How to connect PS4, Xbox One S, and Wii Controller to the Nintendo Switch without an adapter?

In this guide, I will show you how you can easily connect a PS4, Xbox One S, or Wii Controller to the Nintendo Switch without any kind of adapter needed. We’re simply connecting the controller via Bluetooth using a Homebrew application called MissionControl. Since I only have an Xbox One S controller, I will be using that one for this guide, but the process should be nearly the same for the other supported controllers.

Of course, to be able to use MissionControl, you will need to have a modified Nintendo Switch that is running the Atmosphere custom firmware. If your Switch doesn’t run a custom firmware yet and you want to learn how you can install a custom firmware on the Switch, you can read my detailed installation guide here.

For now, MissionControl has no rumble support or support for mice and keyboards, though the basic functionality of the supported controllers should work fine over Bluetooth.

If you prefer a video tutorial instead of a written guide, please see my video down below that shows you how to add support for wireless controllers to the Nintendo Switch:

1. Downloading MissionControl

We first of all need to download the MissionControl Homebrew application on our PC. You can find the GitHub page and the latest release of the application right here.

Simply download the “MissionControl.zip” file. Next, open up the .zip file and extract the “atmosphere” folder to your desktop.

2. Preparing the Switch

If you’re using one of the newer Atmosphere releases (which you should!), you can reboot your Nintendo Switch to the Hekate bootloader by selecting the “Reboot” option in the power menu. In Hekate, you can go to Tools > USB Tools > SD Card to access the files stored on the SD card via a USB cable.

Alternatively, you can just power off the Nintendo Switch and plug the microSD card into your PC using an SD adapter.

With the Switch connected to the PC using a USB cable or with the microSD card plugged into the PC, copy the extracted “atmosphere” folder to the root directory of the microSD card (make sure to replace any existing files if necessary!).

Afterwards, put the microSD card back into the Switch or simply disconnect the USB cable from the Switch and boot to Atmosphere.

3. Connecting a PS4 / Xbox Controller

Once booted into Atmosphere, head over to the “Controllers” menu and select “Change Grip/Order”. Now, you want to put the controller that you want to pair to the Switch in pairing mode.

For this tutorial, I’ll be using an Xbox One S controller, which can be put in pairing mode by first powering it on and then pressing and holding down the pairing button on top of the controller (please use Google if you don’t know how to put your controller into pairing mode).

It may take around 15 seconds for the Switch to find and connect to the controller. Once the controller is paired, it should look something like this:

After that, you can return to the main menu using the controller that you’ve just paired to the Switch! You can fire up any game that supports an external controller (or Switch Pro controller for that matter) to check if your controller fully works 🙂

Final remarks

Since MissionControl has just been released, there may still be some bugs that need to be ironed out. Please keep an eye out on its GitHub main page if you’re interested in future updates of the app.

Finally, if you ran into any issues following this guide, you can always leave a comment down below or join the Discord Server and ask for help!