How to Hack Sand Balls

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Sand Balls is SayGames’ digging puzzle, past 100 million downloads on Google Play. Both of its currencies sit in the Unity playerprefs file, under names that don’t match the screen: the red gems are HardCurrency, and the key called Gems holds your coins. I had 3 gems and 20 coins and made both 999,999.

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1. 1

   Play until the island opens after level 5, and follow it through the first building and the crate that comes after it. Before the island the game saves neither gems nor coins, so there’s nothing to change yet.

2. 2

   Open CheatDroid, allow root, and tap Sand Balls in the app list. Under Shared preferences, open com.water.balls.v2.playerprefs.xml. If CheatDroid says the game is running, tap Force stop.

   

3. 3

   Search for HardCurrency. That’s the red gems, 3 in my game. Tap it, type the new amount and tap Save.

   

4. 4

   Now search for Gems. Despite the name, this one is your coins (20 here): the [int] entry named just Gems, not InitialGemsReceieved under it. Type the new amount and tap Save.

   

5. 5

   Start Sand Balls again. Both counters at the top read 999999.

6. 6

   Keep playing. Whatever you win lands on top of the new balance: three chests in the chest room took my coins to 1,000,044.

   

What else I found

• It sticks: coins you win or spend count on from the new balance, and both survive a restart.
• This guide used to change Gems for gems. The key is still there, but it holds the coins now.
• It runs offline, and there are no other players.
• Tested on version 2.3.48.

Download CheatDroid

Made a game that keeps its coins like this? Here’s how to sign PlayerPrefs so this edit fails.