FSA Randomizer

A randomizer for The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (GameCube).
Shuffles items, keys, and stage order — exports a patched ISO ready to load in Dolphin.

Your original disc image is never modified. The tool always writes to a new file.

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Requirements

Requirement	Version	Notes
Windows	10 or 11 (64-bit)	WPF app — Windows only
.NET 8 Desktop Runtime	8.0 or later	Required to run the app. Download the Desktop variant (not Console or ASP.NET).
Four Swords Adventures disc image	NTSC-U (USA)	.iso format. Must be a legal dump of the GameCube release.
Dolphin Emulator	5.0+	To actually play the randomized game.

Installing .NET 8 Desktop Runtime

1. Go to https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/8.0
2. Under .NET Desktop Runtime, click the x64 installer for Windows
3. Run the installer and follow the prompts
4. You only need to do this once — it stays installed for all .NET 8 apps

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Installation

1. Go to the Releases page and download the latest FSARandomizer-vX.X.zip
2. Extract the zip to any folder (e.g. C:\Tools\FSARandomizer\)
3. Run FSARandomizer.exe

No installer needed — the app is fully portable.

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Quick Start

1. Click Open ISO in the toolbar and select your .iso file
2. Wait for the levels to load (check the Log tab if nothing appears)
3. Go to the Randomizer tab and choose your settings
4. Click 🎲 Randomize!
5. Click Export to New ISO… and choose an output folder
6. Load the exported ISO in Dolphin

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Features

Randomizer Tab

Configure what gets shuffled and how.

Item Options

Option	Default	Description
Shuffle Chest Items	✅ On	Randomizes all treasure chest contents
Shuffle Floor Key Items	Off	Includes small keys found on the floor
Shuffle Keys	Off	Puts small keys and big keys into the item pool
Keys in Own Level	✅ On	When key shuffling is on, keys stay within their original level
Big Keys in Own Level	✅ On	Same restriction for big keys
Moon Pearl in Own Level	✅ On	Moon Pearl stays within its original level

Level Order
Controls whether the 32 playable stages are rearranged when exporting. The two modes are mutually exclusive.

Option	Description
Shuffle World Order	Moves all eight worlds as groups. All four stages of a world travel together — you might play World 5's stages in World 1's slot, but the world itself is coherent.
Shuffle Stage Order	Shuffles all 32 stages individually. Any stage can end up in any slot across any world. The more chaotic option.

Seed
The seed controls both item placement and level order. Change it manually or click New Seed. Enable Randomize seed each time to get a fresh seed automatically on every Randomize click.

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Stage Order Tab

Manually assign which stage's content goes into each slot — useful when you want a specific layout without relying on a seed.

1. Use the dropdowns to pick which source stage plays in each slot
2. Slots are grouped by world; hub/overworld stages appear at the bottom of each group
3. A green dot (●) marks any slot that differs from the original layout
4. Click ✔ Apply to Export to activate your layout
5. Click ↺ Reset All to go back to the default order

Changes here set the same explicit placement used by JSON import — clicking Randomize will discard them.

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JSON Export / Import

Export your current settings and item layout to a JSON file so you can share seeds or reproduce a run exactly.

Exporting

• Click Export JSON to save the current seed, settings, and item locations
• The exported file embeds the stage order explicitly, so re-importing always reproduces the same layout even if the shuffle algorithm changes in a future version

Importing

• Click Import JSON to load a previously exported file
• All settings are restored automatically
• The Stage Order tab updates to show the imported stage layout
• If the file contains explicit stage placements, a gold banner appears above the Randomize button:

⚠ Explicit stage placements active. Skip Randomize! — go straight to Export to New ISO.

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JSON File Format

You can write a JSON file by hand (or generate one from a script) and import it directly. Only the fields you include are applied — everything else is left at the default.

Minimal example — item locations only:

[
  { "Key": "010_00_001", "NewItemId": 17 },
  { "Key": "011_02_004", "NewItemId": 16 }
]

Full wrapped format with settings and stage placements:

{
  "Settings": {
    "Seed": 12345,
    "ShuffleChestItems": true,
    "ShuffleFloorKeyItems": false,
    "ShuffleKeys": false,
    "KeysInOwnLevel": true,
    "BigKeysInOwnLevel": true,
    "MoonPearlInOwnLevel": true,
    "HeartContainerInOwnLevel": true,
    "BigBombInOwnLevel": true,
    "BlueBraceletInOwnLevel": true,
    "EnsureBeatable": false,
    "ShuffleLevelOrder": false,
    "ShuffleStageOrder": false,
    "StagePlacements": {
      "boss010": "boss050",
      "boss011": "boss020"
    }
  },
  "Locations": [
    {
      "Key": "010_00_001",
      "LevelId": "010",
      "LevelName": "Lake Hylia",
      "WorldName": "Whereabouts of the Wind",
      "Room": 0,
      "ActorIndex": 1,
      "Type": "TKRA",
      "Position": "(12,8)",
      "OriginalItemId": 16,
      "OriginalItem": "Small Key",
      "NewItemId": 17,
      "NewItem": "Big Key"
    }
  ]
}

Field reference

Field	Required	Notes
Key	Yes	{LevelId}_{RoomIndex:D2}_{ActorIndex:D3} — e.g. "010_00_001". Must match exactly.
NewItemId	Yes	The item byte to write into this location (decimal). Everything else is informational.
LevelId, LevelName, etc.	No	Informational only — ignored on import.
Settings block	No	Omit the whole block to import only item locations.
StagePlacements	No	Keys and values are both "boss{stem}".

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Spoiler Log

After randomizing, click 👁 Show Spoiler on the Randomizer tab to reveal the full item placement list. Export it to a file via Export Spoiler Log for reference during a race or async.

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Log Tab

Shows a full log of every operation — useful if levels fail to load or an export encounters an error. Check here first when something goes wrong.

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Notes

• Source ISO safety — the app enforces this at two levels: a confirmation dialog and a hard check in the export service. There is no way to accidentally overwrite your original disc image.
• NTSC-U only — only the North American GameCube release has been tested. PAL and JP versions are not supported.
• File size — exported ISOs are the same size as the original (~1.35 GB). The randomizer patches content in-place; it does not grow the disc image.
• Dolphin settings — no special Dolphin configuration is needed. Load the exported ISO the same way you would load any other GameCube game.

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Credits

Special thanks to:

• Jaytheham – for the majority of the original reverse-engineering work and creation of the first FSA editor.
• Venomalia – for creating FSALib which made making this possible.
• nbouteme – for documenting the sprite format in detail.
• PinkSwitch – for suppling great notes and ideas on getting this started Github.

This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo.