This page documents information about Final Fantasy III
. Many of the tricks demonstrated here are near impossible in real time and documented for the purposes of creating Tool-assisted Speedruns.
The Upgrade Trick
The upgrade trick in Final Fantasy 3 is a bug that allows you to take items gained in combat and use them to turn other items in your inventory into other things and upgrade your lead character. There are plenty of methods stated on the internet for getting this to work, but are all needlessly complicated in execution. This article focuses on the causes of the glitch and is somewhat technical; a simpler explanation focusing more on the execution will be forthcoming. For clarity's sake, I used screenshots taken from a translated ROM.
Memory
Memory block 60C0-610F contains the values for your inventory and the first line of your lead character's stats. Its in-battle format is as follows:
┌─────Index
│ ┌──Quantity
V V
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
60Cx: 00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00─┐
60Dx: 00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00 │
60Ex: 00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00 ├Inventory
60Fx: 00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00─┘
610x: 00│00│00│00 00 00│00 00 00 00 00 00│00 00│00 00<─Lead stats
^ ^ ^ └──┬───┘ └───────┬───────┘ └─┬─┘ └─┬─┘ (1st line)
Job──┘ │ │ │ │ │ └──Max HP
Level───┘ │ └──Experience └───Name └────Current HP
Status─────┘
Each slot in your inventory is split between two bytes. The first is the "index", or what the stack contains. The second is the stack's "quantity", how many of an item is in the stack. Immediately following your inventory is your first character's vital statistics, but we'll get into that later. For now we'll focus on the inventory.
***IMPORTANT!*** The way your inventory is formatted when you're not in combat is different from when you're in combat. Keep this in mind when you're poking around the memory for yourself. The bug is the result of the battle's format, so we'll deal exclusively with that format.
Example:
Just after finishing the Earth Shrine and de-equipping your party, your inventory would look something like this:
And, when in combat, the inventory memory block would look like this:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 60Cx: B2 02│A6 05│1E 04│72 04│62 04│58 02│00 00│00 00 60Dx: 00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00 60Ex: 00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00 60Fx: 00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00
B2 is the index for SouthWind, and you have two; A6 is the index for Potion, and you have five; 1E is the index for Knife, and you have four; etc.
Item Drops
The largest a stack can be is 99. If you have 99 in a stack, and you get an item drop, then the game deals with the extra item by finding the next empty quantity byte after the stack, dropping its index there and dropping its quantity in the next index. Let's demonstrate using potions.
During combat...
┌───A6 is the index for potions
│ ┌63 is hex for 99
V V
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
60Cx: A6 63│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00
Now, combat is over, and you win a potion.
┌───Stack is full, drop potion into next empty quantity
│
│ ┌Here's the next empty quantity
┌─┴─┐ v
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
60Cx: A6 63│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00
So what you end up with is...
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 60Cx: A6 63│00 A6│01 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00
So now you have 166 of nothing, and no kaiser claws (item at index 01). These values are meaningless, so they get zeroed when the inventory is reorganized.
Now, what would happen if you had a stack of four leather helmets two slots after your potion stack? Arranged, your inventory would look like this:
And in battle memory would look like this:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 60Cx: A6 63│00 00│62 04│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00
Get into combat and win a potion.
┌──The index for the dropped potion
│ is added to the next empty quantity...
v
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
60Cx: A6 63│00 A6│63 04│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00
^
└──But the quantity of the dropped potion
(quantity 1) is added to the leather
helmet's index!
So now the helmet stack no longer refers to index 62, but index 63, since the dropped potion's quantity got added to its index. Congratulations, you now have four onion helmets!
Two Item Drops
Sometimes, you may win more than one of the same item in combat. If your stack of that item is full, the game treats each extra as a separate item and simply iterates the process described above. The good news is that you're almost always garaunteed glitchy behavior because of this. Let's use potions again as an example.
Spawning Kaiser Claws
Before combat, you have a stack of 99 potions.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 60Cx: A6 63│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00
You win two potions. It handles the first normally.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 60Cx: A6 63│00 A6│01 0│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00
But the second one...
┌──Here's an empty quantity!
V
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
60Cx: A6 63│00 A6│01 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00
And so...
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 60Cx: A6 63│00 A6│01 A6│01 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00
It doesn't bother checking to see if the slot is occupied. This results in 166 of nothing, a stack of no kaiser claws, and a stack of 166 kaiser claws. You just spawned claws out of nothing. The other two meaningless stacks get discarded and the other stack gets reset to 99 since you can't have any more than that.
Upgrading Two Items in One Shot
So, now you have an onion helmet, but want to get the rest of the onion armor. You buy four leather robes and four copper rings, and arrange them in your inventory with your potions thusly.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 60Cx: A6 63│00 00│73 04│00 00│8B 04│00 00│00 00│00 00
73 and 8B are the indexes for leather robes and copper rings respectively. You get into combat and win two potions.
┌──First dropped potion is dealt with as
│ described; index 73 becomes 74.
│
│ ┌─Second potion isn't dropped here;
│ │ there's a quantity here.
┌─┴─┐ V
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
60Cx: A6 63│00 A6│74 04│00 00│8B 04│00 00│00 00│00 00
^
└──But this one is empty.
And so you have...
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 60Cx: A6 63│00 A6│74 04│00 A6│8C 04│00 00│00 00│00 00
In one shot, your robe and ring have become an onion armor and onion glove respectively.
This method can be done with any number of dropped items. Just remember that the process iterates itself with each dropped item and arrange your inventory accordingly.
Upgrading the Lead Character
Here's a tip: the way the game checks for a quantity byte is by checking each odd byte in sequence after the full stack. It also fails to go back to the beginning of the inventory once it reaches the end of your pack. This means that there's opportunity to corrupt other pieces of data.
Look back at the chart at the beginning of the article. You'll see that your lead character's data comes immediately after your party's inventory. It is possible to abuse the game's method for dealing with extra items in order to give your lead character an edge.
Place a potion at the end of your inventory like this:
Cropping off the first three lines of your inventory, the memory block should now look something like this when in combat.
┌─────Index
│ ┌──Quantity
V V
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
60Fx: 00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│A6 63<─Inventory
610x: 00│02│00│5D 00 00│8D B2 A6 AE FF FF│28 00│32 00<─Lead stats
^ ^ ^ └──┬───┘ └───────┬───────┘ └─┬─┘ └─┬─┘ (1st line)
Job──┘ │ │ │ │ │ └──Max HP
Level───┘ │ └──Experience └───Name └────Current HP
Status─────┘
Some notes: Like most systems, multi-byte numbers are read from right to left, so the larger digits are on the right. Strings, like your character's name, are read from left to right.
With this setup, enter combat and win a potion. Here's what happens:
The dropped potion will look for an empty
odd byte after the potion in your inventory.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
60Fx: 00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│A6 63
610x: 00│02│00│5D 00 00│8D B2 A6 AE FF FF│28 00│32 00
^ ^ ^
This one──┘ │ └──But this one is!
isn't empty... │ Let's drop it here.
│
And neither─────┘
is this one.
This results in...
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 60Fx: 00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│00 00│A6 63 610x: 00│02│00│5D 00 A6│8E B2 A6 AE FF FF│28 00│32 00
The rightmost byte for your character's experience was set to A6. And since this byte represents the upper range of this number, this means your character just gained 10,878,976 experience in one round of combat. The game will reset this to 9,999,999 in a bit, but still, your character has the maximum amount of experience allowable. Since the game is programmed to prevent gaining more than one level per combat, this means your character will gain one level per round of combat. Note that also the lead's name gets affected; in this case, Dock's name is changed to Eock.
You can do some other things with this too. Place the potion stack one space back and you can change your character's class. However, this is mostly pointless: Stat changes aren't made unless you go through the job menu. All glitching yourself a job does is allow you to equip different equipment; all other stats are transferred to the new job. You can also crash the game if you try this as a ninja.
Also, if you have already performed the mass experience bug and get two potions with the same setup, or if you get three potions in one round without having done the bug, the character's max HP will shoot up to 9999.
Plus, you can chain the bugs together. Place a stack to be upgraded at the end of your inventory, place the potion stack two spaces back, and get two potion drops in one combat round. You'll upgrade the stack and gain a ton of experience that way.
Can you upgrade your other characters?
Theoretically, yes, but you'd have to keep everyone else dead up until the ancient's labyrinth, and that's probably not practical.
Can you do other things with the bug?
Everything else is too far removed from the inventory to be of use.
Item Index List
This list was pulled directly from EmeraldThunder21's savestate hacking guide.
00 Nothing 01 Kaiser Claw 02 CatClaw 03 Dragon Claw 04 Elven Claw 05 HellClaw 06 Nunchuck 07 Tonfa 08 3-Part 09 Mithril Rod 0A Flame Rod 0B Ice Rod 0C Light Rod 0D Ultimate Rod 0E Staff 0F Burning Staff 10 Freezing Staff 11 Shining Staff 12 Golem Staff 13 Rune Staff 14 Eldest Staff 15 Hammer 16 Thor Hammer 17 Battle Axe 18 GreatAxe 19 M. Star Axe 1A Thunder Spear 1B Wind Spear 1C Blood Spear 1D Holy Spear 1E Knife 1F Dagger 20 Mithril 21 M. Gauche 22 Orialcon 23 AirKnife 24 Long Sword 25 W. Slayer Sword 26 Shiny Sword 27 Mithril Sword 28 Serpent Sword 29 IceBlade 2A Tyrving Sword 2B Salamand Sword 2C King Sword 2D Tomahawk 2E Ancient Sword 2F Ashura 30 Blood Sword 31 Defender Sword 32 Triton Hammer 33 Kotetsu 34 Kiku 35 Break 36 Excalibur 37 Masamune 38 Ragnarok 39 Onion Sword 3A Flame Book 3B Ice Book 3C Inferno Book 3D Light Book 3E Illumina Book 3F Boomerang 40 Full Moon 41 Shuriken 42 Blizzard Book 43 Giyaman 44 Earth 45 Rune 46 Madora Harp 47 Dream Harp 48 Lamia Harp 49 Loki Harp 4A Bow 4B GreatBow 4C Killer Bow 4D Rune Bow 4E Yoichi Bow 4F Wooden Arrows 50 Holy Arrows 51 Iron Arrows 52 Bolt Arrows 53 Fire Arrows 54 Ice Arrows 55 Medusa Arrows 56 Yoichi Arrows 57 Nothing 58 Leather Shield 59 Onion Shield 5A Mithril Shield 5B Ice Shield 5C Hero Shield 5D Demon Shield 5E Diamond Shiled 5F Aegis Shield 60 Genji Shield 61 Crystal Shield 62 Leather Helmet 63 Onion Helmet 64 Mithril Helmet 65 Carapace Helmet 66 Ice Helmet 67 Headband 68 Scholar Helmet 69 DarkHood 6A Chakra Helmet 6B Viking Helmet 6C Dragon Helmet 6D Feather Helmet 6E Diamond Helmet 6F Genji Helmet 60 Crystal Helmet 71 Ribbon 72 Cloth Robe 73 Leather Robe 74 Onion Armor 75 Mithril Armor 76 Carapace Armor 77 Ice Armor 78 Flame Mail 79 Kenpo Armor 7A Darksuit 7B Wizard Robe 7C Viking Armor 7D BlackBelt 7E Kinght Armor 7F Dragon Armor 80 Bard Robe 81 Scholar Robe 82 Gaia Robe 83 Demon Armor 84 Diamond Armor 85 Reflect Armor 86 White Robe 87 Black Robe 88 Genji Armor 89 Crystal Armor 8A Rusted Armor 8B Copper Ring 8C Onion Glove 8D Mithril Glove 8E Mithril Ring 8F Thief Glove 90 Gauntlet 91 Power Ring 92 Rune Ring 93 Diamond Ring 94 Diamond Glove 95 Protect Ring 96 Genji Glove 97 Crystal Glove 98 Magic Key 99 Carrot 9A Horn 9B Eye 9C Time Gear 9D Eureka Key 9E Wind Fang 9F Fire Fang A0 Water Fang A1 Earth Fang A2 Lute A3 Sylx Key A4 Midget Bread A5 ? A6 Potion A7 HiPotion A8 Elixir A9 FenixDown AA Soft AB Maiden Kiss AC EchoHerb AD Luck Mallet AE Eyedrop AF Antidote B0 Otter Head B1 Bomb Shard B2 South Wind B3 Zeus' Rage B4 Bomb R. Arm B5 North Wind B6 Gods' Rage B7 Earth Drum B8 Lamia Scale B9 Gods' Wine BA Turtle Shell BB Devil's Sigh BC Black Hole BD Dark Scent BE Lilith Kiss BF Imp's Yawn C0 Split Shell C1 Paralyzer C2 Mute Charm C3 Pillow C4 Bomb Head C5 Barrier C6 Chocobo Rage C7 White Scent C8 Flare C9 Death CA Meteo CB W. Wind CC Life 2 CD Holy CE Bahamut CF Quake D0 Break 2 D1 Drain D2 Cure 4 D3 Heal D4 Wall D5 Leviathan D6 Fire 3 D7 Bio D8 Warp D9 Aero 2 DA Soft DB Haste DC Odin DD Bolt 3 DE Kill DF Erase E0 Cure 3 E1 Life E2 Safe E3 Titan E4 Break E5 Ice 3 E6 Shade E7 Libra E8 Confuse E9 Mute EA Ifrit EB Fire 2 EC Ice 2 ED Bolt 2 EE Cure 2 EF Exit F0 Wash F1 Ramuh F2 Bolt F3 Venom F4 Blind F5 Aero F6 Toad F7 Mini F8 Shiva F9 Fire FA Ice FB Sleep FC Cure FD Pure FE Sight FF Chocobo
See also
- Game Resources - we have resource pages for other games too!
- Common Tricks - tricks common to many games
- Boss Fighting Guide - tricks specific to boss fights
GameResources/NES/FinalFantasy3 last edited by Ferret_Warlord on 11/19/2010 3:13 AM
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