Credit: Nintendo
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Breath of the Wild gets an unofficial native PC port through Savage Wind
October 23, 2026·3 min read
Zelda: Breath of the Wild gets an experimental native PC port through Savage Wind Recomp, supporting the Great Plateau, 60 FPS and 4K resolution.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild now has an early native PC version through a fan project called Savage Wind Recomp, allowing Nintendo’s 2017 open-world game to run on Windows without traditional Switch emulation.
The project recompiles the Switch version into native PC code. Alpha 2 launched on October 22 and can already run the Shrine of Resurrection and Great Plateau with sound, saving, keyboard and mouse controls and higher frame-rate options.
Savage Wind can already run the Great Plateau at 60 fps
Savage Wind supports 60 fps by default, with additional targets of 30, 90 and 120 fps or an uncapped option. Internal resolution can reach 4K, while AMD FSR 1 support and remappable keyboard and mouse controls are also included.
Compatible controllers work as well, and shader caching is designed to reduce repeated stuttering in previously visited areas. The developer warns that the build is still experimental and performance can drop below 60 fps in some situations.
Only the opening section and Great Plateau have been properly tested so far. Nobody has yet confirmed how reliably the project works across the rest of Hyrule.
This is not an official Nintendo PC release
Savage Wind does not include Breath of the Wild itself. Players need their own legally obtained Switch copy updated to version 1.8.2, with the project recompiling the necessary code locally instead of distributing Nintendo’s game files.
The developer describes Savage Wind as an unofficial project with no affiliation to Nintendo. DLC support is not currently available, while features such as mods, DLSS, FSR 3 frame generation and additional graphics options remain planned for later versions.
That makes the project different from normal Switch emulation. Rather than recreating console hardware behavior, Savage Wind translates the game into code designed to run directly on a PC.
AI played a major role in development
Creator Revivedx says most of Savage Wind’s code, tools, reverse engineering work and documentation were produced with Anthropic’s Claude through Claude Code. Human input was still used to direct development, test builds and review the results.
The project also builds on other open-source work, including LAS Recomp and technical references from projects such as Ryujinx. Development has progressed quickly from simply booting the game to reaching the Great Plateau.
A full PC version is still a long way off
Savage Wind remains an early technical project rather than a complete PC port. Large areas are untested, several graphical and performance issues remain, and Linux support has not yet been fully validated.
The long-term goal is a complete native version with PC-focused settings, flexible controls and mod support. Alpha 2 shows that the concept works, but completing the rest of Breath of the Wild will be the real test.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the first 3D open-world game in the Zelda series. Link can travel anywhere and be equipped with weapons and armor found throughout the world to grant him various bonuses. Unlike many games in the series, Breath of the Wild does not impos
Released
March 3, 2017
Developer
Nintendo EPD Production Group No. 3
Publisher
Nintendo
Systems
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The Legend of ZeldaSavage Wind RecompNintendo
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