Region Changing the Wii U

The way I used to do it was tedious and was quite complex, however with the v2.0 release of the wafel_setup_mlc plugin, region changing has become much simpler.

It is identical to just rebuilding the MLC, but this has region changing specific notes added.

This does not change the region of the Gamepad, however you can still use an out-of-region gamepad with Aroma, which can be loaded with a Stroopwafel plugin, so you don't need to worry about getting a gamepad from the region you are changing to.

Following this guide will wipe the MLC. You should back up any saves you care about before following. Its possible to do it without wiping the MLC, you just skip the
Erase MLC
and
Delete scfm.img
steps, but you will have to remove the old titles with this wupclient (Right Click -> Save As).

Keep an OTP and SEEPROM backup. Nothing should go wrong, but it is better to have the most important backups and not need them vs. need them and not have them.

What you need

• Install isfshax. This is a requirement. You cannot region change without it. (You can also use de_Fuse, but at that point you probably already know what you are doing.)
  • Stop at the "Booting" section.
• The release of the MLCRestorerDownloader for your OS.
• The latest release of the MLC setup plugin.
• The latest release of the Payloader plugin.
• The latest files for Aroma. (If you already have it, you do not need to recopy it)
  • Read and tick the 4 boxes -> Click on
    Download Payloads
    and
    Download Base Aroma

Downloading the MLC Titles

1. Extract the MLCRestorerDownloader you downloaded.
2. Copy the
   otp.bin
   into the extracted folder.
3. Open a command prompt / terminal and run the application (ie
   .\MLCRestorerDownloader.exe
   for Windows users).
4. Type in
   1
   the for MLC titles.
5. Type in the number for the region you want to change to (ie
   2
   for USA).
6. Wait for it to finish downloading. You can do part of the next section while you wait.

SD Setup

1. Copy the
   wafel_setup_mlc.ipx
   to
   sd:/wiiu/ios_plugins
   .
2. Copy the
   wafel_payloader.ipx
   to
   sd:/wiiu/ios_plugins
   .
3. Copy the two
   wiiu
   folders from the Aroma
   .zip
   files to the root of the SD.
4. Copy the
   root.rpx
   from
   sd:/wiiu/environments/aroma
   to
   sd:/wiiu
   .
5. Make a folder called
   wafel_install
   on the root of the SD and copy all 52 MLC titles here.

Region Changing

1. Boot the console.
   • If it does not automatically go into minute_minute, go install isfshax.
2. Navigate to
   Backup and Restore
   .
3. Select
   Erase MLC
   and then press EJECT to confirm.
4. Select
   Delete scfm.img
   and press EJECT to confirm.
5. Go back to the main menu and select
   Patch (sd) and boot IOS (slc)
   .
6. Wait for the LED to start blinking blue, this means the setup has started. Wait for it to stop blinking, that is when the setup has finished.
7. Shut off the console and put the SD back into your PC.
8. Check the
   wafel_setup_mlc.log
   file on the root and make sure there were no errors (everything should have
   00000000
   , except for
   SetInitialLaunch
   , which will have a
   1
   ).
9. If everything looks right, delete the
   wafel_setup_mlc.ipx
   file from
   sd:/wiiu/ios_plugins
   .
10. Boot the console again, select
    Patch (sd) and boot IOS (slc)
    , and you should be greeted with initial setup. Success!

After Region Changing

You can keep isfshax installed, or you can uninstall it. I would keep it, so you can load Aroma on boot without needing to install PayloadLoader, or as some form of 'brick protection'.