Dragonvale: How to Get Every Dragon (Even Expired Ones and the New Kairos Dragon) For One Gem
UPDATE: As of November 2012, it appears that this hack has been patched and no longer works. Backflip has modified the gamerules file so it’s no longer editable (and it looks as though it downloads the relevant file from the server every time you open up the game), so it looks as though there’s no way to get the expired dragons or do fun things like put fire dragons in cold habitats, or increase the number of habitats etc. You can get gems, cash and food if you’re jail broken – at the moment there’s no jailbreak for iOS 6, only for 5.1.1. If you managed to do this hack before they changed the file, you’ll still have everything you managed to hack before (ie. expired dragons, 999,999,999 gems, etc.) so don’t worry.
Ok, I thought I’d break up the monotony of Mass Effect posts with some Dragonvale hacking. After getting super frustrated at the stupid racetrack wheel never giving me fragments for the Perch of Kairos, I decided to cheat a little. You can edit the game rules for Dragonvale to get EVERY dragon, including the expired ones, for only 1 gem each – here’s how:
You need:
1. iFunbox, iExplore, or any other program that lets you view your source files in your app
2. a simple text editor (ie. Microsoft Word)
3. your iphone/ipad
You do NOT need:
1. NO JAILBREAKING REQUIRED
2. NO GIVING AWAY USERNAME OR PASSWORD (be careful, there are a lot of scams out there!)
Here’s what you need to do:
1. Connect your ipad/iphone with the Dragonvale app installed to your computer
2. Open iFunbox and navigate to your Dragonvale app folder
3. Under Dragonvale/Library/Caches, you should see the document “gamerules.json”
4. Download “gamerules.json” to your desktop
5. Open it with a text editor (Microsoft Word is best)
6. Make the changes you want*
7. Save the file (ctrl + s) – make sure it’s still in .json format
8. Upload it back to its original folder, overwriting the old “gamerules.json”
*Ok, so how do you make the changes you want? There are several things you can do:
Buy Every Fragment for 1 Gem Each and Get the Legendary Kairos Dragon
1. Search the “gamerules.json” file for “timefragmentX_X” where the X’s represent the number of the fragment. There are three different evolutions of fragments, seven different pieces for each evolution, so the first X should be a number from 1-3 and the second X should be a number from 1-7.
2. For example, this is the code snippet you’re looking for for the first fragment (you can search the following code in Word):
“timefragment1_1”: {“price”: [{“gems”: “75”}
3. Where it says “gems”:”75″, change the “75” to 1. Don’t make it 0 – it won’t work properly. You have to pay at least 1 gem.
4. Do this for all 21 fragments.
5. After uploading these changes back to on your iphone/ipad, open the Dragonvale app – if you’ve already built the Perch of Kairos, you’ll see that you can click each fragment to purchase it for 1 gem.
6. After you buy all the pieces, you will be able to summon the Kairos Dragon!
Buy Every Dragon and Decoration Ever Released, Including Expired Ones
1. Search the “gamerules.json” file for “legacy”: “1”, – don’t forget to delete the comma after it!
2. Delete all instances of it – there should be 41 (subject to change with new updates)
3. Open the Dragonvale app on your iphone/ipad after uploading the changes – go to the Marketplace
4. You should see every dragon ever released is now available, including the Leap Year, Bloom, Clover, Olympus, Emerald, etc. as well as every decoration
Buy Every Dragon Ever Released for 1 Gem Each
1. After completing all the steps above for deleting “legacy”: “1” search for the dragon that you want to make cost 1 gem – (note: while every dragon goes by its regular name in the code ie. butterfly dragon = “butterflydragon”, the bloom dragon is listed as “easterdragon”)
2. For example, if I want to change the Clover Dragon’s cost, I will search “cloverdragon” and find this code:
“cloverdragon”: {“babygrowlsound”: “Dragons/dragon_clover_growl_baby”, “modelwidth_Baby”: “0.7”, “price”: [{“gems”: “77”, “viewrequirement”: “7”, “levelrequirement”: “7”}]
3. Where is says “gems”: “77”, change the 77 to 1.
4. Do this with every dragon you want to cost 1 gem.
5. Upload the changes and open the app on your iphone/ipad – when you go to the market, the dragons you changed should be 1 gem each. Buy the dragon and put it in a habitat!
How to Get 999,999 Gemstones for $1.99
1. Search the “gamerules.json” file for the following code:
{“currency”: {“gems”: “50”}, “displayname”: “Pile of Gems”
2. Change the “gems”: “50” from 50 to 999,999 (do NOT include comma – it’s only there for illustration purposes so you can clearly see how many 9’s there are) – you can increase it up to 999,999,999 gems if you want, but no one really needs that many. Do NOT do more than 9 9’s, it WILL mess up your game!
3. Upload the changes and open the app on your iphone/ipad – purchase “Pile of Gems” for $1.99 in-app and you will be given 999,999 gems!
4. You can also do this with Cash or Treats, but be sure to change the line of code corresponding to the level you are currently at – for example, if you want to change Pile of Treats and you are at level 24, search for “Pile of Treats” and you will see “levelvalue” and bunch of different values for each level (ie. {“24”: {“food”: 19480} for the treats corresponding to level 24)
How to Make Gemstone Dragons Breed with Each Other
1. Search the “gamerules.json” file for the following code:
“breedtypes”: [“”]
2. Between the empty quotes, put the word gemstone – it should now look like this “breedtypes”: [“gemstone”]
3. Repeat for all instances of the code (there should be seven, depending on the dragonvale update)
4. Now you will be able to breed Gemstone dragons of the same type (ie. Emerald x Emerald, Ruby x Ruby, etc.) together – this is the only way you can get their pretty eggs on pedestals for display
5. You CANNOT breed the Gemstone dragons with other types of dragons no matter how you tweak the code, it just won’t work.
Now that you get the gist of the hack, you can make your own tweaks as well. Here are things I’ve tried that haven’t worked: Increasing the max # of habitats, dragons per habitat, max cash per habitat, food grown for each farm item, etc. – any of these changes is purely superficial – it will work initially and show all the changes you’ve made in the game, but once you restart Dragonvale a second time, all the new habitats, new food, etc. you’ve gained will disappear. If you try to spend the food you’ve generated, it will work for a little bit, then you’ll get an internal error and the game will reboot and it will all disappear again.
To revert back to the original “gamerules.json” file, delete it from the folder then open the Dragonvale app on your iphone/ipad. The game will generate a new up-to-date “gamerules.json” file on its own.
Hope you found this tutorial helpful!
Let me know if this has helped you get all the dragons you want in the comments!
I did all that and changed the prices of the opal, gold, and seasonal dragon, and saved it back to iFunbox and when I got on the app nothing was different….? Did I do something wrong?
It’s probably because Dragonvale generated a new gamerules.json while you were editing – that tends to happen sometimes. To make sure, delete the gamerules.json file in iFunbox, reopen Dragonvale, shut it down, go back to iFunbox where you will see a new gamerules.json file and then make the changes again on the new file. Microsoft Word’s word replacement function speeds things up :) If that doesn’t work, let me know!
I tried the 999,999 gems thing 4 1.99 but now whenever I try to purchase it says there is an internal error and will not purchase it
see my previous comment – retry with a new gamerules.json file
how do you shut down your dragonvale. do you mean turn it off because I did that and I can’t find the file
Don’t turn off you iphone/ipad. Press and hold the home button – the bottom bar should pop up, showing the Dragonvale app. Press the app until it shows the x in the corner then press the x to completely exit out of the app. When you restart it, a new gamerules.json should replace the old one automatically.
the weird thing is that it still takes my money but doesn’t give the gems
it still doesn’t work, there is only one file. thnx a lot for bringing my hopes up with this “strategy”
I’m not sure why it’s not working for you – it works for me just fine. Can you send me the .json file you edited so I can take a look at it? You can email girlplaysgameblog@gmail.com
Thanks for sending me your file – you don’t want to put a comma in the middle of “999,999” – just write “999999” … sorry that wasn’t more clear in the tutorial. Let me know how it works now :)
How do you save your edited .json file back to ifunbox after deleting the original one. I can copy my edited one back to ifunbox but it seems like its not saving once, I leave ifunbox any suggestions????
Just drag it over – make sure the Dragonvale app is NOT open on your iPad/iPhone or it will continue to generate new gamerules.json that will overwrite what you did. Try restarting the game and editing the most recent gamerules.json.
when i go to search in the gamerules.json file nothing happens what do i do?
What do you mean when you search in the file? Like, when you search for a certain term ie. “legacy”: “1”? Make sure there are no extra spaces or punctuations before or after what you’re searching for …
i went into i funbox etc etc but when i got there there wasnt actually a file called gamerules.json….help?
I can’t find iFunbox in the app store do you think it’s been taken down?
iFunbox isn’t an app, it’s a program for your computer – http://www.i-funbox.com/
Thx
I am also having trouble saving it back as a JSON file…? Any suggestions?
Nvm! It worked fantastically! Thank you so much!
No problem! :)
Having trouble with this step
1. Search the “gamerules.json” file for “legacy”: “1”
2. Delete all instances of it – there should be 41 (subject to change with new updates)
I have completed the ones above but this one I am have trouble with. Do you need to delete all 41 before you will see any of them. I deleted a couple to test and it didnt work, It has a comma after “legacy”: “1” – do you need to delete the comma as well. Or delete anything else? Please elaborate if you could. Uploading a youtube video would be helpful. Also, can the creators of the game ban you from the game if you do this?
Thanks in advance!
JT
Yes, you need to delete ALL of them before anything happens. And yes, you need to delete the comma as well. I just do a search for “legacy:” “1”, (space before and space after) and replace it with a space. I haven’t heard of anyone being banned for this and I feel like it’s pretty safe as the gamerules.json is stored locally and is constantly replaced automatically anyway. I’m willing to risk it :)
when i go search in the “gamerules.json” file for “legacy:” “1″ i click search and nothing happens ?
That’s strange. Maybe just search for the word legacy and see if it pops up.
If not, then you can send me your gamerules.json file to girlplaysgameblog@gmail.com and I’ll try to see where it went wrong.
Actually it’s
, “legacy” “1”
Make sure you have then comma
or “legacy”: “1”, works too. Depends which comma you want to delete – doesn’t matter :)
God bless you…
how do you upload it to ifunbox? when it says save i do that but then when i close down the document and reopen it it still has what i deleted there?
Just drag it over … if there is a new gamerules.json, either Dragonvale automatically generate a more updated file while you were editing the old one or you had the app running on your mobile device.
Can you not edit and get the emerald for 1 gem?
thank you so much, honestly my hero right now <3
Once I dragged the edited .json file back to the cache folder… all files in the cache folder had word icons and dragonvale would not open anymore…closing out dragonvale and reopening did not allow app to ever open up completely. It would time out and say internal error. HELP
I’m also getting an internal error/unable to connect to internet message today. I suspect it’s something to do with Dragonvale’s servers – I’m going to wait a day or so and see. I don’t know why all your files in the cache folder are word icons though.
If you go to Dragonvale’s facebook page or Backflipstudio’s website, you’ll see that their servers are down. Try again later when the servers are fixed!
I was able to change the file for the amount of gems for $1.99 and had a lot of fun with all those gems but now my Dragonvale has crashed and I can’t get it to reopen. I continually get “internal error”. I deleted Dragonvale, signed out of my Game Center account, powered down my iPhone and then restarted, reinstalled Dragonvale, and still same problem…it won’t load. Any help?
Nevermind…got it working. BTW…I just love the information you provided to do this in the first place…you ROCK!
Yeah Dragonvale’s servers were down earlier today. Should be working now. Glad to be of help! :)
Ok I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong I deleted all of the legacy and replaced them with spaces, save, and replace the old file with the new one. Then I start dragonvale but I don’t see any of the dragons. Please help!!!
i followed everything you put up to do, and it will not work no matter what, is there any way you can help? we made our changes and went to the dragonvale app and nothing changed.
Send me the gamerules.json file with the changes you made and I will check – girlplaysgameblog@gmail.com
can you do a video and post it on youtube, becouse this makes no sence to me, i don’t understand enything…..
hi,
how do i download dragonvale app to my mac laptop? I’m stuck at step 1. Please help!
You don’t – you access the dragonvale app on your ipad/iphone through ifunbox which you download to your laptop.
when you say delete the rules from folder…what folder do you mean..the one on ifunbox?
well, the folder you’re looking at in ifunbox should be your dragonvale app folder. so in that sense, you use ifunbox to delete the dragonrules.json file from the dragonvale app on your iphone/ipad
Will this also work with ipod touch? I’ve been trying to change the pile of gems from ’50’ to ‘99999’, but whenever I open Dragonvale, the file automatically reverts. Attempted to delete file, start with new rules, but to no avail.
Tried this for the Perch of Kairos and it worked! Thank you! :)
I am confused as to what the ‘instances’ are?
Meaning, the number of times that particular item appears in the entire body of the .json file. So, if I say there should be 7 instances, there should be 7 occurrences of that same text within the file.
So if I trying to get the expired dragons what instances do delete?
as per the instructions, delete all “legacy”: “1”, don’t forget the comma
Ok that helps a lot but last thing my file won’t let me search anything do i have to manually look for the legacy?
Yes, or download something that allows you to search …
so can you keep dragons that you buy?
yes
Hi. I am having trouble finding the stuff I need on the word file. Is there someway to search since there is about 100 pages. Also I am using a mac.
Hi. This is a great tutorial but is there way to search on microsoft word since there is about 100 pages of the rules I can’t find the stuff I need. Also I am using a mac.
Yes, I search on Word all the time. Make sure you have the spacing and punctuation correct when you’re doing the search.
But how do i search on word?
ctrl + f
Hey man, great hack!
Just wondering if there’s anyway possible way to speed things up on making the changes as some of them are really time consuming and takes ages to go through the whole thing to find certain codes to change.
Thanks :)
Sorry, there isn’t a faster way than using the word replacement function on Microsoft Word. It shouldn’t take too long with that, though …
I’m having a problem. Everything works, (I buy a plant dragon for 1 dragoncash, and sell it for 500 gems) but I always get an internal error message when I try to buy any dragons, or complete the Perch of Kairos, or display eggs, or ANYTHING! Please help.
P.S. It also doesn’t save anything that I do.
Like I said in the tutorial, there are many hacks that do not work. This includes trying to sell dragons for gems. My directions were to make each dragon COST 1 gem in the marketplace or to make each gem package you PURCHASE a greater amount. If you tweaked the code differently, it probably won’t work.
How do you connect the device to the computer?
with the USB/charger cord that comes with your iphone or ipad …
Can you make habitats 1 coin or something?
Yes I believe you can make them cost less but you can’t change their max capacity, max coin capacity, or max # of habitats allowed – those changes will work for about 5 minutes then get automatically overwritten.
How do you download the dragonvale app to your computer?
You don’t – you access the one on your ipad/iphone with iFunbox.
Hey girlplaysgames. I also make mods for this game. Email maybe we can help each other on new stuff in the future
Sure, let me know if you have anything to add – girlplaysgameblog@gmail.com
Ohhhhhhh :) thanks a million i’ll use the advide :)
Hey girlplaysgame, I was wondering if there was a way to gain more gems upon winning a Colosseum with Gold Medal.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to a response!
I changed the 50 gems to 999999999 and then closed funbox. The Dragonvale app was closed and exited out while I did this. I then closed funbox, and unplugged my iPad. When I opened up Dragonvale, I got the normal loading screen, and then attempted to buy the 999999999 gems in place of the 50 gems. This was tried three times with no success.
Hi, please send your gamerules.json file to me at girlplaysgameblog@gmail.com and I will check it.
Hi can you help me do this I opened the file up on my computer and when I go to the app in my phone nothing happens I just want expired dragons and decorations
Um hi i have tried your 999999 gems cheat, your expired dragons one and they didnt work! any hints as to why? i followed your instructions to a tee. :(
nevermind they all worked! thanks soooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I need help very bad I don’t know what to do with legacy in order to get all expired dragons and items do I delete the whole thing like everything but the comma or just the coma I’m so confused plz help
delete the whole thing including the comma
Ok so there is two comas i delete both correct
What? No. Where do you see two commas? Think of it as each comma separates a different command – like a, b, c, d. If I want to delete b I need to also delete the comma after it so that it reads a, c, d. You don’t want a to run into c like ac, d. Does that make sense?
Does this works on other games?
can you replace gems with coins, so you dont have to spend gems? and can you also increase the rewards from the Colosseum ?
Not sure about the Colosseum, but no you can’t replace gems with coins. You can experiment with the file but make sure you keep an original copy in case you mess up :)
have you come up with any other creative ones or heard of any others?
You can find some other hacks that others came up with here: http://xsellize.com/topic/190549-dragonvale-hack-masterlist/ – some are the same as mine and others are more creative :)
Does this work for the Android version of dragonvale?
No idea, don’t own an Android
since the last update, it seems the gamerules.json file is constantly updating. Have you experienced this? I modify the file and replace in the library/cache like always but nothing takes effect because the unmodified gamerules file is automatically being regenerated immediately. Has Backflip changed how DV generates the gamerules.json file?
I don’t know – it’s happened to me a few times but I can usually get it to work on the 2nd or 3rd try. I don’t know if there has been an update between the last time I did this and now … Maybe you have to make the changes faster :) Also, make sure that the game isn’t running in the background.
very frustrating…After copying modified gamerules.json to cache and opening DV if i immediately copy back to desktop from cache the file is again the original unmodified version (sometimes but not always 1 KB larger file). I Don’t see how it would be possible to do any faster (maybe takes 10 seconds). DV is not running in background and I’ve done this multiple times.
weird, i don’t know if something changed
I’m having a problem saving it back as a json file. Help would be appreciated :)
me and my Dad did these tweaks and they quit when he sync. it and now we tried to retweak it and they aren’t working!
I also have an issue when trying to get the changes to show up. I’ve tried about two dozen times now, with DV closed, as well as while it’s loading. Yet, no matter what I try, the gamerules.json file gets updated before the game begins and none of the change ever take effect.
Could this hack have been patched forever? I just missed the solar eclipse dragon ><
Not working for me – was really excited by the potential but nothing is changing
It seems that the hack has been patched with the latest update … I haven’t tested it yet, though.
Followed instructions to the letter, deleted old rules file and installed new modified rules file to funbox. Tried this a half dozen times.
No change in game, doesn’t seem like new file is installed in DV.
Deleting the old rules and copying the new rules into funbox should load it onto the app, yes? Or is there a step I am missing to push it into the app?
Closed funbox, reopened it and checked DV. Modified rules file is currently the file in the app but no changes have taken effect.
Any ideas?
ifunbox wonr find my iphone device and if the hack is patched is there a way to uninstall the latest update?
Hey, first of all, thanks a lot for this guide, its very helpful and clear but.. i think that after the latest update everything has been patched.. do you think that would be possible to find another way to unlock expired dragons (and maybe let them cost 1 gem)?
when I open the file, it is completly blank!!!
I just updated to the latest DV app. Can’t find legacy at all on the json file. When I restart DV I don’t see expired dragons. Is the latest DV app causing the problem? Please help me with this
Its me again.
I saw that in every gamerules file (.json, .ptb, .tmp) there are strings about “legacy”: “1”, the price in gems and everything about every single dragon.. the problem is that when you start the game, BF overwrite the file. How could we block this download? Maybe is there something to delete? Is it possible?
I keep trying to do the first step on my Mac book pro and I click “save version” on text editor then close the gamerules.json file and go on to the app and find nothing’s happened!poor! What am I doing wrong.. Any ideas?? Thanks
I keep trying to do the first step on my Mac book pro and I click “save version” on text editor then close the gamerules.json file and go on to the app and find nothing’s happened!poor! What am I doing wrong.. Any ideas?? Thanks
They fixed the hack a few weeks ago, sorry :(
Can you find a new way around this?
help!! I just want my game to stay open!! thats it!!
any suggestions?