Modding Notes

< Back to Modding

This page has notes that modders may find useful.

Apps

Decompile

To decompile Brotato for modding, use GDRETools, which can be downloaded here.

Godot

You'll need to download Godot to edit the decompiled project. Jonus has an excellent video here that covers the basics of modding, and will show you how to customise weapons and characters, and change item appearances. You can also read the documentation for Godot here.

Steam Errors

The standard version of Godot will have lots of errors related to the Steam API when you try to run it via Godot, due to it lacking inbuilt support for Steam's SDK. Instead, you can use an alternate version of Godot that has been compiled to include Steam support, called GodotSteam. Make sure you read GodotSteam's docs on exporting, because there are some limitations and caveats (eg. you can't use the "Export with Debug" option, and you need to set up your export templates manually).

Balancing

When balancing new items, the vanilla Items list is a great point of reference for their costs and effect strength. Sorting by tier can also be very helpful, as it shows where there might be gaps in vanilla's base items.

Characters with Negative Stats

If you're creating an effect that converts one negative stat to a different positive one, keep in mind that many Characters start with huge decreases to certain stats.

The vanilla items that use this effect are: Esty's Couch (-Speed), and Retromation's Hoodie (-Dodge).

Negative stat characters

Character	Negative Stats	Value
Brawler	Range	-50
	Ranged Damage	-50
Crazy	Dodge	-30%
Mage	Ranged Damage	-100
	Melee Damage	-100
	Engineering	-50
Chunky	Life Steal	-100
Lucky	Attack Speed	-60%
Mutant	Items Price	-50%
Loud	Harvesting	-95% (-3 per wave)
Pacifist	Damage	-100%
	Engineering	-100
Saver	Items Price	-50%
Sick	HP Regeneration	-100
Ghost	Armor	-100
Speedy	Armor while standing still	-100
Doctor	Attack Speed	-100%
Artificer	Damage	-100%
Masochist	Damage	-100%

Item Costs

Item costs for each tier in vanilla are as follows:

Tier	Min	Max
Tier 1	8	30
Tier 2	35	65
Tier 3	55	95
Tier 4	80	120

DebugService

You can use DebugService to add items and weapons to a run for testing. There's lots of other options too.

Option	Type	Default	Effect	Notes
debug_weapons	array	[]	Weapons to add at the start of each wave.	Unlike debug_items, these weapons are always added. Great for testing tier stacking. Not helpful if you only want 1 instance of the weapon though.
debug_items	array	[]	Items to add once, at the start of the next wave.	Can add multiple of the same item
starting_wave	int	1	Sets initial wave. Supports 1 - 21
starting_gold	int	30	Sets initial materials
invulnerable	bool	false	Disables your hurtbox	Prevents things like Bull's effect from triggering
instant_waves	bool	false	Waves only last 1 second	Great for testing shops
add_all_items	bool	false	Adds every item to your character	Can be combined with debug_items to stack them
add_all_weapons	bool	false	Adds every weapon	Can go over your character's weapon limit
unlock_all_chars	bool	false	Unlocks all characters	Temporary
unlock_all_challenges	bool	false	Unlocks all challenges	Permanent
unlock_all_difficulties	bool	false	Unlocks all danger levels	Temporary
no_weapons	bool	false	Removes all weapons	Triggers at the start of each wave

Note: DebugLoader lets you edit these settings via JSON, which can be useful for testing outside of the Godot editor.

Effects

See Modding Effects for a list of all the effects available in vanilla.

Translations

Mini guide by Aequitas (source on Discord):

1. Create your CSV translation file
2. Drag it into your project's file system
3. Select the Import tab (screenshot here) and click reimport -- the .en.translation files should be created
4. Go to Project > Project Settings > Localization (tab)
5. Click add, and add your custom.en.translation file

Here's how your CSV should look:

See the Godot Docs for more info.

Multi Mod

If you're building a mod, creating it to work with dami's Multi Mod might be worth considering. It lets you add your mod pack to any compatible mod (eg. Invasion/dami's Arsenal). It lets you create custom characters, weapons, and items, and release your mod as a small standalone file (usually <3mb).

The only caveat is that you can't touch vanilla code, and can't currently add new weapon classes or challenges.

Weapon Cooldowns

Calculating the displayed cooldown text is tricky. The formula for Ranged weapons is easy to calculate, but the Melee formula is complex and takes many things into consideration. For this reason, Darkly77 made an cooldown text calculator, here:

Cooldown Calculator

GitHub

There's a GitHub organisation for Brotato repos here. It is maintained by Darkly77, KANA, and dami, who are all active on the Space Potatoes Discord.

It's not recommended to host a full Brotato project on GitHub, because you'd be making all of Brotato's source code public. But you can host just your modded files (eg Darkly77's Invasion), or even just host the downloads for your mod (eg. KANA's mod releases)

Hosting your downloads on GitHub has a few advantages:

• You can create versioned README and CHANGELOG files to track your mod's changes.
• You can create separate releases, which track the release date.
• You can view download stats with this tool.