On October 18, 2021, Nintendo released Challenger Pack 11, featuring Sora from Kingdom Hearts. While fans celebrated, the CFW community panicked. Update 13.0.0 (and subsequent 13.0.1/13.0.2) raised the required SDK (Software Development Kit) version to 13.0.0.
If you tried to run a clean (unpatched) NSP of SSBU v13.0.0 on firmware 12.1.0, the game would: super smash bros ultimate nsp patched
This happened because Nintendo introduced new crypto keys and system calls that did not exist on older firmware. Hence, the "patched" scene was born. On October 18, 2021, Nintendo released Challenger Pack
When you see a download labeled “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate [Patched],” it generally refers to one of two things: This happened because Nintendo introduced new crypto keys
Simply possessing an NSP file—patched or not—is not enough to play the game. Nintendo Switch software is encrypted.
If you legally own Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (physical or digital) and are dumping your files for emulation or backup purposes, here is the standard update path: