Another new first-party title from Nintendo is out, and this time it’s Pikmin 4. Developed by Nintendo EPD with assistance from Eighting, it’s the sequel to 2013’s Wii U game – Pikmin 3. Released on July 21, 2023, Pikmin 4 was developed using Unreal Engine 4 instead of Nintendo’s own proprietary engine. And the game runs surprisingly well on underpowered hardware like the Nintendo Switch. But that doesn’t mean you can’t upgrade your experience by playing it on a PC. Something like the Ryujinx emulator is a good choice.
Ryujinx happens to be one of the two main Nintendo Switch emulators for PC, along with Yuzu. Both of these are pretty much capable of running Switch titles and are constantly updated with new features. So, how do you play Pikmin 4 on PC via Ryujinx? Let’s find out!!
How to play Pikmin 4 on PC via Ryujinx Emulator?
Note: Before you proceed to emulate Pikmin 4 on your PC via an emulator, make sure that you have purchased a copy of the game on your Nintendo Switch. Piracy is not taken lightly by Nintendo, and we don’t condone it in any way.
Initial Setup
First of all, like other Nintendo Switch emulators, you will need to ensure that your PC has adequate raw power to run the emulator and game. You can take a look at the minimum requirements here:
- At least 8GB RAM
- A video card/GPU that supports OpenGL 4.5 or higher, or Vulkan.
- Your Switch keys and either your dumped firmware or recent game cartridge untrimmed XCI
- Your dumped Nintendo Switch games or homebrew
- A 64-bit Operating System
- OS-specific dependencies installed
Note: We are assuming that you already have the files or ROM of Pikmin 4.
- Now, once you have done your due diligence, head over to the official website of Ryujinx and download the latest available version from there.
- Install the emulator on your PC, and then open it.
- You will be presented with the following message/pop-up when you open Ryujinx for the first time – Key files were not found.
- To get rid of this, click OK to close the warning box. Now, you will need to dump the prod keys and title keys from your Nintendo Switch or get them from somewhere else. To add them, click on the File option on the emulator and select the “Open Ryujinx Folder” option.
- Paste the prod keys into the system subfolder. The path should resemble this – C:\Users\(Your Username)\AppData\Roaming\Ryujinx\system.
- Close the emulator and then open it again. Now you are halfway done. Next is firmware installation.
Firmware Installation
- Get the latest firmware (16.0.3) of your Nintendo Switch. Remember the firmware should be in either XCI format or ZIP.
- Now, open the emulator, select the “Tools” option located above. From there, click on Firmware > Install a firmware from from XCI or ZIP.
- Browse through your files, select the firmware that you downloaded, and then click on “Yes” when the emulator asks for confirmation.
- If successfully installed, you will be presented with this message – System version (version number here) successfully installed. Click on OK.
- You will now be able to see the firmware version as System Version in the right-hand corner of the screen. Next is the game installation part.
Game installation and Best Settings
Now, you will need to dump the Pikmin 4 game files from your Nintendo Switch to the emulator. After that’s done, it’s time to optimize the game for the best performance. To do this, select the Options tab, and click on Settings. Now, head to the Graphics tab, and apply the following settings:
- Graphics Backend Multithreading: On
- Graphics Backend: Vulkan
- Preferred GPU: Select the dedicated GPU you own
- Enable Shader Cache: On
- Enable Texture Recompression: Off
- Enable Macro HLE: On
- Resolution Scale: According to the resolution of the monitor that you are using.
- Post-Processing Effect: None
- Upscale: Bilinear
- Anisotropic Filtering: Auto
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Click on Save after applying these settings, and enjoy your new adventure in the game. For more guides like this, follow DigiStatement. Also, read: How to play TLoZ Tears of the Kingdom (ToTK) on PC via Ryujinx Emulator?
