Hacking Question Is there a way to play games that require a higher firmware without updating?

[chippy]

I don't suppose I could derive the keys by upgrading and then dowgrading,

Wouldn't recommend that as if it's encrypted with a higher key it mostlikey used a higher sdk (tools devs use to make games) and could call commands not in lower OS
Also if your upgrading to get the keys in the system why not stay there?
Upgrading and then downgrading will remove the higher keys btw so would be upgrade, install then downgrade?

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Is there a list of games that would run successfully on 3.0.0, or are most 3.0.1 games going to work on 3.0.0?

Sticky thread has a list
https://gbatemp.net/threads/list-games-required-firmware-version.485959/

 

[MarkDarkness]

Wouldn't recommend that as if it's encrypted with a higher key it mostlikey used a higher sdk (tools devs use to make games) and could call commands not in lower OS
Also if your upgrading to get the keys in the system why not stay there?
Upgrading and then downgrading will remove the higher keys btw so would be upgrade, install then downgrade?

I haven't been using AutoRCM because of the few but existing horror stories out there where the system's battery dies and getting it to charge again is not as simple as some posters might suggest. This gives me access to a lot of games actually... but not Smash. Hence my question.

I keep waiting for this fabled other exploit for 4.1 but at this point is this even a thing? Did the exploit finders just pack their stuff and leave? Maybe it's just hot air and I should just go 5.1...

 

[ZachyCatGames]

I haven't been using AutoRCM because of the few but existing horror stories out there where the system's battery dies and getting it to charge again is not as simple as some posters might suggest. This gives me access to a lot of games actually... but not Smash. Hence my question.

I keep waiting for this fabled other exploit for 4.1 but at this point is this even a thing? Did the exploit finders just pack their stuff and leave? Maybe it's just hot air and I should just go 5.1...

Meh, I've had the battery completely die with autoRCM before, you just need to plug it into a official charger for 30-60 minutes

Deja Vu is still a things, but they're waiting for Mariko to release so they can have an exploit that they can use on it. Also Deja Vu "technically" works on all firmwares (although it's kinda pointless on 1.0.0 because of Jamais Vu )

 

[chippy]

I keep waiting for this fabled other exploit for 4.1 but at this point is this even a thing? Did the exploit finders just pack their stuff and leave? Maybe it's just hot air and I should just go 5.1...

I bought a second hand switch for OS 3.0 as that had the web exploit and the tale of cold boot cfw. Battery issues and that my copy of Zelda was a version 1 not 0 required 3.0.1 or something so I upgraded. Then the rcm way was leaked and released but it was billed as below 3 software exploit but above 3 was hardware... turned out hardware was a jig not a mod chip like everyone expected (software exploit hasn't been released and now they say will work on 4.1.... but still no release?). So I went to 4.1 then to 5.1 burning fuses along the way as the non burning was very complex (30+ish steps) back in the day.
So I'm happy on 5.1 and considering 6.1 atm but thinking when I do I will be restoring my pre CFW nand. Connect to Nintendo servers and update officially so n has logs of me upgrading to 6 on their records and I'm not banned.

So that's my story. 5.1 is fine and works great I wouldn't bother staying on 4.1 but you have to ask yourself will you burn fuses or not. The tools now a days are a lot better then back then

 

[Irocadiext]

I bought a second hand switch for OS 3.0 as that had the web exploit and the tale of cold boot cfw. Battery issues and that my copy of Zelda was a version 1 not 0 required 3.0.1 or something so I upgraded. Then the rcm way was leaked and released but it was billed as below 3 software exploit but above 3 was hardware... turned out hardware was a jig not a mod chip like everyone expected (software exploit hasn't been released and now they say will work on 4.1.... but still no release?). So I went to 4.1 then to 5.1 burning fuses along the way as the non burning was very complex (30+ish steps) back in the day.
So I'm happy on 5.1 and considering 6.1 atm but thinking when I do I will be restoring my pre CFW nand. Connect to Nintendo servers and update officially so n has logs of me upgrading to 6 on their records and I'm not banned.

So that's my story. 5.1 is fine and works great I wouldn't bother staying on 4.1 but you have to ask yourself will you burn fuses or not. The tools now a days are a lot better then back then

i think i ve seen people have problems if they have burned fuses, and try to restore an old nand backup that had a lower amount of fuses burnt. system gets messed up trying to go back to a state with say 4 fuses burnt but in reality you burnt 6 fuses on your system. Don't quote me on that I may have understood wrong but i think I saw people having this problem.

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I haven't been using AutoRCM because of the few but existing horror stories out there where the system's battery dies and getting it to charge again is not as simple as some posters might suggest. This gives me access to a lot of games actually... but not Smash. Hence my question.

I keep waiting for this fabled other exploit for 4.1 but at this point is this even a thing? Did the exploit finders just pack their stuff and leave? Maybe it's just hot air and I should just go 5.1...

do you usually power your system down completely or do you mostly use sleep mode. As I understand the only problem that comes with battery and autorcm is when you shutdown completely because when you have autorcm on the complete shutdown really only reboots you to rcm but it looks like it is powered down, draining your battery and even if its charging it charges much slower than normal in rcm when autorcm is on. charging works completely normal with sleep mode if you have autorcm on. this works fine for me because the system was designed for sleep mode. this could only be a problem i d say if you are traveling hours away with your system not being charged.

I ve read you can use the force power down function by holding power button for 15 secs and that works better or use the power down that sxos or hekate has as well. I haven t tried either of those yet though so I m not sure.

 

[chippy]

Don't quote me on that I may have understood wrong but i think I saw people having this problem.

Yes I am aware of the problem if I ever want to downgrade but atm I don't see the need to and with the dragon injector project on this forum the best ever looking jig and injector out

 

[Deleted User]

tinfoil allows you to ignore the Firmware of NSPs

 

[chippy]

tinfoil allows you to ignore the Firmware of NSPs

Please read my post a few up on the limitation of what this option does in tinfoil

*edit* it's on page 1

 

[Irocadiext]

Yes I am aware of the problem if I ever want to downgrade but atm I don't see the need to and with the dragon injector project on this forum the best ever looking jig and injector out

what exactly is the dragon injector project.

 

[chippy]

what exactly is the dragon injector project.

Only the best looking and game cart size payload injector
https://gbatemp.net/threads/dragoninjector-game-cart-payload-injector-trinket-m0-clone.511780/

 

[Lacius]

Is there a list of games that would run successfully on 3.0.0, or are most 3.0.1 games going to work on 3.0.0?

That's hard to say, since there are two different kinds of requirements. One is system version, which is easily bypassed by using Tinfoil to install the game. The other is which keys are used, and this cannot be bypassed.

For example, you might have a game that technically requires 3.0.1, but it only uses the 3.0.0 keys. In this case, the game would work on 3.0.0 if you installed it using Tinfoil's bypass requirements option.

If I have a game that technically requires 3.0.1, but it also uses the 3.0.1 keys, then it will not work on 3.0.0. Super Mario Odyssey requires 3.0.1 keys, and most games that came out after that probably will, too. You can also check a game's requirements using Switch Backup Manager.

So, as I said a long time ago, you're pretty limited on 3.0.0. I would recommend updating to 6.2.0. If you care about being able to downgrade back to 3.0.0, I'd recommend upgrading without burning your fuses and installing AutoRCM.

 

[Irocadiext]

what exactly is the dragon injector project.

yeah I looked it up. looks pretty cool. I don t see how it will eliminate the need to update eventually, unless you never wanna play a newer gm past what fw you re currently on. Unless you made a clean nand backup previous to ever using any cfw at all and are okay with restoring that everytime you wanna update to newer fws. may take longer but doable i suppose. I was dumb and used cfw before making my nand backup so autoRCM is my only option really, and online play means little to me.

 

[chippy]

yeah I looked it up. looks pretty cool. I don t see how it will eliminate the need to update eventually,

He was asking me what it was as I brought it up to explain why I don't care about downgrading for a cold boot exploit

You can also check a game's requirements using Switch Backup Manager.

Thanks for this lacius. Seems people don't read stuff on previous pages as I said almost the same thing about the keys and what not on page 1

 

[YugamiSekai]

That's hard to say, since there are two different kinds of requirements. One is system version, which is easily bypassed by using Tinfoil to install the game. The other is which keys are used, and this cannot be bypassed.

For example, you might have a game that technically requires 3.0.1, but it only uses the 3.0.0 keys. In this case, the game would work on 3.0.0 if you installed it using Tinfoil's bypass requirements option.

If I have a game that technically requires 3.0.1, but it also uses the 3.0.1 keys, then it will not work on 3.0.0. Super Mario Odyssey requires 3.0.1 keys, and most games that came out after that probably will, too. You can also check a game's requirements using Switch Backup Manager.

So, as I said a long time ago, you're pretty limited on 3.0.0. I would recommend updating to 6.2.0. If you care about being able to downgrade back to 3.0.0, I'd recommend upgrading without burning your fuses and installing AutoRCM.

I've been holding off on updating because of Deja Vu, and I already use AutoRCM and Atmosphere, but I'm waiting for Thermosphere/EmuNAND to be released

 

[Lacius]

I've been holding off on updating because of Deja Vu, and I already use AutoRCM and Atmosphere, but I'm waiting for Thermosphere/EmuNAND to be released

If you're already using AutoRCM, then there's no reason not to do the following now:

1. Make a complete 3.0.0 NAND backup and put it somewhere safe.
2. Update to 6.2.0 using ChoiDujourNX, keeping the AutoRCM option turned on.

And when a proper emuNAND and Deja Vu are released:

1. Move your 6.2.0 (or higher by then) NAND to your emuNAND.
2. Restore the 3.0.0 NAND backup as your sysNAND.

 

[YugamiSekai]

If you're already using AutoRCM, then there's no reason not to do the following now:

1. Make a complete 3.0.0 NAND backup and put it somewhere safe.
2. Update to 6.2.0 using ChoiDujourNX, keeping the AutoRCM option turned on.

And when a proper emuNAND and Deja Vu are released:

1. Move your 6.2.0 (or higher by then) NAND to your emuNAND.
2. Restore the 3.0.0 NAND backup as your sysNAND.

Doesn't the gamecard slot break if you keep it enabled in 6.2.0 once you go back to 3.0.0? And if you do disable it wouldn't I have to wait until I can downgrade to use it again?

 

[Lacius]

Doesn't the gamecard slot break if you keep it enabled in 6.2.0 once you go back to 3.0.0? And if you do disable it wouldn't I have to wait until I can downgrade to use it again?

By default, Atmosphere blocks updates to the GC slot if your fuses are less than or equal to four. So, if you don't use your GC slot, there's no reason not to update. The GC slot will be preserved.

If you do use game cartridges, then you would have to update your GC slot to keep using it on anything above 3.0.2, and you're right that the GC slot won't work on 3.0.0 anymore after that. However, the functionality of the GC slot is irrelevant to whether or not Deja Vu works, and you will (presumably) have the same problem with an emuNAND. In other words, if you boot a 6.2.0 emuNAND, either your GC slot will get updated, or you won't be able to use it.

 

[CapCaveman]

It all depends what master key the game/update is used to encrypt if it works. So it might need say 5.1 but uses a 4.0 key then it will work but not if I it's a 5.1 key on a 4.0 console.

That's hard to say, since there are two different kinds of requirements. One is system version, which is easily bypassed by using Tinfoil to install the game. The other is which keys are used, and this cannot be bypassed.

I was looking for this answer and found it thanks to you guys. I still have some questions, though, if you don't mind.

Believe it or not, I just got a launch Switch unit (1.0.0) and the SX Pro. What is the best approach from here (and in what order) to make it future-proof for exploits?

I know that the most important thing is to first make a complete NAND backup (using CTCaer-Hekate). The next step should be to update without burning any fuses, so I simply boot into SX OS and use ChoiDuJourNX? Do I create an emuNAND in SX OS before that? Also, I don't want to update the GC slot, so do SX OS and ChoiDuJourNX block those updates by default?

Finally, if I have a proper 1.0.0 backup and update without burning any fuses, are there really no downsides to updating to the latest firmware? No compatibility issues with any homebrew whatsoever? Or should I stay at something like 5.1.0?

I'm paranoid about not being able to revert my Switch to its original state, but I don't want to be limited to NSPs (can XCIs even bypass the firmware requirements?) or worry about games asking for updates, if I can simply downgrade later.

P.S.: The sticky thread with the list of games and their required firmware is outdated (missing Pokémon and Smash).

 

[Lacius]

I was looking for this answer and found it thanks to you guys. I still have some questions, though, if you don't mind.

Believe it or not, I just got a launch Switch unit (1.0.0) and the SX Pro. What is the best approach from here (and in what order) to make it future-proof for exploits?

I know that the most important thing is to first make a complete NAND backup (using CTCaer-Hekate). The next step should be to update without burning any fuses, so I simply boot into SX OS and use ChoiDuJourNX? Do I create an emuNAND in SX OS before that? Also, I don't want to update the GC slot, so do SX OS and ChoiDuJourNX block those updates by default?

Finally, if I have a proper 1.0.0 backup and update without burning any fuses, are there really no downsides to updating to the latest firmware? No compatibility issues with any homebrew whatsoever? Or should I stay at something like 5.1.0?

I'm paranoid about not being able to revert my Switch to its original state, but I don't want to be limited to NSPs (can XCIs even bypass the firmware requirements?) or worry about games asking for updates, if I can simply downgrade later.

P.S.: The sticky thread with the list of games and their required firmware is outdated (missing Pokémon and Smash).

If you have a 1.0.0 NAND backup and plan on installing AutoRCM so your Switch always coldboots into RCM, then there's no reason not to update to 6.2.0 with ChoiDujourNX while not burning any fuses. Atmosphere won't burn your GC fuses by default.

If I didn't answer a question, it was probably about SX OS, which many people don't know/care about.