Savage Wind Recomp (Zelda: Breath of the Wild PC port)

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild came out in 2017 on Switch and Wii U, and Nintendo has never released it on PC. Revi published the Savage Wind repository on 16 October 2026 and the first Windows build, Alpha 1, the next day. Alpha 2 followed on 22 October and Alpha 3, the first with Linux builds, on 24 October. Screen Rant covered the announcement. On 27 October 2026 the repository had about 1,800 GitHub stars.

Status on 23 October 2026: Working, but in progress. It is an alpha that its own README calls “a preview for testers”.

This site is not affiliated with the Savage Wind developers or with Nintendo.

What it is

• A static recompilation of the Switch game: the game’s ARM code is translated ahead of time into a native x86-64 program, and the Switch’s NVN graphics are drawn through Vulkan.
• Built on your machine: the release has none of the game’s code. The first time you start it, it checks your files, builds the data image and recompiles the game code locally. Since Alpha 3 the README puts the game-code step at about 6 minutes on a 12-thread CPU (it was about 40), plus copying and optional shader precompilation.
• Built on LAS Recomp: peiikai’s recompiler and runtime for the Link’s Awakening PC port, with a new shader translator and Switch system services for this game.
• Made almost entirely with AI: the README says Anthropic’s Claude, through Claude Code, wrote nearly all the code, tooling, reverse engineering and documentation, with a human directing, testing and reviewing.

It works like the other console recompilations in our recompiled games list.

Current status

What the README and the Alpha 3 notes list as done:

• native internal resolution up to 4K, or AMD FSR 1 quality modes, plus AMD CAS sharpening, anisotropic filtering and shadows up to 8192;
• 60 FPS by default, or 30, 90, 120 or no limit, with the game running at normal speed; since Alpha 3 menus, cutscenes and conversations also run at your frame rate;
• ultrawide (21:9 and 32:9, HUD kept 16:9 in the middle) and a field-of-view slider;
• keyboard and mouse with every key remappable and mouse camera, any controller SDL recognises, button prompts for your device, and gyro aiming;
• windowed, borderless or exclusive fullscreen, and shader precompilation at setup so new places don’t stutter;
• sound and voices, saving and loading, and the game’s text and voice languages.

Known problems: on Windows, 0.3.0 showed only a black window on AMD and Intel graphics; 0.3.1 turns three newer Vulkan features off on those drivers to fix it (the notes suggest AMD users first try resetting the driver’s shader cache and staying on the faster 0.3.0). The README still warns of drops in frame rate in places and that later areas may crash. CPUs without AVX2 now run in a slower compatible mode. We didn’t play it ourselves.

What you need

• Your own Switch Breath of the Wild, updated to 1.9.0: the exefs of 1.9.0 and the full romfs with the update merged in, extracted from your own console. We don’t explain how to obtain or copy game data.
• Windows 10 or newer, or Linux x86-64 with glibc 2.35 or newer (Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, SteamOS…), a GPU with Vulkan 1.3 and about 35 GB of free disk space.

How to install

From the official README, at a high level: download the Windows ZIP or the Linux AppImage from the project’s GitHub Releases page. On Windows, extract it to a writable folder (not Program Files, since saves and settings are kept there) and run savagewind.exe; on Linux, make the AppImage executable and run it. Point it at the folder with your extracted 1.9.0 files and wait for the one-time setup. After that the program starts straight into the game. Coming from Alpha 2, the README says to set up a new folder with 1.9.0 files and copy your save folder over.

Breath of the Wild on Android

“BotW recomp Android” searches lead to deivid22srk/SavageWindRecomp-Android, a separate project by another developer, created on 22 October 2026. It takes Savage Wind’s code almost unchanged and builds it for arm64 Android through GitHub Actions, with the game code meant to be recompiled on the phone itself from your own extracted 1.8.2 files.

• Not playable yet. Its README (in Portuguese) says the on-device step that generates the game code depends on the unicorn and capstone Python libraries, which have no Android builds; until they do, setup copies your files and then fails at the recompile step.
• No APK release. On 27 October 2026 the only “release” held a log file; the APK exists only as a build artifact of the project’s Actions runs. We didn’t install it.
• It asks for a lot: Android 9 or newer, a GPU with Vulkan 1.3 (roughly Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, Tensor G1 or Dimensity 9000 and newer), a kernel with a 48-bit address space, about 35 GB free, and a controller rather than touch.
• Savage Wind’s own Alpha 3 notes say Android isn’t supported. Treat any site offering a ready “BotW Android recomp APK” with care.

Is it safe and will it stay up?

Breath of the Wild “PC downloads” are an old scam theme, so we checked this one. On 23 October 2026 the GitHub account dated from 2021, the repository held real source code (C, C++ and Python, with the recompiler and runtime), the one author’s commit history matched the releases, and the README pointed only to GitHub Releases, not an outside download site. Release files are Windows ZIPs and, since Alpha 3, Linux AppImages. We didn’t download or run them.

• Savage Wind is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo. The README says the repository and release builds contain no game files, game code, assets, fonts or keys, and that the code you generate is for your own use only.
• We found no takedown. On 23 October 2026 the repository was online and GitHub’s public DMCA archive had no notice naming Savage Wind or Revivedx. Nintendo did send notices against Ryujinx copies on 1 October 2026, so it may not stay up.
• Get it only from the official GitHub repository.

Other Breath of the Wild projects

• Breath of the Wild on Mac: MacNativeGames runs Switch versions 1.6.0 and 1.9.0 natively on Apple silicon Macs. You build it yourself; there is no Windows version.
• BotW-Native recompiles the Wii U version (USA 1.5.0) for Windows with Vulkan; its launcher builds the game from your own dump. Version 0.1.1 (25 October 2026) has only been tested in early areas.
• zeldaret/botw is a decompilation of the Switch version 1.5.0: a reverse-engineering project, not something you can play.

Related

• Tears of the Kingdom on Mac and iPhone: the sequel as a native port on Apple devices.
• Link’s Awakening on PC: LAS Recomp, the Switch recompilation Savage Wind is built on.
• More Zelda on PC: Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker.

Unofficial. This page is written by an independent directory. It is not made by, endorsed by or affiliated with Nintendo or Revi (Revivedx) (Savage Wind Recomp (Zelda: Breath of the Wild PC port)'s author). We do not host any files, and we never link to game files, ROMs or ISOs.