External Tool

PhxGUI

Community Halo Wars tooling for archives, XML conversion, ModManifest.txt, executable patching, and diagnostics.

PhxGUI is an external Halo Wars utility for working with game archives, data files, manifests, and executable patches.

Download

Use the current community release of PhxGUI. Because this is an external tool, New Arcadia documents the workflow but does not maintain the release.

Main Window

PhxGUI has a few persistent settings:

Setting	Use
Game Version	Choose Halo Wars: Definitive Edition or Xbox 360. This affects archive and XMB handling.
ERA Expand Path	Where files from dropped .era archives are extracted.
ERA Build Output	Where rebuilt .era files are written when dropping an .eradef.
Validate Game Data	Loads core game data from the expand path and reports errors.
Edit ModManifest.txt for Steam	Opens the Steam manifest editor.
Edit ModManifest.txt for WindowsStore	Opens the Windows Store manifest editor.
HW2 Expand Path	Work path for Halo Wars 2 package work. The visible UI exists, but HW2 PKG processing is not implemented in PhxGUI.
HW2 Build Output	Build path for Halo Wars 2 package work. The visible UI exists, but HW2 PKG processing is not implemented in PhxGUI.
Messages	Shows operation output, warnings, and errors. Right-click the message area to copy it.

Drag-And-Drop Actions

PhxGUI decides what to do from the file or folder you drop.

Drop this	Action
.era	Expand one or more Halo Wars ERA archives.
.eradef	Build an ERA archive from the definition and nearby extracted files.
.xmb	Convert XMB files to editable XML.
Folder	Recursively convert XMB files inside the folder to XML.
.exe	Patch the Halo Wars DE executable for modding support.
.xex	Detected, but patching Xbox 360 XEX files is not supported.
ECF file	Expand one or more ECF files.
.ecfdef	Build an ECF file from the definition and nearby extracted files.
Binary data tree file	Convert binary data tree files to XML. These are used by some material/UGX-style data.
.sav	Decrypt a Halo Wars Windows save/profile file when it is encrypted.
.sav_decrypted	Detected, but save re-encryption is not implemented.
.pkg / .pkgdef	Detected for Halo Wars 2, but PKG expand/build processing is not implemented in PhxGUI.

PhxGUI accepts groups of the same compatible file type. Mixed drops are usually rejected so it can choose one clear operation.

ERA Archives

Dropping one or more .era files expands them into the ERA Expand Path.

For Halo Wars DE, PhxGUI decrypts archives during expansion and creates a folder for each archive:

extracted
  root
  root_update
  sound

It also produces .eradef definition files used by the ERA builder. For loose-file modding, you usually use the extracted folders as reference material and copy only the files you changed into your mod.

Useful flags for expansion:

Flag	Effect
Don't overwrite existing files	Existing extracted files are left alone.
Decompress Scaleform files	Decompresses Scaleform files to matching .bin files.
Transform GFX files	Converts .gfx files to matching .swf files.
Ignore non-data files	Extracts only text and XMB-style data files.
Skip Verification	Ignores archive checksum failures. Useful for older or unusual builds.
Verbose Output	Adds more detail to the Messages output and logs.

Building ERA Files

Deprecated workflow

Building .era files is deprecated for normal modding. Use loose archive folders through ModManifest.txt, and use Serina for the runtime features that used to require packaged archive work.

PhxGUI still has legacy support for dropping one .eradef to build an encrypted .era with the same base name. It reads assets beside the .eradef and writes the result to ERA Build Output.

Useful build flag:

Flag	Effect
Always build with XML instead of XMB	If the .eradef references an XMB but a matching XML exists on disk, PhxGUI uses the XML file instead.

Beginner workflow

For normal loose-file modding, do not rebuild .era files. Use expanded folders plus ModManifest.txt.

XMB And XML

Dropping .xmb files converts them to editable XML. Dropping a folder searches it recursively and converts every XMB it finds.

Examples:

leaders.xml.xmb -> leaders.xml
data\leaders.xmb -> data\leaders.xml

Behavior:

• If Don't overwrite existing files is enabled, existing XML outputs are skipped.
• If an output file is read-only, it is skipped.
• The converter uses the selected game version to pick the correct data size mode.
• XML-to-XMB is present in the internal converter enum, but is not implemented as a usable drag-and-drop action.

Binary Data Tree Files

PhxGUI can convert binary data tree files to XML. This format is similar in spirit to XMB and is used by some UGX/material data.

Behavior:

• Dropping a binary data tree file creates an XML version beside it.
• Existing outputs respect Don't overwrite existing files.
• XML-to-binary conversion is detected internally but not implemented as a usable workflow.

ECF Files

PhxGUI can expand and rebuild ECF files.

Dropping an ECF file expands it beside the source file and creates an .ecfdef definition. Dropping one .ecfdef rebuilds an ECF using files beside the definition.

Useful flags:

Flag	Effect
Don't overwrite existing files	Existing expanded files are left alone during ECF expansion.
Skip Verification	Ignores ECF checksum failures.
Verbose Output	Adds more operation detail.

Executable Patching

Dropping the Halo Wars DE .exe attempts to patch it for modding support.

PhxGUI creates a backup beside the executable before writing changes:

xgameFinal_UNTOUCHED.exe

The patcher uses pattern matching rather than only fixed SHA1 offsets. It attempts patches for:

• ERA digital signature checks;
• a particle gateway assertion;
• user profile ticker information.

Limits:

• Read-only executables are not patched.
• If Don't overwrite existing files is enabled and the backup already exists, backup creation may fail.
• .xex files are detected, but Xbox 360 executable patching is not supported.
• A future game update can still break pattern matching.

ModManifest.txt Editor

PhxGUI can edit the correct ModManifest.txt for Steam or Windows Store.

Common locations:

Version	Path
Steam	C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Halo Wars\ModManifest.txt
Windows Store	C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.BulldogThreshold_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\ModManifest.txt

The editor stores one directory per row. Each directory should be a folder containing Halo Wars-style subfolders such as data, art, or sound.

Example:

C:\Users\YourName\Documents\Halo Wars Mods\first_mod\root_update
C:\Users\YourName\Documents\Halo Wars Mods\first_mod\root
C:\Users\YourName\Documents\Halo Wars Mods\first_mod\sharedscenario

Editor behavior:

• A checked Disabled? row is written with ; at the start.
• Empty directory rows are ignored when saving.
• Invalid path characters are rejected when loading.
• Rows higher in the list are searched first.
• Open Mod Folder opens the selected row.
• Open ModManifest Folder opens the folder containing the manifest.

Do not list only a mod parent folder unless that folder itself contains game subfolders. For the per-archive layout, list the archive folders:

...\first_mod\root
...\first_mod\sharedscenario

Validate Game Data

Validate Game Data tries to load the core game data from ERA Expand Path. Use it after expanding archives if you want to check whether the extracted data can be read by the tooling.

Output appears in the Messages area and may also be written to PhxGui.log.

Save Files

Dropping an encrypted Halo Wars Windows .sav file decrypts it to a matching decrypted file.

Behavior:

• Invalid save files are skipped.
• Already-decrypted save files are skipped.
• Existing decrypted outputs respect Don't overwrite existing files.
• Re-encrypting .sav_decrypted files is not implemented.

Flags Reference

Flag	Use
Don't overwrite existing files	Prevents conversion/extraction output from replacing existing files where supported.
Decompress Scaleform files	Writes decompressed .bin output for Scaleform files during ERA expansion.
Transform GFX files	Converts .gfx to .swf during ERA expansion.
Ignore non-data files	Limits ERA expansion to text and XMB-style data files.
Separate ERA folders	Expands each ERA into its own subfolder. Current PhxGUI enables this by default.
Always build with XML instead of XMB	During ERA build, uses matching XML files when the definition references XMB files.
Verbose Output	Prints more detailed operation output. Enabled by default.
Skip Verification	Skips checksum verification for ERA or ECF processing.
Assume Drag n Drop Files are ECF	Treats all dropped files as ECF files. This is an advanced fallback for ambiguous extension-less files.

Some internal flags are hidden from the UI because PhxGUI now handles those flows directly.

Not Implemented Or Limited

These file types or directions are visible in the source but should not be treated as finished user workflows:

Area	Status
Halo Wars 2 .pkg / .pkgdef	Detected, but expand/build processing is not implemented.
XML to XMB	Internal mode exists, but conversion is not implemented.
Binary data tree XML to binary	Internal mode exists, but conversion is not implemented.
Save re-encryption	.sav_decrypted is detected, but encryption is not implemented.
Xbox 360 .xex patching	Detected, but not supported.

First Use

Start with Getting Started. That guide uses PhxGUI to expand root.era, convert leaders.xmb, and load a small loose-file mod through ModManifest.txt.