Homebrew Question how safe is it to hack a nintendo switch in 2021???

[Felix12332]

i've been thinking of buying a nintendo switch with the purpose of hacking it but i wanted to confirm how safe it was before getting one

 

[naddel81]

you will get banned if you go online.

 

[Johnmariozelda99]

There's always a chance of getting banned. That's just the nature of hacking a modern console. However, getting banned is not the end of the world and its not likely to actually brick your switch if you follow an accurate guide. I definitely recommend hacking it

 

[Felix12332]

There's always a chance of getting banned. That's just the nature of hacking a modern console. However, getting banned is not the end of the world and its not likely to actually brick your switch if you follow an accurate guide. I definitely recommend hacking it

alright then i think i'll still wait maybe a year to get one just in case

 

[pkmnTobi]

If you can follow basic instructions and read, its fairly safe. However I will say if you are technologically impaired, don't bother as most people seem to see the "if you can read" and think they can, which they can't when it comes to tech (its not advanced or hard). As far as bans, that's entirely based on if you want to risk it. You can avoid bans very easily by sticking to hacking on emunand and using things like blocking prodinfo via atmosphere, using a emuMMC hosts file, etc to block any chance of communicating to Nintendo. Then you just keep your sysNAND clean and don't do ANY hacking on it. Just going online won't get you banned, even with CFW.

 

[M7L7NK7]

If you're buying it new, no hacks for you

 

[linuxares]

Nope! It will rob you and give you children suger highs before leaving with your wife...

 

[Rahkeesh]

If you're buying it new, no hacks for you

Yeah and the unpatched units are going for around... double? now, and the SX modchip doesn't seem to be produced anymore. So its going to take some investment to get a hacked one these days.

 

[Draxzelex]

alright then i think i'll still wait maybe a year to get one just in case

A year isn't going to magically make you avoid getting banned.

 

[Cencil]

i've been thinking of buying a nintendo switch with the purpose of hacking it but i wanted to confirm how safe it was before getting one

Good luck finding an old model that can be hacked, especially now with today's prices.

 

[tabzer]

I think with the existence of emuMMC that we have reached the advent of "safety" in the hacking vs ban aspect. I think I can enjoy my hacked Switch and never be banned. For the sake of a disclaimer--there is no saying what tomorrow will bring.

Finding an unpatched system will only get harder over time, but it is also possible that new exploits will be found on new systems. I wouldn't hold my breath on that if it is already a goal of yours. I would just keep eyes peeled for a used system whose serial falls in bounds.

 

[godreborn]

I made sure my switch, the neon one, wasn't patched. I've been keeping it in a dock on the headboard of my bed. it's not plugged in, and it's turned off. I went into system settings, serial information, in case the sticker had been replaced. this is a refurbished system I got from Nintendo after my first switch got NAND corruption (was still under warranty). this was in November of 2018. I'm only keeping it, because it's unpatched. I have an animal crossing and mario switch too, which obviously can't be exploited without a modchip (I guess good luck finding one now). I know nothing about switch hacking, but I bought an rcm loader, since they may be hard to find at some point in the US:

 

[Osha]

A year isn't going to magically make you avoid getting banned.

Iunno, from a technical standpoint, can't get banned on a device you don't own, that's the true big brain strat here. :y

 

[The Real Jdbye]

i've been thinking of buying a nintendo switch with the purpose of hacking it but i wanted to confirm how safe it was before getting one

Safe in what sense, are you worried about bricking it or are you worried about getting banned?
You can keep it clean, do all your CFW stuff on an emuNAND which is Incognito/DNS patched so it can't call back to Nintendo (or you can just disable wifi but often you may want to have it on for use in homebrew)
Keep your sysNAND untouched, only boot into it with normal boot, and there's no traces of the emuNAND or the fact that you ever had any hacks installed once you take that SD card out. No one's gotten banned yet for having an emuNAND on their SD card and booting into OFW and Nintendo somehow detecting the emuNAND partition, but it is in theory possible, so you can take out the SD card before booting into OFW or swap it for another if you're paranoid. As long as emuNAND stays isolated and can't call back to Nintendo there's no possible way they can find out since it's all temporary and there are no modifications done to the NAND or anything like that. So in theory, undetectable. Though they could start doing some fuckery with the JoyCon firmware and store extra data that indicates to the OFW that the JoyCon's been used on a hacked Switch there's too much plausible deniability with the possibility of using someone else's JoyCons and the implications of people getting randomly banned after borrowing their friend's JoyCons that that would be a terrible idea for Nintendo to attempt something like that. But so far anyone who kept their sysNAND clean and their emuNAND isolated has yet to be banned. But we can't make any guarantees, this could all change the moment Nintendo comes up with an idea to somehow thwart the pirates, something they have only been halfheartedly attempting up until now. So right now it might be safe but who knows in the future. If I end up banned 2-3 more years down the line that's towards the end of the Switch's life span anyway and they'll probably be getting pretty cheap used or even new. Could always get another one if that happens.

Safe in the other sense? You can't really break anything, it's all temporary anyway just leave the sysNAND untouched and you're fine.

 

[Rahkeesh]

Good luck finding an old model that can be hacked, especially now with today's prices.

TBF banned ones seem to be priced about MSRP. Kinda surprised on the difference since you end up staying offline much of the time with a hacked one anyway,

 

[tabzer]

TBF banned ones seem to be priced about MSRP. Kinda surprised on the difference since you end up staying offline much of the time with a hacked one anyway,

I use HB and pay for games (online) so I wouldn't bother buying a banned one.

 

[djcraze]

Using CFW alone isn't going to get you banned. Playing with others online while using CFW may get you banned.