# Hex Editors & Binary Analysis for Game Hacking

The old reliable. It is the first thing you open when you want to look at the raw bytes of a file or search through a huge dump for a specific string. It doesn't have fancy features, it just works.

The modern, free rival to 010 Editor. It looks great and uses a custom 'Pattern Language' to visualize data. It is the best choice for hobbyists who want to reverse-engineer a game's config files without a paid license.

Pro Tip: Use the 'Pattern' view to find patterns in player data or item lists—it makes identifying hidden offsets a lot more visual.

The first tool you use to 'sniff' a binary. You drop a file in, and it tells you if it was packed with VMProtect, written in Go, or if it is just a plain old C++ executable.

Pro Tip: Always check the 'Entropy' tab. If it's high, the file is encrypted or packed, which means a simple static analysis isn't going to work.

Faster than opening CFF Explorer just to check section alignment or timestamps.

An old-school classic for editing PE files. It is what you use when you need to manually change a file header, toggle ASLR, or mess with a binary's imports. It is dated, but it still works perfectly for the job.

Pro Tip: Great for making old 32-bit games 'Large Address Aware' so they don't crash from hitting that 2GB RAM limit.

The professional standard for binary files. Its 'Binary Templates' are legendary—they can automatically map out almost any game's custom save file or archive format so it looks like a clean spreadsheet.

Pro Tip: While ImHex is great for free, 010's community library has templates for thousands of obscure game formats that will save you hours of manual work.

A classic for a reason. Use it to swap icons, edit manifests, or change text inside an .exe. Most people use it to make their cheat loaders look like something boring, like a calculator or a generic system tool.

Pro Tip: Great for making your tools look like legit Windows apps to avoid getting flagged by a quick visual check.