[Tutorial] Ripping Guide for Animal Crossing New Horizons (2024)

Username123

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04-15-2020, 11:28 AM (This post was last modified: 06-15-2020, 07:37 AM by Username123.)

New Guide (can also extract data from update files):
Files that you need for this Guide:
Switch Hactool -https://github.com/SciresM/hactool/releases
An Animal Crossing New Horizons .nsp(Google for that)
Optional:An Animal Crossing New Horizons update.nsp(Google for that)
prod.keys (Google for that) - Don't post yours here as it is illegal to share them.
Switch Toolbox -https://github.com/KillzXGaming/Switch-T...TAL_LATEST

For the base game + update file:
1. Unzip the Switch Hactool and put your prod.keys in the same folder
2. Open cmd and navigate to your folder. Then run these two commands to extract the .nca files from the .nsp files:
hactool.exe -t pfs0 --pfs0dir=base_nca your_base.nspand hactool.exe -t pfs0 --pfs0dir=update_nca your_update.nsp
( Of course, you have to replace your_base.nsp and your_update.nsp with the path to your two .nsp files)
3. Then open the "update_nca" folder and open the .tik file with ahex editor of your choice. Copy the title key which is located at 0x180.
4. Now execute this command:hactool.exe -k prod.keys --basenca="base_nca/your_base.nca" --titlekey=your_titlekey --romfsdir --exefsdir="exefs" "update_nca/your_update.nca"
( Replace "your_titlekey" with the title key that you just copied, also replace "your_base.nca" with the name of your biggest base game ncafile and lastlyreplace "your_update.nca"with the name ofyourbiggest updatencafile)
5. Wait until the extraction process is finished, then you canopen the switch toolbox and use it to view and export most of the game files.

For the base game only:
1. Unzip the Switch Hactool and put your prod.keys in the same folder
2. Open cmd and navigate to your folder. Then run thiscommand to extract the .nca files from the .nsp file:
hactool.exe -t pfs0 --pfs0dir=base_nca your_base.nsp
( Of course, you have to replace your_base.nsp with the path to your .nsp file )
3. Now execute this command:hactool.exe base_nca/your_base.nca-k prod.keys--romfsdir --exefsdir="exefs"
( Replace "your_base.nca" with the name of the biggest base game ncafile)
4. Wait until the extraction process is finished, then you canopen the switch toolbox and use it to view and export most of the game files.

Please note thatHactool will always show: "[WARN] prod.keys does not exist.", you can just ignore that.

How to use Switch Toolbox

Importing and previewing files into SwitchToolbox

Exporting Models

Exporting Textures

Exporting Animations

How to convertsound files

Converting .bars files to .bwav files

Converting .bwavfiles

Troubleshooting

Old Guide

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keyblade_crafter

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04-16-2020, 05:04 PM (This post was last modified: 04-16-2020, 05:10 PM by keyblade_crafter.)

4 folderswere extracted but there is nothing inside them. im not able to open then in the toolbox. any ideas?

i also tried pressing 1, then extracting all the files instead of just the nca files, but that didnt work either.

edit: i should say the nsc builder extracted 4 nca files, but im not sure how to preview them with the toolbox

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Username123

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Joined: Apr 2020

04-16-2020, 05:24 PM

(04-16-2020, 05:04 PM)keyblade_crafter Wrote: 4 folderswere extracted but there is nothing inside them. im not able to open then in the toolbox. any ideas?
i also tried pressing 1, then extracting all the files instead of just the nca files, but that didnt work either.
edit: i should say the nsc builder extracted 4 nca files, but im not sure how to preview them with the toolbox

Most likely there is something wrong with your keys, since the program extracts the .nca files even with broken keys, but cannot decrypt them.

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keyblade_crafter

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04-16-2020, 05:40 PM

i was able to find a title.keys and that allowed me to view the models. do you know if there is a way to export just the bfres files from the model folder?

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Username123

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Joined: Apr 2020

04-16-2020, 05:46 PM

(04-16-2020, 05:40 PM)keyblade_crafter Wrote: i was able to find a title.keys and that allowed me to view the models. do you know if there is a way to export just the bfres files from the model folder?

You have to open the file in the switch toolbox and do a right click on output.bfres and press export.
But I don't know if there is a way to do this for all files at the same time.

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kouglov

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04-18-2020, 10:43 AM (This post was last modified: 04-18-2020, 11:04 AM by kouglov.)

Cool tutorial ! mannaged to extract successfuly many things.
Now parsing them, opening with ToolBox, it works great.

Something that has been bothering me tho, the complete image is about 6 Gb, and only 2.8 Gb extracted.
Did I do something wrong ? Is it possible that some data is hidden elsewhere ?

EDIT : my bad, I wasn't looking at every extracted folder. I have +7Gb extracted

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Servine

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04-18-2020, 11:28 AM

Hi, this is my first time ripping stuff, so I'm not too great at this.

I keep getting this error:
"Response 404. Old Files weren't removed."

Do you know how I can fix it?

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sectoid

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04-18-2020, 11:31 AM

That's exactly the problem I'm having, Servine.

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kouglov

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04-18-2020, 11:42 AM

You can ignore this 404, this worked for me. Just drag your NSP file on the command line, press Enter and follow the rest of the tutorial

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sectoid

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#10

04-18-2020, 11:47 AM

(04-18-2020, 11:42 AM)kouglov Wrote: You can ignore this 404, this worked for me. Just drag your NSP file on the command line, press Enter and follow the rest of the tutorial

Oh, okay. Thanks! I might have been having issues because the XCI file got an error right before completing extraction.

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kouglov

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#11

04-18-2020, 12:02 PM (This post was last modified: 04-18-2020, 12:02 PM by kouglov.)

(04-15-2020, 11:28 AM)Username123 Wrote: Files that you need for this Guide:
NSC Builder -https://github.com/julesontheroad/NSC_BUILDER/releases
An Animal Crossing New Horizons .xcior .nsp(Google for that)
Keys.txt (Google for prod.keys and rename it)
Switch Toolbox -https://github.com/KillzXGaming/Switch-T...TAL_LATEST
1. Unzip the NSC Builder and copy your keys.txt in the folder "ztools".
2. OpenNSCB.bat and press "6" to enter the advanced mode. If it says "Getting NUTDB json" wait until it is finished.
Then press "2" and select your .xci or .nsp. After selectingyour filepress "1" and then "4" to start the extraction process(this will take a while).
3. After it successfully finished, you can close the window and open thefolder "NSCB_exctrated".The unpacked game files should now be there.
4. Now you canopen the switch toolbox and use it to view and export most of the game files.
And yes, you can theoretically perform this process with any other switch game, but unfortunately I couldn't manage to extract data from game updates. So let me know if you can do it.

So far, I couldn't extract files from the updates nca file too.I think it is the one containing characters models, wich could explain why they pushed it day one.

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sectoid

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#12

04-18-2020, 12:14 PM

(04-18-2020, 12:02 PM)kouglov Wrote:
(04-15-2020, 11:28 AM)Username123 Wrote: Files that you need for this Guide:
NSC Builder -https://github.com/julesontheroad/NSC_BUILDER/releases
An Animal Crossing New Horizons .xcior .nsp(Google for that)
Keys.txt (Google for prod.keys and rename it)
Switch Toolbox -https://github.com/KillzXGaming/Switch-T...TAL_LATEST
1. Unzip the NSC Builder and copy your keys.txt in the folder "ztools".
2. OpenNSCB.bat and press "6" to enter the advanced mode. If it says "Getting NUTDB json" wait until it is finished.
Then press "2" and select your .xci or .nsp. After selectingyour filepress "1" and then "4" to start the extraction process(this will take a while).
3. After it successfully finished, you can close the window and open thefolder "NSCB_exctrated".The unpacked game files should now be there.
4. Now you canopen the switch toolbox and use it to view and export most of the game files.
And yes, you can theoretically perform this process with any other switch game, but unfortunately I couldn't manage to extract data from game updates. So let me know if you can do it.

So far, I couldn't extract files from the updates nca file too.I think it is the one containing characters models, wich could explain why they pushed it day one.

Wait, so the base file doesn't contain the villager models? Damn.

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kouglov

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Joined: Apr 2020

#13

04-18-2020, 12:23 PM (This post was last modified: 04-18-2020, 01:44 PM by kouglov.)

(04-18-2020, 12:14 PM)sectoid Wrote:
(04-18-2020, 12:02 PM)kouglov Wrote:
(04-15-2020, 11:28 AM)Username123 Wrote: Files that you need for this Guide:
NSC Builder -https://github.com/julesontheroad/NSC_BUILDER/releases
An Animal Crossing New Horizons .xcior .nsp(Google for that)
Keys.txt (Google for prod.keys and rename it)
Switch Toolbox -https://github.com/KillzXGaming/Switch-T...TAL_LATEST
1. Unzip the NSC Builder and copy your keys.txt in the folder "ztools".
2. OpenNSCB.bat and press "6" to enter the advanced mode. If it says "Getting NUTDB json" wait until it is finished.
Then press "2" and select your .xci or .nsp. After selectingyour filepress "1" and then "4" to start the extraction process(this will take a while).
3. After it successfully finished, you can close the window and open thefolder "NSCB_exctrated".The unpacked game files should now be there.
4. Now you canopen the switch toolbox and use it to view and export most of the game files.
And yes, you can theoretically perform this process with any other switch game, but unfortunately I couldn't manage to extract data from game updates. So let me know if you can do it.

So far, I couldn't extract files from the updates nca file too.I think it is the one containing characters models, wich could explain why they pushed it day one.

Wait, so the base file doesn't contain the villager models? Damn.

I think not. I've explored everything of the 7Gb, and there is no model or texture of villagers or NPC in sight.

Edit : for an unknown reason, not all content of model folder was extracted. See my last post on this.

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kouglov

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Joined: Apr 2020

#14

04-18-2020, 12:47 PM

Okay, strangely, not all content of model folder was extracted with the method using NSC Builder.
So I did a re-run with this : https://github.com/simontime/SwitchExplorer/releases
and the content of the model folder jumped from 10k to 30k.
Been able to find quickly some NPC model.
I don't know if they're all here, but they may be.

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Username123

Some random user

Posts: 18
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Joined: Apr 2020

#15

04-18-2020, 04:23 PM

(04-18-2020, 12:47 PM)kouglov Wrote: Okay, strangely, not all content of model folder was extracted with the method using NSC Builder.
So I did a re-run with this : https://github.com/simontime/SwitchExplorer/releases
and the content of the model folder jumped from 10k to 30k.
Been able to find quickly some NPC model.
I don't know if they're all here, but they may be.

@kouglov Strange, for me the NSC Builder worked perfectly and extracted all 37,549 elements in the model folder.

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[Tutorial] Ripping Guide for Animal Crossing New Horizons (2024)

References