Dream Heights Cheats Zynga
Written by: Gareth Wright Feb 19, 2012
Dream Heights has come under much criticism for cloning Tiny Towers.
I have to admit that graphically Dream Heights is much more polished but it’s easy to see why with Zynga’s rapidly increasing popularity and wealth as the result of it’s close ties with Facebook.
That said I really hate that one is heavily pushed to purchase virtual cash and coins to play a game, especially one which doesn’t exactly require any skill.
So if you like passing your time with Dream Heights but are fed up with paying for the privilege these Dream Heights cheats and hacks will help you along your way.
Please don’t copy paste these elsewhere, link back to this post instead.
This is easiest done if you have a jailbroken phone and ifile installed, but it can be done on a non jailbroken phone using iphone explorer or similar.
Jailbroken Phone:
Install ifile if you don’t have it or ssh into your phone.
Goto /var/mobile/applications/51D3362E-9D07-4827-B37F-350C69DB71A2/TowerVille.app
Free Construction
Open constructionConfig.json and select text viewer
Tap edit on the top left and look for “levelupCost”: {
There are a series of numbers underneath.
Edit yours so that they look like mine below.
The number on the left refers to the floor number and the number on the right the cost to upgrade.
No Wait on Construction and Instant rRstock (Added 5/3/2012)
No more waiting for those floors to be built.
Fully close Dream Heights and quit it from the multitasking bar.
Goto Settings -> General -> Date / Time and change the date to yesterday.
Go back into Dream Heights and build as many floors as you like.
Fully Close Dream Heights again and set the date back to today.
Don’t do the dates the other way around or you might lose alerts / alarms etc
As far as Dream Heights is concerned 24 hours have passed and you’ll have a whole bunch of new floors.
Speed up your lift
As your buildings get higher you’ll need a faster lift but it costs cash not coins to upgrade. The only way to get cash to to buy it with real money so lets make some modifications to the basic one.
Open elevatorConfig.json with the text viewer and tap edit as before.
You need to change your file so that elevator0 speed is 0.25 (the same as the top speed one in game 
Want access to the pesky locked products?
Easy as pie! As Cathy and Carlie have discovered in the comments just edit unlockhearts.json
and change the values to for each level to 0!
Need extra coins?
You know those little shopping trips you make via the skybridge?
Well when you collect 3 items in a row you can trade those in for cash.
Just how much you get for each item is in collections.json
All done enjoy!
==============UPDATE – Added non Jailbroken Instructions ===========================
As a commenter pointed out, I forgot to add instructions for editing these files on non jailbroken phones.
So here goes.
1. Download the excellent iPhone Explorer (now iExplorer due to to legal issues using the iPhone name) – http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/
2. Install and plugin your iPhone / iTouch with the cable
3. Open the apps folder then the DreamHeights Folder.
4. Expand the TowerVille.app folder and locate constructionConfig.json
5. Drag and drop that file to your desktop and edit in TextEditor or TextWrangler as in the jailbreak version above.
6. Drag and drop your edited file back into the TowerVille.app folder
says:
at 1:56 pm
This information is great but all the screenshots are from the phone. If you don’t have jailbroken phone how do u do it. I downloaded the software to my mac and followed your directions but it doesn’t translate it to the phone.
says:
at 6:01 pm
Sorry Edgar, I completely missed adding the info about using iphone explorer.
I’ll take some screenshots and add that information.
says:
at 4:30 am
I cannot get my files to drag and drop back into the application. Any suggestions?
says:
at 4:20 pm
Any error message Lauren?
Double tap your home button and make sure Dream Heights is fully closed.
says:
at 5:56 am
When I opened the application after I changed the text it crashed the minute i hit the next level construction
says:
at 6:35 am
Actually I figured it out. I was just missing a piece of html. Thanks so much.
says:
at 11:32 pm
No problem, you’re welcome
says:
at 8:05 am
My Dreamheights apps doesnt want to open after i made changes in constructionconfig.jps ..Can someone help me to solve this ?
thanks
says:
at 2:36 am
same thing with me please help!!!very frustrated
says:
at 6:29 am
So, conceivably this would work with the heart unlocks as well right? I found that when I was nosing around and started to change all of them to 0 but I chickened out as this is the first time I’ve ever messed with programming.
says:
at 6:26 am
Carlie:
I actually edited the unlockhearts.json file and change the values to 0 and it worked just fine. Just go through the same process of editing the file like describe by Mr. Wright in his post. Thanks for posting this cheat it works great!
says:
at 9:16 pm
@Carlie Yup certainly does
says:
at 7:19 am
There was a update of the game today, I was wondering if the update will have any affect on this cheats??
says:
at 9:16 pm
@John If you update the game you will have to edit the files again.
If you use the non JB method you can just copy over your edited files again
says:
at 2:52 pm
Hi
Is there a cheat for using the app on 4th gen I pod?
thanks
Nicky
says:
at 9:16 pm
@Mikey Same process as iPhone
says:
at 12:20 pm
Thanks this is great!! is there a way around waiting for the construstion of each level?
says:
at 9:17 pm
@Megan I’m looking into that now…
says:
at 9:40 pm
Hi Megan.
It’s actually quite easy.
Fully close Dream Heights and quit it from the multitasking bar.
Goto Settings -> General -> Date / Time and change the date to yesterday.
Go back into Dream Heights and build as many floors as you like.
Fully Close Dream Heights again and set the date back to today.
As far as Dream Heights is concerned 24 hours have passed and you’ll have a whole bunch of new floors.
says:
at 10:31 pm
I’m already in floor 76 and I’ve already built all the different categories available except for the apts. I guess its time to wait for the next update from Zynga. Thanks for your help I love this game.
says:
at 9:37 pm
You’re welcome
says:
at 2:40 am
Hi,
I built up to 87 floors and couldnt built anymore as it says i have built everything there is to built in all the categories e.g. craft, fun, apartment etc…
How to build above 87 floors?
says:
at 1:59 pm
Yup 87 floors is the limit unless you go into the floors config and add your own
says:
at 2:28 pm
Do you know how to get into the underground room?
says:
at 2:22 am
Hi,
How to add my own floors in floorconfig.jsn?
And yes, how do we get to the basement?
says:
at 7:01 pm
Hi,
i have tried to complete the cheat as described (using a non jail broke iPhone), but my iPhone appears to have reached its limit of 5 app directories. Do you know how I could solve this?
It says to just disconnect and reconnect my phone, but this didn’t work either.
Thanks in advance.
says:
at 3:42 am
Thank you for the cheat! I have been able to follow every step until I get to the “drag/drop edited file back into app”. The program iExplorer on my Mac will not allow me to drop the file back in. The files move, and just hang there never dropping in. Is there another method I can use? Thank you for your help!
says:
at 9:46 pm
Not unless you jailbreak
You probably have the overwrite file prompt trapped behind another window somewhere.
You have to click ok on that to allow the file to be overwritten on your phone
says:
at 11:53 pm
I tried this on my ipod touch 4th gen now the app will not even open what did I do wrong? It is jailbroken.
says:
at 2:38 am
same with me please help
says:
at 1:30 am
I tried doing the changes after I updated the game this moring, and it won’t open the game at all! I have done the changes in the past and it worked perfectly. Have they updated with an anti tamper? Can it be changed?
says:
at 4:03 am
This same thing happened to me =[
says:
at 7:12 am
this happened to me too
says:
at 10:31 am
Yes, I think after they updated with the St Patrick version. It blocked all editing on the json files.
I tried editing one of the files and replace it. The game hangs on opening. Then I quit and change it to its original settings. The game came back on.
Zynga found a way to detect new changes made to its configuration files. The instructions above could be working with older version, not the St Patrick icon version.
says:
at 6:55 pm
same here… update is’nt reading our moded files. anyone with a new fix?
says:
at 7:31 pm
I’ll take a look. Hopefully they just added another client side check. If not go back to the old version in your iTunes and build all the floors you want then update
says:
at 7:43 pm
thats what i’m thinking… there’s another place those values are stored or compared to now. side check. not starting cause something doesn’t match up. i’m only looking at the elevator file right now… wonder if the mod date stamp has something to do with, all other files are dated 3/7/12 1:33am
says:
at 7:51 pm
date stamp is a good possibility, though that’s easy to fake.
Draw something uses an md5 hash but I can’t see that in here.
I’ll give the date a go.
says:
at 8:04 pm
nope… doesn’t appear to be the date. copied file, deleted old, copied back to phone (without mod, with 3/16 date) and openings fine. they are storing (or comparing) that value within another config file somewhere… :/
says:
at 9:09 pm
Confirmed.
Not matching locally though. Looks like they did the clever thing and match hashes with files on the server, which means further hacks will require a jailbreak.
Good job its not that good a game!
says:
at 8:05 pm
change all five elevator values to 0.25 and that didnt work either…
says:
at 9:19 pm
i kinda wondered that too… thing i dont get is, when i install fresh game, it regonizes me and does a fetch of asks me to load my prev game… which i did. however i had actually “bought” (legit) two upgrades on the elevator, and starting the game it sets me back to the 1.0 elevator… why doesn’t it remember my elevator status/level? meaning that config is on my local files… and how would that match to their server.?.? cause everyone’s would differ…
says:
at 5:33 am
It should be a local check, since I still cannot enter the game in airplane mode…
Probably the key is a local hash value stored somewhere hidden?
says:
at 6:06 pm
Hi,ive downloaded ifiles but couldnt find the files under the application folder,please help!thanks
says:
at 12:03 am
I canttoo
says:
at 6:07 am
This is the first time I’ve hacked around in iOS files using iExplorer so I could be way off here, but it seems like the file named CodeResources may have something to do with validation. There is a key-value pair for each of the files in the directory, including the JSON files, and the data value looks to be some sort of hash scheme. (Not familiar with which one it may be, though, nor what it is hashing–file name, time stamp, file contents, etc.) If you can figure out the hash mechanism, perhaps it could be replaced in this file to match the modified JSON files.
says:
at 10:26 am
Yes, I noticed that changes in the values of .json files would cause the game to hang. When I re-save the file again in its original values, the game could work normally. Brilliant programming!
says:
at 10:21 pm
Can I do any of this with Cydia? I’m not very tech savvy, so I could use some instruction.
says:
at 4:13 am
I checked that _CodeSignature file, I’m kind of confident it is the cause for everything.
For example, it has a key-value pair:
constructionConfig.json
dCSi/sWDXM3PK2Ef7Zjxe6e6OYY=
It is some kind of hash function. If we changed the constructionConfig.json, the hash result will change so it will not start.
I’m trying to tind out what hashing it’s using, then we can hack this game again.
says:
at 12:47 am
Yup well that has a tell tale = at the end which suggests base64 but I doubt it’s just base64. Probably md5 hash of the Json which is then base64′d
says:
at 11:05 am
Right it’s sha1 binary then base64.
You can regenerate the key like this openssl dgst -sha1 -binary /Users/gaz/Desktop/elevatorConfig.json | openssl enc -base64
BUT
Still doesn’t work…something else is going on
says:
at 10:02 pm
Do you have find?
says:
at 9:18 pm
Allô ?
says:
at 1:22 pm
I think no more cheats for the newer version. It’s the dragon icon version now.
says:
at 1:29 pm
Can be done but it requires modifying the binary, which to be honest is just too much effort for a Game like Dream Heights
says:
at 7:02 am
I see.
Just gotta play it the old fashion way. Thanks.
says:
at 4:56 am
I have trouble trying to access it. I get the msg that “This iOS device appears to have reached its limit of connecting to 5 app directories for this session. Please reconnect the device or restart iExplorer to access this directory”.
I unplugged from my lap top, checked that I’m not playing any games (not open), restart the iExplorer but still get this msg. What else can I do to access my device? Please help. Thanks.
says:
at 7:58 pm
It’s a common issue. I found out that you just need to be quick. If you wait more than 10 sec. (approx.) before you click on the app you’ll get this message. So in case you can’t find the app immediately, just click on any app. Then you can search for it without being rushed and the message won’t show up again
says:
at 11:28 pm
I’ve used the cheats or changing time ahead and building floors and restocking. But a few days ago the times in my stuff that’s stocked will not start counting down unless I hold that floor open and watch it count down. Going to a different floor restarts the countdown. The only thing that makes it restart is when a neighbor visits and buys out the item. But if I do the date change again it breaks it again. Any ideas how to fix it? Thanks ahead of time!!
says:
at 11:39 pm
It’s important to always set the time backward and then move it forward. If you move time forward you’ll start to see errors like this.
says:
at 12:06 pm
Doh
thanks. I always read to move the time ahead so I never did backwards then forwards. Is there any way to fix this annoyance I have now? Thanks again!
says:
at 8:05 pm
First of all, thank you for sharing those cheats. Unfortunately it seems that the elevator speed cheat doesn’t work (anymore). Each time I changed the file, the app crashed. When I changed it back to 1.0 it worked again though… I guess they fixed it somehow :/
says:
at 8:14 pm
(oh, I see, this has been discussed already, I’m sorry)
says:
at 8:46 am
Im stuck already! got the ifile app and cant find where to put in the Goto /var/mobile/applications/51D3362E-9D07-4827-B37F-350C69DB71A2/TowerVille.app????????
says:
at 11:35 pm
I have an Iphone and got the ifile app, but already stuck and not sure where to put the
Goto /var/mobile/applications/51D3362E-9D07-4827-B37F-350C69DB71A2/TowerVille.app
says:
at 6:59 pm
Can I do this on an iPad?
says:
at 6:59 pm
Can I do this on an iPad?
says:
at 8:38 am
this is awesome info but when I’m finished with iFile and get back into dream heights it gets out of it instantly
says:
at 4:36 pm
I wanted to do the elevator one but I’ve updated it to the dragon icon looking one. Can I still use iexplorer or is something else required? Let me know thanks.