Pretendo
Pretendo
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3DS/2DS Family

CAUTION: SYSTEM TRANSFERS ARE NOT CURRENTLY SUPPORTED BY OUR SERVERS. ATTEMPTING TO PERFORM A SYSTEM TRANSFER MAY PREVENT YOU FROM BEING ABLE TO GO ONLINE IN THE FUTURE. SUPPORT FOR SYSTEM TRANSFERS IS IN DEVELOPMENT.
CAUTION: Collecting badges in Nintendo Badge Arcade while connected to one network and then launching the game on a different network will result in your badges disappearing. This occurs because the locally saved data does not match the data stored on the server.
ℹ️ This guide assumes that you have a Homebrewed System running the latest version of Luma3DS (13+), if you don't please follow this guide on how to homebrew your system first.

The following steps are required for you to connect to the Pretendo Network:

  1. Downloading Nimbus
  2. Enabling Luma patches
  3. Nimbus

Downloading Nimbus

ℹ️ Nimbus is also available on Universal-Updater. If you do not have Universal-Updater, you may follow this guide. You may download the required files from there, rather than GitHub, or install/update the app directly from your console.

ℹ️ If installed directly from your console for the first time, you will still be required to install the associated IPS patches from GitHub. Once installed, updates may be managed purely from Universal-Updater

Before starting, power off your console and insert its SD card into your computer.

Once inserted, download the latest Nimbus release.

Nimbus is available as both a 3DSX app and an installable CIA. The releases page offers downloads for both. Select the version you would like to use, or select the combined.[version].zip archive to use both.

Extract the contents of the zip archive to the root of your SD card. If you are asked to merge or overwrite files, accept the changes.

Ensure your SD card has all the following files

  • SD:/luma/titles/000400300000BC02/code.ips (Miiverse, JPN)
  • SD:/luma/titles/000400300000BD02/code.ips (Miiverse, USA)
  • SD:/luma/titles/000400300000BE02/code.ips (Miiverse, EUR)
  • SD:/luma/sysmodules/0004013000002F02.ips (SSL)
  • SD:/luma/sysmodules/0004013000003202.ips (FRD/Friends)
  • SD:/luma/sysmodules/0004013000003802.ips (ACT/NNID)
  • SD:/3ds/juxt-prod.pem (Juxtaposition certificate)

If not installed through Universal-Updater, ensure at least one of the following also exists

  • SD:/cias/nimbus.cia
  • SD:/3ds/nimbus.3dsx

Insert your SD card back into your console.

Luma patches

ℹ️ Skip this step if you've already enabled the required patches on your console for Pretendo Network.

In order to make use of the Pretendo Network service, you will need to enable Luma patches on your console. Hold the SELECT button on your 3DS and power it on.

On the screen that is displayed, make sure that these following options are enabled:

  • Enable loading external FIRMS and modules
  • Enable game patching

Press START to save and continue with these changes.

Installing Nimbus to HOME Menu

ℹ️ Skip this step if you downloaded the 3DSX only zip file.

If you downloaded the combined or cia archives, you can install Nimbus to the HOME Menu for quick and easy access.

Open FBI. If you do not have FBI, download the latest release from GitHub. Select SD, then cias. Find and select nimbus.cia. Select either Install CIA or Install and delete CIA.

Once it has finished installing, press the HOME button and exit FBI. You should see a message that a new application has been added to the HOME Menu. Click OK and you'll now have Nimbus on your HOME Menu.

Using Nimbus

Depending on how you installed Nimbus, launch it either through the Homebrew Launcher or the 3DS HOME Menu. Select either Pretendo or Nintendo to swap between services.

Your selection persists between reboots.

Signing into your PNID

The 3DS does not rely on NNIDs for the vast majority of it's game servers. Because of this, using a PNID is also not required for most games[1].

Setting up a PNID on the 3DS is the same as setting up a NNID. You may either create the PNID on your console, or register from an account on our website and link it to your console once you're ready.

It is recommended to register the PNID on your device at this time, as registering on the website does not currently allow you to change your user data.

CAUTION: A Pretendo Network ID may not use the same username as the account already linked to your 3DS! Ensure that you have a choose a different name for your PNID than the name on your NNID.

Other information

How does Nimbus work?

Nimbus will create a 2nd local account set to the test NASC environment. The IPS patches will set the test NASC environment URLs to point to Pretendo. You may freely switch between Pretendo and Nintendo. Your selected mode will persist between reboots.

2nd local account?

You may have thought to yourself; "2nd local account? What's that? I thought the 3DS only had one account?" And you'd be half right. The 3DS only normally supports one account, and you may only have one account active at a time. However Nintendo implemented support for multiple local accounts on the 3DS/2DS which remains unused on all retail units. On a normal retail unit only one local account is ever made, which is set to the prod NASC environment. Local accounts may be set to prod, test or dev. Nimbus makes use of this unused feature to create sandboxed local accounts with different environments

  • [1] Some games may require a PNID for certain actions, such as eShop purchases. The only known game which requires a PNID for general use is Nintendo Badge Arcade, which is not yet supported

Restoring Nintendo Badge Arcade Badges

  1. Insert your SD Card into your PC.
  2. Back up your badges at the folder on your SD Card SD:Nintendo 3DS/ID0/ID1/extdata/00000000/000014d1.
  3. Download Simple Badge Injector.
  4. Insert your SD Card into your console.
  5. Use Nimbus to switch to Pretendo.
  6. Open Simple Badge Injector and make a note of the "Nintendo Network ID" value.
  7. Still inside SBI, choose the option to dump your badge data files.
  8. Turn off your 3DS and remove the SD card. Insert your SD card into your PC.
  9. Download and open Advanced Badge Editor.
  10. Go to File > Open Data, then choose the folder where BadgeData.dat and BadgeMngFile.dat are. (Located at sd:/3ds/SimpleBadgeInjector/Dumped)
  11. Replace the NNID value with the one you made a note of in SBI earlier.
  12. Select Save As to save the modified file separately from the backup.
  13. Put your modified badge data filed into sd:/3ds/SimpleBadgeInjector
  14. Put your SD card back into your 3DS and go back into SBI
  15. Inject your modified badge data files.

All badges placed on the home menu will be deleted, and you have to re-add them in the order you have had them before.

If you encounter any errors, restore your backed up badge data through SBI. Injecting badges while using Pretendo Network will make them disappear when swapping back to Nintendo Network, and vice versa.