Hacking Is homebrew not as risky banwise as previously thought?

[OldGnashburg]

So I keep seeing comments and threads on GBATemp and Gamebanana where people have gone online with mods (albeit minor and not noticeable to other players), or used Edizon, Checkpoint and other homebrew and people claim they have yet to be banned. I was led to believe that simply booting stock SysNAND with Hekate pretty much guarantees a ban. The banning thread also doesn't help. Is homebrew not as risky as I was led to believe, or has using homebrew become safer due to how Atmosphere handles telemetry, or is something else going on. If homebrew is getting safer, then what's the threshold? Are certain customizations off limits (ie. something like Tesla) off limits? Are custom themes a bad idea? Genuinely curious about how far I can go modding wise on SysNAND.

 

[wartutor]

No one knows when, why, or to what extent nintendo will go with their bans other than nintendo themselves. Asking random people on an internet forum will not get you a definite answer. If you dont care then go online but do so expecting to one day become banned.

 

[nero99]

running cfw without installing nsp files has the same ban chance as going online with installed nsp files. they don't give two shits if you're just using homebrew. All modifications go against their ToS.

 

[Blue]

This is from a pinned message in the ReSwitched Discord, I'd take it with a grain of salt though as anything can change.

Spoiler: Bank Risk

Instant ban:
• Piracy of any sort
• Homebrew nsps
• Changing user icon through homebrew
• Sketchy eShop behavior

Not so instant ban, but still a ban:
• Modding online games
• Cheating in online games
• Clearing error logs after they've been uploaded to Nintendo

Not a ban, so far:
• Atmosphere itself
• Homebrew
• Custom themes
• Custom sysmodules (sys-ftpd-light, etc.)
• Mods/cheating in offline games
• Overclocking with sys-clk (just don't do it competitively, for all of our sakes)
• emummc

 

[Philipp_94]

This is from a pinned message in the ReSwitched Discord, I'd take it with a grain of salt though as anything can change.

Spoiler: Bank Risk

Instant ban:
• Piracy of any sort
• Homebrew nsps
• Changing user icon through homebrew
• Sketchy eShop behavior

Not so instant ban, but still a ban:
• Modding online games
• Cheating in online games
• Clearing error logs after they've been uploaded to Nintendo

Not a ban, so far:
• Atmosphere itself
• Homebrew
• Custom themes
• Custom sysmodules (sys-ftpd-light, etc.)
• Mods/cheating in offline games
• Overclocking with sys-clk (just don't do it competitively, for all of our sakes)
• emummc

Either my switch was flagged before I bought it used or themes will lead to a ban.
First thing I did after cfw was a custom theme, next day, ban.

 

[OldGnashburg]

Either my switch was flagged before I buyed it used or themes will lead to a ban.
First thing I did after cfw was a custom theme, next day, ban.

When was that? I know newer versions of Atmosphere have improved what gets reported to Nintendo to prevent bans. Whether or not it's effective is another thing.

 

[Blue]

Either my switch was flagged before I buyed it used or themes will lead to a ban.
First thing I did after cfw was a custom theme, next day, ban.

I used only themes and NRO homebrew for a month, "uninstalled" atmosphere and I'm still unbanned. You sure it was the only thing you did?

 

[Paulsar99]

Only nintendo knows, but yeah I was also a reckless cfw user like a year ago and yet I'm still not banned.

 

[Goku1992A]

my buddie got banned days ago and he never played a game online

 

[linuxares]

my buddie got banned days ago and he never played a game online

You don't need to play online to get banned.

 

[Mythical]

Unless you're very careful and use a proper emunand you're gonna get banned. Or you could do the whole restore nand backup thing after using hacks then going to clean nand and back but that takes forever.
That list isn't good info pls don't follow it

 

[Goku1992A]

You don't need to play online to get banned.

I'm thinking because he didn't have 90NDS or an emmunand. I never had issue with my emmunand

[

 

[Philipp_94]

When was that? I know newer versions of Atmosphere have improved what gets reported to Nintendo to prevent bans. Whether or not it's effective is another thing.

I got banned in January. Bought the switch in October last year. Did all the precautions on my first SD, major failure occured while setting up second bigger sd.

I used only themes and NRO homebrew for a month, "uninstalled" atmosphere and I'm still unbanned. You sure it was the only thing you did?

Yeah, I am sure. I didn't had proper internet back then and bought Pokémon shield + NSO to at least play smth online. Because I just couldn't wait like 3 days to download BotW. While setting up a new emunand on a bigger card, I accidentally booted into cfw sys with themes installed.
Either it's because of the themes or the previous owner did shit and didn't said anything when I asked.
On a side note, there were some screws missing when I got my switch. So I guess the previous owner must've opened the console, for only God knows what.

 

[Pippin666]

All the time spent into hacking, reading guides, searching for nsp xci and whatever, crying over ban wave, figuring out to unbrick backup/restore nand etc,... Time spent on a JOB then BUYING the real deal is far more safe and HONEST. I hope somday someone steal your work and feel the pain.

Pip'

 

[Syph]

All the time spent into hacking, reading guides, searching for nsp xci and whatever, crying over ban wave, figuring out to unbrick backup/restore nand etc,... Time spent on a JOB then BUYING the real deal is far more safe and HONEST. I hope somday someone steal your work and feel the pain.

Pip'

Uh... No one's brought up anything about stealing. Nintendo ban's are not out of some desire to enforce the law.

I spent the time doing my job to earn the cash with which I used to buy my Switch, but I still want a custom theme and menu layout that looks nice. And, in turn, I want to be able to update my games, which I also bought with my own hard earned cash, which I no longer can do officially due to said custom theme. Thus requiring the use of an emunand in order to be able to update said games without risk of being banned by said theme. These are not illegal activities but are banned by Nintendo, thus giving rise to people "crying over ban wave" and "figuring out [how] to unbrick backup/restore nand".

 

[OldGnashburg]

I haven't pirated any Switch software either, not looking to do so either. One of my frustrations is that it seems that Nintendo is really lazy, and that certain features such as themes, music playback, quality save management, etc. have been left to hackers to implement themselves, and they've done an amazing job, Switch homebrew is world class, akin to the days of the Wii and PSP, however it would be nice if we didn't have to twist ourselves into knots in order for the Switch to have features matching almost all the consoles in the last 3 generations.

 

[Goku1992A]

All the time spent into hacking, reading guides, searching for nsp xci and whatever, crying over ban wave, figuring out to unbrick backup/restore nand etc,... Time spent on a JOB then BUYING the real deal is far more safe and HONEST. I hope somday someone steal your work and feel the pain.

Pip'

Hate to put fuel on the fire I understand that piracy is wrong but this site is mainly for support on CFW (which deals with WAREZ) Yes it is true you spend alot of time figuring out how to play a game and sometimes I even bought the game since it was easier to do then make it work.. I'm a proud pirate I have no shame in my game.

I've invested $1000 in my switch devices alone with games so if I wanna pirate a few games so be it. Piracy is slowly dying anyway in the next few years it's going to be obsolete