Contribute

If figuring out how a modern game works sounds like fun to you, then you're in the right place! You're more than welcome to contribute; this is a group effort and every contribution helps.

If you have any questions about the project or if you need help with anything, come say hi on the Zelda Decompilation Discord server!

Missed the intro to this project?

Check out our About page for detailed information about what the project is and what we do.

Prerequisites

To contribute to the project, you will need:

The Switch version of Breath of the Wild, either 1.5.0 or 1.6.0 (the Wii U version will not work)
A Windows, Linux or macOS computer
At least 5GB of free disk space (for builds)
A disassembler or a decompiler such as Hex-Rays or Ghidra
- While not required, getting IDA Pro 7.6+ is highly recommended as this will allow you to use the project IDA database
Basic knowledge about using Git
Some basic knowledge about programming (ideally C++ or Rust, or a language with object-oriented aspects such as Python or Java). Familiarity with pointers.

What you don't need:

❌ Game dev experience. Most of us aren't even game devs.
❌ Deep experience with C++. Some of our contributors didn't know C++ at all when they joined :)
❌ Experience with reverse engineering optimised C++ code. Very useful (for obvious reasons) but not necessary, especially if you already know how to decompile C code.

Windows users

Our project docs assume that you are using Linux (native or WSL) or macOS. If you are on Windows, we strongly recommend that you set up WSL to simplify the setup process. Ubuntu 20.04 is usually a good choice.