Grasp your Steam Deck with these 22 suggestions and methods

Whereas Valve’s superior $399 Steam Deck is a succesful sufficient gaming system out of the field, a few of its finest options are simple to overlook.

If you realize the place to look, you’ll be able to customise the Steam Deck to your liking, reduce annoyances, and even increase your recreation catalog properly past the built-in Steam storefront.

Right here, then, is a prolonged record of suggestions and methods for the Steam Deck, loosely organized from easy to extra superior:

Know your fast instructions

Lengthy-press the Steam button, and also you’ll see an inventory of fast instructions you’ll be able to invoke from wherever. A full record seems within the above screenshot, however listed below are a couple of that you need to attempt committing to reminiscence:

• Regulate brightness: Steam + Left Stick Up/Down
• Drive recreation shutdown: Steam + Lengthy-press B
• Take a screenshot: Steam + R1
• On-screen keyboard: Steam + X.
• Short-term cursor: Steam + Proper Stick or Trackpad. Use R2 to click on.

Get recreation strategies

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Unsure what to play in your Steam Deck? A pair strategies:

• From the house display screen, scroll down, then over to the “Really helpful” tab. Steam will helpfully recommend untouched video games out of your backlog.
• Hit the Steam button and choose “Library.” The primary tab (“Nice on Deck”) suggests video games which are fully-optimized for the transportable.
• Attempt taking part in a few of the smaller-scale, indie video games you’ve been neglecting. Chances are high they’ll be simpler to select up and put down than, say, Elden Ring, and so they might burn by way of much less battery life as properly.

Test your battery life

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Faucet the battery icon on the prime of the display screen to rapidly convey up the Efficiency tab. You’ll see a measure of projected battery life on the prime.

Droop and resume

With the Steam Deck, there’s no must give up your recreation between play classes. Simply press the ability button, and the Deck will enter sleep mode. Press it once more to rapidly decide up the place you left off, even a day or two later.

(It’s nonetheless a good suggestion to avoid wasting your recreation between classes if potential, and naturally placing the Steam Deck to sleep throughout multiplayer will most likely get you booted.)

Don’t miss Night time mode

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Should you’re gaming on the Steam Deck earlier than mattress, contemplate turning on Night time mode to chop down on blue gentle from the display screen:

• In Fast Settings: Head to the ⚙ settings part and toggle Night time mode below the “Different” heading.
• In Settings: Look below the Show tab to schedule Night time mode and modify the tint stage.

Decrease distractions

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Getting notified about pal exercise throughout a recreation is annoying sufficient on the desktop, however it’s even worse on the Steam Deck, the place display screen actual property is restricted. Flip off these alerts below Settings > Notifications.

Browse in-game guides

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Need assistance with the sport you’re taking part in? As a substitute of reaching on your cellphone, hit the Steam button, then choose “Guides” to convey up Steam’s player-contributed tutorials. Use the arrow buttons on the prime to scroll by way of every web page. (Hey Valve, a search perform can be good.)

Tweak your efficiency profiles

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The Steam Deck’s Efficiency menu has numerous tweakable knobs to fine-tune efficiency, visible constancy, and battery life, separate from in-game settings. Entry this menu by hitting the … button, then choosing the 🔋battery icon.

A couple of choices to think about:

• Allow “Use per-game profile” earlier than making any adjustments right here. That approach you’ll be able to modify settings on a game-by-game foundation as a substitute of throughout the board.
• To maximise the Steam Deck’s battery life with out main visible compromises, drop the Refresh Fee slider all the way down to 40 Hz, which may even cap the framerate at 40 frames per second.
• Should you want smoother framerates over greater decision, set the Scaling Filter to “FSR” and set FSR Sharpness to 4 or 5. Then, use in-game settings to decide on a decision decrease than 1280×800, akin to 1152×720 or 960×600. The FSR upscaling will restore a few of the sharpness with out affecting framerates.

Select a default storage location

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Should you’re increasing Steam Deck storage with a MicroSD card, set your default storage location below. Settings > Storage. Spotlight both the interior drive or the MicroSD card, then press X.

You too can simply transfer video games between storage units from this identical menu. Simply spotlight the sport, then press Y.

Be taught to touchpad sort

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Whereas utilizing the Steam Deck’s on-screen keyboard, put your thumbs on every trackpad and slide them round. You’ll see a round cursor for every thumb over the left- and right-hand sides of the keyboard, and you’ll both click on the trackpads or use the triggers to sort. There’s a studying curve, however ultimately it feels extra handy and correct than utilizing the touchscreen.

Change your keyboard

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Head to Settings > Keyboard to decide on between alternate kinds for the on-screen keyboard. You too can go to the Factors Store to accumulate extra kinds at 5,000 factors apiece.

Test Steam Deck compatibility

Whereas Steam has an official “Deck Verified” program that checks for recreation compatibility, don’t neglect ProtonDB both. This community-built website can present extra insights for video games that don’t have an official stamp of approval, together with tweaks which may get them right into a playable state.

Use the button remapper

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You probably have loads of previous PC video games that weren’t made with controllers in thoughts, the Steam Deck’s button remapper is a killer characteristic. To make use of it, press the Steam button whereas taking part in a recreation, choose “Controller Settings,” then hit the “A” button.

The probabilities are too intensive to cowl in a brief blurb—significantly, you’ll be able to even create your personal radial weapon wheels—so we’ve created a separate information utilizing the remapper to its full potential.

Stream out of your PC

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Don’t scoff on the Steam Deck’s Distant Play characteristic, which helps you to stream video games out of your desktop pc. It will probably turn out to be useful for a number of causes:

• You’ve obtained restricted time or scarce space for storing to obtain extra video games.
• You need to preserve battery life whereas maximizing visible constancy.
• You need to play a recreation that doesn’t natively assist the Steam Deck but.

To stream out of your PC, hit down arrow subsequent to the “Set up” or “Play” button for any recreation, then choose your pc from the record. Hit the “Stream” button to launch a distant play session.

Add a lock display screen

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To allow a PIN on the Steam Deck, head to Settings > Safety. You’ll be able to add lock display screen when waking up the console, or simply when switching to desktop mode. The latter’s particularly essential should you’re logged into e-mail or different delicate accounts whereas utilizing the Steam Deck desktop.

Enter Desktop mode

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The Steam Deck’s true potential comes from getting into Desktop mode, which offers a full Linux-based surroundings for putting in extra software program—even from competing digital storefronts.

To enter the Steam Deck’s Desktop mode, hit the Steam button, scroll all the way down to Energy, and choose ”Swap to Desktop.” Then, navigate with these controls:

• Proper trackpad for cursor management.
• R2 and L2 for left and proper click on, respectively, or click on the precise trackpad for a left click on.
• Steam + X for the on-screen keyboard.

Word that should you shut down the Steam desktop app, the touchpad click on and on-screen keyboard will cease working.

Set up extra software program

The simplest solution to set up non-Steam software program in your Steam Deck is thru the Desktop mode’s Uncover retailer. Click on the icon that appears like a buying bag, and also you’ll see a variety of applications to put in, from Spotify and Discord to DOSBox and GZDoom.

As soon as put in, you’ll discover these applications within the software launcher by clicking the Steam Deck brand on the bottom-left.

Add non-Steam apps to Gaming mode

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You don’t must be in Desktop mode to launch desktop apps. As a substitute, you’ll be able to add them to Sport mode for simple entry.

To take action, launch the Steam app whereas in Desktop mode. Then, hit the “Video games” tab within the prime menu and choose Add a non-Steam Sport to My Library. If the app or recreation doesn’t seem within the record that pops up, use the “Browse…” button to search out it, then hit “Add Chosen Applications.”

If you return to Sport mode, you’ll discover these video games within the “Non-Steam” part of your library.

Set up different recreation sources

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After getting snug with Desktop mode, the following step is to usher in video games from storefronts aside from Steam. Some choices to think about:

• Heroic Video games Launcher offers entry to your Epic Video games Retailer and GOG libraries and is out there by way of the Uncover retailer. A separate utility known as HeroicBashLauncher can mechanically add these video games to your Steam library, full with art work.
• Lutris offers entry to the above shops and extra, and can be out there by way of the Uncover retailer.
• Emudeck makes it simple to play basic recreation emulators by way of the Steam Deck’s Sport mode, assuming you will have the mandatory recreation recordsdata.
• Take a look at this Reddit thread for the easiest way to play Itch.io video games on the Steam Deck.

Switch recordsdata with ease

Want to maneuver some recordsdata to your Steam Deck from one other pc? As a substitute of swapping thumb drives backwards and forwards, take a look at Payload. Set up this free app on each your pc and the Steam Deck (in desktop mode), and you’ll switch recordsdata over your Wi-Fi community simply by dragging and dropping.

Take into account a USB hub

For severe Steam Deck desktop customers, a low-cost USB hub with HDMI output could be a useful addition. Plug it into the Deck’s USB-C port, and you’ll add an exterior mouse and keyboard whereas outputting video to a monitor or TV. (A correct Steam Deck dock may be value contemplating, official or in any other case.)

Deck out your Steam Deck

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To take Steam Deck customization to the following stage, set up Decky Loader, which extends the Deck with a variety of user-made plugins. Need to swap out the Deck’s menu sounds or add management your music by way of the sidebar menu? Decky Loader makes it simple to take action. It’s additionally the easiest way so as to add cowl artwork for non-Steam video games, utilizing the SteamGridDB plugin.

To put in Decky Loader, go to the challenge’s GitHub web page from Desktop mode and click on the Obtain button on the prime, then run the installer out of your Downloads folder. After set up, return to Sport mode, and also you’ll see a brand new 🔌 plug icon within the … sidebar menu. Hit the shop icon on the prime of the menu to browse for plugins from there.