Monthly sticky and FAQ: "I forgot to keep it not archived" emergency edition. If you have any questions, read here before posting.

Frequently Asked Questions

❔ Where are we at in the life of the 3DS? / Unfortunately, at the end of the life cycle for the 3DS. We will all work to carry on this consoles longstanding legacy and keep it alive, however we don't expect much more from Nintendo.

❔ Whatever happened to Freeshop? / Nintendo killed it, along with all other programs that get games from Eshop servers. They are permanently dead. Those programs use a really simple exploit to trick the Eshop into thinking you had permission to download whatever game/update/dlc but Nintendo fixed it.

❔ Can we make a new Freeshop? / No. No we cannot. Nintendo fundamentally changed the way the Eshop handles requests to keep us out. If you want to make your own website to host games and have the ability to download from QR codes, you are more than welcome to. Just know there is a large legal risk for hosting and distributing games. Plus the knowledge of building a website and security. These topics have had a lot of discussion in the past.

❔ Can I update to the latest update? / Yes. Go ahead and update. 11.9 needs at the very least Luma 9.1 or else you will soft lock your console until you put the latest Luma.boot on your card. If you are going from 11.9 -> any version after you are fine. The latest update was just for s t a b i l i t y. If you are updating from 11.8 (or lower) -> 11.10 you're good as long as you have any version after 9.1 of Luma.boot or more recent releases on your SD card.

❔ How do I hack my 3DS? / As much as we love to help troubleshoot and make sure everyone can play their games, we focus on the games side of things. Not the hacking/CFW itself. https://www.reddit.com/r/3dshacks/ is the best place for questions and help if you encounter problems. If you don't know where to start: https://3ds.hacks.guide/

❔ I found a .CIA - now what? / Put it on your SD card and use an installer like FBI to install the game. Easy peasy, just like you did to install all the CFW apps earlier.

❔ Can I get banned for pirating games? / NO. You can get banned, however, for using cheats in games while playing online, or downloading and playing leaked games when they haven't released yet. Don't do any of this and you'll be fine. In the past, ban waves happened for people who played unreleased games beforehand. Nintendo could tell who was doing it. We probably aren't getting many (or any) 1st party titles. So just don't use cheats. Nintendo does not know if your console is hacked. They do not know if you are playing games you installed from a .CIA.

❔ Can I update .CIA games normally? / Mostly, yes. If a game is prompting an update notice, try to update by normal means. If you get an error such as 009-2920 or 2008 repeated times, you can always download an update .CIA and install it through FBI or manually uninstall the current update for that game and its seed, the use Tiksweep (it's on Github) and then install the new update from scratch from the Eshop.

❔ I downloaded DLC from from Eshop, played it, but now it's gone. What happened? / Some games like Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS check for your tickets every time you log into the eShop. If you haven't purchased the DLC legitimately, the ticket will be deleted. Redownload the DLC and it'll work again. You can also use a homebrew application called "FakeTik". To avoid this entirely, you can simply stay off of the eshop and you won't have to redownload it from a .CIA. Or, keep a .CIA file for the update in case of it being erased.

❔ If I have pirated games on my system can I use the eShop? / Yes, you have all functions just like if you never hacked your 3DS. You can buy and download games from the eshop. The only issue is some pirated DLC may be deleted (see above).

❔ What is this "errdisp" crash that that crashes my console at random and or in fixed situations / The stable build 10.0.1 of Luma 3DS has a bug that causes false positives with the errdisp bugcheck which crashes the entire system, right now there is no newer stable build, so until then the fix is using the latest hourly build by dropping that boot.firm file into the root of your SD card and replacing the one thats already there, if using an FTP or SD management make sure to reboot to apply it.

❔ How can I install games if I don't have access to the SD card? / Use Boop. Download the software on your PC, open FBI on your 3DS, select Remote Install, write the IP address shown on screen on your 3DS, select the .CIA file and let it install. Alternatively, you can use a QR code that redirects to a website that isn't the EShop server, or a Google Drive game. Good Drive does not allow for linking like that.

❔ What is this "import seed" - how do I do it? / Some games might need a seed to run properly. Find the one for your particular game, then download and install your .CIA as normal and go back to the FBI menu. Go to Titles > [your game] > press A and select "Import Seed". Go back to HOME and launch the game as normal.

❔ How do I update Luma to the latest version? / There's an excellent guide for updating on Github, right here. Just follow the instructions for Upgrading and you'll be all set.

❔ If I have a pirated copy of Pokémon, can I use the Pokébank? / Yes.

❔What about that Discord server can I get an invite? While one of the mods on here handles the invites, the Piratendo Discord server is not the official server of the subreddit.

❔ What about Citra? So that's a little different. A lot of our users have a 3DS. Citra is different beast entirely, and require slightly different games. We use .CIA files for our games. Citra needs decrypted games which don't have same packaging. You can easily decrypt .CIA files

❔ How long will this sticky be up? / Probably a while, just updated here and there as things come and go. We tried an automod task of a new sticky/request thread monthly but that didn't work. that said, old sticky threads dont get deleted, just unstickied, so you can search for them to look for stuff you need.

❔ Okay that's all cool and all but WHERE can I get .CIA files from??? I want to play some games! / Well we're glad you asked!

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A comprehensive list of CIA sites

Welcome to r/3dspiracy! If you're here, you're probably in for downloading or requesting some games. And before you ask where a .CIA for your favorite game could be found, I'd suggest you do your own bit of research to not request a commonly found game and save yourself - and the contributors to this thread - some time. Here's a list of pages where you can find your favorite games to download.

💾 Ziperto / Chances are this place isn't going down any time soon, it has more than just 3DS games and it has both ROMs and CIAs

💾 3DSCIA / This is your one-stop-shop for everything .CIA files. You can find most first party games here and even some third parties, all with .USA and .EUR regions, updates if available and its appropiate DLC! Downloads are available both in MEGA and in Google Drive, and are protected by the password 3dscia.com. If you're searching for a game, this should be your first place to look, do keep in mind that a lot of Google Drive links have been taken down and will probably not be fixed, some still work though. This link doesn't work for some people, we can't figure out why.

💾 3DSISO / A forum created to distribute .CIA files that has most files you might be looking for. You have to register to use it, however it is quite easy by using a temporary mail (check the FAQ). Do note that sometimes the URL isnt renewed by the owners so it may look like its down. You can find pretty much anything if you search hard enough around here! dead for good, dunno why

💾 Daniel's Rom Shop / It may not have the best interface they improved the interface yay, however it does have a fair amount of eShop games, Virtual Console and DSiWare games. Password is same as 3DSCIA's. Games appear to be one-region-only. Links seem to be down, will edit if they go back up. ITS BACK

💾 AlvRo's Complete 3DS ROM Sets/ A Google Docs spreadsheet with most of the eShop released Nintendo 3DS games out there. List is quite extensive, password for all of the files is ByAlvRo. Hosted on 1Fichier.

💾 The Eye / If you're looking for Citra emulation, here you can find a bunch of .3DS files, as opposed to installable .CIA ones. The Eye is an archival website dedicated to saving and preserving pieces of digital history that may be lost in time in the future. US and EU regions available, limited catalogue. Seems like their stuff was removed, other roms remain there however, that said they will send you any of the files they used to have privately, through their Discord server. apparently the owners dont allow for this anymore.

💾 DarkUmbra / A great place to search for files and games. Similar to 3DSISO in that it's a forum with user uploaded files, you'd have to create an account to download the files. It is worth the hassle as it has more files than other websites.

💾 Virtual Console/DS resources / Here are some links you can use to download Virtual Console games.

• Every DS (USA) ROM (by u/Evilcampincalf and u/Leafgreen27)

• Europe + USA collections for every VC game released- http://www.3dsiso.com/showthread.php?286626-MEGA-Official-(not-injected)-Virtual-Console-CIA-Packs-(USA-EUR-JPN) [Parenthesis in the URL makes it easier to just past instead of embedding]

💾 Telegram and Discord channels / most of these use QR codes for direct downloading.

• Piratendo is dead, long live Piratendo, here is the S.S. Panda, the crew's new ship

• Royale Roms The invite is down

• QreeShop Qreeshop is dead, long live Qreeshop

• Free2Shop Reddit Post seems abandoned.

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What else??

Feel free to request any games or help here. We have a lot of capable users here who are happy to help. Any basic questions like asking about Freeshop or how to use FBI will be directed here and probably be removed. If there is a game or a QR code you are looking, try searching the subreddit! There's a good chance someone has already made/uploaded it/posted where to get it which means you can get your game faster and easier.