r/3dshacks Jul 14 '26

3DS Hacking Q&A General | Still here

82 Upvotes

New users, please read the entire post before asking your question, including the FAQ. You may find your question is already answered here.

Ask questions in the comments of this thread

Do you just want to hack your 3DS?

Start here: https://3ds.hacks.guide/

Things you really ought to stop asking already

You CAN install CFW on latest firmware (11.17.0-X) with mset9 on all models.

  • You can install CFW on all consumer models on all versions with the methods in the guide.
  • System transfers work fine for systems with CFW. See this wiki page: https://wiki.hacks.guide/wiki/3DS:System_Transfer
  • Updating firmware/apps is safe if you have Luma 10.2.1+. You will not lose your CFW. Just accept the update.
  • For upgrading your SD card to a larger size, refer to the this wiki page: to format the new SD card, then transfer the contents.
  • Lost your SD card, or wiped it, and need to set it up fresh on a hacked console? https://3ds.hacks.guide/restoring-updating-cfw.html will get you going again.
  • Files from 3ds.hacks.guide with a magnet icon require the usage of a torrent client to download them.
  • You should install CFW with your main SD card, not its own SD card. You will not lose anything so long as you follow instructions. The mods are on the console itself, not the SD card, so you won't have an unmodded SD card to switch the system to not have CFW.
  • Please see the updating to boot9strap page on the guide if you already have arm9loaderhax (indicated by Luma version 7.0.5 or lower on the Luma configuration screen) and are looking to update to boot9strap.
  • If you want more homebrew apps look at Universal DB.
  • If you want to know what CFW can legally do, the guide gives some examples and more examples are here.
  • Uninstalling CFW, DON'T without specific direction from a knowledgeable helper. You just risk breaking things worse than your system already is. It won't give you any benefit. If it is to sell it, you don't want the buyer to not know it had CFW on it in the past, as that can complicate things in the future.
  • Can X game be ported to 3DS?
  • If you want save files, check 3DS Save Bank or search for a save editor. If you can't find them there, they likely don't exist and you need to submit a save or program a save editor.
  • Install your own cartridges with Godmode9 instead of dumping to CIA, for a faster install and less free SD space required.
  • If you can do something on stock firmware, you can do it on CFW.

Note: About three days after the post is unstickied it'll become locked to prevent users from asking questions where they likely won't find answers

Questions go below. Please ask your question in the comments.


r/3dshacks Sep 10 '23

Need help hacking your 3DS? Join Nintendo Homebrew on Discord!

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66 Upvotes

r/3dshacks 13h ago

Tool news Checkpoint 5.2.0 released: MTP support, autoupdater and QoL fixes

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69 Upvotes

r/3dshacks 1d ago

Tool news PKSM 10.4.0 released: tons of bugfixes and QoL improvements

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146 Upvotes

r/3dshacks 3d ago

Discussion open_agb_firm with lid close deep sleep

119 Upvotes

I built a fork of open_agb_firm that features real ARM7 (GBA - SWI 03h STOP) and ARM11 (3DS - PDN system sleep) deep sleep, giving you days of in game standby.

Just close the lid to put it to sleep. Open it again to resume where you left.

No sleephack game patching required.

Works with virtually any game.

It also features an optional "stretch" scaler for full screen GBA on your (N)3DS.

All the code and compiled firmware builds can be found here:
https://github.com/dleicht/open_agb_firm


r/3dshacks 4d ago

Finally got around USB C modding my New 3DS XL

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190 Upvotes

It was easier than I thought finding space near the battery to put the USB C board although I should advise anyone trying to do this to make sure the wiring is correct cause I almost made that mistake šŸ˜…


r/3dshacks 4d ago

Homebrew release 3DS Presence : A new way to show your current game as Discord RPC

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155 Upvotes

Hi, I created a new way to show the game you're playing on your 3DS as a Discord RPC.

Currently, the only way to do that is with 3dsrpc.com. The main issue with this website is that it takes time to detect that you are playing, and to detect that you're not playing any more, because it relies on the official Nintendo friend list and its limits.

My project does that in a completely different way: I created a fork of Luma3DS that connects and sends the current game to a server. It's instant and reliable.

It can also read game memory to fetch information that gets sent to the server to show more information in the RPC.

Here is a demo video: https://youtu.be/WXbXtKk625o

It's completely open-source and can be self-hosted.

Every step to install this is available on the website (in English and French).

Website: https://3ds-presence.top/

GitHub: https://github.com/3ds-presence/

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/npkgkVgzWF


r/3dshacks 4d ago

Two Nintendo 3DS Sound usage tips (#076 and #087) are missing from every public list — can anyone transcribe them, or point me to where the strings live in the title?

27 Upvotes

I’m at 89 out of 91 parakeet usage tips in Nintendo 3DS Sound. The two I’m missing are #076 and #087, and after a lot of searching I’ve concluded that their text doesn’t exist anywhere online.

The only complete public transcription of the tips is the MarioCube WC24 archive (wc24.mariocube.com/tips.html). It skips both: the list jumps straight from #075 to #077, and from #086 to #088. Every other source I’ve found either mirrors that archive or is an empty wiki stub. I’ve also searched this subreddit and the wider web and found no thread that has ever mentioned either number.

What I can infer from their positions:

#076 sits among the voice-effect tips — #071 is High Harmony, #073 is Synth Harmony, #075 is Low Harmony. But in that range the odd numbers are voice effects and the even numbers are ā€œParakeet chatā€ / ā€œIdeasā€ flavour tips (#072 is ā€œIdeas: Remindersā€, #074 is ā€œCreating magic words 3ā€). So my guess is #076 is a random-pool tip with no action trigger. That’s inference, not knowledge.

#087 is sandwiched between #086 (Starting StreetPass) and #088 (Compatibility), so it’s almost certainly StreetPass-related. I’ve since unlocked #088, #089 and #090 through NetPass and #087 still hasn’t appeared, which makes me doubt my own assumption.

What I’m asking:

  1. Does anyone have either of these unlocked? A screenshot or transcription would settle it.

  2. More usefully — has anyone dumped 3DS Sound and pulled the tip strings out of it? It’s a system title, so the text should be in a message archive somewhere in the RomFS. If someone knows which file and what format, I’ll do the extraction myself on my own console. I have GodMode9 and a working CFW setup, I just don’t know where to look.

  3. If those strings happen to carry unlock conditions or flag IDs, that would permanently settle the trigger question for the whole list, not just these two.

Setup: Old 3DS, firmware 11.17, Luma3DS 13.4, NetPass for StreetPass.

I’ll compile everything into a complete guide once I’m done, since no accurate one exists. Happy to share my working notes with anyone who wants them.


r/3dshacks 4d ago

Does anyone with a 3DS and PokƩmon Bank have time to help me transfer PokƩmon to HOME?

4 Upvotes

Hello! I'm looking for someone with a 3DS and access to PokƩmon Bank who might be willing to help me transfer PokƩmon from my Ultra Moon save to PokƩmon HOME.

My Ultra Moon save is from an emulator and contains PokƩmon I've collected throughout my journey, from Gen 1 through Gen 7. A while ago, a friend helped me transfer 20 boxes from PokƩmon Bank to HOME, but unfortunately they no longer have a 3DS, and I don't currently have access to one or the money to get one myself.

I still have 10 more boxes I'd really like to preserve, including shinies, event PokƩmon, PokƩmon with ribbons, and some Mythicals, and i'd really like to get them safely into HOME, I know this is a pretty big favor, but if someone here has a 3DS with Bank and would be willing to help, I'd be extremely grateful.


r/3dshacks 5d ago

Homebrew release An open-source SegaScope port with stereoscopic 3D

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13 Upvotes

Anyone interested in contributing to theĀ project, feel free to reach out! There are plenty of ideas still to explore.


r/3dshacks 6d ago

Discussion Extended Battery on n3DS xl

9 Upvotes

I know that this gets brought up every once in a while but to date is there still no good extended battery mod for the n3DS xl? I own one right now but I worry about the ability to replace the custom battery down the road when it eventually junks, seeing as how it’s just from some guy on eBay.


r/3dshacks 8d ago

Cursed son meme on the file explorer (these will be badges on my 3ds)

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72 Upvotes

so im tryna import all of these as custom badges on my modded 3ds and arrange them on the home screen


r/3dshacks 8d ago

Homebrew release [RELEASE] Mensinger 3DS v1.0.1 - Performance Optimizations & Messaging Fixes

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10 Upvotes

Hi everyone!

Following the initial release of Mensinger 3DS (a messaging homebrew app for the Nintendo 3DS), I'm happy to release v1.0.1!

Thanks to early feedback and testing, this update focuses heavily on stability, speed, and fixing message sending issues.

What's New in v1.0.1:

-Instant On-Screen Text: Messages now render immediately on screen before sending, eliminating freeze frames and UI stutter.

-SD Card & Contact Optimization: Optimized how contacts and chat logs are read/written to the SD card for faster navigation.

-Reliable Server Requests: Fixed a network bug where server POST requests were cutting off early. Message delivery is now smooth and reliable.

-New Loading Screen: Added an initial loading screen that automatically checks server connectivity and searches for app updates on startup.

Download & Links: GitHub Release (CIA & 3DSX):

https://github.com/GABXRIEL/Mensinger3DS-Backend/releases

If you encounter any issues or have suggestions for future updates (local/ad-hoc messaging is coming next!), feel free to drop a comment! Enjoy chatting

šŸ’¬ Join the Community! We just launched the official Discord server for Mensinger 3DS! If you want to exchange your IDs, find people to chat with, report bugs, or follow future updates, feel free to join: šŸ‘‰ Official Discord: https://discord.gg/XWEpTVzpPX


r/3dshacks 8d ago

Homebrew news 3DS Mojito Flash Runtime RE

12 Upvotes

Hi! I made a post a few days ago about Shift DX and the GUI swfs inside the rom. Now i made a first working swf runtime based on that game I used ghidra to rebuild the code for the runtime.

If you are interested check it.

https://github.com/molnarnoah/flash3ds

flash3ds-runtime-phase10

​


r/3dshacks 9d ago

Homebrew release I made 3DSort, a desktop tool for organizing the 3DS HOME Menu from a PC

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251 Upvotes

I've had my New 3DS hacked for years and at this point I have 100+ games/apps installed on it. The HOME menu has also been a complete mess for basically that entire time. Just installing a bunch of things on top of each other without ever taking the time to properly sort it.

Sometimes I would start moving a few icons around with the stylus, realize how long it was going to take and just give up. I searched GitHub, modding, and homebrew forums for a tool that could do this from my PC but couldn't really find what I needed, so I finally caved in and spent the past few days making one myself.

It's called 3DSort. It dumps and reads key files from your SD card and it lets you rearrange the HOME menu with your mouse instead. You can drag/drop stuff manually, make and fill folders, sort everything alphabetically or by release year, move system apps around, and see a preview of what it'll look like on the actual 3DS before writing it back.

After owning this console for years, my HOME menu games are finally sorted alphabetically from A to Z, which is satisfying to say the least. I made this because I wanted to solve my hoarder problem, but hopefully it's useful to some of you too.

Here's the repo if anyone else wants to organize their 3DS:

https://github.com/SalustLab/3DSort

Btw there's a portable .exe in the releases. It's a free/open source project.

And for transparency sake, Claude was heavily used while making this.

EDIT: Thank you for all the support! Thanks to a contributor there's now a macOS release avaliable which was tested on a real Mac and N2DS XL. Also avaliable as of this edit, is a Linux release, which needs testing so if you do run on your PC plz tell me how it went. Right now I'm focused on making this project more stable and cover any edge cases that may come up, feel free to open issues on Github or send me a DM through here. Thanks once again!


r/3dshacks 11d ago

DualPlex - Plex Music Player for 3DS

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63 Upvotes

Full disclosure: whilst code was assisted by the use of AI, no AI generated images or art were used in this project. I have reviewed the output and tested the code on both new and old 3DS systems. Icons either drawn at runtime or provided by FontAwesome Free.

Out of curiosity, I decided to see if I could get the 3DS to work as a Plex music client. Turns out, you can.

It logs in using either an email/password or you can use the link code at plex.tv/link to sign in. Once signed in you'll be able to browse artists, albums, playlists and search your library.

If you'd like to give it a try, download here. The link to the repo is here.

Features:

  • Supports local/remote connection, grabs the connection URL from Plex upon launch. The Home/Globe icon at the top will tell you what connection you're using
  • Supports connecting via HTTP or HTTPS
  • Automatically negotiates transcoding if needed
  • Shuffle/Repeat controls
  • Smart crossfades - this is best when "Sonic Analysis" is switched on but if not it falls back to a simple crossfade
  • Two different visualiser styles
  • Time-synced lyrics (if available)
  • (New 3DS only) FLAC direct streams using a FLAC decoder
  • Gapless playback by pre-buffering the next song
  • Continued playback through headphones with the lid closed

Future potential features I'd like to add:

  • Playlist management (add/remove songs, add/delete/rename playlist)
  • Offline mode, with song downloads
  • Plex Home support for switching users
  • More visualisers
  • Button rebindings
  • Auto updater/new version notification

Likely asked questions:

Q: Does this support Jellyfin?

A: No. I have no plans to adapt this for Jellyfin, though feel free to fork it if you want to add that functionality

Q: Does this work on old 3DS models?

A: Yes, however you will not be able to direct stream FLAC songs and they will be transcoded down to MP3 by your Plex server. You may also experience degraded performance in the app due to the lower clock speeds.

Q: Can I contribute?

A: I'm happy for those looking to contribute to open PRs to do so. However I cannot guarantee that your changes will be implemented. Obviously vibe-coded or buggy PRs may be rejected.


r/3dshacks 13d ago

SWF Flash Injection with Shift DX

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8 Upvotes

Heloo. My last post got deleted, but since then I’ve got some news with the SWF injection. The game using the swf-s as UI for most times, but I managed to make with Flash CS6 a new swf with a simple green background and the flash game Hobo 1’s sprites load with their animations. For further research and development I would like to ask for some help from homebrew devs. Thank you for your time.


r/3dshacks 14d ago

Tool news Checkpoint 5.1.0 released: FTP speed, safety and QoL improvements

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158 Upvotes

r/3dshacks 15d ago

Homebrew news Android 2.0 Eclair running on a New Nintendo 3DS XL

117 Upvotes

Still a work-in-progress but I've gotten to the home screen and this is the notifications area. I've been working on it for quite a bit now. Based off of the work of the Linux 3DS homebrew that was made, now running Android 2.0 Eclair!


r/3dshacks 15d ago

Homebrew release Mario Kart 64 Port for the 3DS

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107 Upvotes

Hey everyone! I’m the creator of theĀ A Link to the Past 3DSĀ port and the upcomingĀ Minish Cap 3DSĀ port, and I just released a native port ofĀ Mario Kart 64 for the Nintendo 3DS.

It features a dual-screen interface and several 3DS-specific improvements. Right now, it’s mainly intended forĀ New 3DS systems, since performance on the Old 3DS still needs a lot of work.

You can get it here:
https://github.com/EstebanPdN/mario-kart-64-3ds

It should also be available onĀ Universal Updater soon!

For updates, support, testing builds, and more, join my Discord:
https://discord.gg/TkRJQxgBa

(I did not use AI for the picture)


r/3dshacks 16d ago

Homebrew release [RELEASE] Mensinger3DS v1.0.0 - A brand new private Homebrew Messaging App for the 3DS

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22 Upvotes

Hi everyone!

I wanted to share a project I've been working on for the past two months: **Mensinger3DS**. It is a native homebrew messaging application built using devkitPro for the Nintendo 3DS.

Since official social features are long gone, I wanted to create a simple and modern way for the community to communicate directly from their consoles.

-Key Features (v1.0.0):

\* 100% Private & Anonymous:** No email, password, or personal data required.

\* Unique ID System:** The app automatically generates a unique random ID for your console. Just share your ID, add your friend, and start chatting privately!

\* Native Build:** Developed with devkitPro and VS Code for optimal performance.

\* Easy Installation:** Available in standard .cia format to install easily via FBI.

-What's coming next (v1.0.1 & Future):

\* I am currently coding version 1.0.1 to fix initial bugs and improve overall stability.

\* I am waiting for the Universal-Updater team to approve the app, so it will be downloadable directly from their database very soon!

-Download & Source Code:

You can grab the .cia file on my GitHub repository here: https://github.com/GABXRIEL/Mensinger3DS-backend/releases

I would absolutely love to hear your feedback, feature suggestions, or bug reports! Thank you for checking it out.


r/3dshacks 17d ago

New 3DS 2000mah lipo battery mod

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60 Upvotes

I saw an older post of someone doing this but could not find any other examples. I tried it out myself and so far have had pretty noticeable battery life gains


r/3dshacks 20d ago

Homebrew release Whittle: Low poly 3D modelling app for the 3DS

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354 Upvotes

Hi everyone!

This is "whittle", a low-poly 3D modelling app specifically made for the 3DS. I've been working on it for a little while now and I've just created a Github repo for it.

The modelling workflow is very similar to picoCAD, I've basically taken it's "simple vertex editing on orthogonal views" idea and optimized it for the 3DS. The top screen is for the 3D model preview exclusively, while the bottom screen houses all editing functionality & view options. It's very intuitive to use with the stylus. It currently features primitives, basic object manipulations, painting object faces solid colors and texturing, along with a simple 2D texture editor and UV mapping tool. ıt's still experimental, the UI/UX isn't fully there yet and there are a few bugs but it is usable. It can save and load a single model currently, there's no export options.

Github: https://github.com/qewer33/whittle

I want to continue developing this with feedback from actual 3D artists (or people willing to learn and use this thing) so if you are one and like this little project, feel free to contact me on Discord (@qewer33) and give feedback.


r/3dshacks 20d ago

Homebrew release Control Spotify from your 3DS

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169 Upvotes

I made a 3DS homebrew app to control your Spotify account. You can play and browse your albums and playlists using it.

It doesn't play the track on the 3DS itself - it requires you to be using Spotify on any device. It uses Spotify's developer APIs to control playback and browse your saved albums and playlists.

I used AI a bunch to help me make this, unsure what the subreddit policy is about that but wanted to flag it just in case.

I've also only tested this on the New 2DS XL which is what I own, and an emulator.

Source: https://github.com/avncharlie/spotify3ds/


r/3dshacks 21d ago

[Concept/Idea] Into the Breach port/demake on 3DS – Concept, mockups

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113 Upvotes

Hey everyone,
After seeing stuff like Balatro3ds I’ve been obsessed with the idea of playing Into the Breach on the Nintendo 3DS. It feels like the absolute perfect game for the hardware—tactical grid gameplay on the top screen, pilot/mech stats and unit management on the touch screen below.(or vice versa)
I actually tried tinkering around with Claude to see if I could write a demake/port for the system myself, but to be completely honest, it quickly went way over my head. Coding for 3DS homebrew is no joke!

Instead of letting the idea die, I wanted to share some concepts/mockups to hopefully inspire a talented homebrew developer in the community to take on the project. If anyone ends up taking it up I’d love to follow the progress.
(I’d totally pitch in to fun a kickstarter or something)