The 2025 Guide to Quest Piracy - Standalone
CURRENT AS OF ---> 12/22/2024 <--- Last Guide revision date
The 2025 Guide to Quest Piracy - Standalone
This guide will help you download and install pirated games and apps on the Quest 1, 2, 3, 3s, and Pro headsets. This is NOT a guide for Pico headsets. If you need help with a Pico you should head to r/PicoPiracy.
There are a lot of words here. That's because if you want to do this and have it actually work you need to follow instructions exactly. It's important to read everything and do all the setup steps and in the right order. Reading and understanding it all is the hardest part, once you know the process the actual setup can be done in around 15 minutes.
It's very worth your time to go through ALL of this, because when you're done, you'll have access to thousands of VR games and apps, all safe, tested, and working, through high-speed direct download. Hell, the games even get installed on your headset for you. All you do is double-click on a game name and wait a few minutes until it's downloaded and automagically installed, then play it.
PRE-SETUP FAQ - Things you should know before you start.
- There's a referral bonus for buying a new headset?
When you purchase a new Quest headset, you're eligible for a referral bonus if you accept someone's referral code BEFORE signing into your headset for the first time. This bonus is typically $30, but changes depending on your region. Currently it's doubled until Dec 31st, 2024, so anyone accepting a referral and setting up a new Quest will get $60+ in Quest cash to purchase things on the Quest store. The headset must be NEW and being activated for the first time, used headsets are not eligible.
These referral bonuses go both ways. When you use someone's referral code that person gets the bonus as well, so we ask that you use one of the accounts associated with this group to help grow the game collection. Every game available to download through us had to be purchased by someone initially, and using these codes helps us keep adding new games.
NOTE: To make sure you get the referral bonus please click one of the below links and accept the referral before you activate your new headset. You should do it literally right before you turn the headset on for the first time.
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Will I be banned/bricked for pirating games?
No. As of today not a single person has been banned or punished in any way for piracy on the Quest platform. You are safe to pirate as much as you want, while connected to Wifi, and all on your main Meta account. You are safe to have purchased and pirated games on the same account.
- Can I use a second account for my piracy, or make accounts for several people on the headset?
If you want piracy on a Quest to be simple and easy, you should only have ONE account on your headset. Just the primary account, and no others. No second account for pirated games, or your little brother, or to hide those weird porn games from your friends. Just one account. While it is *possible* to pirate on a Quest that has several accounts on it, it's way more of a pain in the ass. Unless you really want to learn a bunch of ADB commands and have each game/app take hours of work to get working instead it being fast and mostly automatic only use a single account. If you want multiple versions of a game installed so your little brother has his own save file there are other ways to accomplish that.
- What firmware do I need? Can I do system updates?
You don't need to be on any specific firmware version. You are safe to update, and since many of the updates have drastically improved things like the passthrough on the Quest 3 and 3s we encourage you to do so. That said, things do change. If there are ever changes that will effect us, the people who do this all day every day will be the first to see they're coming and this will be updated accordingly. If you're reading this, then you have nothing to worry about currently.
I personally recommend staying on the latest version of Quest software, but *not* signing up for the PTC (Public Test Channel) for the Quest system. If you're pirating things on a system you don't want to be one of the very first people to get hit with any changes that could effect it. As long as you're on the regular current version there will be plenty of time for alarm bells at any changes that effect piracy, but if you sign up for the PTC you're volunteering to be the one ringing those bells if something suddenly stops working for you.
- Demos, Free Trials, and Quest+ games.
If you haven't already, do NOT use free trials of games on the Meta store if you intend to pirate those games. This is not to be confused with game demos, which are separate things on the Quest Store. A free trial shows up on the store listing of a full game/app, with a button saying "Get free trial" next to the buy button. Here’s an example of how they look:
" The Quest Store lists full games and demos separately.")
"Demo pages look like this, they are safe to use.")
"Game purchase/Free Trial pages look like this. DON'T use these.")
- umm... what if I already used a Free Trial?
If you use a Free Trial for a game it's tied to your account, and attempting to pirate it will give you an antipiracy warning and won't let you play. If you've already done this you CAN work around it and still pirate the game, but it's a lot more work.
To pirate a game you've already used a Free Trial of you can either:
- Buy the game. Seems like you like it, and if game devs don't get sales they can't buy food and they die. That sucks, because if they all die then there will be no new games for us.
- Factory reset your headset and set it up with a new primary account that didn't use the trial.
- Use a tool like APKognito on your PC to rename the game and install it as something else.
Quest+ games are considered safe to use and still be able to pirate the game later. There is a popup warning on it, but with Quest+ games you can choose to continue anyway and play your pirated version. I have heard a few people say that they didn't get this option and couldn't play the game after using it on Quest+. That may be because they used a Trial in the past and forgot, user error, or maybe it's something changing or for some reason only effecting certain people/areas. You'll PROBABLY be fine to use a game from Quest+ and then pirate it later, but worst case you'll always be able to use the steps above to get around the timed trial issue.
- Whatever, what GAMES can I get?
Pretty much all of them. Around 1,900 last I tried to count.
There are a few exceptions. Mostly games that have their own piracy protections that currently haven't been cracked, and online only games that have server-side account verification.
- Can I play multiplayer?
Sometimes. Typically with piracy multiplayer doesn't work, but a surprising number of Quest games have multiplayer that works even on pirated copies. This is something that can change at any time. Some games that used to work get updated and the multiplayer stops working, and sometimes it starts working on games it didn't work with before. Typically for games/apps to work multiplayer you need to be using the most recent version of the game/app, so often there will be a few day delay. Les Mills Bodycombat, for example, updates fairly often. When the version on Rookie is the most current version it will connect and you'll be able to participate with no trouble, but when the app updates you will get an error message to update the app in order to use it. Once that new update makes its way onto Rookie you'll be able to get it and continue using the app.
There's no way for staff to keep up with all the changes and the number of games, so we ask for the community to help with this.VRP has a Multiplayer-Games list that is updated by users. If you check the list and download a game expecting MP to work and find out it doesn't, please leave a comment on that game so that it can be updated. If you find a game you didn't expect to work does, or with any new releases or anything not yet listed please also make a note so we can keep the list as up to date as possible.
GETTING STARTED
VRP and Rookie Sideloader
VRP(VRPirates) is the piracy group that owns and operates the best tool for Quest Piracy: Rookie Sideloader(RSL). You can get support and find other users and staff in the VRP Telegram and Discord channels. Currently Discord is the more used of the two. There is also a VRP Wiki that covers the information in this guide and a lot more. Just like this guide, you should read through everything in the Wiki.
- VRP Telegram: https://t.me/VRPirates
- VRP Discord: https://discord.gg/DcfEpwVa4a
- VRP Wiki: https://wiki.vrpirates.club/en/general/_information/getting-started
Rookie Sideloader is a Windows PC application. If you want the very best experience and easiest time in your Quest Piracy journey using a Windows PC is the way to do it. It doesn't have to be a powerful gaming PC, anything relatively modern will work. You can find refurbished PCs on Amazon starting at around $50 including delivery. The remainder of this guide will be directions on setting up RSL on a Windows PC.
For those who for one reason or another are unable to use Windows, VRP also offers solutions for Mac, Linux, and Android users. Those can be found in more detail on the Wiki's No Windows page. These solutions often rely on Torrents, with much slower download speeds, lower availability, and the need to manually install the games and copy the game files to where they need to be on the headset in order for the game to work. If you plan to get and use a lot of games, it would actually save you time to spend a day or two working to get the money for a cheap used PC and use Rookie vs torrents and manual installations.
Setting up your Quest and Installing Rookie
This setup guide is taken from the Getting Started and Rookie Sideloader pages in the wiki, and the direction pages they link to. The guide will be several steps, with a link to simple directions for how to do each step. I suggest going through the steps on by one, and for the steps with links right-clicking and opening the link in a new tab, going to that tab and following the directions to fully complete the step, and then closing that tab so you come back to the main list.
- Create a folder named RSL in your C drive - C:\RSL
- Open Windows Defender and add C:\RSL as a folder exclusion.
- Follow these steps to Enable Developer Mode on your headset.
- Download and install the Quest USB drivers on your PC.
- Go to the VRP Downloads Page and download Rookie. Note: You may get an browser/av warning trying to download the zip. This is a false positive, and the download is safe. More details on that can be found in the Wiki and also in the Rookie Developer's sticky post in the sub.
- Move the Rookie setup zip from your downloads folder to C:\RSL.
- Right-click on the zip and choose "extract here". If you use 7-zip (you should!) the option is in a popout named 7-zip, so right-click the zip and select 7-zip -> Extract Here
- You're now ready to connect your USB (3.0+) cable between your headset and PC, and click to Allow USB Debugging.
- Double-click to run the AndroidSideloader.exe file you extracted into C:\RSL in step 7.
... that's it! Rookie should open and download some stuff it needs and then pop up with a giant list of stuff for you to play. You'll want to read the Wiki's full guide to How to Use Rookie Sideloader. Just scroll down to see what all the buttons and settings options do....but of course the first thing you'll want to do is probably download a game.
Simple. Just double click the game's name...
"Just double click the game's name, and Rookie will download it and install it for you.")
and you'll see it appear in the Downloading and Queue sections at the bottom. Once the download finished the ETA message will change to "Wait for Install" while Rookie unzips the game download for you. Then it will read "Installing APK", usually followed by "moving OBB". With most games this only takes a minute, but some games can take longer. Have PATIENCE on this. Rookie isn't 'stuck' on that OBB stage. If it takes a while odds are you downloaded a bigger game, like Batman or Puzzling Places. Even with a good USB cable it takes a while to move a 30gb game from the PC to the headset and install everything. If it takes an extremely long time (over 30 mins) then you should try a different USB cable and/or PC USB port.
"Success means success!")
When Rookie finishes the installation you'll get a Success message. This means you're ready to play the game!
To actually play a game you sideload onto your headset, you need to find it. Anything you install that isn't done through the Meta Store won't show up in the normal library section. There are two ways to get to these games/apps:
- The Awful Way - The Library app on your headset will have an "Unknown Sources" section. Depending on headset version it's generally either one of the things found in the drop-down menu, or you get to it by clicking one of the icons in the row on the left hand-side of the app. This works, usually. Sometimes games/apps don't show up here for one reason or another, or Rookie has to install the game under a different name in order for it to work pirated. Batman is called Manta. It can get confusing, and if you install 200 things it's a long boring text list.
"This is the awful way. Scroll through a text list of 200 apps? Fuck that.")
- The Awesome Way - Use a launcher. With Quest headsets a launcher is just an app that you use instead of the standard Library app, which lists all of your pirated and paid games and apps together, with nice cover art and information and you can sort and organize them however you want.
"Sooo much nicer to look at and find games in.")
The very first two things listed in Rookie are launchers. There's one open slot on the bar for pinned apps on the Quest main menu, and one of the Meta apps (sadly only one) can be removed from the bar so you can pin two apps of your own to always be there, one click away. I use these for my launcher, which gets me to all of my Quest games/app and Virtual Desktop, which handles everything PCVR and PC use related.
I'll go over Virtual Desktop and it's use in "The (almost) 2025 Guide to Quest Piracy - PCVR" which will be up soon.
THE END...?
This Guide is intended to be a continual work in progress. There are more sections to be added, along with more pictures and some video walkthroughs. That will also be true for the PCVR Guide once it's up. The date at the top of the guide will be changed any time it's modified, and I'll also make a non-sticky post in the sub to inform about any big updates so people who have read the Guide and don't think to look at it constantly won't miss out.CURRENT AS OF ---> 12/22/2024 <--- Last Guide revision date
