How to install Atmosphère CFW, Hekate, and Homebrew | Switch TUTORIAL

Summary

Monito provides a comprehensive guide to modding your Nintendo Switch using Atmosphère CFW, Hekate, and Homebrew. The video covers everything from setting up the custom firmware, formatting your micro SD card, to installing the Homebrew app store. The guide specifically addresses unpatched Switch units, as patched versions require hardware modifications. Monito stresses that while modding can enhance your Switch experience, it's at your own risk, as Nintendo may ban modded consoles from online services.

Highlights

• Monito guides users on modding the Nintendo Switch with Atmosphère, Hekate, and Homebrew. 🎮
• He provides details on checking whether your Switch is modable by examining the serial number. 🔍
• The guide excludes patched Switches, stating they require hardware modification not covered in the tutorial. 🚫
• Monito emphasizes using a FAT32-formatted micro SD card to prevent file corruption. 💻
• Steps to enter the Switch's recovery mode with an RCM jig are explained for easy mod installation. 🪛
• The video warns about potential bans from online services due to modding while providing tips to mitigate risks. ⚠️
• Atmosphère CFW offers various functionalities, including Homebrew support for an enriched gaming experience. 🚀
• Monito encourages viewers to join his Discord community for further assistance and modding support. 🌐

Key Takeaways

• Always check if your Nintendo Switch is modable using its serial number to avoid complications. 📋
• The tutorial is applicable only to unpatched Switch units; patched units are not supported without hardware changes. 🛠️
• Utilizing a micro SD card formatted to FAT32 is crucial to avoid file corruption. 💾
• Using an RCM jig simplifies accessing the Switch's recovery mode for mod installations. 🎮
• Atmosphère CFW and Homebrew allow for a plethora of modding possibilities but proceed with caution to avoid bans. ⚠️
• Joining online communities like Discord servers can provide additional support and resources. 😊

Overview

In this comprehensive tutorial, Manito walks you through the intricate process of modding your Nintendo Switch using Atmosphère CFW, Hekate, and Homebrew. He begins by establishing the conditions necessary for a successful mod, such as an unpatched Nintendo Switch and a micro SD card formatted in FAT32. Given these tools and conditions, you're poised to unlock a world of custom firmware possibilities without bricking your device.

Manito details how to verify if your Switch is modable, delineating between unpatched and patched units by inspecting the serial number. For those with unpatched units, this video is a treasure trove of information for accessing mods and homebrew applications to enhance your gaming experience. The guide is precisely crafted for users operating on a Windows PC, though alternative OS users can still follow along with minor adjustments.

Throughout the tutorial, Manito addresses potential risks such as online bans, but offers advice on safe practices to minimize trouble. He stresses the importance of community support, pointing viewers to an active Discord server for additional help and resources. The journey through modding doesn't end with this video; Manito encourages exploring his other guides to fully exploit the potential of a modded Nintendo Switch.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:30: Introduction and Disclaimer In this chapter, the host introduces the video content, which focuses on the basics of modding a Nintendo Switch. Key topics include setting up atmosphere custom firmware, using tegr cmgi hecy for formatting a micro SD card to FAT32 format, and accessing the homebrew app store. A disclaimer is provided, noting that while launching atmosphere custom firmware does not inherently lead to a ban, any modifications to the console are at the user's own risk, and Nintendo may ban users from online services for such actions.
• 01:30 - 03:00: Check Switch Modability The chapter titled 'Check Switch Modability' serves as a beginner's guide to modding the Nintendo Switch. It introduces viewers to the basics and directs them to further resources to explore more advanced modifications. Specifically, it highlights the potential benefits of modding, such as using mods for popular games like Smash Bros and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, as well as recording gameplay without the need for a capture card. The narrator underscores the practicality and enjoyment of these mods, suggesting that viewers check out additional tutorials for comprehensive understanding.
• 03:00 - 04:30: Required Materials This chapter provides an overview of the necessary materials and prerequisites for modding unpatched Nintendo Switch units. It emphasizes that the guide will not work for patched switches, Switch Lite, or OLED models. The tutorial is conducted using a Windows PC, although users with different operating systems such as Chromebook, Mac, or Linux can follow along with some variations. Additional resources, including video tutorials, are available on the author's YouTube channel for further assistance.
• 04:30 - 09:00: Format Micro SD Card The chapter starts with a disclaimer reminding readers that the instructions provided come under the educational purposes allowed by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. The chapter focuses on prepping a modifiable Nintendo Switch by first ensuring the device is indeed modifiable by checking the serial number. It emphasizes the need for a compatible device before proceeding with formatting a micro SD card.
• 09:00 - 13:00: Install Atmosphere CFW This chapter provides instructions on checking the serial number of a Nintendo Switch device, with specific steps to access this information both physically and through system settings. It also guides on using the website 'is my switch patch.com' to input the serial number's initial six digits. This is the initial step in determining compatibility for installing Atmosphere CFW on the device.
• 13:00 - 16:00: Using Homebrew App Store The chapter titled 'Using Homebrew App Store' discusses the process of determining whether your Nintendo Switch is modifiable. It highlights the importance of having an unpatched Switch to successfully mod it using a hardware exploit that Nintendo has since patched in newer versions of the Switch. Depending on the patch status indicated by color codes (Green for unpatched, Yellow for possibly patched, and Red for patched), users may have different pathways forward. An unpatched Switch (Green) is ideal for modification, while a possibly patched Switch (Yellow) could still have slim chances for modification. If the console is Red, indicating it's patched, the guide suggests that hardware modifications would be necessary, though these are not covered in the chapter.
• 16:00 - 18:00: Conclusion and Recommendations The chapter discusses the steps involved in determining if your Nintendo Switch is patched or not, starting with models from late 2018. If your Switch model might be patched, it's advised to follow the guide to see if it works. The first requirement is a Micro SD card and a compatible reader for your computer, with an SD card adapter recommended for regular use with the Switch. The guide also suggests using an RCM jig, which is affordable and available on platforms like Amazon.

How to install Atmosphère CFW, Hekate, and Homebrew | Switch TUTORIAL Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hello folks monito here hope you're doing good in this video I'll be showing you the basics of modding your switch I'll be covering the setup of atmosphere custom firmware tegr cmgi hecy for formatting your micro SD card to Fat 32 format and the home brew app store first a disclaimer simply launching atmosphere custom firmware shouldn't get you banned but anything you do to your console is of course at your own risk Nintendo can ban you from using online services on your switch
• 00:30 - 01:00 second I also can't provide any links in this tutorial however I can still show you what you need and where to go if you're new to switch modding or returning to it for the first time in a while then this is the guide for you after watching this video you can check out my other tutorials on other things you can do with a modded switch such as using mods for games like Smash Bros Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and recording gameplay without a capture card it's really neat definitely recommend
• 01:00 - 01:30 checking those out after this you can find those videos and more in my tutorial playlist on my channel here's a few things to take note of this will only cover how to mod unpatched switch units patched switches switch lights and OLED consoles will not work with this guide in this tutorial and in all of my other tutorials I will be using a Windows PC for the computer sections you can follow along if you're using a Chromebook Mac or Linux but some
• 01:30 - 02:00 steps will be different I'll explain when we get to those parts and since Nintendo has been after these atmosphere guides as a precaution I'd like to state that this is covered under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 and is for educational purposes only and with that let's go over what's required you'll need a modable Nintendo switch in order to find out if yours is modable you'll need to check the serial number
• 02:00 - 02:30 you can find your serial number under your switch or by going to your system settings down to system and scroll down to serial information now go to is my switch patch.com change the prefix here to match your switches and then type the first six digits of your serial number after you enter your serial
• 02:30 - 03:00 number you'll then see if your switch is patched or not if it's unpatched green then you're good to mod if it's possibly patched yellow then the chances of your switch being modable are slim but still worth a try if your switch is patched red then unfortunately you won't be able to continue unless you make Hardware modifications to your switch which I won't be covering the reason for needing an unpatched switch is that we will be taking advantage of a hardware exploit that Nintendo patched out in switch
• 03:00 - 03:30 models starting in late 2018 if your switch is possibly patched follow along with the rest of the guide and if it works then your switch is not patched the next thing you'll need is a Micro SD card and a way to read it on your computer I personally use an SD card adapter and the same micro SD card that I normally use with my switch next up an RCM jig you can find these for less than $10 on Amazon you
• 03:30 - 04:00 might be asking why do you need one of these to sum it up the RCM jig shorts specific pins on the right joy-con rail that when paired with a certain button combination on the switch tablet allows us to access the switch's recovery mode with an unpatched switch we can then send payload files to the switch which will allow us to use mods and Homebrew you can also use a paperclip instead of an RCM jig but it's not as user friendly I definitely recommend
• 04:00 - 04:30 going with an RCM jig last but not least you'll need a USBC cable I personally use the cable that came with my Pro Controller but I have used other cables such as my phone charger and that's all you'll need before starting this tutorial make sure to click that subscribe button and the notification Bell to stay notified of future videos and to support the channel I also have a growing Community Discord server where you can join to talk with me and other members of the community or if you need help with Mod stuff
• 04:30 - 05:00 I highly recommend joining as there's a lot of resources there that will help you with modding with that out of the way let's get to the tutorial first up formatting your micro SD card to Fat 32 this is to prevent any potential file corruption in the future formatting your micro SD card will erase everything on it so make sure you back up anything you don't want deleted if you have digital games on your SD card that's fine you can redownload them after this now turn
• 05:00 - 05:30 your switch off to do so hold the power button for a few seconds and you'll see sleep mode and power options tap power options and to turn off eject your SD card and put it into your computer back up any files to your computer if you have anything that can't be redownloaded if you have your screenshots and videos stored on your SD card you can find them in the Nintendo folder and inside of the album album
• 05:30 - 06:00 folder you can move the album folder to your desktop if you want to back up any screenshots or videos now rightclick your SD card and click properties if your file system is xat you'll need to delete your Nintendo folder and reinstall your games from the eShop after formatting to Fat 32 don't worry your digital purchases are linked to your Nintendo account and not your SD card if your file system is fat 32 you can back up the Nintendo folder to your
• 06:00 - 06:30 computer and move it back after formatting the SD card my SD card is xat so I'll be deleting the Nintendo folder and redownloading my games later search up hey switch on Google and click here the HEC GitHub releases page with HEC we can format our SD card to Fat 32 transferred files to and from your switch SD card via USB and more for now we'll just be using it to format the
• 06:30 - 07:00 SD card the latest release will always be at the top of this page scroll down and you'll see info on the updates made to this version and how to update he for now click hack.zip and open it now drag the bootloader folder to the roote of your SD card the main directory of your SD [Music] card take heck. bin and move it to your computer you can place it on your
• 07:00 - 07:30 desktop or wherever now we'll download Tegra rcmg by Eli boa search tegrarcmgui switch and click here this program will send payload files like hey. bin to our switch while in recovery mode you can download the installer MSI or the portable. zip if you're on a Chromebook Mac or Linux you can also use a web-based payload injector I have not tested these myself
• 07:30 - 08:00 as they do not work on Windows but they work for those in the community that use other operating systems for this video I'll be downloading the portable. zip open it and extract it open Tegra RCM GUI and in the settings tab you'll see different options you can enable or disable whichever options you'd like click install driver
• 08:00 - 08:30 [Music] after that go back to the payloads tab and click the folder icon and navigate to heck. bin if you click the plus icon it'll be added to the favorites list with the favorites list you just need to double click on whichever payload you'd like to send to your switch now eject your switch SD card from your computer and put it back into your switch put your RCM jig on your switch
• 08:30 - 09:00 and remember it has to be on the right [Music] rail hold the volume up and power buttons and the screen should stay off connect your USBC cable to your PC and switch and you should see RCM okay on tagra rcmg now press inject payload and on your switch you should boot into
• 09:00 - 09:30 hecky if your switch is possibly patched and it stays on a black screen hold the power button for 10 seconds enter RCM again and try again if it doesn't work then your switch is patched upon first boot It'll ask for the date enter that [Music] in now select tools partition SD card okay now don't move any the sliders here make sure that the red blue and
• 09:30 - 10:00 orange sliders are at zero next step and follow the onscreen instructions since we already backed up or deleted any big files we'll be good to go with the formatting of the SD card after that go back to the HEC main menu and press power off eject your SD card and put it back into your computer
• 10:00 - 10:30 next the setup of atmosphere custom firmware atmosphere lets you use home brew apps and mods for games like smash Pros it also has built-in support for USB file transferring which makes the process of accessing your SD card way way faster more on that later search atmosphere switch and click here the GitHub releases page for atmosphere custom firmware the latest release will always be at the top I highly recommend reading
• 10:30 - 11:00 any patch notes that are included in new updates atmosphere is being developed by sers n big shout out to CM for all the work they put into this at the time of recording atmosphere is at version 1.6.2 if you are downloading this and it's at a higher version Don't Worry instructions are still the same scroll down and click assets to reveal the downloads download atmosphere. zip and
• 11:00 - 11:30 [Music] fuse.bin move fuse.bin to your desktop or wherever you moved he. bin something to take note of is that when there is a new Switch system update it tends to break atmosphere this is fine for your switch as mods actually run off the SD card and do not install to your system your switch will not be bricked unless you plan on tampering with system data we won't be doing that in my videos though if a system update
• 11:30 - 12:00 breaks atmosphere don't worry wait for a new version and then download the latest zip release and latest fuse.bin and replace the old versions with the new when updating atmosphere I don't recommend entirely deleting your old atmosphere folder from your SD card since some mods are stored in there and you may have to redownload them if you delete it you can merge the new atmosphere version with the old and replace any existing files
• 12:00 - 12:30 or check what mods are placed where back those up delete the old atmosphere folder put the new version and then restore your mods another thing to note is there's a chance that you can get banned from online services depending on what you do with mods if you're only looking to use smash mods custom themes or simple things like that you should be fine my switch tutorial playlist mostly consists of Wi-Fi safe mods that have not yet caused Bans I've personally been
• 12:30 - 13:00 using atmosphere and switch mods along with other Homebrew for a few years and I haven't been banned yet remember you're doing this at your own risk next open atmosphere. zip and drag everything inside to the root of your SD card the root is the main directory of your SD card don't place these folders and files in any subf folders now eject your SD card and place it into your switch don't turn it on just yet there is still one more thing
• 13:00 - 13:30 to do we need to send the fuse.bin payload to the switch the same way we sent the HEC payload earlier open Tegra r cmgi or your alternative payload injector click the folder icon and navigate to fuse.bin which we downloaded with atmosphere and if you click the plus icon it'll be added to the favorites list now put your RCM jig on your switch hold the volume up and Power buttons and the screen should stay
• 13:30 - 14:00 off connect your USBC cable to your PC and switch and you should see RCM okay now press inject payload and your switch should start up with atmosphere now atmosphere is not a permanent install if you power down your switch completely and turn it back on you'll be out of atmosphere in order to go back into atmosphere simply turn off your switch put on the RCM jig and inject the fuse.bin payload again I
• 14:00 - 14:30 recommend keeping your switch in sleep mode so you can stay in atmosphere all the time you can continue to use your switch as you normally would now that our switch is running atmosphere we can use Homebrew to access the Homebrew menu you can either go through the album or open a game while holding the R button I recommend accessing The Home Room menu through a game as it gives the apps access to more RAM this is title takeover if you would like to access the normal
• 14:30 - 15:00 album then hold the R button while opening [Music] it now open The Homebrew menu via title takeover or through the album press X on USB file transfer to Star the app keeping it at the front at all times press a to open it and if you're still connected to your PC you should be able to access your SD card if it's not then connect the USB cable
• 15:00 - 15:30 to your switch and PC you should find the device in your file explorer it's named Nintendo switch open it open SD card and you'll have access to your SD card this is very useful for adding more mods home brw and more you can also access your album and move screenshots and videos over to your PC something to take note of it's not recommended to update atmosphere using
• 15:30 - 16:00 USB file transferring update by turning off your switch and ejecting the SD card as shown earlier in the video also for obvious reasons this only works in handheld mode if you'd like to transfer files wirelessly handheld or docked follow my guide on setting up FTP Wireless file transferring next we'll be downloading The Homebrew App Store big shout out to the App Store team found here search Homebrew App Store switch go to
• 16:00 - 16:30 the GitHub release page and scroll down to app store. nro and download it drag app store. nro to your desktop and then move it to your switch folder the switch folder is where you'll place any home brew. nro files when you're done moving this over press Plus on your switch and it'll exit the app go to The Homebrew App Store and press a there's a lot of neat Homebrew and
• 16:30 - 17:00 they're all sorted out for the most part Homebrew is safe to use and should work on the latest system update but I highly encourage you to do your own research before using anything to exit you can just press the home button and close the app and that is all for the video I hope you all enjoyed this tutorial please leave a comment letting me know what you thought of the video and on anything I can improve in future videos I definitely appreciate the feedback and
• 17:00 - 17:30 hey of course you know let me know how you're doing and what you'd like to see in a video on the left you'll see a playlist of my switch moding guides and on the right a video that YouTube recommends for you from my channel might be a cringey one and oh it's this one yeah definitely check that one out yeah um yeah thank you guys for your support and shout out to my channel members thank you very much and thank you yeah you watching the video right now for watching Until the End have a
• 17:30 - 18:00 good day good night whatever time you're watching this and God bless see you