PES 2021/Football Life Master League Save Editor: Infinity Money

PES 2021 ML Editor (opens in a new tab) is my first open-source project. It gives you a simple window for changing a Master League save: your manager’s name, transfer budget, salary budget and club follower count. There is also a Maximum money button for both budgets.

The editor runs on Windows, Linux and macOS; you still need your own PES 2021 Master League save to use it.

Install it in a few steps

Start at the Releases page (opens in a new tab) and download the latest file for your computer. Pick the release asset, rather than GitHub’s Source code archive.

System	Download	What to do
Windows 10/11, 64-bit	pes21-ml-editor-<version>-windows-x86_64.zip	Extract the ZIP and open pes21-ml-editor.exe. No installer is needed.
Linux, x86-64	pes21-ml-editor-<version>-linux-x86_64.tar.gz	Extract the archive and run ./pes21-ml-editor from the extracted folder. Run ./install.sh there if you want an application-menu entry.
macOS, Apple Silicon	pes21-ml-editor-<version>-macos-aarch64.dmg	Open the DMG and drag PES 2021 ML Editor to Applications.
macOS, Intel	pes21-ml-editor-<version>-macos-x86_64.dmg	Use the same drag-to-Applications step.

The macOS app is not notarized, and the Windows app is not code-signed. For the first launch, follow the platform-specific steps in the macOS (opens in a new tab) or Windows (opens in a new tab) guide. The release also includes SHA256SUMS.txt so you can check your download before allowing it to run. Linux requires a desktop with OpenGL 2.0+ and glibc 2.35+; see the Linux guide (opens in a new tab) if the app does not start.

Edit your Master League save

1. Quit PES 2021 before opening the save.
2. In the editor, click Open save… or drag a file named ML0000000x onto the window. On Windows, look under Documents\KONAMI\eFootball PES 2021 SEASON UPDATE\<your ID>\. On Linux with Steam Proton, the same KONAMI folder is inside the game’s compatdata/1259970 prefix. On a Mac, look inside the Windows environment where the game runs. The installation guides (opens in a new tab) give the full paths.
3. Check the club shown at the top, change the fields you want and click Save. Keep Back up before saving checked: the editor creates a timestamped backup beside the original file.

If you need to undo an edit, close the game, rename the edited ML0000000x, then rename its ML0000000x.backup-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS copy back to the original filename.

If Steam Cloud replaces your changes, the Windows guide (opens in a new tab) explains how to pause sync while editing.

How it works under the hood

A PES save is an encrypted container, not a plain text file. Its header describes several blocks, including the description, logo and data.dat. The format documentation (opens in a new tab) explains the rolling XOR key and MT19937-based cipher used to read and rebuild those blocks. The editor checks the container’s layout and only accepts a compatible PES 2021 Master League file.

The budgets and followers are stored as little-endian 32-bit integers at known positions inside data.dat. The game stores budgets in units of €100, so an amount you enter is rounded to the nearest hundred euros.

The currency selector changes the display using fixed approximate rates; the saved budget is still in euros. Maximum money sets both budgets to €9,999,999,900.

The manager name needs a different approach. It lives in a table of coach records, and patches can move the player’s coach to a different slot. The editor scans that table for the special user-created manager ID (0xFFFFFFF5) and checks that each record’s slot matches its position.

That is why it can find the manager in patched databases without assuming a fixed offset. Names can use up to 45 bytes of UTF-8.

Before editing, the program verifies that decrypting and re-encrypting the untouched save reproduces the original byte for byte.

It writes only fields you changed, checks whether another program changed the file while it was open, then saves through a temporary file and verifies the result.

If that final check fails, it restores the previous contents. These safeguards matter because an edited save represents hours of play, but you should still keep the backup option on and confirm the displayed values match your game, especially with an untested patch.

There is also a pes21-ml command-line tool in the download for scripts and advanced use. It can show or set fields, preview a change with --dry-run, and decrypt or encrypt save blocks.

The user guide (opens in a new tab) covers its commands, while the repository (opens in a new tab) has the Rust source, build instructions and licenses. Feedback and contributions are welcome there.