How can I go about cracking the Android games that I own?

I own Stardew Valley but I am avoiding using the Google Play store when possible. While I could just sign into Aurora Store with my Google account I think I’d need to install Google Play Services so I am wondering if I could crack the game myself. I think in the past people used Lucky Patcher but I have tried it with other games that I own with no luck.

I’ve looked through the megathread and it seems like there are versions of Stardew Valley uploaded to Mobilism but a majority of them are modded for things like infinite stamina and money. The version without mods on Mobilism also appears to be re-uploaded from Apk Vision which isn’t in the megathread.

heisenbug4242, (edited )

If you’re willing to learn, look up apktool and ghidra, as well as the Dalvik bytecode reference. Some apps can be relatively simple to crack using one-liner Dalvik modifications. Others may require analysis and patching of the binary libraries. Some Unity games include debug symbols, which can be inspected using Il2CppInspector which makes the binary code easier to understand and easier to find the proper point for a crack. Start by extracting apks, and try something simple like removing the INTERNET permission from the AndroidManifest, to see if the app still works if you rebuild the apk. That improves privacy. After that, try removing more permissions or making Dalvik patches or even binary patches. A great game to start with is Terraria, as it can be cracked purely by modifying Dalvik bytecode. I’m not in a position to help further but felt I wanted to share this for educational purposes. Learning these internals is fun. You can even learn to degoogle your current Android ROM by applying a signature spoofing patch and include microG instead as a replacement alternative to google apis. Hope this helps. 🙂

0xd34d,

I love me some smali coding 🤪

Cinner,

GeapheneOS (Pixel only) has sandboxed play services by default, with controls over location data, etc. Not sure if that’s what you’re after but I thought I’d mention it.

CorrodedCranium,
@CorrodedCranium@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Thanks but I’m shooting for as little contact with Google as possible

Gooey0210,

Lucky Patcher is probably the best and the easiest thing you can use on android. You can use it without root, but not everything will work

Also, check 4pda.to, pretty informative place about pirated stuff

CorrodedCranium,
@CorrodedCranium@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I’ve tried lucky patcher with a few games with minimal luck. I haven’t tried it with Stardew Valley though so maybe there’s a chance

RogueBanana,

Aurora store doesn’t need play services and the game shouldn’t either. Worth trying anyway. That said I never tried to download a paid game.

Azzu,

I had a few legacy apps on the paid store, and everything works on my /e/os without any Google, I’m not sure what does it, but I have Aurora and microG

RustyOperator,

MicroG is what probably is making it work for you. However not everyone uses microG.

SatyrSack,

Why would you assume that a game would not require Play Services? I have experienced that issue many times, including with Stardew Valley.

thisismyrealname,

you can’t download paid content using Aurora Store. it uses sockpuppet Google accounts to download from the Play Store’s servers (which is why half the time the accounts are rate limited and don’t work anyway)

prenatal_confusion,

You can use a valid account if you want.

RustyOperator,

Some paid games use drm which needs gplay services to function.

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