Ideally, I'd like to determine:

Where the Character Point value is stored.
Which function increases/decreases it.
Which function checks whether enough points are available for recruitment.
Whether Building::CanHireCharacter is only a validation function.
Whether there is a value/field that could be edited to give myself a very large amount of Character Points.

Could someone experienced with iGameGod / Unity IL2CPP / ARM64 point me in the right direction?
In particular, what would be the best next step for tracing the actual Character Point value from the UI to the underlying game data? I'm happy to provide the relevant disassembly and Stack Trace screenshots if that would help.

Updated August 21 by Dark Light
typo / font type

VaaR · August 21

I think you’re overcomplicating it

Have you tried searching for the number of points and using a watchpoint on it?

Have you tried searching for the points amount in methods?

Is CanHireCharacter a Boolean? Can you set it to true and hire for free?

Batch · August 21

I suggest you to use iGameGod memory search and use all types, then search up until you find the value, set a breakpoint, trigger the event again and look into stack trace, you will see exactly the function name that trigger the change 🙂

Updated August 21 by Batch

Dark Light · August 21

44 minutes ago, VaaR said:

I think you’re overcomplicating it

1) Have you tried searching for the number of points and using a watchpoint on it?

2) Have you tried searching for the points amount in methods?

3) Is CanHireCharacter a Boolean? Can you set it to true and hire for free?

Hello @VaaR and @Batch, thank you so much for your answers..!

1) Indeed, that's the first thing I did, and I thought I would find it quickly. I searched for the current Character Points value using different value types (Exact Search, Fuzzy Search with Delta which even crashed the game), but I consistently got 0 results, or erratic addresses. So, I never obtained a precise address on which to place a watchpoint.
Did I fail somewhere? Have you managed to find it on your side ?

3) I also found Building::CanHireCharacter at 0x26C12F4. Its return value is indeed a boolean (cset w0, gt). I already tried patching 0x26C1344 to mov w0, #1, but it did not make the Hire button available.
So I suspect the actual Character Points value is stored somewhere else, or there is another condition/function involved.

2) When you say “searching for the points amount in methods”, do you mean searching the method list for methods containing Points / the displayed amount, or something else?

Updated August 21 by Dark Light

VaaR · August 21

20 minutes ago, Dark Light said:

Hello @VaaR and @Batch, thank you so much for your answers..!

1) Indeed, that's the first thing I did, and I thought I would find it quickly. I searched for the current Character Points value using different value types (Exact Search, Fuzzy Search with Delta which even crashed the game), but I consistently got 0 results, or erratic addresses. So, I never obtained a precise address on which to place a watchpoint.
Did I fail somewhere? Have you managed to find it on your side ?

3) I also found Building::CanHireCharacter at 0x26C12F4. Its return value is indeed a boolean (cset w0, gt). I already tried patching 0x26C1344 to mov w0, #1, but it did not make the Hire button available.
So I suspect the actual Character Points value is stored somewhere else, or there is another condition/function involved.

2) When you say “searching for the points amount in methods”, do you mean searching the method list for methods containing Points / the displayed amount, or something else?

Yeah sorry, I meant searching for the name in methods or classes pertaining to it.

I’ll install and give it a look

VaaR · August 21

Searching for points (or different words depending on what it is) or classes related to it, for example a SaveData class can have a method called PointsAmount.

fyi, its possible to mod it, its just not the most straightforward

Updated August 21 by VaaR

Batch · August 21

1 hour ago, Dark Light said:

Hello @VaaR and @Batch, thank you so much for your answers..!

1) Indeed, that's the first thing I did, and I thought I would find it quickly. I searched for the current Character Points value using different value types (Exact Search, Fuzzy Search with Delta which even crashed the game), but I consistently got 0 results, or erratic addresses. So, I never obtained a precise address on which to place a watchpoint.
Did I fail somewhere? Have you managed to find it on your side ?

3) I also found Building::CanHireCharacter at 0x26C12F4. Its return value is indeed a boolean (cset w0, gt). I already tried patching 0x26C1344 to mov w0, #1, but it did not make the Hire button available.
So I suspect the actual Character Points value is stored somewhere else, or there is another condition/function involved.

2) When you say “searching for the points amount in methods”, do you mean searching the method list for methods containing Points / the displayed amount, or something else?

1. Probably they might have some protection against that, i will try later tho
2. It might happen that some games have these methods but never call them or they have some special requirement

Dark Light · August 21

Thank you for your answers, guys. It's really reassuring, as I was kinda burned out after searching for hours.
I'm honestly at my wit's end and have reached the limits of my competency. But I'm still going to try again and search different methods for the points.
If you ever find something, I will be there.

EDIT :

I found another potentially relevant method:

CreateAdventureDialog::DataPointSum — RVA 0x275620C

It actually iterates through the data and accumulates values, so it seems more interesting than the generic Unity Points methods I found earlier. CanTapPlusButton immediately follows it and compares a counter against a value at this + 0xC8.
Unfortunately, iGameGod doesn't seem to provide me with an Xrefs / Find Callers feature (or I don't know how to access it), so I can't trace who calls DataPointSum from the interface.
If you have the game installed and can inspect it on your side, perhaps this method or its callers could lead to the actual Character Points value?

Updated August 21 by Dark Light
Relevant information

VaaR · August 21

53 minutes ago, Dark Light said:

Thank you for your answers, guys. It's really reassuring, as I was kinda burned out after searching for hours.
I'm honestly at my wit's end and have reached the limits of my competency. But I'm still going to try again and search different methods for the points.
If you ever find something, I will be there.

EDIT :

I found another potentially relevant method:

CreateAdventureDialog::DataPointSum — RVA 0x275620C

It actually iterates through the data and accumulates values, so it seems more interesting than the generic Unity Points methods I found earlier. CanTapPlusButton immediately follows it and compares a counter against a value at this + 0xC8.
Unfortunately, iGameGod doesn't seem to provide me with an Xrefs / Find Callers feature (or I don't know how to access it), so I can't trace who calls DataPointSum from the interface.
If you have the game installed and can inspect it on your side, perhaps this method or its callers could lead to the actual Character Points value?