Save File Modifications

Save files can be edited to modify unlocks. These unlocks include characters, their B-skins, crowns and gold starter weapons.

If modifying an existing save file make sure to backup your save. On Windows this can be found by hitting the Win+R button and then copy/paste '%localappdata%/nuclearthrone'. The file in here will be called nuclearthrone.sav, make a copy of this file somewhere safe.

Method 1: Lost your save file entirely?
This method works best with Non-Beta (u99r1) on Steam, save data will be transferred when opting into betas. The first step will be to get NTT v9940 which is compatible with Non-Beta, and is able to run mods. Once installed get Saniblue's editor mod. This has a straightforward UI which will generate a new save file for base NT. Be sure to follow the readme file included for full instructions.

Method 2: Want to transfer save data between NT and NTT?
While not the best option for save editing, commands in NTT can be used to apply the save file data from NT to NTT and vise versa.
'/savegame nuclearthrone.sav' will apply your NTT save to your base NT.
'/loadgame nuclearthrone.sav' will apply your base NT save to NTT.

Method 3: Want to edit an existing save? The traditional way of file editing is directly accessing your save file and manually editing the values. Follow the instructions at the top to locate your .sav file.
Steam Cloud saving must be disabled for .sav edits to apply if playing on Steam. This can be toggled off by right clicking NT in the Steam Library and selecting 'Properties', sliding the toggle off for Steam Cloud.
The .sav file can now be opened with any text editor (such as Notepad) and any edits can be made. The next section will cover all relevant .sav data values. Make sure that Nuclear Throne is closed out before saving this, otherwise it will overwrite the any changes. Once the file is saved the game can be launched again with the modified save data, and then Steam cloud can be re-enabled.

Save File Values

The save file will appear as a giant wall of text and numbers which can be overwhelming at first glance, but is actually fairly simple. The majority of the data is 'stats' which includes all character unlock data and every piece of data that appears on their stats screen. Near the bottom is 'options' which includes everything that can be changed in the settings screen, with some other miscellaneous things under 'data'. This guide will focus on any practical parts of save editing with everything being added at a later date.

Anything related to unlocks will have a '0' if it is locked and a '1' if it is locked. Decimal points can be ignored for any normal editing here - only the first number needs to be worried about. For example "hardgot" toggles hardmode will have the value of 0.000000 if locked or 1.000000 if unlocked.

Below is a table of each of the mutant's respective IDs. These will each be followed by curly brackets which will include all their unlock data and character stats. Ctrl+F can be used in the text editor to quickly jump to the specific mutant as these are NOT in numerical order.

The value 'cgot' will refer to the character unlock, while 'cbgt' will refer to their B-Skin unlock.

Secret Characters can largely be ignored here. However for those interested;

• Secret characters cannot directly be unlocked, so most unlocks for them do not matter in base NT.
• Big Dog can only be played on April 1st for the betas. Crown unlocks work for him, while other unlocks do not.
• Frog can be accessed by setting the Golden Frog Pistol as the starter on any normal character's gold starter (see next section).
• Yung Cuz is unused as a character in base NT, he can technically be accessed in NTT which is separate from the YV C-Skin. More info will be added later.
• charData_17 is used for character modding and can be ignored for file editing.

The number value for 'cgld' will dictate the golden weapon starter, which technically can be used to start with any weapon. Someone has uploaded a list of weapon IDs here. (The value 'cwep' is the default weapon but changing it will not work. Sometimes the cgld and cwep values will be swapped when viewing the .sav, just ignore this and edit cgld regardless.)

Similarly the list of weapons can be used for the value 'protowep' found near the end of the file which dictates what weapon is found in the proto chest.

Here are all 16 golden weapon IDs for quick reference:

*Golden Frog Pistol used to be listed as ID 201 in older versions as a hidden weapon. This was moved down to ID 127 in a later update so all weapons are grouped together. Using either value seems to work.

Crowns will be a bit more confusing to edit, they are found under the range of 'crowns' with 14 values within brackets for each character. To unlock one of the specific crowns, you will need to manually count the values in order using the table below. As unlocks the value of '0' will be locked while '1' will be unlocked, ignoring the decimals. The first two values (Random and Bare Head) can be ignored here.

Some older guides may have crowns in a different order. Crowns were changed a lot near the end of NT's development cycle, so their order has changed as well.

Random Crown: A previous feature that was removed. This can still technically be used in vanilla NT, but it is buggy. For the desired character change the first value in the crown bracket to a '1' to unlock it, as well as the 3rd-14th values for every other crown. Keep the second value to '0', as the Bare Head crown could randomly be selected and cause a crash. Locate the 'startcrown' option for the same character and change its value to '0', as that is the random crown ID. On the character select screen in-game this will now display the Bare Head sprite but will actually be random, and will pull from the pool of 12 crowns upon starting/resetting a run.