Help:Using mods

Welcome, players! This article will walk you through setting up BotW to play with mods. There are three different platforms you can play om:

• Wii U console
• Cemu, the Wii U emulator, on your computer
• Switch console

Almost all Wii U mods should work on both the console and Cemu, but most Switch mods aren't cross-compatible. In addition, many mods are only compatible with the latest 1.5.0 version of BotW.

Note that any mods which edit any of the same files as each other will probably be incompatible and cause issues. Sometimes, mods that edit different files can also be unexpectedly incompatible. If you are using multiple mods and you find glitches, please figure out which mod / combination of mods is causing the issue before reporting it to the mod creator(s).

Wii U Console

Setting up homebrew

Follow this guide to set up your Wii U console to use homebrew software.

Setting up SDCafiine

SDCafiine is a Wii U homebrew program that will load modded game files from your SD card.

1. Download the latest stable release of SDCafiine (not a "nightly" version) from here.
2. Extract the contents of the .zip into the root of your SD card.
3. Create a new folder in the root of your SD Card, named sdcafiine.
4. Within that folder, create a new folder with the name of your game's Title ID. On Wii U, the JP version of BotW uses 00050000101C9300, the US version uses 00050000101C9400, and the EU version uses 00050000101C9500.
5. Within that folder, you can create any number of folders named after the mods you want to use. When you boot the game, a menu will appear allowing you to select one to use.
6. Inside each of those folders, create a folder named content. Your mod files will go in here. (Mods will often include a content folder already to make things clear.)

To use mods, you just need to select the SDCafiine option from the Homebrew Launcher, then boot your game immediately afterwards.

Cemu Emulator

Setting up homebrew

Follow this guide to set up your Wii U console to use homebrew software, in order to allow you to dump the game files from your console to your PC.

Dumping the game files

To play BotW on Cemu, you'll need to dump the game files from the console to your computer. Then run the U-King.rpx file from Cemu to boot the game.

Installing the DLC

If you dumped the game's add-on content (aoc) files, follow this guide to install them in Cemu.

Installing mods with the graphicpack menu

This method works as of Cemu 1.15.1.

1. Create a new folder inside Cemu/graphicPack/ named after the mod you want to use.
2. Inside that folder, create a folder named content. Your mod files will go in here. (Mods will often include a content folder already to make things clear.)
3. Create a file named rules.txt next to the content folder (if the downloaded mod doesn't already include one). Inside it goes:

[Definition]
titleIds = 00050000101C9300,00050000101C9400,00050000101C9500
name = Mod Name
path = "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild/Game Mods/Mod Packs/Mod Name"
description = Mod description here.
version = 3
fsPriority = 100

version must be set to 3 to work correctly. fsPriority determines the order in which mods are prioritized - higher numbers prioritize that mod's files over other mods. Mods without an fsPriority entry specified will default to 100.

Once a mod has been added, simply enable it from Cemu's graphic pack menu to use it. Note that most mods should not be enabled or disabled while the game is running.

Switch

Warning

When you boot custom firmware (CFW) on your Switch console, the console becomes permanently "online-unsafe". Turning off Airplane Mode while unsafe has a risk of gettinf the console banned from Nintendo's online services (including eShop and game updates). This risk is reduced if you are sensible and only use mods on offline games (don't install NSPs or pirate games!)

If you never went online while in "online-unsafe" mode, then by restoring a clean NAND backup that you made before you ever booted into CFW, you can make the console "online-safe" again. You can then safely go online until the next time you boot into CFW.

Setting up homebrew

Follow this guide to set up your Switch console to use homebrew software.

This tutorial uses Atmosphere CFW. Using SXOS CFW is not recommended, as unlike Atmosphere, it costs money, uses stolen code (from Atmosphere!), and is closed source, making it impossible to check how safe it is to use.

Installing mods

1. In the root of your MicroSD card, there should be a folder named atmosphere, sxos, or reinx, depending on which CFW you are using.
2. Within that folder, there should be a folder named titles. Inside that, create a folder with the name of your game's Title ID. For BotW on Switch, the Title ID is 01007EF00011E000.
3. Inside that, make a folder called romfs. Your mod files will go in here. (Mods will often include all or part of this folder structure already, to make things easy.)

To use the mod, simply boot the console into CFW, then boot the game, and the mod will be active.

Disabling telemetry reports

The Switch version of Breath of the Wild sends many telemetry reports so when you are using mods that modify gameplay in a detectable way or add new content in any way, it is strongly recommended to disable telemetry reports because they are used by Zelda developers to understand how people play BotW and also to help them fix bugs.

Mods that modify actors are especially dangerous as they might cause the game to use the ActorSystem emergency heap and trigger many memory-related play reports.

To disable problematic telemetry reports, download this patch and put it in /atmosphere/exefs_patches/botw_no_telemetry/16A91992BBA71201E98756F3BC8F5D2F.ips. This patch works for the Switch 1.5.0 executable only (build ID: 16A91992BBA71201E98756F3BC8F5D2F).