TTC Wild Switch Review

Rather than staring at the ceiling of my apartment for the better part of two weeks until it’s time to get up and write a review again, I’ve actually had quite a different few weeks. Shockingly so, in fact. While I quite can’t remember two weeks ago now, this entire last work week has been spent in graduate school orientation going through all of the ins and outs of the department, necessary safety training, as well as listening to every professor in the department share projects that they are interested in finding students for. Even with all of that eating the 8 AM to 5 PM timeslot, though, the biggest shock has been interacting with and meeting new people for the first time again in… years? Has COVID really been going on for years now?

Figure 1: The fact that this is even a stock photo says it’s been way too long… — **Figure 1:** The fact that this is even a stock photo says it’s been way too long…

For those of you less than social creatures like myself, it has been quite the adjustment getting to meet and physically talk in person with so many more people than I’ve talked to since COVID really started shutting things down. It even turns out that normal people not only don’t know about mechanical keyboards but that they also don’t feel like hearing me talk about switches all day, every day. If it wasn’t for The Ohio State University coming to town and stomping them in football on Thursday, I quite frankly would have to start looking up icebreakers or Mitch Hedberg lines to help keep conversations afloat. Jokes aside, it’s been an incredibly good time and it’s not only made me appreciate what I’ve been missing thus far with respect to human interaction, but also has really made me appreciate the physical process of getting to sit down and write a review from the comfort of my own desk chair alone.

Figure 2: I’m not saying it boosts WPM, but I have written my reviews a bit quicker than before I picked this bad boy up. — **Figure 2:** I’m not saying it boosts WPM, but I have written my reviews a bit quicker than before I picked this bad boy up.

Alongside my rather busy week of classes, meetings, and obligated social gatherings though, I was lucky to finally receive my special super-fancy-extra-hyphenated delivery of the TTC Wild switches. (Or was it last week…?) So given that I’ve not actually ever truly broken down a full fledged TTC branded switch in a switch review before, I figured it was certainly about time.

Switch Background

In order to really get a grasp on where TTC Wild switches fit in the historical side of things, there are quite a few contextual pieces surrounding both their design and TTC as a whole to get to prior to talking about the switches themselves. Even though TTC switches have become more prevalent within the wave of new switches in 2020 and 2021 alongside new brands such as KTT, Tecsee, and Durock/JWK, TTC is actually one of the few brands that has been around quite a bit longer than most people may realize. First founded as either ‘Huizhou Zhengrui Electronics Co.’, ‘Tranteck Electronics co.’, or some combination of these entities, TTC first made an appearance as a brand of switches, digital encoders, and connectors all the way back in 1998. While they didn’t necessarily produce keyboard switches for the large majority of their earlier history, much like with most other switch manufacturers, they are believed to have stepped into the MX-style switch design for keyboards shortly after Cherry’s MX patent expiration around 2014.

Figure 3: TTC KS4 Switch family photograph. — **Figure 3:** TTC KS4 Switch family photograph.

Referred to on Deksthority as ‘KS4’ type TTC switches, the first known TTC branded keyboard switches featured Black, Blue, Brown, Yellow, and Red variants in all black, opaque housings. At some point after this release as well, a ‘Silent Pink’ variant was released in this same opaque black style housing. Following the release of these KS4 TTC switches, around the middle of 2017, TTC released their second family of switches simply refferred to collectively as ‘TTC Oranges’. Featuring entirely orange colored components, including stem as well as housings, this family of four switches was rather unique for their time as switches not only did not present entirely in single, striking colors as such, but also didn’t carry the same colorway for different variations of switches. Even though they all look identical, there was a clicky, tactile, and two linear variants of the TTC Orange switches, the latter two featuring 45g. and 60g. springs.

Figure 4: 3 of 4 TTC Orange switches since I still have not picked up the fourth since I last made a meme about it in an article. — **Figure 4:** 3 of 4 TTC Orange switches since I still have not picked up the fourth since I last made a meme about it in an article.

Picking up more steam in 2019 with the increased attention being paid to switches by the mechanical keyboard community, TTC then went on to release several variations of ‘improved’ Orange switch designs in both the east and the west through vendors such as Novelkeys, KBDFans, and so on. While I feel it a bit too tangential here to really piece out their exact dates of releases and such, know that this explosion of releases consisted of TTC Gold V2 Red and Browns, TTC Gold V2 Silent Red and Browns, and also a TTC Gold Brown V3 switch all within a relatively short timespan of a few months of each other. What came after this flurry of Gold/Orange improvement switches, though, was the beginning of the more ‘modern’ TTC switch era which not only featured improved manufacturing technique but a radically different look. First debuting with TTC Gold Pink and TTC Blueish White switches in May of 2020, TTC moved away from the rather plain MX-style look and instead moved to a curved dustrpoof style stem desgn, a usage of a much more vibrant range of switch coloring options, and even multi-stage springs as well.

Figure 5: Family photo of dustproof switches from the modern TTC Era. (L-R, Top-Bot: Gold Pink, Blueish White, Skylar, Ace, Speed Silver, Ice) — **Figure 5:** Family photo of dustproof switches from the modern TTC Era. (L-R, Top-Bot: Gold Pink, Blueish White, Skylar, Ace, Speed Silver, Ice)

Further delineating the “Modern TTC Era” was also a notable improvement in all performance aspects of the switches, which when paired in tandem with their greater customizability, led to a great surge in their popularity in especially eastern markets. As of the time of writing this in 2021, while the switches are still widely available and only slightly popular in western markets, their continual releases in eastern markets first in addition to their significantly lighter spring offerings make these, like other brands such as LCET and Aflion, targeted more towards eastern audiences. To that end, TTC Wild switches were released in two distinct waves of groupbuys – one for China, exclusively enterable through QQ group only, as well as an ‘international’ sale released to the US, Canada, Asia, OCE, and EU regions. While the exact details of the Chinese groupbuy are unknown to me being a very western goat species, both GBs were purported to sell the 42g. and 55g. variants of the TTC Wild switches with the international sale running from March 12th to 26th of 2021 with switches shipping in late August of the same year. The switches were priced around $0.65 per switch in various pack sizes depending on the vendor or $0.70 per switch in batches of 110 which included a special, thematic packaging to go with them.

Figure 6: TTC Wild 42g. and 55g. special edition 110-switch packaging. — **Figure 6:** TTC Wild 42g. and 55g. special edition 110-switch packaging.

In addition to the usage of two different spring weightings for TTC Wild switches, though, they also featured a different color variation in which the 42g. switches featured “creamy” tops and green stems whereas the 55g. switches featured similarly colored green tops with “creamy” stems. The color choice, in this instance, was chosen to match the GMK Wild keycap set which was designed and ran by Matrix Lab from late April to early May of 2020. Shipping in 2021, this wildnesness inspired keycap set by Matrix Lab designer TD Lemon 1900 was aimed to be a complementary of GMK Camping, but with an overall much darker, gritier tone to it. The green and ‘cream’ colors chosen in this instance for the GMK Wild switches were the main accent and modifier colors for the GMK Wild keycap set, respectively.

Figure 7: Matrix Labs’ GMK Wild Keycap set all-in-one kit. — **Figure 7:** Matrix Labs’ GMK Wild Keycap set all-in-one kit.

In addition to the design and release of GMK Wild and their partnered TTC Wild switches, though, Matrix Lab is a much more broad design company within the mechanical keyboard scene. While many people, myself included, may not recognize their full extent of production catalog, they’ve been responsible for quite a number of popular keyboards as of late including (and most certainly not limited to) the Noah, 1.2 OG, Able, 8XV2.0, and 2.0 ADD. An additional reason I chosen to mention a snippet of the design repotoire with Matrix Labs in this instance, though, is that there may be an additional keyboard-based component that fits within the Wild theme created by the GMK set and continued in the TTC switches. In July of 2021, TaehaTypes built a Matrix Lab ME prototype keyboard on stream with TTC Wild switches that featured a similar green color to those used in the TTC wild switches as well as the GMK Wild set. Whether or not this was only a prototype or one-off color, or if this will be released to the general public at large with the release of the Matix Lab ME keyboards is unknown to date.

TTC Wild Switch Performance

Note: Given that there are two differently weighted variants of the TTC Wild switches, I’m going to choose to discuss the 42g. variants for this review and the scorecard. Allusions made to the 55g. variants will be explicitly marked as such if and/or when they occur.

Appearance

As previously stated above, the TTC Wild switches come in two different color variants based on the weighting of the switches and suited to match that of GMK Wild. While both variants share the same colors between each other, the 42g. variant uses a green stem and cream-colored top housing whereas the 55g. variant uses a cream-colored stem and green top housing. Both variants of the switches, though, share both dark grey bottom housings as well as a double staged gold springs. All TTC Wild switches came with slight factory lubing especially noted around the bottom of the slider rails on the stems as well as on the legs at the points where they contact the leaves of the switches.

Figure 8: TTC Wild double-staged gold springs. — **Figure 8:** TTC Wild double-staged gold springs.

Looking at the top housings more closely with respect to mold designs and markings, the exterior of the TTC Wild switches is pretty consistent with other modern era TTC releases. First and foremost, they feature a ‘flipped’ TTC logo raised within a shallow, imprinted rectangle on the nameplate of the switch which has been consistent throughout the entire production history of TTC switches stretching all the way back to the TTC Orange line. The top housings are four-pin and feature mold injection and ejector marks on the sides of the top housing attachment clips and appear to be consistently placed across both batches and variants of switches. As well, it’s worth noting here that the LED slot is bifurcated though with sufficiently large open regions to support nearly all variants of through-switch LEDs used in modern mechanical keyboards.

Figure 9: TTC Wild 42g. top housing showing TTC nameplate design. — **Figure 9:** TTC Wild 42g. top housing showing TTC nameplate design.

Internally, the top housings also carry some rather interesting details of note that haven’t been previously noted in a review here before. With respect to the more minute detail in mold numbers for the top housings, rather than the slew of various places they’ve been demonstrated before, they are found on the far sides of the underside of the nameplate region as can be seen below. In addition to this unique design choice, another rather interesting feature is the sort of ‘ribbed’ region where the top edge of the stem resides in a seated, unpressed position within the top housing. While the lateral stem enclosures within the top housings appear to be more robust in general than other molds noted previously as well, the ribbed design is a truly unique-to-TTC feature that I’ve not previously seen elsewhere. Otherwise, the internals of the top housing are rather as expected with only minor variations in design points such as internal corner rounding as well as the lip design interior to the bifurcated LED slot.

Figure 10: TTC Wild 42g. top housing internals showing the ribbed E/W edges and mold numbering on the underside of the nameplate. — **Figure 10:** TTC Wild 42g. top housing internals showing the ribbed E/W edges and mold numbering on the underside of the nameplate.

Moving onto the stems of the TTC Wild switches, they obviously feature a dustproof design that has been a prevalent feature in all but two of the modern era TTC releases, with the two exceptions being TTC Vaticans and TTC Watermelon Milkshakes. Worth specifically mentioning here, though, is that while the exteriors are ‘boxy’ and with right angles to the design, the dustproof ring is also thick and has curved interior edges. While not necessarily a feature in TTC switches of the past, several different variations in both edge thickness and curvature (or lack thereof) exist within dustproof style switch design. Looking at the finer details the of stems, the stems are almost oxymoronically plain looking with no discernable mold markings on neither the front plate nor back plate. In fact, the mold markings in these switches reside on the top of the stem within the dustproof enclosure towards the base of the mounting post of the stem. The slider rails are only ever so slightly tapered at the very bottom of the stem and the long central pole is perfectly cylindrical with no stepping nor tapering towards the bottoming out. To some degree, the pure lack of immediately identifiable or unique design choices with the exception of the mold marking location makes these some of the more recognizable stems of the brands I’ve previously explored.

Figure 11: TTC Wild 42g. stem showing a rather heavy factory lube application relative to the batch. — **Figure 11:** TTC Wild 42g. stem showing a rather heavy factory lube application relative to the batch.

Figure 12: TTC Wild stem mold identification and manufacturing marks. — **Figure 12:** TTC Wild stem mold identification and manufacturing marks.

Finally moving onto the design of the bottom housings of the TTC Wild switches, the internal design provides much less exciting features to discuss than the external underside. Featuring four mold circles in the corners of the upper rim of the bottom housing, a slight padding at the bottom of the slider rails, as well as a spring collar to corral the stem within the switch, there is not really any distinctive features not previously demonstrated elsewhere save perhaps the fact that the stem collar is ever so slightly more deep than not. On the underside of the switch, though, the TTC Wild switches feature three unique markings worth noting. The first two of which are consistent across TTC switch productions is ‘TTC’ written sideways between the pins in similar fashion to Gateron’s latest anticounterfeiting technique as well as the two pronounced plastic rectangles adjacent to the PCB mount pins. While these are likely extra ‘padding’ for the bottoming out region of the bottom housing where the stem collides with it, this is truly the most unique design feature of TTC switches as a whole. Even though other switches which that have extra ‘padding’ in this region tend to do so internally, both externally and internally placed padding on all other non-TTC switches is significantly thinner. Finally, the mold identification markings for the bottom housings are found just below the PCB mount pins with the left-hand side featuring a single letter code whereas the right-hand side features a double numerical code.

Figure 13: TTC Wild internal bottom housing features with spillover factory lubrication. — **Figure 13:** TTC Wild internal bottom housing features with spillover factory lubrication.

Figure 14: TTC Wild bottom housing underside showing mold markings and anticounterfeit marking. — **Figure 14:** TTC Wild bottom housing underside showing mold markings and anticounterfeit marking.

Push Feel

Broadly speaking, whether or not its immediately recognizable to many people, the spring weight of a linear switch often makes or breaks its performance. Whereas the sound and push feel of heavier spring switches are more top-housing heavy given the increased resistance at bottoming out and increased force of return, lighter springs don’t necessarily operate in the same fashion. With a much “lighter” weight than many people type with here in the west, the experience from most reviewers will tend to be focused on harsher bottoming out than topping out feelings in addition to potentially increased wobble due to lesser upward force keeping the stem in place. However, even though the TTC Wild switches are marketed as having polycarbonate top housings and nylon bottom housings, a combo which can be deadly with respect to hollowness in feeling and sound, they actually pull it off quite well.

Even though it is not the most prominent of the switch, the 42g. variants of the TTC Wild switches have a fairly noticeable bottoming out experience with a feeling somewhere between a medium and strong firmness. The nylon housings, in this instance, feel something much closer to recent Durock/JWK or Tecsee nylon bottom housings than something like Cherry MX Black housings, and I suspect this in part to be a difference in the housing thicknesses. On the other end of the stroke, the top housing is actually incredibly well balanced to the bottoming out with the lesser upward force matching the stronger bottoming out quite well in both strength and feeling. In between the two housing collisions, the stroke is surprisingly smooth for the relatively small amount of factory lubrication that is used. In fact, the Wild switches walk a great tight rope between ‘too thin’ factory lube and ‘too thick’ hand lubing, still allowing enough of the character of the switch to show through. As well, as an extra point of note, I feel like the top-out to bottom-out feeling of the Wild switches is relatively well balanced for both weightings, but slightly more equal in the case of the 42g. variants than not, though I could be a bit biased here as I tend to prefer lighter weights as such anyhow.

Figure 15: TTC Wild “force curve” from the Geekhack Interest Check page. — **Figure 15:** TTC Wild “force curve” from the Geekhack Interest Check page.

One last thing that I do want to discuss here, though, is the force curve that was provided in the Geekhack IC for the TTC Wild switches in addition to their other marketing points. Shown above, we have a fairly lacking demonstration of the weightings at ‘Start’, ‘Operating’, and ‘Bottom’ for both marketed spring weight variants. As can clearly be seen from this chart, though, the implication is that these marketed weightings are actually representative of the “actuation force” rather than the “bottoming out force”, the latter of which being the metric that I and most everyone often refer to when rating springs. The reason that actuation force is often dismissed when discussing springs is primarily due to the fact that the point of activation is not just affected by the spring but also the stem shape and especially the leaf design. With multiple different leaves available for both tactiles and linears from a single manufacturer, a true actuation force for a spring can wildly vary in between switches from the same manufacturer, let alone innumerable other combinations the spring could be into.

Additionally, further compounding my frustration with this chart is that the 42g and 55g variants should thus be more appropriately labeled as 52g. and 68g. weights, respectively. However, that would belay to the average consumer that at bare minimum the 55g./58g. variants feel “just like any other linear” because they bottom out at the same force as is commonly offered here to western audiences. Needless to say, I don’t think that this is entirely true. The 55g./68g. variant and especially the 42g./52g. variant feel drastically lighter than other linear switches marketed at their respective bottoming out forces. Thus, I’m still going to refer to the TTC Wild switches throughout the rest of this review by their marketing names rather than by the conventional bottoming out weights purely to stress that there is a noticeable lightness in these switches that one might not initially assume with 52g. and 68g. labels. I’m even further less inclined to call them 52g. and 68g. variants as this really isn’t a force curve. This diagram is actually a horrendously bad misrepresentation of a force curve, and it provides significantly less information than what it may initially be assumed to have in it.

Sound

Even though the overall sound of the TTC Wild switches, as a whole, are one of their least favorable performance metrics out of the box, this doesn’t necessarily mean that these are in any way bad. In the average 42g. TTC Wild switch, there’s a fairly middle-pitched bottoming and topping out sound with a depth that sits between Cherry MX Nylon and more recent Durock/JWK nylon bottom housings much like with the push feel. As the activation speeds pick up, though, the topping out begins to take on a bit more of the plasticky undertones traditionally noted in linear switches, but it’s not aggressively thin nor sharp sounding. They are, though, free from scratch sound.

The biggest issue already alluded to above is that there is a subtle range of topping out sounds that are produced at higher activation speeds. Due somewhat to slight inconsistencies in factory lubing, and perhaps having something to do with lube being unequally distributed along the stem and within the ridge of the top housing noted above in the Appearance section, some switches sound a but more muted and less than others. Of this variation, there’s a pretty sizeable distribution in topping out sounds over the entirety of the batch. While this could easily be a function of the lube needing to be distributed over the course of a ‘break in period’ of usage with these switches as I am testing them fresh out of the box, I still can’t help but note that this is present in their stock form.

Wobble

One of the biggest improvements relative other light weight linear TTC options of the past, though, is the stem wobble in the TTC Wild switches. Previously, switches like TTC Gold Pinks have had a decently noticeable amount of stem wobble in both the N/S and E/W directions, and while its still present in the Wild, its to a significantly lesser amount. Having equal magnitude of strength in both the N/S and E/W directions, it likely will pass well within most people’s tolerances for wobble but it may bother those more sensitive to it or those who use tall cap profiles such as SA or MT3. There is not any top housing wobble in any of the switches I tested as well, and both this and the stem wobble seem consistent across the entire batch of switches.

Measurements

If you’re into this level of detail about your switches, you should know that I have a switch measurement sheet that logs all of this data, as well as many other cool features, that can be found under the ‘Archive’ tab at the top of this page or by clicking on the card above. This sheet typically gets updated weekly on mail days, and has been a subtle project I’ve been developing for some time now!

Other

Given that the ‘Other’ section has become a sort of informal ‘packaging’ section over the recent months as more and more switches are starting to come with fancy packaging that I can decorate my apartment with, I absolutely could not wait to talk about the special edition boxes for the 110 packs of TTC Wild switches. Coming in identical packaging for both 42g and 55g variants, save the little identifier in the top left-hand corner, 110 packs of switches had the option to come with special decorative storage boxes for only a couple of dollars more per pack. (While I can not recall the exact number in my head due to my invoice not accurately reflecting the slightly higher post-GB pricing that the TTC Wild switches currently reside at, I think it was only like $10 more per the set of switches.)

Figure 17: TTC Wild 55g. 110-pack internal tray and plastic cover. — **Figure 17:** TTC Wild 55g. 110-pack internal tray and plastic cover.

Reminiscent of Cherry’s MX Switch Developer Kits, the TTC Wild switches come packed in green ‘Wild’ themed boxes with plastic trays that store each individual switch as can be seen in the images below. While it is certainly a purely aesthetic choice and unnecessary given how switches are normally packaged, I truly do appreciate the thematic, high-end boxes for the special edition and wish more switches themed in tandem with keysets would do something of the sort in the future. In a hobby that is primarily dominated by the form over function side of things, it’s the little treats like this that make the switch collector in me probably a little bit too giddy for my own good.

Figure 18: TTC Wild box art net from Geekhack Interest Check page. — **Figure 18:** TTC Wild box art net from Geekhack Interest Check page.

Comparison Notes to Other Notable Linear Switches

Note – These are not aimed at being comprehensive comparisons between all factors of these switches as this would simply be too long for this writeup. These are little notes of interest I generated when comparing these pieces to the 42g. TTC Wilds side by side.

If you would like to learn more about these switches, I’ve already completed reviews or scorecards for some of them. If the names below are highlighted in a grey color, click them to be taken to my other content or reviews on them!

TTC Gold Pink

- Even though the Gold Pinks have a slightly lower ‘actuation force’ at 37g. as compared to the 42g. Wilds, and assumedly by extension a lighter bottoming out force, their topping out is much thinner and sharper sounding than the Wilds. Overall, as well, they’re quite a bit louder.

- While neither switch is ‘scratchy’ per se, there is a lot more character in the stroke of the of TTC Gold Pinks as compared to the Wilds. If this is a hard concept to understand and you think I’m just talking about scratch indirectly, I’d compare it to the sort of difference you’d see in normally lubed versus ‘overlubed’ switches, but in the opposite direction.

- Again, as mentioned above the stem wobble in both the N/S and E/W directions on the TTC Wilds is a bit better than the TTC Gold Pinks.

Momoka Frog V3

- The same ‘character’ metric I noted with respect to thinness of factory lube is notable here in Momoka Frog switches when comparing them to the TTC Wild switches.

- The stem wobble in both N/S and E/W directions between these two switches is actually rather comparable with perhaps the Momoka Frogs ever so slightly edging them out across an entire batch of switches.

- Much like with many of the switches here on this list, the TTC Wild switches on average have much more bass heavy tones present in their topping out than the Momoka Frog V3 switches.

Cherry MX Red

- Due in part to some combination of scratch and general spring weighting, when comparing the Cherry MX Reds next to TTC Wild switches I am rather impressed how much heavier MX Reds feel given their traditionally ‘lighter than other options’ status.

- At lower activation speeds, the topping out of the TTC Wilds sounds like a more clear, less grainy version of the topping out of MX Reds. While not nearly the most interesting point of emphasis throughout this review for you all, this was probably my personally most interesting point I saw when drawing up these comparison notes.

- To nobody’s surprise, the TTC Wild is significantly better than the Cherry MX Red switches with respect to stem wobble. To date this has been one of Cherry’s weakest points relative to the rest of custom mechanical keyboard switch scene.

KTT Strawberry

- KTT Strawberries are surprisingly noticeably quieter at topping and bottoming out than the TTC Wild switches as well as slightly higher pitched in terms of sound.

- The stem wobble on the KTT Strawberries is noticeably better than the TTC Wild in both directions, though I should mention that that may not be necessarily representatively true of all KTT switches. KTT Strawberries have been one of the best performing KTT switches in this metric for quite some time and the normal, winglatch molds don’t quite compete in terms of stem wobble.

- While I’m having a hard time really developing a good way to explain this, some combination of the increased spring weight and the lubing of the KTT Strawberries makes them feel ‘stickier’ or ‘more encumbered’ towards the bottom of the stroke than in the TTC Wild switches.

C3 Tangerine V2 (62g.)

- Even though specific batches of C3 Tangerine V2 switches have had variations in stem wobble over time, the batch that I have is rather similar to the TTC Wilds in terms of both N/S and E/W stem wobble.

- While the switches are relatively the same loudness overall, there is significantly more bass heavy tones in the TTC Wild switches than in the comparatively thin and sharp sounding Tangerine V2s.

- Overall, the out-of-box smoothness of both of these switches is rather comparable and I would think that weighting aside, anyone who picked up one would like the other on the smoothness metric.

Gateron Cap Yellow V2

- The Gateron Cap Yellow V2s are significantly more ‘sticky’ in terms of both push feel and overall switch sound than the TTC Wild switches.

- As well, while the stem wobble on Gateron switches has overall improved over recent releases and mold updates, the TTC Wild switches still edge out the newest iteration of Cap Yellows with respect to stem wobble.

- The bottoming out of the TTC Wild switches feels a bit more multi-dimensional and firm than the Cap Yellows which have more soft and flat feeling bottom out. I am very uncertain if this is a function of the design of the switch, of the material of the bottom housing, or some combination thereof.

Scores and Statistics

Note – These scores are not necessarily completely indicative of the nuanced review above. If you’ve skipped straight to this section, I can only recommend that you at least glance at the other sections above in order to get a stronger idea of my opinion about these switches.