Hello and welcome to another article. As always my name’s Jeff and I want to guide you through the topic, of how to play The Legend of Zelda – Breath of the Wild on Android.
The Legend of Zelda – Breath of the Wild (BOTW) is an absolute masterpiece! On the surface, it seems simple enough. This is because, like most Nintendo games, it is a stereotypical Save the Princess game. However, the implementation of the story, gameplay elements, and open world environment is beyond stellar. I only have the highest praise for this game. It is extremely well done.
This game as you probably already know is a Nintendo IP and as a result is exclusive to consoles such as the Wii and the Switch. However, it can be run on Android and I’m sure that’s why you’re here. So join me as we look at how to play The Legend of Zelda – Breath of the Wild on Android.
What You’ll Need
To play The Legend of Zelda – Breath of the Wild on Android, you’ll need to fulfill the following requirements:
- A smartphone with a very powerful SoC (preferably Snapdragon). It should be at least a Snapdragon 855 and above. I use a Poco F5 with a Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 which is on the same level with the Snapdragon 8/8+ Gen 1.
- The smartphone should have a minimum of 8GB of RAM. 12 to 16GB is the optimal amount.
- Yuzu emulator for Android installed. Please ensure that it is the latest version with NCE (native code execution) enabled.
- Latest Mesa Turnip drivers for Adreno 7xx GPUs installed. You can reach me via Telegram for them.
- The NSP ROM files for both the base game and the v1.6.0 update. Together, they’re about 16GB.
- A cooling fan and gaming controller (optional).
How to play The Legend of Zelda – Breath of the Wild on Android
- Step 1: Install Yuzu on your smartphone. I have already explained the how to do so in this article on the Yuzu Emulator.
- Step 2: Have both the main game ROM and the update ROM inside the Yuzu folder on your internal storage.
- Step 3: Go to settings, enter manage Yuzu data, choose install game content and it’ll take you to your internal storage. Tap on the update file and wait for it to install.
- Step 4: Install GPU drivers. Simply go to settings and enter GPU driver manager. Click on +install and choose the Mesa Turnip GPU driver.
- Step 5: Enter advanced settings. For the System, limit speed and set the limit percent to 100. Turn off docked mode. For Graphics, set the accuracy level to normal, resolution to 0.5x, VSync mode to FIFO on, and force max clock. Finally, go to debug and ensure that API is set to Vulcan, CPU backend is set to NCE and CPU accuracy is set to auto.
- Step 6: Attach cooling fan to the back of your phone and pair controller.
You’re all set to go.
Brief note
Nintendo Switch emulation on smartphones might still be in its infancy, but it has come a long way in the last few months. Whilst Skyline may have been discontinued, thankfully, we still have Yuzu. Yuzu may not be perfect, but it does sort of get the job done.
Skyline doesn’t run Breathe of the Wild, at least not for me which is annoying. So I have to use Yuzu. Yuzu hasn’t always been the best for me because it heavily relied on JIT to emulate games but now that the devs have finally switched to NCE. Performance should get better.
You must install the v1.6.0 update to have a steady 15FPS (depending on your hardware). Note Breathe of the Wild is a very tasking game that has put many PCs to shame. I have a Core i5-8th Gen Dell Latitude and it barely runs.
So please be aware that Yuzu will push your device to its max. To maintain steady speeds, have a cooling fan on the back to prevent thermal throttling and performance dips.
This article will be updated from time to time so make sure to bookmark this site. If there are any games you’d love me to try out as well, lemme know. So that’s how to play The Legend of Zelda – Breath of the Wild on Android. Cheers!
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