These Fix Joy-Con Drift Forever, But It's not Worth It 

I've switched all my Joy-con controllers' sticks to these and I've had absolutely no issues, I even have a pair of the older batch and the only difference is that they didn't come with a dust cover and they're not as smooth feeling as the newer ones. They've worked very well for me, I never noticed they require more force to use at all, what I will say however is that the surface of the sticks is very smooth and made of a harder rubber than the original sticks, so they were a bit slippery for me, it's nothing some stick covers can't fix though. It also seems like they have slightly less reach than the originals but it's nothing game ruining, you're not going to use Joy con controllers at an FPS tournament anyway. I'm surprised the force was so noticeable for Alex, I didn't even know it was there, but to be honest I wholeheartedly recommend them, the only tricky part for most people would be installing them, which wasn't an issue for me but only because I like tinkering with these things anyway.

I personally like the sticks and started using the JoyCons even more than before. I also find the smoothness (if this is a word) better. Moving the sticks from there to max results in s smooth moving dot in system settings, while a working and used old one without drift already hopped around. If you want the sticks to be "snappier" you can simply recalibrate them and not max out the possible movement. This moves the max position inwards. I personally like them and won't go back.

Thank you for giving us the whole story; that's actually helpful for forming the picture. Hope GuliKit will keep refining until they've got something great. Even measuring the force required! What, is this Digital Foundry now? ;)

I got these day one because they just so happened to release exactly when my joycons started drifting Personally, I don’t think the extra force required to push the stick is a big deal. The way I see it, it’s not worse, it’s just different. Hard to tell whether you’d like them or not until you have them in your hands though, so if you’re not sure then probably wait until a v2 comes out or something

Such a strange occurrence. I installed mine last month and thought they felt similar and not at all stiff.

The joys and cons of Joy-Cons

Only thing I see here is Alex flexing his National Geographic Cat encyclopedia and official copy of Windows 95.

For everyone: this has nothing to do with the techoligy itself. Sega already used this in there Dreamcast Sticks and they are easy to move (sometimes to easy imo, but that's just me) So they messed up badly with this replacements.

I got these for my drifting joycons and I actually really like them. I didn't consciously notice any difference in the stiffness but I found them much easier to use for fine control of movement, like trying to get Link to walk slowly in a really specific direction, or aiming arrows. Maybe it's because I'm a clumsy, heavy-handed idiot, but I love these. I want to go measure the resistance on mine now to see if maybe I have a different batch.

My first set of joycon started drifting after 200 hours into BOTW. So I thought it would be appropriate to replace my current set with these Gulikits when I started TOTK.

My Gulikit HAL sticks feel smooth, not hard or sticky at all, so I can't directly relate to your issues. But I've had one major issues with these sticks which could be related to how you experienced them! The issue is that the surface felt noticeably more slippery! My thumb kept sliding on the surface which made accurate movement hard and made the required force feel worse. Maybe this is why you had such an issue with them, Alex? It sounded like that when you described your thumb slipping off the stick when attempting to dash in Smash. After I put a cap on the stick it felt beautiful! I've had no issues with the sticks with the caps on. So I would advise against buying these stick if you plan to use them plain without caps. Unless they change the surface material to something better they are a no-buy! But if you have stick caps for joy-con then the sticks are amazing.

I have seen quite a number of people posting about them changing their perfectly fine sticks to these but ended up messing up their joycons. A lot of Switch owners are so impulsive. If it's working properly, leave it alone.😅

Eeh, the stiffness is fine and gets better over time. When I bought brand new joycons, they actually felt solid as well. I shaked mine, no noise anywhere. I played with mine after a month, and shaking it causes a little noise, idicating things got loose. After 6 months, they just started drifting lol. I play a lot of Splatoon to give context. There's quick flicks in the game as well, for squid roll, so I understand the importance of certain movements. Then I got these, and replaced all 4 sticks on two pairs of joy con. They felt stiff like you mentioned, and it was a little weird I admit, but after a week it felt much better. Like a brand new joycon, that doesn't make a noise when I shake it. Give it more time, really wear it down. I have them for 3 months now, zero complaints.

Had these since they were released and use them all the time for Splatoon and basically any game. For me it didn't really feel weird to me. I also wonder if there is a break in period that needs to be considered

As a Greek viewer, at first I started wondering why oh why Alex has the "Do not touch the marble (Μη εγγίζετε τα μάρμαρα)" sign on the background. Then in the video Alex talked about stick friction (hence the sign 🤣clever and funny) and now there's this fear building into me that the Parthenon might start drifting one day. Amazing video Alexander the Great Joycon Savior! Let me know if you're visiting and need a tour guy!

It's funny how the sticks that touches the contacts physicaly have less pressure to put in as to play with Magnets they doesn't touch anything.😅

I am glad you gave the sticks every reasonable chance and tested them using a scale to better make the point. Thanks, Alex.

I have had these in my switch for months now and I dont have this problem at all. This is why I always take what I hear from media outlets like you guys with a grain of salt, its not even close to being as bad as you make it out to being.

if you want to go the extra mile to bring the story home, maybe reach out to them, let them know your findings, and see if they can send a QA tested pair? maybe their issue is that some of them suck but some are great, and they thought they had ironed that issue out, but in fact hadn't

To be fair, I've noticed big differences in the force required in my stock joycons. Some would make like what I'd describe as a spring stretching sound and those i noticed were stiffer than the looser quiet sticks. They never got any better. Eventually started drifting like the others after years. I bought a pair of the hall effect joysticks to replace the next pair that starts drifting.

Thank you for sharing, bummer you had that experience! I bought a kit back in January this year and finally got around to installing them in a pair of the new pastel color controllers that came out and honestly besides maybe a bit more noise I don't notice any real difference between those and net-new controllers. Maybe I got lucky or maybe I just haven't used Joy-Cons enough to notice the differences. I will say though that the first controller I bought that used the Guikit sticks (the KingKong 2 Pro in June 2022)) had the muddiest feeling sticks I'd ever used. Ended up returning them and was hesitant to use other Guikit controllers in general until the 8bitdo Ultimate came out.

Yeah, the gulikit sticks do have way more resistance compared to how loose the official ones are. The drifting is also not completely gone because there can be some calibration issues depending on the quality of the gulikit sticks themselves.

I suspect Gulikit sent you a pair from the first batch by mistake. I say this because I bought these last week, installed, and they work great. They feel exactly like the old joysticks. Not tight or needing a break in period.

I did get these around day one when they first came out and the only downside i noticed was the slippery material they used on the joystick itself, other than this i have enjoyed the new sticks for nearly a year now with ZERO issues and i use them every single day. I would 100% recommend! :)

kind of like that the stick feels a bit firmer, but the bigger issues for me with these sticks is that they leave a tiny little gap for dust near the top of the stick module and they don't have nearly as much travel as the OEM sticks and I don't feel like I get as fine as control. but if you have drifting sticks and want a solution that won't prompt you to replace them with OEM grade over and over, i do recommend trying out the sticks on at least one set of joycon if you can spare them. if you only have one set, just leave them be until Gullikit makes a 2.0 Thank you for your contributions to science, Alex! 👨‍🔬

As a Greek based in UK, I do appreciate that background, Alex. 😂

These GuliKit joysticks are absolutely amazing and feels just like the OEM, don't agree with your assessment that it feels stiffer. Fixed the drifting problems, installation requires patience and steady hands.

Seems like a cool product, but yeah, not for me. I have quite a few Joy-Cons, including O.G. ones from 2017, and none of them ever had drift, so I kind of feel like I won the lottery. Watch as I now jinxed myself and my Joy-Cons all start to drift...

I installed these a few months back. I am not a fan of the rubber material they use, however overall it is fine to live with as they will last a long time.

Love these. didnt wanna throw away my skyward sword joycons cuz they were drifting and replacing the sticks with these hall effect sticks worked perfectly! i havent experienced any issues after calibration

Personally, I like the toughness of mine, but I experienced a bit of a drift the other day, not sure depending on what. Recalibrated the whole thing and everything’s being ok so far

Just did the mod last week and both sticks are working fine!

Meh I replaced mine with these and yeah they are a little more stiff than the original but you get used to them really fast. Haven't had any issues with them. Gonna buy more to fix my other joycons. They feel nice to me, seems like more of a personal issue.

I agree, for the price I thought they would be much better but they are not. One of them makes click sounds and they are both stiffer and not as smooth moving as the original joycons.

I have to say, I got them too some months ago and I quite like the increased resistance the Sticks give. So I guess it's just a thing of prefference. It is not a dealbreaker to me in the slightest.

I bought the kit with two pairs. One of the sticks simply could not be recalibrated no matter how many times I tried. I had to get a replacement and that DID work. So, it's a happy ending, just not right away.

I love it when we dive right into things.

I was really hoping this would be the fix we needed but was waiting on a review. Talk about disappointed...

Outstanding video. Thank you🙌

I have two sets of Joy Cons, and over the course of years, replaced all four sticks with aftermarket replacements. When one stick started drifting, I i decided to replace all four with these, and thats what I did. I thought these sticks were a whole lot like the standard sticks. I never once felt like I had to use any extra pressure, but I also don't have a single Joy Con with standard sticks to A/B these against. For all I know, these findings are 100% correct. To be clear, I almost exclusively use Joy Cons for Splatoon occasionally playing undocked with a Satisfye grip. I have not played SBU with these sticks.

I installed these on both of my joycon and found no issues with stick resistance, it was perfectly comfortable to use for me. The drift was also fixed instantly. However, during installation the ribbon cable connecting the joycon rail to the main board somehow stopped functioning and now my left joycon has no lights and the SL/SR buttons don't work. I would recommend these sticks but only if you're not deeply emotionally attached to your joycon and are prepared to risk breaking them or have them feel slightly different.

PSA: If your Joy-Cons are working fine, don't try "fixing" them yourself. You could just mess up your controller. If your Joy-Con is drifting, in most territories Nintendo will fix it for you FOR FREE. You don't need to waste your money on things like this.

I’m still waiting for my day one switch joycons to start drifting. My ps4 and quest controllers both have drift but the Nintendo gods must just be shining on me.

Just bought pastel joycons after 5 years of only using the ones that came with my switch, so im tempted to replace the sticks on my original joycons with something, just not sure what. Maybe not this unfortunately.

Thanks for the honest unbiased opinion. I haven’t made the change and don’t plan to for the foreseeable future (I followed your Joy and Pro con cleaning guide so since I can clean them easily I have no need to replace the sticks) but this is good to know in case something comes up in future.

I've been looking at these for a while now, thanks for reviewing them!

The issue with the first run was a gap between the joycon and the base leading to an opening in the joycon. I think that's what they changed

i like how they feel, beforehand i switched the sticks twice till the ribbon cable to the leds just snapped, which makes the entire joy con unusable since the bt handshake goes through them, so a long term solution with a nice rigid feel for me is better overall.

I wonder if lubing them with some silicone spray would help?

According to Amazon reviews it IS possible to get a good pair of these but your odds aren’t great. Many folks went through several returns before they got working ones

I installed them and I really didn’t I needed to push down really any harder until I watched this and tested the feel. In the beginning the sensitivity of them when it came to moving left and right was quite bad, but after I calibrated them it was all fixed and have had no further issues, and I recommend these.

Nice to see an honest an impartial video on these sort of things

On another note, I had some drift but it kinda went away on it's own on all my joycons. Not sure if it's luck or a software update changing deadzones

Interesting. I don't find them too stiff at all. In fact, I've always disliked the feel of Joy-Con sticks for being too soft, so I find these to be an improvement.

Smash has Stick sensitivity options, so those might help too.

MY joycon appear to drift away from my console, when playing in handheld mode I have to periodically take at least one foo and put it back on because I'm not allowed to play with on detached and one attached.

This comment is after "precision wrestling" with the innards of the Switch. I'm a novice when it comes to opening electronic devices and it took me about an hour and a half to replace the sticks with the Gulikit ones. I didn't bother removing the batteries while disassembling the joycons. I found that the right joycon is more difficult to disassemble. Control-wise I'm quite fine with how the Gulikit sticks feel. I use some rubber pads over my joycon sticks anyways so it doesn't feel different so far in my experience (tried out Mario Kart, Smash and BOTW). Overall, an okay upgrade(?) / replacement 👍

Weird coincidence that I ordered them last week

As much as I like the tech and idea of the newd joy-cons, they still have issues. Been playing Legends: Arceus and sometimes when I am running it will just slow down for no reason. It does not feel as smooth as a regular joycon thumbstick. If you need a new pair then these are the way to go but if yours work perfectly fine then I would just keep your regular in until drift happens

"It's not worth it coz the change feels bad to me". Erm.. try testing them against a joycon with stick drift and then tell us which one you prefer. I'm sure the halls are far from perfect, and I appreciate hearing about the downsides, but you're saying to avoid them because of something so damn negligible.

If, someday, my joy-cons get stick drift, I’m just going to let it being replaced by Nintendo for free :p

I'm curious if you can check the force needed to move the stick without it being in a joy-con. Might be something with the install? Also hoping they fix this issue and also make replacement sticks for the pro controller. Mine dries bad at times. So bad, I have to open it up and blow the thing out every month, to "fix" the drift.

I disagree completely with this video. I think they are a bit stiffer than the stock joycons, but I don’t find it as a problem at all. I changed over to these sticks about a month ago and was quite surprised how easy the install was. I think the stiffness is a SMALL price to pay for joycons that will (hopefully) never drift again 🤷‍♂️

It's crazy that people in the comments do not know that nintendo repairs drifting joycons for free regardless of warranty.

Thanks for the honesty!

What about the contact when you click the stick? No physical contact/friction?

Was very close to buying these few weeks ago Thanks for the heads up!

i got a question, does the joystick calibration save directly on the joycon? or do i need to recalibrate if i sell or use it on a new console?

It's nice to hear a real world take on these sticks rather then trying to sugar coat it for the sake of the video . I'm glad you showed this issue hopefully it can be sorted through a hardware revision later down the line.

Really hope that switch 2 just had Hall effect joysticks from the jump

My assumption is it probably uses parts from their other sticks and those are full sized while the Switch's are only like half height. It may be that adding something like a control freak or scuff cover will fix it from the added weight and height.

It is worth it, if you know what you're doing.

i'm glad you posted the video alex as i have been recenly considering buying some. i had heard the there was teething issues at launch so i made sure to not buy them until i knew the issues had been fixed. i will hold off again till i hear of some good news. thanks for the vid, thumbs up from me :)

I got Gullikits for the Steam Deck and they feel identical in terms of stiffness as an Xbox one controller, PowerA Nintendo Switch and the Xbox Elite Series 2. I don't use joycon often as they are small and not comfortable. The stiffness being almost 2x grams of resistance is not usable in my book either, its possible you got a bad set? Drawing conclusion from one set that could be different to the majority makes this kind of rough.

I liked the hidden message about the marbles, only a Greek and the friends of greece could understand it. As a Nintendo life fan, thank you.

My joycon fix is going to target and abusing their no questions asked return policy. Buy new ones, return the old ones, get refund

I have installed it on my oldest Joy-Cons. I have no drift on the left one but the right stick I can't fix. This make me feel that I don't want any newer consoles in the future. I'm so sad

Haven't really had any problems with my sticks. But I can try them a bit with smash or some similar games. I'm also using the cardboard behind the sticks. They also require a bit of calibration as they are a bit overshot when you first put them in. So in a sense how hard you need to push them also depends a bit on your personal calibration.

I just bought mine this morning, what a coincidence. I’m just done with the drifting. One of the reasons I haven’t picked up my switch.

My nephews broke sticks on their Switch Lites so I bought these and put them in their consoles and I actually thought they were pretty smooth. I didn't try dashing in Smash or anything, but they seem to do the trick for games like Zelda, Mario, etc.

Wonder if a fresh application of joystick butter would help them feel better.

Just done this upgrade, not really noticed any stiffness in the stick compared to the OEM parts. Could just be the kit I got though, everyone seems to have different feelings with the kits they got.

Things are continuously R & D’d for a reason. I’m sure Nintendo was aware of this solution and for whatever reason did not use them. All these 3rd party solutions 9/10 times are not better than the original design

What's the name of the song in the background?

I wonder if these can be used to repair a Switch controller experiencing drift instead of Joycons…

Did you calibrate them?

Well, tbh the first problem was you expecting it to be exactly the same as the original one as the way they work is different. For me is like expecting an automatic and a manual transmission car to behave and feel exactly the same

I wish 8bitdo would make Hall effect Joycon alternatives

Has someone made these for the Xbox and PS controllers yet?

Given the size of the Joycons, I think we’ve gotta come to terms with the fact its low profile existing sticks are the only real option, unless Nintendo radically changes how Joycon are designed. Even when compared to something like the Vita, the Switch is built to be compact and thin where that more traditional Vita thumbstick wouldn’t fit.

Analog sticks of Ps Vita 1000 are Hall effect too...

More stick tension is a good thing frankly.

so far, i haven't encountered drifts on joycons released 2020 onwards. but my joycon purchased between 2017-2019 all have drifts.

My Saturn and Dreamcast pads still have perfect functionality and they are Hall Effect :) I think they're worth it. personally if I ever need serious control for a game, I'm not going to use a dinky joycon. so for everything else they're wonderful. In fact I never even noticed the extra force required

0:48 why does this guy look like Narrator from the Boys

I have these, bought them maybe a month before Totk. The rubber feels different but overall they are perfect. I probably have the new version or my fingers are different. I feel, except for the rubber, they are the same

Can you see if this does anything to do with motion as well. HoTD seems a nightmare. It starts to wonder off center after a bit. There is a center button at least. Can you see if there is any improvements in motion for House of the Dead remake. Wii motion + motes where better for motion. These are for stick drift. I don't have that issue. But at least there is a fix for those joycons that do. More joycons can be in the wild with this fix (fix the broken ones) .

I use the Satisfye grip and the little extenders and I wonder if because it's lengthened with more leverage it would feel better. You say the Xbox ones are ok and those are longer. The Switch sticks are short so try playing with little things on them.

still not available for purchase...

Since the Joycon movement are so small compared to full sized analog , I prefer a stiffer stick to be honest ... and yes , I've swapped my Joycon stick .. if anything that I would nitpick , that's gonna be the smooth texture of the stick , its not as rubbery as the original joycon .. but that's about it , personally , I don't have any problem whatsoever .. I ordered it directly from China with our country's online platform (Shopee Malaysia) and it only cost me 15 dollars