With freeShops going down, the only access to Switch games we have now is via Pro shops, torrent trackers, Usenet, and DDL sites - riddled with ads, link shorteners, popups, split files, and shitty file hosters.

This guide’s aim is to help those who want use the DDL approach. Perhaps you don’t have a VPN and can’t use torrents, don’t want to pay for usenet, or simply can’t find the content you want on trackers you have access to. In that case, you’ll be forced to use DDLs to obtain content.

First, here are a few common DDL sites that host nsps and xcis, ranked from most to least reliable:

To mitigate the issue of ads, link shorteners, and split files, we’ll be using the following tools and browser extensions:

  • uBlock Origin
  • FastForward
  • JDownloader2

uBlock will block those pesky ads, FastForward will skip the malware-infested link shorteners, and JDownloader2 will automatically download and unpack all file parts for us.

I recommend using Firefox Browser for this, since uBlock Origin is more robust and can block more content on pages than the Chrome version. However, Chrome/Chromium forks work too.

Let’s setup the extensions:

First, download and install uBlock Origin:

Next, we’ll get FastForward installed, grab it from your browser’s extension store as well:

Both uBlock and FastForward already have sensible defaults, so you can leave them as is. However, I like to enable the Annoyances filter in uBlock as well to block annoying popups and cookie notices.

Next, we need our download manager. Grab JDownloader2’s Adware-Free setup exe: https://jdownloader.org/jdownloader2

Make sure you get the installer from this page, and not any other page, in order to avoid the adware-version installer. Run the installer and install JD2.

You can configure download location and such for JD2 in the settings. I advise enabling the Clipboard Monitor so that JD2 can automatically add links you copied into the download links list.

Now, for the fun part - choose a DDL site to use. I recommend NXBrew for this, as it tends to have links updated more often, generally hosts files that will pass NCA signature verification, and has working search. NSW2U’s search is currently broken, and their file quality/links can be hit or miss. Ziperto is often missing newer updates and games, and their files are also hit or miss.

Search up the game you want and find its page - Here you’ll find a bunch of links, obfuscated by link shorteners like ouo or 1link. You can try copying the shortened link for each file into JD2 to try and have it parse the link to the destination file, but you’ll often run into Cloudflare protection errors.

If you can’t directly paste the shortened link into JD2, instead simply click on the link in your browser. This is where FastForward comes into play - you’ll notice that garbage like 1link(dot)club get bypassed and you’ll end up at the file hoster’s page.

Now you can simply highlight the URL bar, and copy the link into JD2. Rinse and repeat for each part of the game, plus the update and DLC. You’ll notice that parts will be grouped into a “Package” by JDownloader2 - after you add all the links into JD2 and click start, JD2 will download all files and parts, and then unzip them for you - you don’t need to mess with any rar parts or anything like that! You’ll find your files in the download location you set in JD2.

A quick note about 1fichier - they have started adding a 1 hour cooldown timer in between file downloads. This means that if you have 5 files from 1fichier, it will take you 4+ hours to download them all consecutively. Parallel downloads from one IP are disallowed. Thus, it may be wise to intersperse 1fichier links with other hosters. For example, if a base game is in two parts, grab the first part from 1fichier, and the second part from an alternative hoster. JD2 will still be able to package the files just fine.

Another note about 1fichier and file hosters in general: A lot of them like to screw over VPN users, and will limit your speed if you use one. If you run 1fichier downloads on a VPN, you will get about 100KB/s. Thus, I recommend you turn off your VPN when downloading using DDL file hosters, even if you have a VPN subscription. This is generally safe to do, as unlike public torrent trackers, your IP address is not visible to anti-piracy bots.

v1.1 - Updated October 16, 2023