EXP manipulations (map method)

“EXP manipulations” make a chosen metal monster appear. The community methods come from videos by Gradis, cleartonic and TKG (the “exp manipulation” channel of The Quester's Rest Discord; TKG's “[DQ9] Map Methods” playlist, 2025-2026), with tutorials by Sylwer, halgorithm, DaisukeDaisuke and Eru1203 (see Sources and credits); the others are computed here. They all rely on table A (see The game's randomness). The game's code was read, then run frame by frame in a tunable simulator that imitates several machines; each method was replayed in DeSmuME and in melonDS from the same starting point, with frame-exact inputs.

Which method to use

Everything depends on the last map on the page of the treasure map menu (see “The principle”) and on the Zoom spell. Times are counted from opening the map menu on the spot; the hero alone and a party of 4 have the same methods, unless stated otherwise.

1. You have a “good map” (one of the 19 seeds below, or a seed for which the tool at the bottom of the page gives a metal on roll 2 for your place): face the wall on arrival, map menu, 1 s, turn: the 1st monster is the metal, 3 to 4 s after opening the menu, on every machine, without Zoom.
2. After the Observatory (the hero knows Zoom): quest 15 map, menu, Zoom ×2, turn: metal on roll 60, in 13 to 15 s (TKG's methods).
3. Otherwise: the quest 15 map, “Granite Tunnel of Woe Lv. 1” (seed 0032), and the “without Zoom” tables.

With a good map (party or alone; checked with seed 04AF: 24 real attempts out of 24, DeSmuME and melonDS)

The 19 seeds that work everywhere (metal in the 4 dungeon places, liquid metal slime at the Slime Hill, every machine): 04AF 2036 2122 220E 3281 336D 3459 3545 3631 371D 4EF4 4FE0 6053 613F 622B 6403 64EF 65DB 729E 1,798 seeds work in the dungeons only. A map's seed is the 2nd part of its ID (“Decode my treasure map”, Grottoes page).

With Zoom (after the Observatory; quest 15 map; checked for real, DeSmuME and melonDS, party and alone)

Without Zoom, quest 15 map: party of 4

Without Zoom, quest 15 map: hero alone

• Speedrun: with the quest 15 map and without Zoom, these are also the fastest on average. At the Bowhole, the community's waiting method only beats round trips for a player accurate to ±2 frames (45 s on average against 48 s); at ±5 frames it needs 59 s, at ±10 frames 86 s. With no manipulation at all (wait for a few monsters, otherwise a round trip), it takes 77 s on average at the Bowhole, 100 s at the Bad Cave, 79 s at Quarantomb and 32 s at the Slime Hill: this is never faster than the safe methods (before the frozen table, it was on melonDS at Quarantomb, where the only safe method took 3 minutes).
• DS, DSi, 3DS: the game runs at the same speed on all of them. Gradis's videos, filmed on a 3DS, show the community methods working at the Bad Cave and the Bowhole: the console slows down like DeSmuME, not like melonDS. The 1st monster after arriving may fall one roll later depending on the machine: the “everywhere” methods allow for it, and the “Measuring your console” test below tells it in a minute.

The principle

The treasure map menu resets table A to a value that only depends on the last map on the page; after that, each monster that appears takes the next roll. A method counts the rolls up to the monster you want, without letting time or steps add any.

Under the hood

• The treasure map menu sets table A (X, X, Up, X: Items → Treasure maps). It reseeds it with the seed of the last map on the page (the only one, if you have a single map), then generates that map's grotto. This takes 33 rolls for every map: with the quest 15 map (seed 0032), table A is always 0xA74FFD63 when the menu opens, with a party or alone. The menu does not stop the world: rolls and spawns go on while it is open.
• Which map is last on the page: the menu sorts undiscovered maps, then discovered ones, then cleared ones, each group by increasing level (the map you follow becomes “discovered” when you enter its grotto). A cleared map with a higher level than your other cleared maps therefore always stays last. Select (sort) regenerates the last map's grotto: with several maps, it may change the seed.
• Every monster that appears rolls its species in table A: k = ⌊sum of weights × (roll − 1) ÷ 32,767⌋, first monster whose running total of weights exceeds k. The species only depends on the roll number counted from the menu (tool at the bottom of the page).
• Freezing table A (TKG's methods, checked here): facing a direction with no spawn zone in front of him, the hero makes no roll at all, for as long as he likes: left (or up-left, up-right, right) when arriving in the big room of Quarantomb, up on B1 of the Bad Cave. The safe move: hold the direction during the fade (a short press before the hero can move is lost). On B3 of the Bowhole and outside at the Slime Hill, no direction freezes the table near the arrival point.
• Menu screens reload the area: closing a character's “Attributes” page advances the table by a fixed number, the floor's arrival block (27 in Quarantomb, 1 on B1 of the Bad Cave, 15 on B2 of the Bowhole), and resets the spawn timer to 0: wait until it passes its threshold again (3 s in Quarantomb and at Angel Falls, 4 s in the Bad Cave, 5 s in the Bowhole) before turning. This block comes from the map's animated objects (2 rolls each: 13 in Quarantomb). “Battle Records” does the same, but the fairy talks there (and announces new accolades): extra dialogue. TKG adds Zoom, which hits the ceiling in a dungeon (+29), but the hero only learns it when he wakes up after the first trip to the Observatory.
• What advances table A (read in the code): when you arrive on a floor, a fixed block (1 on B3 of the Bowhole, 27 in the Quarantomb corridor, 1 on B1 of the Bad Cave, 0 outside at the Slime Hill); then one roll per game frame (30 per second), plus one when a spawn zone near the walking hero is free; the monster appears when the spawn timer, which counts real time in microseconds (50 ms at most per frame), passes its threshold, and it rolls its species. A room without monsters rolls nothing.
• The formula: roll of the 1st monster after arriving = base + step × round trips; at the Bowhole, in the corner, the next monster comes 3 rolls later. Measured bases (DeSmuME / melonDS): Bowhole 124 / 125 (step 1; hero alone: 124 / 124), Bad Cave 94 / 94 (step 10), Quarantomb 89 / 90 (step 27), Slime Hill 62 or 63 (step 0, standing still outside). melonDS finishes loading a floor a little later: the hero can move 24 frames later and, at the Bowhole and Quarantomb, the monster falls one roll later. Each console has its own base; an “everywhere” method must allow for this gap, for example by looking at the 1st monster.
• When the game slows down, the count changes. With some monsters on screen (one mean spirit in Quarantomb is enough), the game drops from 30 to 20 field frames per second: fewer rolls before the next monster. DeSmuME slows down like the console; melonDS does not. Methods aiming at the 2nd or 3rd spawn depend on it (the community ones at the Bad Cave and Quarantomb); those aiming at the 1st spawn after arriving do not.
• In the fields (Slime Hill), every frame of walking adds rolls: a held path gives the same roll on two machines only to within a quarter of a step. Standing still, the 1st monster falls on roll 62 or 63 depending on the machine: two metal slimes in a row, hence a method with no timing at all.
• Walking is betting: near spawn zones, every frame of walking adds rolls (at the Bowhole, the 1st monster moves forward one roll every 2 frames of walking). All the walking routes tried (directions, direction changes, durations) are therefore chance methods with 2-frame windows, and the same path does not give the same result on DeSmuME and on melonDS. Safe methods come from moments when nothing rolls: round trips, menus, the Attributes screen, standing still.
• What rolls in table A from the menu (every screen and item tried): Zoom in a dungeon or a house (+29: the hero hits his head on the ceiling); Whistle (Courage skill, +2: the monster appears next to you and charges); Nose for Treasure (Acquisitiveness skill: +1 per blue chest or pot whose contents are rolled in the area, +7 on B2 of the Bowhole; a 2nd one in a row may give 0); closing the “Attributes” page, Equip or the Battle Records (+ the floor's block); the map menu (it resets the table to the seed); the quicksave (back to the title screen: tables reseeded from the clock). Nothing else rolls: herbs and medicines (table B only), seeds, holy water, Tactics, skills, party tricks, volume, profile, item lists.
• No item helps here: at full HP, medicinal herbs and First Aid are refused (“nothing happens”) and roll nothing in table A; the chimaera wing does nothing in a dungeon or in the Pool of Spirits cave (it only hits the ceiling in a town house: 29 rolls, wing kept). The Zoom spell, however, hits the ceiling in a dungeon (+29), once learnt (after the Observatory). The “Air Punch” party trick (B + Up) rolls nothing.
• The only possible surprise: every 60 s spent on the field, the game goes through the sparkly spots and rolls twice for each empty spot that refills. No NPC moves in these places. Don't pick anything up just before (or let the spots refill); if a result is off, redo the method.
• Slime Hill, roll 62 or 63: it is the parity of the number of slowed frames while the outside area loads (even: 62, odd: 63). DeSmuME with a party and melonDS give 63, DeSmuME with the hero alone 62. No walking route brings both together (6,000 simulations): a map whose rolls 62 and 63 are two metals settles it.
• Pre-emptive strike (ov17 0x021970A0): one roll ⌊100 × (roll − 1) ÷ 32,767⌋ on contact, using the roll that follows table A's state at that moment. From the side: pre-emptive if the roll is below 2 + 5% of the party's highest deftness (otherwise a 2nd roll: the monster strikes first below 2). From behind: pre-emptive below 12 + 5% of the deftness. If the monster touches you from behind, it strikes first below 12. Bobbing rolls nothing: it is only a time cue.
• Touching the metal before any other roll: the roll is then the one that follows its own. With the base map, the metal on roll 134 (Bowhole, Quarantomb, Bad Cave) is followed by a roll of 2: a sure pre-emptive from behind, and from the side as soon as the highest deftness reaches 20. You must touch it less than a second after it appears, or stay where no zone is free. On roll 137: 75; on 217: 83; the Masayuki map's liquid metal slime (186): 20.

The methods, place by place

The Bowhole, B3: liquid metal slime

Round trips

On B3, go down to B4 (no monsters) and do X, X, Up, X there, then B. Go back up to B3 and right back down, as many times as planned (on B3, no more than a second and a half; on B4, take your time). On the last arrival on B3, hold Right within 2 seconds until the hero stops in the corner, then do not move. 1st monster on roll base + number of round trips, the next one 3 rolls later; liquid metal slime on rolls 134 and 137.

Everywhere

9 round trips: if the 1st monster is the liquid metal slime (base 125, melonDS), you are done; otherwise (living statue on DeSmuME), one more round trip and look again, at most three times.

DeSmuME

7 round trips: sculpture vulture then liquid metal slime (48 s); or 10 round trips, liquid metal slime first (55 s).

melonDS

6 round trips: sculpture vulture then liquid metal slime (46 s); or 9, liquid metal slime first (54 s).

Hero alone

Same method: base 124 on DeSmuME and on melonDS, so 10 round trips (liquid metal slime first, roll 134; 9 give a living statue on 133).

Waiting method (community)

Same menu on B4, Up to go back up, then wait at the foot of the stairs before going to the corner. Liquid metal slime 1st or 2nd for a wait of 147-148, 153-154, 159-160, 175-176 or 181-182 frames after the floor change on DeSmuME (22 frames more on melonDS, where the hero starts later; counted from the moment he can move, the gap is only 2 frames). 2-frame windows every 6: 40% success per attempt at ±2 frames, 31% at ±5, 22% at ±10.

Checked

DeSmuME: 7 and 10 round trips (liquid metal slime on roll 134). melonDS: 7 and 10 missed (roll 135), 6 and 9 successful. The corner is about 3 s of walking from the slime: the pre-emptive strike is not guaranteed.

B2, coming from B3

A frozen area exists about ten units from the arrival point (facing right): menu, 2 “Attributes” pages, 3 Nose for Treasure and the Whistle give the liquid metal slime (roll 53) without Zoom, in 25 to 30 s; with 2 Zooms and the Whistle, in 14 to 16 s (checked for real, 6 out of 6). Visible landmarks: at the top of the stairs, go below the two stone statues (Down-Right for a moment: straight ahead, the hero bumps into them), then hold Right along the back wall and stop, facing right, when the hero (in front) is under the right half of the brown sand patch at the foot of the wall, before the corner where the wall turns (about 2.5 units of leeway, same result on DeSmuME and melonDS). B3 stays simpler.

The Bad Cave, B1: metal medley

Everywhere: 4 round trips

From B1, go up to L1. Wait for the screen to come back (and “Ⓧ Menu” to show), then X; wait for each menu to appear before the next button (X, Up) and open the maps between 5.5 and 7.5 s after arriving on L1, then B, and Up to go back down. Do 4 round trips B1 → L1 → B1, letting go of the D-pad as soon as it fades. On B1, hold Left for 2 to 3 s (without going to the ledge) and do not move: the first monster is the metal medley (roll 134 = 94 + 10 × 4, same base on DeSmuME and melonDS).

DeSmuME and DS: community

From B1, go up to L1. X, X, Up; wait for the cursor to spin 12 times (solo) or 7 times (with a party), then X. Mash B while holding Up to go back down to B1. Hold Left up to the ledge: the metal medley is the 2nd spawn (roll 217, about 22 s). It depends on how much the game slows down with the 1st monster on screen: successful on DeSmuME and on Gradis's 3DS, missed on melonDS (hunter mech, roll 279). On melonDS the menu also takes longer to open: a 2nd X pressed too fast is lost.

Hero alone

Same method: 4 round trips, metal medley on roll 134, on DeSmuME and melonDS. The community method has not been checked with the hero alone yet.

Checked

4 round trips, with a party and alone: DeSmuME and melonDS; party: six simulator settings. Community, party: all successful in DeSmuME (30 attempts), missed in melonDS.

Quarantomb, L1: metal slime

Everywhere: frozen table (the fastest)

From the entrance room, go through the top door holding Left during the fade, until you bump into the wall: facing left, the hero rolls nothing more. Open then close the map menu: table at 0. Go back down to the entrance room (a monster appears in the corridor when the hero turns down: this is expected) and come straight back up, again holding Left during the fade: +31. Open the hero's “Attributes” page (X, Down, Down, A, A) and close it (B): +27, table at 58. Wait 4 s without moving, then Up: the metal slime appears at once (roll 60), about 21 s after the map menu. No roll depends on time: same result on every machine. Without a round trip, 10 pages also give a metal slime (roll 272, about 1 min).

Round trips (old method)

In the entrance room (no monsters), open then close the map menu. Go through the top door and come straight back into the room: each round trip adds 27 rolls. The 1st monster in the corridor falls on roll base + 27 × round trips: metal slime on 980 (33 round trips, DeSmuME's base 89) or 1,008 (34, melonDS's base 90). Look at the 1st monster after 33 round trips; if it is not the metal slime, one more. About 3 minutes.

DeSmuME and DS: community

Open then close the map menu in the entrance room. Go through the top door and walk up the corridor holding Up for at least 3.5 s, then wait without moving (cleartonic keeps the Zoom menu open): mean spirit, mean spirit, then metal slime (roll 134, about 16 s). The 3rd monster depends on how much the game slows down while the mean spirit is on screen: missed on melonDS (mummy boy, earthenwarrior, mummy boy: rolls 90, 152, 155).

Hero alone

Same method (1 round trip + 1 page): metal slime on roll 60 on DeSmuME and melonDS, and the same monster sequence afterwards.

Checked

Round trips: metal slime on roll 980 in DeSmuME (33 round trips, 2 min 58 s) and on 1,008 in melonDS (34, 3 min 14 s). Community: 9 out of 9 in DeSmuME (Up held 210 to 300 frames; 120 to 180: missed), 0 out of 5 in melonDS. Frozen table: metal slime on roll 60 with a party and alone, in DeSmuME and in melonDS, and 272 with 10 pages and no round trip.

Angel Falls Region, Slime Hill: metal slime

Everywhere: standing still

In the Pool of Spirits cave (no monsters, the one of quests 55 and 142), open then close the map menu. Go outside and do not move: the 1st monster is a metal slime (roll 62 or 63 depending on the machine, two metals in a row), about 4 s after going out (9 s in all). No timing. Opening the “Attributes” screen 1 to 4 s after going out also gives the metal first.

Checked

Standing still: DeSmuME 4 out of 4 (party and alone), melonDS 2 out of 2 (party and alone); with the Attributes screen opened 1.3 to 4.3 s after the menu: DeSmuME 9 out of 10, melonDS 6 out of 6.

Masayuki map (community)

Ruby Path of Doom Lv. 87 (B5-0E5C), at the bottom of a page. In the Pool of Spirits cave (the one of quests 55 and 142): open then close the map menu. Go outside, hold Up for 1.6 to 2 s, then do not move: the liquid metal slime is the 2nd spawn (roll 186). Successful on DeSmuME and on Gradis's 3DS; it is a held path in the fields, so it differs on melonDS. Going in and out of the cave changes nothing (0 rolls).

The community's methods, checked in our code

Each method was recomputed with the game's generator: when a video shows the table A counter (DeSmuME with TKG's Lua script), its values are exactly those of our table, and the monster spawns on a “metal” roll. The video's counter then shows the moment of contact, a few rolls later. Map: quest 15's (0032, “Usugura”) unless stated.

Metal king slimes in the Tower of Nod: they never appear on the field, only as reinforcements, in about 1% of battles. Their arrival is rolled in table B: the map method cannot aim at them.

In a grotto: metal king slime and platinum king jewel

TKG's method (“How to Create Map Method MKS/PKJ” tutorial), read in the game's code and successful for real (DeSmuME and melonDS, party and alone): metal king slime 4 out of 4, platinum king jewel 8 out of 8.

• Two maps. The secondary one is the grotto you enter: the chosen floor must have the target in its monster table. Metal king slime: “cave” floor of rank 10, “water” floor of rank 8 or “fire” floor of rank 9; platinum king jewel: “ruins” floor of rank 12 (a floor's rank = the 1st floor's rank + 1 every 4 floors; see Grottoes). The primary one is the map whose seed makes the target appear: it must be the last map on the menu page. The safest is a primary you have already cleared (the secondary becomes “discovered” when you enter; see the menu order above).
• Why on the spot: when you enter a floor, the game reseeds table A from the clock. Only the map menu, opened on the floor, brings it back to a known value.
• The move: on the chosen floor, stand on a square next to the stairs going up and face the stairs. Table A is frozen: the game picks the stairs as a spot for a monster, then gives up without rolling anything. Open then close the map menu, wait 5 s, turn towards another square: the monster that appears is the target (35th roll after the seed, i.e. the tool's roll 2; 34th, roll 1, if a square is straight ahead).
• Which primary: pick “Grotto: …” in the tool below and enter your map's seed: the target must fall on roll 2. Out of the 32,466 possible seeds, 4,625 make a metal king slime appear (on one of the three tables) and 1,817 the platinum king jewel. Checked example: “water” floor of rank 8, cleared primary 008B, turning left or down: metal king slime.
• Platinum king jewel, checked example: a “ruins” floor of rank 12 is floor 13 to 16 of a ruins grotto whose 1st floor is rank 9, for example B5-00BB (“Ruby World of Doom Lv. 83”, floor 13). Stand on the square just right of the stairs going up, face the stairs (Left), map menu (cleared primary 5701), wait 5 s, then the Whistle: the platinum king jewel appears, charges at the party and “is too stunned to move” (pre-emptive strike). Turning up or right instead of the Whistle also makes it appear, but it does not come into contact; turning down, nothing appears.
• Pre-emptive strike: on contact, the game uses the next roll; depending on the seed, the pre-emptive strike is certain from behind or needs deftness (for example 0016 on the “water” floor of rank 8: certain from behind, 200 deftness from the front). The Whistle makes the monster charge at you: with 008B and under 160 deftness, the metal king slime strikes the party first. With the Whistle, the pre-emptive roll is the tool's roll 3; if it fails, a 2nd roll (roll 4) can give the monster the first strike. Platinum king jewel: 41 seeds make it appear and give the pre-emptive strike with no deftness at all: 5701 57ED 58B2 58D9 5900 599E 59C5 59EC 5AB1 5AD8 5B9D 5BC4 5C89 5CB0 5CD7 5D75 5D9C 5DC3 5E88 5EAF 5F74 5F9B 6060 6087 614C 6173 619A 625F 6286 634B 6372 6437 645E 6523 654A 6571 660F 6636 665D 6722 680E; with 010A, you need 620 deftness.

Measuring your console

One minute per place, without fighting: note the monster symbols that appear, in order, with the quest 15 map alone or at the bottom of a page (with a party or alone: same bases).

• Bowhole: on B4, open then close the map menu; 6 round trips B3 → B4 → B3 without lingering; on the 7th return, Right to the corner, then stand still. Tongue fu then living statue: base 123; living statue then living statue: 124 (like DeSmuME); sculpture vulture then liquid metal slime: 125 (like melonDS); living statue then sculpture vulture: 126 or more.
• Quarantomb: menu in the entrance room, then Up in the corridor for 4 s. 1st monster mean spirit: base 89; mummy boy: 90. If the 3rd one is the metal slime, the console slows down like DeSmuME and the community method works on it.
• Slime Hill: menu in the cave, go out, do not move. Metal slime first: like both emulators (62 or 63).

With several consoles

In multiplayer, each player makes their own spawn attempts, one per frame (see Randomness): to keep the table frozen, everyone must stand on a stop spot. A guest standing still in the right place advances nothing.

• Whistle Duty (TKG, two 3DS): one whistles while the other gets into place.
• Platinum King Medley (TKG, 4 consoles): map menu then Whistle on a grotto's 13th floor: several platinum king jewels in the same battle.
• Rare items: TKG's guides say how many guests are needed (see Rare items); records with 4 players: 5 items and 8 items in one battle, the maximum.

Read in the code: up to 4 players counted each frame, and the 3.5-unit circle around each member. The methods themselves need several consoles: not tried here.

On an emulator

• DeSmuME (desmume.org): version 0.9.9 or later, “Advanced Bus-Level Timing” on and no dynamic recompiler for manipulations, as Sylwer and the Discord advise (the recompiler changes the results). Our successful DeSmuME tests were done with both settings.
• melonDS (melonds.kuribo64.net): frozen-table methods work there as in DeSmuME; those that depend on the game's slowdown may differ (see each place). Setup: Playing on PC.
• The table A counter (TKG's Lua script, DQIX/desmume-scripts repository): seed, roll number since the map menu and next metal; it works on DeSmuME 0.9.13. Lua setup: pokemonrng.com.
• Save editor: yabd.org's (version 0.7, Sylwer's tutorial, in French) and the DQIX group's. Handy to write a treasure map (seed and rank) and try a method.

Which monster on which roll?

Pick a place (or a grotto floor table) and the seed of the last map on the menu page. The seed is the 2nd part of a map's ID, for example 0032 in 02-0032; see Grottoes. The tool gives the monster rolled on each roll counted from the menu; metal monsters (and the platinum king jewel) are in bold. Good map = a metal on roll 2 (and on rolls 62 and 63 at the Slime Hill).