How to make mod menu for il2cpp and native games

This tutorial is outdated. Please go to this link for the updated tutorial by LGL https://github.com/LGLTeam/Android-Mod-Menu

Hello, dear modders

Our little team have make a better material mod menu that is quite less complicated to work with and implement it in the APK file. The mod menu is basically for Il2Cpp and other native Android games. It will support both KittyMemory and MSHook and support Android 4.2.x way up to Android R preview, and it have the sound effects. MSHook does not support ARM64 but KittyMemory support ARM64

This is how it looks like:

Compare to the other menus, this is the most efficient and fastest way to work and to implement menu in the game

This tutorial is not for newbies/noobs. You need basic knowledge of C++, Java, dalvik opcodes, and also ARM and ARM64 assembly, hex patching and hooking. If you don't have the knowledge, this tutorial will be hard for you

Let's start:

----- For this tutorial you will need the following: -----

- Android Studio 3 and up: https://developer.android.com/studio

- Apktool:

--- Apktool.jar: https://ibotpeaches.github.io/Apktool/

--- Or

--- APK Easy Tool: https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/software-hacking/tool-apk-easy-tool-v1-02-windows-gui-t3333960

- Notepad:

--- Notepad++ https://notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads/

--- Or

--- Sublime Text: https://www.sublimetext.com/

- Compress png - to compress your png file: https://compresspng.com/

- Base64 encode - to encode your file: https://www.base64encode.org/

- XMedia Recode - to convert your sound files to .ogg https://www.xmedia-recode.de/en/download.php

- Template: https://github.com/LGLTeam/Android-Mod-Menu

----- Download/clone template project: -----

Click on the green button Clone or download then Download ZIP

If you are familar with Git, GUI or terminal, you know how to clone right? xD

----- Install Android Studio: -----

If you have Android Studio installed, you can skip this steps

Setting up Android Studio takes just a few clicks.

See the user guide: https://developer.android.com/studio/install

----- Install NDK: -----

Open Android Studio, you will be welcomed

At the bottom-right corner, click on Configure and SDK Manager

Select Android SDK, check NDK (Side by side) and click OK. It will download and install

----- Open an existing project, the mod menu template -----

Once you've downloaded all the necessary files, extract the template project to the folder without any spaces. If any folder has spaces, it will cause problem

On Android Studio on the welcome screen, choose "Open an existing Android Studio project"

Navigate to the extracted project and open it

It will index and Gradle will sync the project fir the first time. Please wait for a while, it will take around 5 minutes depending your computer performance

After it's done, you can start working!

On the left side, you see the Project view. Default view is Android

If this is somewhat confusing, change the view to Project

I will explain each of the files for you

FloatingModMenuService.java:

The codes of floating mod menu. You don't need to change much unless you want to redesign it. The codes are explained in the comments (//...)

- soundEnabled:

Change to false if you don't want it to play sounds

MainActivity.java:

Starts the main activity. It won't be used if you implement the menu in the game

Sounds.java:

Basically the 'GTA V' sounds, have been converted to .ogg using XMedia Recode and encoded to base64. They are automatically decoded and stored into /data/data/(package name)/cache upon startup. See StaticActivity

StaticActivity.java:

To initialize by game activity's OnCreate

Checks if device running Android 6.0 or above and if have overlay permission checked. Sounds being written to the cache directory.

Start() will be called when implementing the menu to the game. We will explain later

- writeToFile:

Decode base64 and write to file to a target directory

main.cpp

In this file, you will mostly use it to edit features, credits, icon, and implement your code for KittyMemory or MS Hooking.

- Title:

Big text

- Heading:

Little text

- Icon:

Compressed image that is encoded to base64

- IconSize:

Mod menu icon size

- Toast:

To get text from c++ in order to show toast in java

- changeSeekBar:

Change the value with slider in real time using sliderValue. This is useful for hooking. Features MUST be count from 0

- changeToggle:

To enable/disable the mods. Features MUST be count from 0

- FeatureList:

Here you add the mod features

Usage:

Toggle_[feature name]

SeekBar_[feature name]_[min value]_[max value]

Example:

Toggle_Mod 1

Toggle_Mod 2

SeekBar_Damage_0_1000

Do not forget to count your features from 0 and remember them

- hack_thread:

Here you add your code for hacking with KittyMemory or Hooking. I will not teach, you must have learned it already

- JNI_OnLoad:

Initialize when the library loads

Android.mk

The make file for the c++ compiler. In that file, you can change the lib name on the LOCAL_MODULE line

When you change the lib name, change also on System.loadLibrary("") under OnCreate method on FloatingModMenuService.java

Both must have same name

Other than that, find out yourself. It's a lot easier if you already have the knowledge

Most codes have the comments that will explain for you

Enjoy working with the menu =D

----- Testing the mod menu -----

If you have your device with adb* enabled, connected your PC or your emulator with adb enabled. Android Studio will detect and you can click Play to run your app onto your device/emulator

* To use adb, you must enable USB debugging in the device system settings, under Developer options.

On Android 4.2 and higher, the Developer options screen is hidden by default. To make it visible, go to Settings > About phone and tap Build number seven times. Return to the previous screen to find Developer options at the bottom.

On some devices, the Developer options screen might be located or named differently.

----- Implementing the menu in the target game-----

After you finished the menu, you can build the project to APK file.

Build -> Build Bundle(s) / APK(s) -> Build APK(s)

If no errors occured, you did everything right and build will succed. You will be notified that it build successfully

Click on locate to show you the location of build.apk. It is stored at (your-project)\app\build\outputs\apk\ app-debug.apk

Now you will need to decompile app-debug.apk. Decompile the target game as well

Open the game's androidmanifest.xml

Add the permission besides other permissions

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW"/>

And add the service below the application tag (change the package name if you had changed it)

<service

android:name="uk.lgl.modmenu.FloatingModMenuService"

android:enabled="true"

android:exported="false"/>

Save the AndroidManifest.xml file

Now we are looking for main activity, it is ususally written under application tag. The activity name may be different. If you spotted android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" you will immediately know this is main activity

Be sure to enable Word wrap so it is easier to read

Or open the apk in APK Easy Tool and look for main activity

In this case, the path to main activity was com.funcube.loa.MainActivity. I would navigate to (decompiled game)/smali/com/funcube/loa/ and you will see MainActivity.smali. If the game have multi dex, find out which smali folder has the main activity, it should be in one of these folders.

Open the main acitivity's smali file, search for OnCreate method and paste this code inside (change the package name if you had changed it)

invoke-static {p0}, Luk/lgl/modmenu/StaticActivity;->Start(Landroid/content/Context;)V

Save the file

Copy your mod menu from decompiled app-debug.apk smali to the game's smali folder. Example mine is uk.lgl.modmenu, I copy the "uk" folder from app-debug (app-debug\smali\uk) to the game's decompiled directory (game name)\smali