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Phantom Dust Mod For Custom Arsenals and Improved AI

Why would I want to read about or use this?  

You'll be able to play any single player mission with a Cartwheeler or other preferred playable character.  We can also swap your online arsenals into single player mode.(and still use online)  The game's original AI is not always programmed that intelligently and this patch improves a lot of that.  For example, the original AI will use Reincarnation with only 2 aura, exhausting it.  Other skills are programmed not to be used at all.  I was able to change AI instructions on lasers to spam more agressively, giving you challenges more like you have to deal with in facing human players.  

On top of this we'll go through how to edit or import arsenals into different stages to make them more challenging.  I have also created "Zmart" Skills which help the AI fight you more intelligently.  With "Zmart" Skills, they won't do something like throw a Reincarnation with only 2 aura.  One Reincarnation "Zmart" Skill version won't ever use it unless they have 6 aura to make it survive erase shields.  

The only real major newly created skills is an experimental Tiger's Strength without animation.(But has other penalties)  The true Tiger's Strength is also still in the patch in its regular location.  I thought having these variants in the mod so AI can intelligently use Tiger's Strength was worth the possible trade off of someone cheating with a Tiger's Strength in this way. There are penalties and limits built into these versions to make it obvious someone's not using the real Tiger's Strength.(and to discourage its use)  Tiger's Strength is the backbone of a lot of arsenals and I think the trade off of players getting better AIs vs someone cheating with it in a small obvious way is worth it.  

Do not play people online with the mod enabled.  It's not fair and your games could crash out and skills that were patched out could lead to weird effects.  It is easy to switch back and forth between the official set and a modded one and we'll go through how.  

To make use of this mod you will need to dump Phantom Dust.  

Offsite link for help on dumping PD if you haven't done it yet:  https://phantomdust.miraheze.org/wiki/Help:Dumping_the_game_files

It's very easy to swap back and forth between the normal skill game data and the modded set.    

Here is the full file sets for AI arsenals and the mod patch:  Click here to download the patch and arsenals.

The file that contains the patch data is:    gsdata_enMOD.dat

Applying the Patch and Switching Back and Forth Between Official Patch

Once you dump Phantom Dust you want to find its GSTORAGE folder.  Once in it, rename the gsdata_en.dat file already in the folder to gsdata_enBAK.dat.  This is your back up of the official game patch that you should use when playing online.  Now put the gsdata_enMOD.dat file that you just downloaded in that GSTORAGE folder. Now rename gsdata_enMOD.dat to gsdata_en.dat.   When you want to play people online, just go to gstorage and rename gsdata_en.dat to gsdata_enMOD.  Now rename gsdata_enBAK.dat back to gsdata_en.dat.  Then just restart the game you'll be playing on the official game patch.  It's that simple.  


Why You Want to set up Debug Mode

Once you've dumped Phantom Dust, we want to set up the Debug Mode as your default mode because it will allow us to import online Skills, arsenals, the mod, and switch characters in Single player mode, and unlock a few extra challenging missions.  Your offline single player skills will not get deleted, but we're going to make use of your online arsenals, because that's what you're going to tend to use and it beats remaking them all the time.  Without using that set, you will not be able to use the 301+ skills in single player.  

How to set up Debug Mode

If you you're having trouble finding your Phantom Dust files' path you could try searching for "DECK_AZIER" 's location .  Wherever you find it you want to go to the folder called "Data".  Then you want to open the "Menu" folder.  As an example I named the dump path to my desktop with the folder "Target3" with "Path3" inside it.  An example that will differ from where you put it :  C:\Users\YOUR_USER_NAME\Desktop\target3\

Once in the Phantom Dust folders, you want to select the folders Assets, then Data, and then Menu.  

In the menu folder:

1.  You want to rename mainmenu_en.ssb to mainmenuX_en.ssb.  

2.  Now rename menu1_en.ssb to mainmenu_en.ssb.

3.  Now rename mainmenuX_en.ssb to menu1_en.ssb

4.  If you still want access to splitscreen mode, rename the file title_en.ssb to title_enBAK.ssb.  Now make a copy of the file vsmode_en.ssb.  Rename the copy of vsmode_en.ssb file to title_en.ssb.  To access it in Debug Mode menu, scroll to the bottom right and choose the option called Title Test.  It will take you to splitscreen mode.  

5.  Now that you made those file renames,  load up Phantom Dust and select a save.  You'll be taken to the Debug Mode Screen after hitting start and choosing a profile:




If you want to revert back to the regular menu settings, just repeat the first 3 steps above again.  

We'll go in to the advantages and how to make use of your online arsenals in the single player mode and the multiplayer mode in the next 2 steps.  

1. Change Your Character in Single Player Mode - After you choose a profile, the debug menu opens up.  If you select "Character" from the menu, a menu of character names shows.  Just push up or down to select different Character names.  When you go down this menu, make sure you select a character that is actually playable or the game will crash out. Push A to choose your character.  This takes you back to the title screen and seems like it did nothing.  Just pick a profile and when you start stages in single player mode, you'll be the character you chose.(including cartwheelers)  

2. Loading up Xbox Live Arsenals into Single Player mode to use All Skills Possible  -  YOU NEED TO FOLLOW THESE NEXT STEPS EXACTLY IF YOU WANT ACCESS TO YOUR ONLINE SKILLS in Single Player mode and on Xbox Live.  So the way we can load up your online arsenals into single player mode is by Selecting the Chapter 6 menu option in the debug menu.  It's on the right half in Japanese, but you can clearly pick it out by the number 6 showing:(highlighted below):




This will jump you into Chapter 6, but don't worry if the time line Chapter 7 appears.  You can get to the simulation room quicker with Chapter 6 instead of choosing Chapter 7 and the game works as normal. (There won't be issues either if you've cleared Chapter 7 already or haven't cleared any missions)

3.  Swapping your online arsenals into single player- Once you start single player mode here, hit start and then select Go To Xbox Live.(You have to do it this way from Single Player mode)  Don't use the debug xbox live menu options to do this or the trick won't work.   Once you're on the live menu and loaded up, just hit B to back out.  You'll return to the debug screen but doing this swaps your online arsenals into the single player mode.(They won't leave online mode either) Now select the Chapter 6 option again and  you should start in the simulation room and be able to use online arsenals and all skills.  


4.  Debug menu's "Quest Test" option -



This menu option will let you see what the Quest number is for a stage.  It shows each mission title too.  We need these quest numbers if we want to change the Arsenals used at those quests.  Also there are a few debug stages you might want to unlock by selecting the quest from the list here and beating it.  Some are unique and good challenges.  Once hidden missions are beaten, you can replay them on the computer simulator in regular Single Player mode.(They'll be each be named
 "Placeholder")   Debug Quests that are particularly notable to unlock are Quest 133, 144, and 145.  Quest 135 and 131 are also possible to unlock for more Lane and Sein stages but they're not particularly notable.


Actually Setting Up and Editing AI arsenals

Alright, now that you've got those cool things set up, we're finally getting into how to install or even create and edit arsenals for the AIs to use!  

From the dumped Phantom Dust folder go to the "Assets folder", then "Data Folder", then "com" folder, and then select the "deck" folder.  I would put the Arsenals folder you get from the zip file into this folder.(the "deck" folder)  This folder is where the AI arsenals are stored for each stage.  You'll probably notice some of these files say DECK_EDGAR_0 or other character names.   These are the arsenal files these characters use when partnered with you.  If you want you can customize your teammates now.  Or if you want to make things more challenging, give them arsenals that don't do anything.  So you can get challenged by the AI more.  You could also make them use support skills.  Have them Quantum Amp, Friendship, Alleviate,  or whatever.  I like to take partner arsenals mostly out of the equation because you'll find being disadvantaged against multiples AIs as good practice.  

What about the arsenals for the AI enemies?  Well their labeled things like DECK084_X.  Where the X is usually 0-3.  There can be up to 8 arsenals per quest.  I don't understand 100% the logic but its easy enough to save copies of arsenals and then see which ones get assigned to the AI or not.  

The numbers shown like DECK084_X is the quest number which you can find a list of in the Quest Test debug menu option. Don't worry, I'm going to give recommendations for each stage you'd likely want to play against enemies at.  But if your looking to mod AI at a particular level you can always find the Quest number / Deck number you want to mod for the stage with the debug menu's Quest Test option.  

Sometimes the stages will use the character arsenals instead of the stage number decks.

Ok so we need to be able to edit or overwrite arsenals.  You'll have to use a free hex editing program like HxD or another one.  So download one of those.

Ways of Overwriting Deck Files With a Preferred Arsenal File

Ok now you know where AI arsenals are.  Now I'll show you a method I use with HxD to import arsenals into certain missions.  Afterwords, we'll go into editing them.  

Importing Arsenals

In the zip file you downloaded, open one of the Arsenal files with HxD.  I'll use the Burden Abnormal Rain arsenal as an example:






I select the Burden Abnormal Rain arsenal and open it.(deck files have no format type)  It will look like this:


So this is where you can edit the file.  We'll get to doing that later.(you don't need to know how to program really to do it)  For now lets just use this pre made Burden and Rain focused arsenal.  Remember the City quest with JD "Gaze of Interest" where you have to fight a bunch of monsters?  Let's say we want to give all the monsters at this stage the same arsenal.  You definitely can mix arsenals used by enemies,  and I'd encourage that.  But let's just go through how to give every monster the same DECK real quickly.  So this missions is Quest #97.  

Now in HxD, with the Burden Rain arsenal open, hit Alt + F and then hit A to bring up the "save as" Menu.  You need to navigate to Phantom Dust "DECK" folder.  So we now are looking to overwrite the file DECK097_0, which is the first possible enemy AI arsenal in Quest 97.  (The _0 represents the first AI enemy arsenal at Quest 97)  You'll have to scroll down your list till you reach DECK097_0:




Double click 

replace DECK097_0 so it is now the Burden Abnormal Rain arsenal you want.  Now hit Alt + F, then A again.  It will look like this



Now just hit the End key on your Keyboard.  Delete the 0 at the end and change it to 1.  Then hit enter, you'll be asked if you want to replace DECK097_1, choose yes and now you've overwritten the file.  Do the same thing for overwriting DECK097_2 except change the end number to 2 and the same for 3 and overwrite them each time.  Now every enemy in that mission will use that arsenal.  Of course you can mix and match other arsenals.  But I wanted to show a quickish way on how you can do that.  You'll have to experiment to see which arsenals are actually getting assigned to each character in a a mission.  


Overwriting Ally Arsenals




You can edit Ally arsenals, but it's also useful to know how to do this because some missions use the Ally arsenals against you instead of  DECK_XXX_X like we just went through.  I don't know why there's multiple ones per character, but you can always overwrite them all to ensure they use the skills you want them to use.(It seems like they use the first one usually like DECK_CHUNKY_0 for example.  

So just look carefully at what you have in the ally arsenal vs what you might have assigned at actual stages where you fight them and see if you're encountering the arsenal you expect to encounter.

 Some neat things you can do with Ally arsenals are to have them bring assistant skills like Friendship which they will use on you.  You can also just give them arsenals with just aura to create 2 v 1 quests of you vs the AI Missions.  Other options like Quantum Amps could pick up the pace for stages started.  Or Blessed Rain to prolong battles.  The AIs have been trained to use Frighten repeatedly so you can experiment with landing offensive hits with AI Frightening your enemies.  The AI is also set to repeatedly use Fairy Ring till they drop to 4 life.  This can let you use arsenals that practice Fairy Ring loops.  Remember you can give these arsenals more than 3 of a certain skill.  


How to read and modify arsenals 

Ok, what is this gibberish?


This is the file information of an arsenal.  Each skill in your arsenal is represented by 4 hexadecimal characters.(Characters that are either 0-9 or A-F)  If you see "FF FF" for example, that is considered an Aura Particle.  In the picture below, in the red rectangle, you'll see where a "FF FF" is located.  It is one of the aura particles in your arsenal.  A list has been made of all the skills and what hexadecimal set equals what skill.(It's in the zip file named PDPatchHex.txt)


Where the green Rectangle is, is the representation of the first skill in your arsenal.  "DF 00" happens to be the value for the first Burden skill in this arsenal.  Ignore the data in the previous spots.  The start of your arsenal always starts in the 2nd row(000000010) at column 04.  You'll see the last skill in your arsenal is located in the 5th row(00000040) in the Blue Rectangle "FF FF".

If you're worried about putting in a skill value that doesn't exist by accident, don't worry, the arsenal will just put an aura particle in its place if the value doesn't exists.  Its also something to look out for if the arsenal you made never seems to use a certain skill you put in there, it's likely you put an incorrect value inside it.(Or the AI was never programmed to use it, and I havne't figured out a better instruction for it!)  

Pasting Advice 

Ok,  so you can cut and paste values into these files.  But you have to either use Ctrl + B to paste or select "Paste write" :



You don't want to do Ctrl + V or Paste Insert.   Just use "Paste write" or Ctrl + B for pasting and you'll be fine. Once you like how the arsenal is set up, save it with a name.   Arsenals do not have a file format so don't put one in.  

Finding the Hex Values of Skills

So  how do we get the Hex values for a skill we want in an arsenal?  Luckily we have a file listing every skill avaiable.  You want to open the file called PDPatchHex.txt  In this file hit Ctrl + F and then enter in part of the name of the skill you want.  It should find it and will list the Hex value of that skill.  Then simply put that value into a skill slot location in your Hex editor.  

If you want to look up what a Hex value is from an arsenal file,  Just enter 4 character Hex with a space between 2 characters.  If your skill Hex is 14 01.  You'll search for "14 01" and you'll find it matches up with the skill Crush.  

Create an Arsenal Starting from 30 Aura Particles

In the arsenals folder there is a file called __AuraOnlyCase.  If you open it, it will have an entire arsenal of auras.  You can Save it as a different file name and then start editing from where the first FF FF appears inside to the last FF FF:

 



Already Built Arsenals you can use.  

There are a lot of arsenals built.  They're in the Arsenals folder.  I'd recommend putting the Arsenals folder you downloaded  into Phantom Dust's "deck" folder.  You can open them and overwrite stage decks easier starting from there.  

The file named "Main Arsenal Data Listing.docx"    lists a lot of plotted out Arsenals in the arsenals folder.  You can read the file for the contents of a lot of arsenals.  There are a few I didn't bother making listings of that are in the arsenals folder.  

Your also going to see a Variant Mixes folder.  There is a separeate document file "_ContentsOfFolder.docx"  listing of thoose.  They're not really well built, but more a variety of moves.  I'm not sure if it can really do much but their there if you want to try them.  Definitely not the first place I would look for things to use.


Stage Recommendations And Details on some new special AI skills Are Detailed Next.  First We'll Start With Stage Recommendations.

After the stages listing here,  will be all the details on what I was able to change to make the AI smarter, along with a listing of all the "Zmart" skills you can use with AIs.  

Stages with potential - To update the AI DECK you want to take the number from the stage and edit the file that will be named DECKXXX_X.  Its weird. There are often 4 files in DECKXXX_X, but not all of them always get used.  Human characters sometimes have to have their character arsenals edited to face them in certain missions.  

So if I want to edit the “Legendary Man” AI DECKs, I look up the stage number listed below.  It is 48.  The DECK ID will be DECK048_X where X is going to be a number that is either 0, 1, 2, and 3 most of the time.




Stage Recommendations

Not all of these recommendations have the best testing of.  I think City and Refinery probably have some of the easier challenging stages to set up.  Lane and Sein recommendations probably also offer good challenges.  So I'd give those stages a spin if you're not feeling great about the earlier stage options.  I list the deck names to change and the mission Partner name you can change.  Giving them a deck with just aura, healing moves, or shields will make it easier to challenge yourself against multiple AIs.  


Palace  - I’m especially not crazy about the options  I’ve found at Palace.  Probably not the first stage you want to see what this patch can do things with.  The Ais tend to be more passive for some reason, but I'll try to highlight some that might be worth looking at.

Auto Activate Moves – The AI will use these moves as soon as they are able to:

Graceful Woods,  Aura Particles, Void, Opitcal Camo, Place of Invisibility, Demon’s Wing, Quantum Amp, Mobilize, Chill Breeze, Blessed Rain, Heat Devil.  

“Zmart Skill” Auto Use – These moves will auto use themselves, but check out the Zmart Skills section for versions that are more intelligent you might want to use instead:  

Bravery Decision, Vicious Balance, Quantum Decay, Rebirth,

Copy  - Move was previously unused by AI.  Medium range attack instructions used now.

Recollection – Move was previously unused.  Now treats them like close range attacks.

Empty hand – AI will immediately use it.  Just like you mostly would running auto capture Memory of Battle arsenals.  Move was modded so it can’t be used if you only have one capsule left.  Throw 9 of these into an AI auto capture MoB arsenal in place of Sky Pursuit and Hyperpunch which regular players would use. 

Fairy Ring – AI will repeatedly use it.  Good for Fairy Ring loop practice.  Can’t use if you have less than 5 life. 

Levitate, Jump, Skywalk - will activate at close range use.  Previously unused could use levitate with parabola moves I guess.

Annoying Gift – Partner will gift things to you.  Unclear if original AI instruction ever did anything. 

Charge – Will sometimes use if target is long distance away.  (Old laser AI instruction used)

Retreat -  Will use if enemy is in close range.

Sword Slap – Used as close range move. 

Frighten -  Set to repeatedly use so you can practice timing with a teammate using Frighten. 

Disintegrate and Calamity changed to other hole value moves like Earthquake.  Meant to try to help AI understand them, but not sure it does.  You probably want Amulets on AIs using these moves.  Can’t count on them to use shields against themselves.  

Ricochet Laser –  Move is set to follow an instruction like Scream of Evils.  This makes the AIs sometimes use Ricochet Laser on Panorama through walls like real people do!  The previous version activates Ricochet Laser when they visibly see you.  I created a “Zmart” skill version ZRicochet Visual which still follows the older instruction.  I think their both worth practicing against in Panorama.  There are 2 folders in the Arsenals folder that either follow one version of Ricochet Laser or the other.  Who knows you could mix both in if you really want. 

Pin Down – This move is also given the Scream of Evil instruction.  Makes its pressure with Optimization out difficult to deal with.  AI will target you in more difficult situations.  

Rail Gun – AI will be willing to use even at long range. 

Some of 360+ skills had their AI instructions altered to what I thought they should traditionally be, based on other skills I’ve seen in action.  I’m not going into the details with them.  Those skill’s AI instructions  are trickier to modify/see what they were originally set to.  Because things like Tiger’s Previals were set to long range I decided to just update them to clear AI instruction values.  Another example is they used to automatically waste Rafflesia's Fang.  

Level baton – Will target their ally but not good about stopping or hitting. Sometimes does it at medium range.   I guess if you want to experiment with arsenals where an ally level batons you while you have little to no aura is a thing you could try??