Zanarkand Workshop

Zanarkand Workshop logo

Zanarkand Workshop is under active development, with new tools, improved workflows, and ongoing enhancements. Originally based on osdanova/FFXProjectEditor v1.2, it has grown into a significantly expanded editor.

Modify auto abilities, redesign monster battle AI, customize commands, adjust encounter formations, and more.

The current release is v0.4.2, featuring named project management and Save As, shared Undo/Redo history, verified Recovery, safer editing transitions, and expanded Sphere Grid, Treasure Map, Battle Formation, and Monster tools.

• Monster Editor

• Monster Battle Script Editor

• Auto Ability Editor

• Item Editor

• Player & Aeon Command Editor

• Enemy Command Editor

• Battle Formation Editor

• Rikku Mix Editor

• Sphere Grid Editor

• Treasure Chest Editor

• Live Memory Utilities

• Inventory Tracker

• Arena Tracker

• Live Battle Tracker

  ⚠️ Compatibility Warning

It is strongly recommended that you do not edit game files with other modding tools and then load those same files into Zanarkand Workshop.

Different modding tools may modify or structure game data differently, which can cause compatibility issues, unexpected behavior, or errors when Zanarkand Workshop attempts to read or modify those files.

For the most reliable experience, use clean, unmodified game files as the starting point when working with Zanarkand Workshop.

• Ctrl+Shift+Z may invoke Undo instead of Redo outside text fields. Use Ctrl+Y or the Redo button instead.

• Added named project management and File > Save As, which creates a complete copy in a new project folder.
• Added Undo, Redo, Undo All, and Save controls across the editors, with detailed history feedback and pending-change protection.
• Reworked the Sphere Grid link creator feature.
• Dropdown menus now use the active names for things like Auto Abilities, monster names, commands, etc instead of static ones.

• Add a weapon editor.
• Add a ply_save editor.

Download the latest Windows package from the Releases section of this fork, extract it, and run ZanarkandWorkshop.exe.

Extract the game files using an extractor such as VBF Browser.

The folder that the app uses (and needs to be loaded) is ffx_ps2/ffx/master. Inside this folder are directories containing data for every region. Currently, this tool only supports US game data; both new_uspc and jppc are needed.

I recommend using the External File Loader. This creates a mods folder inside your FFX folder where custom files can be loaded by the game. Once installed, copy your master folder to mods/ffx_ps2/ffx/ and load that folder in the editor to immediately modify the files used by the game.

It is also recommended that you keep a clean version of the master files, as they are needed for the recovery feature of this program.

Click Open Project Folder... and select your master folder. The app detects the running game automatically; the FFX Connected indicator shows the connection status.

Zanarkand Workshop home screen

Most editor footers provide Undo, Redo, Undo All, and Save. Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y use the same editor history as those buttons. When leaving an editor with pending changes, choose Save, Discard, or Cancel. Use File > Save As to create a complete copy of the active project under a new project name.

Zanarkand Workshop text editing and project requirements guide

Zanarkand Workshop editor guide

• Live testing: Monster changes are loaded when combat starts, so a saved monster file applies to the next encounter.

Edit monster stats, elemental affinities, status resistances, loot drops, and other properties.
Recovery > Restore Original Status is a new recovery feature that allows you to return an
individual tab back to it's original game version. so if you've made a lot of changes in Battle Script
But need to reset status or loot you can do so without reverting Battle Script.

Zanarkand Workshop Monster Editor

The Battle Script editor can change attacks, targets, conditions, jumps, shared values, and other monster behavior. v0.2.0 adds safer structural copying, insertion, replacement, and deletion; worker/function/jump navigation; protected RETURN (3C) handling; transactional manual hex validation; and recoverable rejected edits.

Zanarkand Workshop Monster Battle Script Editor

• Live testing: Loaded when the game starts. The Load Ingame button can be used to see changes without restarting.

Edit item names, descriptions, targeting, effects, formulas, elements, statuses, and related properties.

Zanarkand Workshop Item Editor

Edit the result command produced by any two usable items. Recipes are loaded from jppc/battle/kernel/prepare.bin and command names come from new_uspc/battle/kernel/command.bin.

Search or sort the recipe list, choose ingredients and results from dropdowns, then save the updated Mix table.

Zanarkand Workshop Rikku Mix Editor

Edit the Auto Abilities used by weapons and armor. The editor reads new_uspc/battle/kernel/a_ability.bin and the customization recipes stored in jppc/battle/kernel/kaizou.bin.

Either file can be edited independently. If one is missing, its corresponding tab is disabled and saving updates only the file that was loaded. The editor refuses to open only when both files are missing.

The Properties & Effects tab includes:

• The ability name and description.
• Basic display and grouping properties.
• Elemental effects.
• Permanent, temporary, and extra status effects.
• Direct stat increases and the percentage increase amount.
• Separate Strength, Magic, Defense, and Magic Defense calculation bonuses.
• Confirmed special effects such as Sensor, Counterattack, Auto-Potion, Break Damage Limit, No Encounters, and Capture.

Direct stat increases change the stored combat stat and remain subject to that stat's normal cap. The four Bonus flags do not change the displayed combat stat; they apply separately during the game's calculations.

The Recipe tab controls whether the ability is customized onto weapons or armor, the required item, and the required quantity. Recipe quantities are limited to the game's inventory maximum of 99. Some auto abilities do not have
recipes and disable the Recipe tab.

Names and descriptions use the same supported-character, cyan-formatting, and line-break rules described under General text editing. Saving rebuilds the text offsets in a_ability.bin and writes the corresponding recipe changes to kaizou.bin.

Use Restore Original Ability to recover only the selected ability's properties, text, and matching recipe. Other Auto Abilities remain unchanged, and Save rebuilds valid text offsets for the current file.

Zanarkand Workshop Auto Ability Editor

Edit the commands used by the party and Aeons.

Zanarkand Workshop Player and Aeon Command Editor

Edit commands used by standard enemies.

Zanarkand Workshop Standard Monster Command Editor

Edit commands used by bosses.

Zanarkand Workshop Boss Command Editor

Edit which monsters appear in a battle and adjust their positions. When the required clean Original Game Files are configured, the position layout displays the battlefield surface for encounters whose map data can be rendered.

Zanarkand Workshop Battle Formation Editor

Visually edit the Original, Standard, and Expert Sphere Grids. Select a node to change its type, section color, or position. You can also click and drag nodes to change their location. Click on a connecting line to edit its link. Section colors are saved as Zanarkand Workshop project metadata.

The editor can create nodes and links and find/replace node types. Link creation uses a guided Node A then Node B workflow and defaults to a straight link. A new node or link can be removed with Undo as long as the grid has not been saved; after it is saved, the editor cannot delete it.

For game stability, grids are limited to 860 nodes. Standard and Original grids support up to 1,021 total links, Expert supports up to 934, and each node can have up to five usable connections.

Use Recovery to restore the game's original grids. Start a new game when testing a redesigned Sphere Grid so the game loads the new grid data cleanly.

Zanarkand Workshop Sphere Grid Editor

View treasure chests on interactive maps reconstructed from your own game files. Filter the field list, select a field, click a chest icon, or use Previous Chest and Next Chest to inspect every detected chest—even one without a visible map icon. Browsing fields, map states, chests, and conditional chest contents does not create an edit. Change the reward type, reward, and quantity for Gil, items, key items, weapons, and armor. Chest positions are shown for reference and are not edited.

Required files: jppc/battle/kernel/takara.bin, buki_get.bin, jppc/map with mapout.vpa files, and jppc/event/obj with .ebp files. Only takara.bin is changed when you save.

Zanarkand Workshop Treasure Map Editor

These rules apply across editable game-text fields in Zanarkand Workshop, including monster names, Sensor and Scan text, items, and command names and descriptions, as well as Auto Ability names and descriptions.

Wrap text in [cyan] and [/cyan] to use the game's cyan formatting:

Weak against [cyan]Fire[/cyan].

The tags are editor notation. In the game, Fire is displayed in cyan and the brackets are not shown. Tags are case-insensitive, although the lowercase form is recommended. Keep opening and closing tags paired and correctly ordered.

Press Enter in a multiline field to insert a game line break. Visual wrapping inside an editor field does not insert a line break unless Enter was pressed. The game controls the final text-box width and pagination, so review longer text in game.

FFX uses its own limited character table rather than Unicode. If text contains a character that cannot be encoded, Zanarkand Workshop reports an error instead of writing damaged text. Replace unsupported smart quotes, symbols, or accented characters with a supported equivalent and save again.

If you only want to use the Utilities, simply open the app when the game is open and use them, no need to set anything up.

• Available only while an active session of FFX is running.
• Zanarkand Workshop will automatically connect.
• Check FFX Connected in the top-right corner for confirmation.
• Utilities are only compatible with the Windows Steam version.
• Utilities are compatible with Untitled Project X.
• To refresh Utility data, it has to be reopened (excluding the Battle Tracker).

Tools to play around with the game.

Resides inside the Utilities menu. A configuration menu with debug options.

A menu to see and modify ally and enemy data. Autorefresh can be enabled, but editing and loading data is disabled while it is autorefreshing.

See all of your inventory and edit it as needed. You can also sell equipment in bulk.

Keep tabs on your arena captures.

• .NET
• Avalonia UI
• MemorySharp (compiled branch that supports x64 apps)

Requirements:

• Windows
• .NET 8 SDK

From the repository root:

dotnet restore .\ZanarkandWorkshop.sln
dotnet build .\ZanarkandWorkshop.sln -c Release --no-restore

The executable is written to ZanarkandWorkshop/bin/Release/net8.0/ZanarkandWorkshop.exe.

To create the ready-to-distribute, self-contained Windows ZIP used for GitHub Releases:

.\scripts\build-release.ps1 -Version 0.4.2

The package is written to artifacts/ZanarkandWorkshop-v0.4.2-win-x64.zip. Pushing a version tag such as v0.4.2 runs the same packaging process on GitHub and creates a draft release for review.

Zanarkand Workshop is under active development. Back up modded game files before editing them and review the release notes before upgrading. Version 1.0.0 is reserved for a future stable milestone.

See CHANGELOG.md for release history and NOTICE.md for project provenance and licensing information.

The knowledge on the files was shared by the FFX community folks. Check out the Fahrenheit project to learn more.

Big thanks to Karifean/FFXDataParser and their knowledge of monster Battle Script structure.

Another big thanks to the Cid's Salvage Ship Discord community. They've been an enormous help with FFX modding. Check them out if you're interested.

You can find me in the Cid's Salvage Ship community discord. Questions and feedback about Zanarkand Workshop are welcome there.