This thread is outdated
A lot of information in this thread is heavilly out of date.
If you have time, and have Staff permission, feel free to edit this thread and remove this statement once necessary.

Some information that needs to be addressed:

• SX OS and Atmosphere now supports proper LayeredFS, instructions for using it has changed since this tutorial was made
• Supported Firmware information is out of date
• LFSKit needs to be updated to properly support non 5.x.x firmware
• Compatability chart needs to be re-made

-PRAGMA

WARNING

• DO NOT GO ONLINE WHEN DOING THIS (YOU WILL BE BANNED)

How to use LayeredFS for Backup Loading

Firmware Supported: ONLY 5.x.x
Use the PRAGMA LFS Kit below.

PRAGMA's LFS Kit

DOWNLOAD
SOURCE

• Go from NOTHING in your SD Card to playing a game backup in a few clicks!
• Decrypt .XCI -> romfs/exefs folder with main.nmpd auto edited aswell as folder's name auto renamed to donor titleid
• Download NOTHING except LFSKit!

ENJOY!

Picking a Donor Title and getting Donor TitleIDRunning Game Backups!

1. 
   
   1. A donor title is the application we will run to open the backup.
      Pick a game you don't care about (Download a Demo or a free game from eShop, for example Octopath Demo)
      saves are something no one knows much about, we don't fully know where or how they are stored.
      They might overwrite the donor titles save, so seriously pick a game you DONT care about, not a game you rarely play.
      
      
   2. I also recommend picking a donor title/game combo that has been tested and reported working just so you know if YOU did something wrong or not.
   3. Find the TitleID of the donor title you chose from http://nswdb.com or http://switchbrew.org/index.php?title=Title_list/Games
      Region must be the same, choose the TitleID for the base-game NOT for the update title, even if your updated.
2. 
   
   1. Once again, boot into Hekate-IPL (Step 1).
   2. Enter "Launch firmware" and select "RomFS".
   3. Your now in your system's home menu.
   4. Open the Donor Title you set the TitleID of on that folder and .npmd file earlier.
   5. The game will load up flawlessly.
      If you opened the Title lets say, Fortnite, and Fortnite booted, the titleid of the folder in sd:/atmosphere/titles/{fortnitetitleid} doesnt exist, or doesnt start with 0100.
      If it gives you an error screen, either you didnt edit the main.npmd properly, or its an incompatible title/donor combo.
   To see which games work and which dont using which donor titles, look below.
   If you notice that you used a combination of Game and Donor title that isnt in the list below, post in the thread and I will add it. (look under to see what I need to add to chart).
   

Troubleshooting

• Black Screen/Infinitely Loading
  Leave it for around 5 minutes then press the home button and go back into the game without closing it. Often this can do the job.
• Freeze when Loading
  Close the game and try again, its a common occurence, you may have to try up to 4-5 times before getting it to work, sometimes you may even have to reboot between retries.

 

[VIDOKS]

nope runetoonxx2

 

[Zumoly]

Just remove the --romfs="romfs.bin" part from that command

Sorry if I'm doing this the wrong way. Do I need to use cmd from windows instead of the hactool gui app?
Got a big file RomFS.romfs and a bunch of other files including main.npdm.

 

[VIDOKS]

Oh and for overcooked the saves work too

 

[ExploitTnT]

LEGO® Worlds: Booted ✓ | Working Saves ✓ | Donor Title: Fortnite | https://streamable.com/erck9

 

[VIDOKS]

zumoly replace in the script --romfs="xciDecrypted\romfs.romfs by --romfs="xciDecrypted\romfs.bin and you got it

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

th'ats your romfs.bin needed to run the game

 

[NO_ob]

Mario oddysey shows a generic error from fallout shelter
Xenoblade 2 boots but loads to black scrren after the nintendo logo via fallout shelter

 

[adam1290]

Mario Kart 8 doesn't load with Fortnite as the donor.

Mario Odyssey doesn't load with Fortnite as the donor or Puyo Puyo as the donor.

Both black screens after the Nintendo logo

 

[thealgorithm]

Ok try this

paste the below into a text file and rename it to XCI to NCA.bat Place this in the hactool folder

mkdir >NUL temp
cd temp
del *.*
cd ..
hactool -t xci -x --outdir="temp" "%~1"
pause >NUL


then paste the below into a text file and rename it to NCA to romfs exefs.bat. Place this into the hactool folder


mkdir >NUL exefs
cd exefs
del *.*
cd ..
hactool -t nca -x --romfs=romfs.bin --exefsdir=exefs --keys=keys.txt "%~1"
pause >NUL


ensure that you have the keys.txt file inside the hactool folder.


now all you have to do is to drag and drop the xci file to the "XCI to NCA.bat" icon. it will extract to the temp directory created inside the hactool folder.

you can now look inside the temp/secure folder and locate the largest nca file.

this file you can then drag and drop to the "NCA to romfs exefs.bat icon. It will generate the romfs.bin folder inside the hactool folder and also the exefs folder with the files

you can then patch the main.dpdrm file with with the donor id in little endian format.

Some later games require additional keys (Look at the maxconsole site for these. add these keys that don't exist to your previous keys.txt file..

 

[Deleted User]

Sonic Forces works on Fallout Shelter on 5.1.0, saves work, but if you boot the game, close it, and boot again, it'll crash until you reboot the whole system

 

[Swan1360]

tried skyrim over fortnite doesnt load

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

tried skyrim over fortnite doesnt load

version 5.10

 

[SonicRegret]

I wonder how saves are stored using this method, if you were to backup the save of your "game" would you end up with the original game's save file or the injected games save file, the injected game can still access its own save file while being launched by the donor game, so where is the save stores? Can it be extracted in the future when separate installation of backups becomes a thing and a transfer is desired?

 

[XorTroll]

I wonder how saves are stored using this method, if you were to backup the save of your "game" would you end up with the original game's save file or the injected games save file, the injected game can still access its own save file while being launched by the donor game, so where is the save stores? Can it be extracted in the future when separate installation of backups becomes a thing and a transfer is desired?

Idk if saves are stored under the donor's title id, or the patched one's ID

 

[Zumoly]

ensure that you have the keys.txt file inside the hactool folder.

Thanks a lot for your help.
The keys I got from maxconsole came in .dat format/ renaming them to .ini format is no go.
I did try with the keys extracted from my console but they're incomplete.

 

[thealgorithm]

I wonder how saves are stored using this method, if you were to backup the save of your "game" would you end up with the original game's save file or the injected games save file, the injected game can still access its own save file while being launched by the donor game, so where is the save stores? Can it be extracted in the future when separate installation of backups becomes a thing and a transfer is desired?

Good question. It seems (tried it on one game - Mario odyssey as the donor) that save files are not overwritten. If I reboot without the cfw layerfs patch, I can run the game with the save no issue.
When running the layerfs cfw, and running the donor, I can then continue from the save in that game. Perhaps the game attempts to read the save file and if its not valid it creates another one and vice versa so that nothing gets overwritten.

 

[Zumoly]

zumoly replace in the script --romfs="xciDecrypted\romfs.romfs by --romfs="xciDecrypted\romfs.bin and you got it

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

th'ats your romfs.bin needed to run the game

What about the exef? Can't seem to get this with the hactool gui file and the complete keys I have are in .dat format.

 

[VIDOKS]

wait
use that
hactool.exe -k keys.ini -txci --securedir="xciDecrypted" "%~1"
dir "xciDecrypted" /b /o-s > nca_name.txt
set /P nca_file= < nca_name.txt
del nca_name.txt
hactool.exe -k keys.ini --exefsdir="exefs" --romfs="xciDecrypted\romfs.bin" "xciDecrypted\%nca_file%"
del "xciDecrypted\*.nca"
del "xciDecrypted\*.tik"
del "xciDecrypted\*.cert"
pause >nul
with this keys.ini in the folder
should work this is how i extract and play kirby overcooked and human fall flat

 

[adam1290]

Game: Rayman Legends
Donor: Fortnite
Firmware: 5.1
Working all round so far.

 

[Zumoly]

wait
use that
hactool.exe -k keys.ini -txci --securedir="xciDecrypted" "%~1"
dir "xciDecrypted" /b /o-s > nca_name.txt
set /P nca_file= < nca_name.txt
del nca_name.txt
hactool.exe -k keys.ini --exefsdir="exefs" --romfs="xciDecrypted\romfs.bin" "xciDecrypted\%nca_file%"
del "xciDecrypted\*.nca"
del "xciDecrypted\*.tik"
del "xciDecrypted\*.cert"
pause >nul
with this keys.ini in the folder
should work this is how i extract and play kirby overcooked and human fall flat

Hi mate! No luck! Saying: invalid NCA header! Are keys correct?

 

[thealgorithm]

Donkey kong tropical freeze also works with Mario odyssey as the donor. By the way, What determines whether or not a game runs via specific doners?

 

[KeyZiro]

Hi mate! No luck! Saying: invalid NCA header! Are keys correct?

you need keys.ini