Guide To: Hex Editing ACNL

This will be an ongoing guide to changing things about your town directly in the hex code. I will continue under a Read More so that all re-blogs get the most up-to-date information.

Find information about things like:

Changing your town’s plaza tree size, native fruit, and grass shape



Changing hairstyles and eyes for your player characters



Changing villager catchphrases and shirts

Changing your house exterior and upgrading your house

And more!

This guide assumes you already know how to hex edit. If you do not know how to hex edit, CLICK HERE FIRST! You can start with the Basics, Section 4, and read through to the end.

This guide is currently under construction.

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Hex Editing Resources:

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Town Hex Edits:

Changing Your Town’s Tree Size

Changing Your Town’s Grass Shape

Changing Your Town’s Native Fruit

Changing Your Town’s Name

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Player Hex Edits:

Changing Your Players’ Names Changing Your Players’ Genders Changing Your Players’ Eye Styles Changing Your Players’ Eye Colors Changing Your Players’ Hair Styles Changing Your Players’ Hair Colors Changing Your Players’ Tan Levels Changing Your Players’ House Exteriors Upgrading your Players’ House Interiors

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Villager Hex Edits:

Changing Your Current Villagers Changing Your Current Villagers’ Personalities Changing Your Current Villagers’ Shirts Changing Your Current Villagers’ Catchphrases

Changing Your Past Villagers



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Changing Your Town’s Tree Size

Town Tree Size Block: 0x49516

Available Hex Values: 00 - 07

Hours Played Blocks: 0x5C730 - 0x5C732

Days Played Blocks: 0x5C7BA - 0x5C7BB

Available Hex Values: Varies by time

The game stores the current size of your town tree in block 0x49516; however, changing this value does not permanently change your town’s tree size. The values for block 0x49516 range from 00 (smallest) to 07 (largest). Changing the value here will only perform a temporary change of your town tree, which will revert back to normal on reload.

The size of your town’s tree actually relies on your total time played in the game, which is stored separately in five different blocks as total hours (three blocks) and total days (two blocks). (Note: the game may have more blocks available for larger values, but these are the blocks we’ll need for our purposes.)

To have the largest tree (07), you must have at least 500 days and 500 hours of play time (which comes to a total of about 521 days, altogether, if you’re wondering). These values must be converted to hex.

Needed Hex Values:

500 days = F4 01



500 hours = 40 77 1B

Therefore, to change the town tree size to its largest size we need to change our Days Played to 500 days by changing 0x5C7BA to F4 and 0x5C7BB to 01. Next we would change our Hours Played to 500 hours by chanigng 0x5C730 to 40, 0x5C731 to 77, and 0x5C732 to 1B.

If you want a smaller tree, you’ll have to play around with different days / hours values to get the result you desire.

Changing Your Town’s Grass Shape

Grass Shape Block: 0x4DA01

Available Hex Values: 00 - 02

Changing your Grass Shape is pretty straightforward; you only need to change one block, 0x4DA01. You have three options when changing your grass shape – triangle, circle, and square.

00 = Triangles (Winter: Squares)



01 = Circles (Winter: Stars)



02 = Squares (Winter: Circles)



Example: To change your Grass Shape to Squares, change 0x4DA01 to 02.

Changing Your Town’s Native Fruit

Native Fruit Block: 0x5C7B6

Available Hex Values: 01 - 05



Changing your Native Fruit is also straightforward. You will need to change one block, 0x5C7B6. You have five options when changing your town’s native fruit – apples, oranges, pears, peaches, and cherries.

01 = Apples



02 = Oranges



03 = Pears



04 = Peaches



05 = Cherries



Example: To change your Native Fruit to Pears, change 0x5C7B6 to 03.

Changing Your Town’s Name

Town Name Blocks: Numerous, first instance is 0x5C73A - 0x5C747

Town Name Values: Numerous



Town Names can only be 8 characters in length, even if you change it in the hex. There’s no way to make your town name longer than 8 characters.

Town Names must also be written in hex for the game to understand them, with a nullbyte (00) after each letter. Here is a handy text to hexidecimal converter for you. This won’t add nullbytes for you, so you have to add them in manually yourself. More on that in just a second.

To change your Town Name, you have to change every single place it’s found in the code, which is 80+. Obviously, changing all of these manually is tedious, so we’re going to use the Replace function.

Let’s say I wanted to change my town name, Daedalus, to Icarus. (Let’s pretend I didn’t create two separate towns for each name, HAH.)

Daedalus = 44 61 65 64 61 6C 75 73 but the nullbytes are missing! Let’s add them. 44 00 61 00 65 00 64 00 61 00 6C 00 75 00 73 00 is now correct and in a format the game’s code understands. Let’s do Icarus now. Icarus is a shorter name, so we’ll account for the “unused” letters with pairs of nullbytes (00 00 = no letter). We have to make sure everything is the same length when swapping out names, or you might mess something up.

Icarus = 49 63 61 72 75 73 = 49 00 63 00 61 00 72 00 75 00 73 00 = now becomes 49 00 63 00 61 00 72 00 75 00 73 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 when you account for the full possible name length, 8 characters.

So, now we know both the values we’re looking for and the values we want to replace them with. In HxD, open your RAM file and go to Search > Replace.



In the Search For field, we’re looking for Daedalus, so we’ll put 44 00 61 00 65 00 64 00 61 00 6C 00 75 00 73 00.



In the Replace With field, we want Icarus so we’ll put 49 00 63 00 61 00 72 00 75 00 73 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00.

In the Datatype box, select Hex-values.

Make sure the Search Direction box has All selected.

Make sure the “Prompt on replace” checkbox is unchecked, unless you want to be bothered 80+ times to confirm that yes, you want to make the change.

Hit “Replace All” once all the settings are correct. (Hitting “OK” only changes one instance.)

You’re done!

Changing Your Player’s Name

Mayor Name Blocks: Numerous, first instance is 0x55C8 - 0x55D7

Player 2 Name Blocks: Numerous, first instance is 0xF4D8 - 0xF4E6

Player 3 Name Blocks: Numerous, first instance is 0x193E8 - 0x193F7

Player 4 Name Blocks: Numerous, first instance is 0x232F8 - 0x23307

Town Name Values: Numerous

Since changing your Mayor’s Name is the exact same process as changing your Town’s Name, please refer up one block to Changing Your Town Name!

Thank you!

Changing Your Player’s Gender

Mayor Gender Blocks: 0x55DA

Player 2 Gender Blocks: 0xF4EA

Player 3 Gender Blocks: 0x193FA

Player 4 Gender Blocks: 0x2330A

Gender Values: 00 - 01



Changing your gender is simple with only one block to change and only two possible values to change it to.

00 = Male



01 = Female



Example: To change Player 3′s gender, we’ll say it’s FEMALE right now, to male, you would change 0x193FA from 01 to 00.

Changing Your Player’s Face: Eye Style

Mayor Face Type / Eye Style Blocks: 0x26

Player 2′ Face Type / Eye Style Blocks: 0x9F36

Player 3 Face Type / Eye Style Blocks: 0x13E46

Player 4 Face Type / Eye Style Blocks: 0x1DD56

Face Type Values (Male): 00 - 0B

Face Type Values (Female): 01 - 0C

You only need to change one block to swap out your mayor’s eye style, and that is block 0x26. The other player character blocks are listed above as well.

The male and female values for each eye style do NOT always correspond to each other; so a certain face style may have two entirely different values – one for males, and one for females. (For example, the cute blushing face is 06 for males, and 02 for females.)

There is NO way for a female to use a male’s eye style, or vice versa. These styles are gender-locked.

For each gender’s available values and the face types they correspond to, please refer below.

Changing Your Player’s Face: Eye Color

Mayor Eye Color Blocks: 0x27

Player 2 Eye Color Blocks: 0x9F36

Player 3 Eye Color Blocks: 0x13E47

Player 4 Eye Color Blocks: 0x1DD57

Eye Color Values: 00 - ??

More coming soon!



Changing Your Player’s Face: Hair Style

Mayor Hair Style Blocks: 0x24

Player 2 Hairstyle Blocks: 0x9F33

Player 3 Hairstyle Blocks: 0x13E44

Player 4 Hairstyle Blocks: 0x1DD54

Hair Style Values (Male): 00 - 0E

Hair Style Values (Female): 10 - 1E??

More coming soon!



Changing Your Player’s Face: Hair Color

Mayor Hair Color Blocks: 0x25

Player 2 Hair Color Blocks: 0x9F34

Player 3 Hair Color Blocks: 0x13E45

Player 4 Hair Color Blocks: 0x1DD55

Hair Color Values: 00 - 0F

More coming soon!



Changing Your Player’s Tan Level

Mayor Tan Level Blocks: 0x28

Player 2 Tan Level Blocks: 0x9F37

Player 3 Tan Level Blocks: 0x13E48

Player 4 Tan Level Blocks: 0x1DD58

Tan Level Values: 00 - 0F

More coming soon!

Changing Your Players’ House Exteriors

Changing Your Mayor’s House Exterior



Mayor House Size Blocks: 0x57E84 - 0x57E8D

Mayor House Size Values: 01 - 07

Mayor House Style Blocks: 0x57E85 - 0x57E8E

Mayor House Style Values: 00 - 03

Mayor House Door Shape Blocks: 0x57E86 - 0x57E8F

Mayor House Door Values: 00 - 01

Mayor House Exterior Blocks: 0x57E87 - 0x57E90

Mayor House Exterior Values: 00 - 1F

Mayor House Roof Blocks: 0x57E88 - 0x57E91

Mayor House Roof Values: 00 - 22

Mayor House Door Blocks: 0x57E89 - 0x57E92

Mayor House Door Values: 00 - 15

Mayor House Fence Blocks: 0x57E8A - 0x57E93

Mayor House Fence Values: 00 - 16

Mayor House Pavement Blocks: 0x57E8B - 0x57E94

Mayor House Pavement Values: 00 - 08

Mayor House Mailbox Blocks: 0x57E8C - 0x57E95

Mayor House Mailbox Values: 00 - 15

Changing Your Player 2’s House Exterior



Player 2 House Size Blocks: 0x590AC - 0x590B5

Player 2 House Size Values: 01 - 07

Player 2 House Style Blocks: 0x590AD - 0x590B6

Player 2 House Style Values: 00 - 03

Player 2 House Door Shape Blocks: 0x590AE - 0x590B7

Player 2 House Door Shape Values: 00 - 01

Player 2 House Exterior Blocks: 0x590AF - 0x590B8

Player 2 House Exterior Values: 00 - 1F

Player 2 House Roof Blocks: 0x590B0 - 0x590B9

Player 2 House Roof Values: 00 - 22

Player 2 House Door Blocks: 0x590B1 - 0x590BA

Player 2 House Door Values: 00 - 15

Player 2 House Fence Blocks: 0x590B2 - 0x590BB

Player 2 House Fence Values: 00 - 16

Player 2 House Pavement Blocks: 0x590B3 - 0x590BC

Player 2 House Pavement Values: 00 - 08

Player 2 House Mailbox Blocks: 0x590B4 - 0x590BD

Player 2 House Mailbox Values: 00 - 15

Changing Your Player 3’s House Exterior



Player 3 House Size Blocks: 0x5A2D4 - 0x5A2DD

Player 3 House Size Values: 01 - 07

Player 3 House Style Blocks: 0x5A2D5 - 0x5A2DE

Player 3 House Style Values: 00 - 03

Player 3 House Door Shape Blocks: 0x5A2D6 - 0x5A2DF

Player 3 House Door Shape Values: 00 - 01

Player 3 House Exterior Blocks: 0x5A2D7 - 0x5A2E0

Player 3 House Exterior Values: 00 - 1F

Player 3 House Roof Blocks: 0x5A2D8 - 0x5A2E1

Player 3 House Roof Values: 00 - 22

Player 3 House Door Blocks: 0x5A2D9 - 0x5A2E2

Player 3 House Door Values: 00 - 15

Player 3 House Fence Blocks: 0x5A2DA - 0x5A2E3

Player 3 House Fence Values: 00 - 16

Player 3 House Pavement Blocks: 0x5A2DB - 0x5A2E4

Player 3 House Pavement Values: 00 - 08

Player 3 House Mailbox Blocks: 0x5A2DC - 0x5A2E5

Player 3 House Mailbox Values: 00 - 15

Changing Your Player 4’s House Exterior



Player 4 House Size Blocks: 0x5B4FC - 0x5B505

Player 4 House Size Values: 01 - 07

Player 4 House Style Blocks: 0x5B4FD - 0x5B506

Player 4 House Style Values: 00 - 03

Player 4 House Door Shape Blocks: 0x5B4FE - 0x5B507

Player 4 House Door Values: 00 - 01

Player 4 House Exterior Blocks: 0x5B4FF - 0x5B508

Player 4 House Exterior Values: 00 - 1F

Player 4 House Roof Blocks: 0x5B500 - 0x5B509

Player 4 House Roof Values: 00 - 22

Player 4 House Door Blocks: 0x5B501 - 0x5B50A

Player 4 House Door Values: 00 - 15

Player 4 House Fence Blocks: 0x5B502 - 0x5B50B

Player 4 House Fence Values: 00 - 16

Player 4 House Pavement Blocks: 0x5B503 - 0x5B50C

Player 4 House Pavement Values: 00 - 08

Player 4 House Mailbox Blocks: 0x5B504 - 0x5B50D

Player 4 House Mailbox Values: 00 - 15



More coming soon!



The list for all the different values for each exterior piece is massive, so I’ve put it on a separate page. You can find it here:

Upgrading your Players’ House Interiors

Changing Your Mayor’s House Room Sizes



Mayor Main Room Size Blocks: 0x57eb6

Mayor Second Floor Size Blocks: 0x581b8

Mayor Basement Size Blocks: 0x584ba

Mayor Right Room Size Blocks: 0x587bc

Mayor Left Room Size Blocks: 0x58abe

Mayor Back Room Size Blocks: 0x58dc0

Mayor Room Size Values: 02 - 04

Changing Your Player 2’s House Room Sizes



Player 2 Main Room Size Blocks: 0x590de

Player 2 Second Floor Size Blocks: 0x593e0

Player 2 Basement Size Blocks: 0x596e2

Player 2 Right Room Size Blocks: 0x599e4

Player 2 Left Room Size Blocks: 0x59ce6

Player 2 Back Room Size Blocks: 0x59fe8

Player 2 Room Size Values: 02 - 04

Changing Your Player 3’s House Room Sizes



Player 3 Main Room Size Blocks: 0x5a306

Player 3 Second Floor Size Blocks: 0x5a608

Player 3 Basement Size Blocks: 0x5a90a

Player 3 Right Room Size Blocks: 0x5ac0c

Player 3 Left Room Size Blocks: 0x5af0e

Player 3 Back Room Size Blocks: 0x5b210

Player 3 Room Size Values: 02 - 04

Changing Your Player 4’s House Room Sizes



Player 4 Main Room Size Blocks: 0x5b52e

Player 4 Second Floor Size Blocks: 0x5b830

Player 4 Basement Size Blocks: 0x5bb32

Player 4 Right Room Size Blocks: 0x5be34

Player 4 Left Room Size Blocks: 0x5c136

Player 4 Back Room Size Blocks: 0x5c438

Player 4 Room Size Values: 02 - 04

Upgrading your house interior and maxing out your room sizes is certainly possible through hex. There is one block to change per room and each one must be changed separately.

BEFORE YOU PROCEED, HOWEVER, PLEASE MAKE NOTE OF THE FOLLOWING:

Make a backup of your town and your .bin files, and if possible, a backup on your Powersaves. DO NOT SKIP MAKING A BACKUP.



Changes will ONLY take effect AFTER you save and quit, which is why backups are important. There is NO WAY to preview the changes beforehand and if something goes wrong, the changes are already saved.



You MUST have met Lyle before trying to upgrade your room interior sizes. (He appears after you pay your down payment and your house is built for the first time, after you are no longer in a tent.)

Don’t ask for expansions from Tom Nook while you’re manually upgrading your house interior through hex. You will just waste money and risk messing up your changes.



If you expand all of your rooms to maximum size, Nook will acknowledge that you have fully upgraded your house but you won’t get the little raccoon dance scene.



If you expand all of your rooms to maximum size, Lyle will show up at your house the next day in-game to offer you the HHA Theme Challenge.



day in-game to offer you the HHA Theme Challenge. Your house EXTERIOR SIZE will NOT CHANGE if you only upgrade your interior room sizes. You MUST manually edit the size of the house exterior separately.

Interior wallpaper and flooring CAN be modified through the hex. Bytes are located near the end of each room. You must locate them yourself.



INTERIOR FURNITURE CANNOT BE MODIFIED OR ADDED THROUGH THE HEX. The game doesn’t store the data in a way that makes this possible. You must still manually arrange and decorate your room interiors by hand.



Do not use value “01″ for any room sizes, this means the room does not exist / has not been built yet.

Room Sizes:

02 = 4 x 4



03 = 6 x 6



04 = 8 x 8



Example: If you want to change the size of Player 2′s Basement to a 6 x 6 room, you would change 0x596e2 to 03.

Changing Your Current Villagers

Villager 1 Blocks: 0x27C90 - 0x27C91

Villager 2 Blocks: 0x2A188 - 0x2A189

Villager 3 Blocks: 0x2C680 - 0x2C681

Villager 4 Blocks: 0x2EB78 - 0x2EB79

Villager 5 Blocks: 0x31070 - 0x31071

Villager 6 Blocks: 0x33568 - 0x33569

Villager 7 Blocks: 0x35A60 - 0x35A61

Villager 8 Blocks: 0x37F58 - 0x37F59

Villager 9 Blocks: 0x3A450 - 0x3A451

Villager 10 Blocks: 0x3C948 - 0x3C949

Villager Values: [click here] 0x27C90 - 0x27C910x2A188 - 0x2A1890x2C680 - 0x2C6810x2EB78 - 0x2EB790x31070 - 0x310710x33568 - 0x335690x35A60 - 0x35A610x37F58 - 0x37F59: 0x3A450 - 0x3A4510x3C948 - 0x3C949

More coming soon!

Changing Your Current Villagers’ Personalities

Villager 1 Personality Blocks: 0x27C92

Villager 2 Personality Blocks: 0x2A18A

Villager 3 Personality Blocks: 0x2C682

Villager 4 Personality Blocks: 0x2EB7A

Villager 5 Personality Blocks: 0x31072

Villager 6 Personality Blocks: 0x3356A

Villager 7 Personality Blocks: 0x35A62

Villager 8 Personality Blocks: 0x37F5A

Villager 9 Personality Blocks: 0x3A452

Villager 10 Personality Blocks: 0x3C94A

Villager Personality Values: 00 - 07

00 = Lazy (♂)



01 = Jock (♂)



02 = Cranky (♂)



03 = Smug (♂)



04 = Normal (♀)



05 = Peppy (♀)



06 = Snooty (♀)



07 = Uchi (♀)



More coming soon!

Changing Your Current Villagers’ Shirts

Villager 1 Shirt Blocks: 0x2A0DE - 0x2A0DF

Villager 2 Shirt Blocks: 0x2C5D6 - 0x2C5D7

Villager 3 Shirt Blocks: 0x2EACE - 0x2EACF

Villager 4 Shirt Blocks: 0x30FC6 - 0x30FC7

Villager 5 Shirt Blocks: 0x334BE - 0x334BF

Villager 6 Shirt Blocks: 0x359B6 - 0x359B7

Villager 7 Shirt Blocks: 0x37EAE - 0x37EAF

Villager 8 Shirt Blocks: 0x3A3A6 - 0x3A3A7

Villager 9 Shirt Blocks: 0x3C89E - 0x3C89F

Villager 10 Shirt Blocks: 0x3ED96 - 0x3ED97

Villager Shirt Values: coming soon

More coming soon!

Changing Your Current Villagers’ Catchphrases

Villager 1 Catchphrase Blocks: 0x2A132 - 0x2A147

Villager 2 Catchphrase Blocks: 0x2C61E - 0x2C540

Villager 3 Catchphrase Blocks: 0x2EB26 - 0x2EB37

Villager 4 Catchphrase Blocks: 0x3202E - 0x31032

Villager 5 Catchphrase Blocks: 0x33515 - 0x33528

Villager 6 Catchphrase Blocks: 0x34A0E - 0x35A20

Villager 7 Catchphrase Blocks: coming soon

Villager 8 Catchphrase Blocks: coming soon

Villager 9 Catchphrase Blocks: 0x3C8F6 - 0x3C905

Villager 10 Catchphrase Blocks: 0x3EDEE - 0x3EDFD

More coming soon!

Changing Your Past Villagers

Past Villager 16 Blocks: 0x3F17E - 0x3F17F

Past Villager 15 Blocks: 0x3F180 - 0x3F181

Past Villager 14 Blocks: 0x3F182 - 0x3F183

Past Villager 13 Blocks: 0x3F184 - 0x3F185

Past Villager 12 Blocks: 0x3F186 - 0x3F187

Past Villager 11 Blocks: 0x3F188 - 0x3F189

Past Villager 10 Blocks: 0x3F18A - 0x3F18B

Past Villager 9 Blocks: 0x3F18C - 0x3F18D

Past Villager 8 Blocks: 0x3F18E - 0x3F18F

Past Villager 7 Blocks: 0x3F190 - 0x3F191

Past Villager 6 Blocks: 0x3F192 - 0x3F193

Past Villager 5 Blocks: 0x3F194 - 0x3F195

Past Villager 4 Blocks: 0x3F196 - 0x3F197

Past Villager 3 Blocks: 0x3F198 - 0x3F199

Past Villager 2 Blocks: 0x3F19A - 0x3F19B

Past Villager 1 Blocks: 0x3F19C - 0x3F19D

Villager Values: [click here] 0x3F17E - 0x3F17F0x3F180 - 0x3F1810x3F182 - 0x3F1830x3F184 - 0x3F1850x3F186 - 0x3F1870x3F188 - 0x3F1890x3F18A - 0x3F18B0x3F18C - 0x3F18D0x3F18E - 0x3F18F0x3F190 - 0x3F1910x3F192 - 0x3F1930x3F194 - 0x3F1950x3F196 - 0x3F1970x3F198 - 0x3F1990x3F19A - 0x3F19B0x3F19C - 0x3F19D

Past Villager 16 = Most Recent Villager Who Moved Out

Past Villager 1 = Oldest Villager Who Moved Out

More coming soon!

( Animated rainbow star divider by gasara @ deviantART )