XC2 Recomp Mods, Atmosphere Cheats & ExeFS Patches

How to install Switch & Atmosphere mods in XC2 Recomp

1. In game, press F1, switch to the Mods tab, and click Open mods folder (this creates mods/ next to xc2.exe if it does not exist yet).
2. Unpack each mod into its own subdirectory: mods/<any name>/. Keep the internal folder structure the mod author shipped. All four standard Switch emulator and SD card layouts are recognized automatically:

In the F1 → Mods tab, press A (or click / Left / Right) to toggle a mod on or off, and use Ctrl+Up / Ctrl+Down (or top/left face buttons) to change priority order. When two mods replace the same file, the higher one on the list wins. Changes to mod order or switches are saved to xc2.ini under [mods] (mods_order and mods_disabled) and take effect on next game start.

Why XC2 mods use Add-On Content Title ID 0100E95004039001

Unlike games that read loose files from the base romfs/ directory, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 packs nearly all of its tables, models, and scripts into a single archive pair: bf2.arh (index) and bf2.ard (data). Only streamed audio and movies (stream/bgm/*.nop, stream/voice/..., stream/movie/*.webm) sit outside the archive as loose files.

When the engine requests an archived file such as bdat/common.bdat, it checks each installed add-on content pack first (aoc1:/bdat/common.bdat, aoc2:/..., up to pack 99) before falling back to bf2.ard. It never checks the base game’s romfs/ for a loose override. Therefore, balance and gameplay mods (such as X2plus) place replacement files under Add-On Content Pack 1’s Title ID (which requires Pack 1 to be installed):

mods/
  My Balance Mod/
    atmosphere/contents/0100E95004039001/romfs/bdat/common.bdat

Built-in cheats (God mode & Insta kill) and Atmosphere cheat files

Added in v0.1.8, the F1 → Cheats tab includes two built-in combat toggles at the top of the list that work immediately without re-running setup:

• God mode (cheat_god_mode = 1): Enemy attacks in battle deal 0 damage through the damage calculation formula.
• Insta kill (cheat_insta_kill = 1): Party attacks deal 9999 damage per hit (most enemies fall in one hit; high-HP bosses take a few hits).

To use community Atmosphere cheats for Update 3.0.1, place the cheat text file named after the first 16 hex digits of 3.0.1’s build ID inside your mod’s cheats/ folder:

mods/<mod name>/cheats/4F5C96E2D97F45AC.txt

Memory-writing cheats (heap, game data, pointer chains, button conditions) run every frame as soon as you toggle them on. Because XC2 Recomp runs compiled C rather than ARM64 instructions, code-modifying cheats (opcode 0 into main) and ExeFS patches (.pchtxt and .ips targeting build ID 4F5C96E2D97F45AC288BC67613EBEF0A) are compiled into xc2.exe by XC2-Setup. When you add a new code cheat or ExeFS patch, the menu marks it as waiting: simply run XC2-Setup.exe again on the same install folder to build it in while keeping your saves and settings.