InsaneNutter
Resident Nutter
It's now possible hack the Wii U and setup a homebrew channel which is capable of loading Wii U homebrew applications and games from the SD card.
This is very easy to setup once you know how, you essentially need to copy some files to the SD card inside your Wii U, then visit a webpage that will exploit the Wii U for you via the web browser.
June 2019 - Updated for Firmware 5.5.4. Nothing has really changed with this firmware by all accounts.
September 2018 - Updated for Firmware 5.5.3. Since i created this tutorial newer Wii U firmware versions have become hackable and the hack has become a lot more stable. I have updated the tutorial to reflect this.
Currently you can hack any Wii U on the latest firmware which is version 5.5.4 at the time of writing, a complete list of Wii U firmware versions supported by this tutorial are:
- 5.5.4
- 5.5.3
- 5.5.2
- 5.5.1
- 5.5
- 5.4
- 5.3.2
- 5.1.0
- 5.0.0
- 4.1.0
- 4.0.0
- 3.1.0
- 3.0.0
- 2.1.0
I've created a video that shows how your homebrew enabled Wii U will work once it;s all setup:
Below is a step by step tutorial below that will easily allow you to exploit your Wii U.
Getting started setting up the homebrew channel on the Wii U:
To get started you will need the following:
- Wii U on one of the hackable firmwares listed above.
- SD Card that is FAT32 formatted.
- A way to block the Wii U from accessing the internet, however remain on your home network.
1. It's presumed you already have a Wii U that is exploitable if your following this tutorial, at present all Wii U's can be hacked up to firmware 5.5.4 which is the latest firmware version.
2. If your unsure how to format a large SD card to Fat 32, follow this tutorial: Format SD Card to FAT32 on Windows 7,8 or 10 [Includes Micro SDHC / SDXC Cards]
3. This is really important!! You must do this step and block your Wii U from updating, their is an easy way for if your home router is unable to block websites, however if your home router can block websites i'd suggest blocking access to Nintendo's update servers on your home router instead so you are not relying on anyone else to do so.
Easy Way - Blocking updates with TubeHax:
This is the easiest solution for people who have limited networking knowledge, follow this tutorial: Block Nintendo Wii U Updates Easily With Alternate DNS Server [TubeHax DNS] then come back here and progress with this tutorial.
Better Way, however harder depending on your still level / equipment - Blocking updates on your own router:
To block updates on your home router is where some basic knowledge of networking and your home network setup would be a great benefit, you should be able to do this somewhere on your routers configuration page if you have a good router. Look for something like access restrictions, this is where it becomes hard to give a one solution fits all answer as home networks can be setup in many different ways using many 1000's of different routers which all have different configuration options.
If you can block websites or hostnames on your router you need to block the following:
- nus.cdn.c.shop.nintendowifi.net
- nus.cdn.shop.wii.com
- nus.cdn.wup.shop.nintendo.net
- nus.wup.shop.nintendo.net
- nus.c.shop.nintendowifi.net
- c.shop.nintendowifi.net
- cbvc.nintendo.net
- cbvc.cdn.nintendo.net
Once you have blocked the following hostnames on your router if you try visit one of the above addresses on your computer's web browser after blocking the addresses you should see an error stating the site can't be accessed as the connection timed out, on Google Chrome it looks like this:
Preparing the SD Card for the Wii U:
All you need to do is download the Wii U Homebrew Starter Pack v3 I have put together and unzip this to your Wii U's SD card, which you have previously formatted to FAT32:
On your SD Card you should have a folder called wiiu\apps - inside the app's folder should be a folder for each homebrew app that contains it's files, if you wish to download some additional app's at a later date all you need to do is copy them in to this folder.
I have included the following homebrew applications, all should work on firmwares up to 5.5.4:
- App Store - A Homebrew App Store for the Wii U, where additional homebrew apps can be downloaded and existing Wii U homebrew apps updated
- Asturoids - An Asteroids homebrew game for the Wii U
- DDD - Wii U Title Dumper
- Flappy Bird - A Flappy Bird clone for the Wii U
- FTPiiu - Wii U FTP Server
- Hid To Vpad - Emulates the Wii U gamepad input using various USB HID devices, such as a GameCube, Wii U Pro Controller, PS3 controller and so on
- Homebrew Launcher - Loads all the other homebrew applications in this list
- Loadiine GX2 - Allows you to load out of region games, along with modded game files.
- NNU Patcher - Allows you to start the Nintendo eShop on an older firmware, if you have your firmware spoofed to the latest firmware available.
- Our Loader - Allows you to load games discs from other regions (Region free game loader)
- Saviine - dumps and injects savegames of any title that is entered over network to a PC application.
- Snake - Clone of the classic Nokia snake game on the Wii U
- Space Game V2 Beta - Space shooter game for the Wii U
- U Paint - You can paint using the Wii U's touch screen gamepad
- Wup Installer - installs public titles such as game updates, can also spoof your firmware to the latest version
Loading the Homebrew Launcher on Wii U:
To load the homebrew launcher we are going to exploit the web browser on the Wii U, so load the web browser up:
When the web browser loads up close any web pages that might be open, you should see the favorite bookmarks page:
Press the "Y" button on the Wii U gamepad, this brings up the bookmark editor. Click on the first bookmark to edit it:
Type in a easy to remember name such as "Wii U Homebrew Launcher", then below for the address type wiiu.insanenutter.com and click done:
Now before continuing press the home button to quit the Wii U's web browser, this will save the bookmark you just added so you don't need to keep adding it every time you want to exploit the Wii U. Load the web browser again and click on the "Wii U Homebrew Launcher" bookmark you added:
This is where things can get tricky as the Wii U can crash many times before you get the exploit to run correctly for the first time.
However the good news is once the exploit has launched successfully on your Wii U once, it will usually launch on the first attempt after that. All you can do is keep trying to launch the exploit if it fails or the Wii U crashes.
Some tips i can give you are to fill your Wii U's browser cache up by randomly browsing the internet, for example the Digiex Forums. Then quit the Wii U Browser, Load the system settings, then quit the system settings. This will save anything you can done in the browser since the Wii U was powered on.
I got @Nimrod to test this on his 5.5.1 Wii U and he was able to load the Homebrew Channel on his first try, in comparison on 5.3.2 the very first time i tried it took me 50+ attempts, totaling around an hour and a half. I'd suggest you put a TV show on and just keep trying, as you can see from the video I posted the Homebrew Launcher now works first time, near enough every time.
Recently @Gunz4Hire has followed this guide on a 5.5.2 Wii U and was able to exploit his Wii U on the second attempt with the new web exploit payload hosted on my mirror, so if you have had trouble in the past things should be pretty easy now.
When the exploit triggers, the Homebrew Launcher will load! congratulations you now have access to homebrew on your Wii U.
Any homebrew applications on your SD card under the wiiu\apps folder will be displayed here:
You can click on your homebrew applications to read more information about them or load them:
To exit out of a homebrew application press the home button in the middle of the Wii U gamepad, this will take you back to the homebrew launcher so you can load another homebrew application.
If you press the home button when on the Homebrew Launcher menu it will take you to the Mii Maker, you can quit back to the Wii U's home screen from here.
If you wish to re-load the Homebrew Launcher menu again you can simply do so by loading the Mii Maker from the Wii U's home screen. The Mii maker is patched in memory to load the Homebrew Launcher until the Wii U is powered off, meaning you do not need to go through the process of loading the web browser exploit again until you power the Wii U off.
After powering the Wii U off the next time you wish to use the Homebrew Launcher you must load the web browser again, click on the bookmark you saved for the Homebrew launcher and go through the process of triggering the exploit again. It should trigger a lot easier now, most of the time it will trigger on the first or second attempt for me, more often than not the first.
It's now possible to permanently install the Homebrew Launcher to the Wii U's Home Screen, now you have a working Homebrew entry point you can now follow this tutorial Wii U Permanent Homebrew Channel / Launcher Install, the end result been you no longer have to launch Homebrew from the Wii U's web browser. The added benefit is the boot rate is 100% successful every time.
FAQ:
Q: Can i make the exploit permanent?
A: Yes you now can, after completing this tutorial follow this tutorial: Wii U Permanent Homebrew Channel / Launcher Install
Q: I have returned to the home screen but not powered my Wii U off, how can I re launch the homebrew menu?
A: Simply load the Mii Maker, you will not actually load the Mii Maker but the homebrew menu instead. This however is not premiment and will revert back to normal when the Wii U is powered off, this is why you need to run the exploit again via the web browser the next time you wish to use the homebrew menu again.
