OVERBreath of the Wild runs natively on Android with BOTWRecompAndroid, now with an experimental no-build Native Mode
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild now has a native Android port. BOTWRecompAndroid, from mamcjr (the developer behind LASRecompAndroid), runs the Switch version of the game as an Android app rather than through a Switch emulator, and it has picked up three beta releases in two days, ending with v0.2.4-beta on October 29.How it works
The port is built on peiikai's LAS Recomp, the Link's Awakening recompilation, and mamcjr's Android version of it. There are two ways to run the game code:- Recompiled Mode translates the game's ARM64 code into C and compiles it once on your phone.
- Native Mode (experimental, new in 0.2.2) skips that build. The Switch and Android phones both use ARM64 CPUs, so the original code runs directly, and the app only patches the few instructions tied to the Switch, such as system calls, thread registers and the clock. Setup then just copies the game files.
Features
- Game versions 1.0.0, 1.6.0, 1.8.2 and 1.9.0 in Recompiled Mode; Native Mode is tested on 1.0.0 and 1.9.0.
- Optional 60 fps, plus experimental 60 fps in-engine cutscenes and conversations.
- Unlocked aspect ratio, internal and output resolution, FSR 1 or Snapdragon GSR 1 upscaling, FXAA and SMAA.
- Touch controls, physical controllers and gyro, and a Vulkan driver picker.
- Your own Expansion Pass data, mods (including DLC mod folders), and save import and export, including from an emulator save folder.
- Since 0.2.3, the option to use your extracted game files in place instead of making another copy of about 16 GB.
What's new this week
- 0.2.2 (Oct 28): Native Mode, the 60 fps cutscene option, and fixes for white ponds and Link's legs sinking into the ground.
- 0.2.3 (Oct 29): fixes for crashes and scrambled text, and in-place game files, but it made Mali GPUs drop to 2-9 fps in the world.
- 0.2.4 (Oct 29): brings Mali performance back while keeping the 0.2.3 fixes, fixes code builds that failed within a second on some phones, and stops USB-C controller gyro (reported on the GameSir X5 Lite) from cutting out. You don't need to rebuild the game code; install it over any 0.2.x.
Known issues
It's a beta, and so far it's mainly been tested on one phone, a POCO F7 Ultra with an Adreno 830 on a Mesa Turnip driver. Known problems include short grass that only appears up close, stretched terrain "curtains" right after a tower activation (reloading the save fixes it), water reflections that follow the camera, and a black pause-menu background on Qualcomm's stock driver. In Native Mode, Link sometimes flickers when hit and the frame rate wavers more than in Recompiled Mode. The README says the project is made almost entirely with AI tools under the developer's direction.
What you need
Your own dump of the game's program files and data, an Android 11 or newer arm64 device with Vulkan, and about 30 GB free per game version. On Adreno handhelds such as the AYN Odin and Retroid lines, a Turnip driver runs much faster; see our drivers page. Nothing from the game is included, and Overclocked doesn't host or link game files.
We haven't tested it ourselves yet. Download it from the project's GitHub releases. It's now in the Overclocked ports directory, along with RampageRE, a new native port of Rampage: Total Destruction for Android, PC and Steam Deck.