Extract a game or application in .cxi, .cfa or .ncch format

This guide explains how you can extract the contents out of a decrypted CTR Executable Image (CXI) or CTR File Archive (CFA), both NCCH containers.

If this NCCH container was extracted from another file, you should follow the respective guide instead.

• Extract .3ds/.cci
• Extract .cia

This page is still a work in progress.

Requirements

• A decrypted CXI or CFA
• ctrtool
  If you are not using a 64-bit operating system, you must build the source yourself for now.
• 3dstool
• Basic knowledge of the Terminal/Command Line

Method 1: ctrtool

1. Put your NCCH in its own folder.
2. Extract the contents of the NCCH. For example, to extract the ExeFS and RomFS:

ctrtool --exheader=exheader.bin --exefsdir=exefs --romfsdir=romfs --logo=logo.bcma.lz --plainrgn=plain.bin game.cxi

Explanation of possible arguments for this situation:

• --exheader=file - File to save the Extended Header to (does not exist for CFAs)
• --logo=file - File to save the Logo to (does not exist for CFAs)
• --plainrgn=file - File to save the Plain region to (does not exist for CFAs)
• --exefs=file - File to save the ExeFS to
• --exefsdir=dir - Directory to save the ExeFS contents to
• --romfs=file - File to save the RomFS to
• --romfsdir=dir - Directory to save the RomFS contents to
• --listromfs - List RomFS contents

Note: ctrtool can't extract the NCCH header. You can save the first 0x200 (512) bytes of it to a file, or use 3dstool on the file.

3dstool -xvtf cxi game.cxi --header ncchheader.bin

Note: ctrtool can't extract the ExeFS header. You can save the first 0x200 (512) bytes of it to a file, use 3dstool on an extracted ExeFS file.

3dstool -xvtf exefs exefs --exefs-dir exefs --header exefsheader.bin

You must also extract the ExeFS contents or you might get a segfault.

Method 2: 3dstool

1. Put your NCCH in its own folder.
2. Extract the contents the NCCH. For example, to extract the ExHeader, ExeFS and RomFS from the Game Executable:

3dstool -xvtf cxi game.cxi --header ncchheader.bin --exh exheader.bin --exefs exefs.bin --romfs romfs.bin --logo logo.bcma.lz --plain plain.bin

Explanation of possible arguments for this situation:

• -x or --extract - Extract the file
• -v or --verbose - Print more information
• -t or --type - optional, Type of file
• -f or --file - required, Target file
• --romfs - File to save the RomFS to
• --exefs - File to save the ExeFS to
• --exh or --extendedheader - File to save the Extended Header to (does not exist for CFAs)
• --header - File to save the NCCH header to
• --logo or --logoregion - File to save the Logo to (does not exist for CFAs)
• --plain or --plainregion - File to save the Plain region to (does not exist for CFAs)

3. Extract the contents of the ExeFS and RomFS.

3dstool -xvtf romfs romfs.bin --romfs-dir romfs
3dstool -xvtf exefs exefs.bin --exefs-dir exefs --header exefsheader.bin

4. Decompress the code.bin.

3dstool -uf exefs/code.bin --compress-type blz --compress-out decompressed_code.bin