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

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

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

Know your fast instructions

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Long-press the Steam button, and also you’ll see a listing of fast instructions you’ll be able to invoke from wherever. A full checklist seems within the above screenshot, however listed below are just a few that you need to attempt committing to reminiscence:

• Adjust brightness: Steam + Left Stick Up/Down
• Force recreation shutdown: Steam + Long-press B
• Take a screenshot: Steam + R1
• On-screen keyboard: Steam + X.
• Temporary cursor: Steam + Right Stick or Trackpad. Use R2 to click on.

Get recreation options

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Not positive what to play in your Steam Deck? A pair options:

• From the house display, scroll down, then over to the “Recommended” tab. Steam will helpfully recommend untouched video games out of your backlog.
• Hit the Steam button and choose “Library.” The first tab (“Great on Deck”) suggests video games which are fully-optimized for the transportable.
• Try enjoying among the smaller-scale, indie video games you’ve been neglecting. Chances are they’ll be simpler to choose up and put down than, say, Elden Ring, and so they might burn by much less battery life as nicely.

Check your battery life

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Tap the battery icon on the high of the display to rapidly deliver up the Performance tab. You’ll see a measure of projected battery life on the high.

Suspend and resume

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

(It’s nonetheless a good suggestion to save lots of your recreation between periods if attainable, and naturally placing the Steam Deck to sleep throughout multiplayer will in all probability get you booted.)

Don’t miss Night mode

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If you’re gaming on the Steam Deck earlier than mattress, think about turning on Night mode to chop down on blue mild from the display:

• In Quick Settings: Head to the ⚙ settings part and toggle Night mode underneath the “Other” heading.
• In Settings: Look underneath the Display tab to schedule Night mode and regulate the tint stage.

Minimize distractions

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Getting notified about good friend exercise throughout a recreation is annoying sufficient on the desktop, but it surely’s even worse on the Steam Deck, the place display actual property is proscribed. Turn off these alerts underneath Settings > Notifications.

Browse in-game guides

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Need assist with the sport you’re enjoying? Instead of reaching in your cellphone, hit the Steam button, then choose “Guides” to deliver up Steam’s player-contributed tutorials. Use the arrow buttons on the high to scroll by every web page. (Hey Valve, a search operate could be good.)

Tweak your efficiency profiles

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

A number of choices to contemplate:

• Enable “Use per-game profile” earlier than making any modifications right here. That manner you’ll be able to regulate settings on a game-by-game foundation as a substitute of throughout the board.
• To maximize the Steam Deck’s battery life with out main visible compromises, drop the Refresh Rate slider all the way down to 40 Hz, which may also cap the framerate at 40 frames per second.
• If you favor 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, equivalent to 1152×720 or 960×600. The FSR upscaling will restore among the sharpness with out affecting framerates.

Choose a default storage location

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If you’re increasing Steam Deck storage with a MicroSD card, set your default storage location underneath. Settings > Storage. Highlight both the inner drive or the MicroSD card, then press X.

You may simply transfer video games between storage gadgets from this identical menu. Just spotlight the sport, then press Y.

Learn to touchpad sort

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While 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 may 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 may go to the Points Shop to accumulate extra kinds at 5,000 factors apiece.

Check Steam Deck compatibility

While Steam has an official “Deck Verified” program that checks for recreation compatibility, don’t neglect ProtonDB both. This community-built web site 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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If you could have numerous previous PC video games that weren’t made with controllers in thoughts, the Steam Deck’s button remapper is a killer function. To use it, press the Steam button whereas enjoying a recreation, choose “Controller Settings,” then hit the “A” button.

The potentialities are too intensive to cowl in a brief blurb—critically, you’ll be able to even create your individual radial weapon wheels—so we’ve created a separate guide using the remapper to its full potential.

Stream out of your PC

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

• You’ve obtained restricted time or scarce cupboard space 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 “Install” or “Play” button for any recreation, then choose your pc from the checklist. Hit the “Stream” button to launch a distant play session.

Add a lock display

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To allow a PIN on the Steam Deck, head to Settings > Security. You can add lock display when waking up the console, or simply when switching to desktop mode. The latter’s particularly necessary in case 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 coming 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 Power, and choose ”Switch to Desktop.” Then, navigate with these controls:

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

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

Install extra software program

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

Once put in, you’ll discover these applications within the utility launcher by clicking the Steam Deck emblem on the bottom-left.

Add non-Steam apps to Gaming mode

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You don’t should be in Desktop mode to launch desktop apps. Instead, you’ll be able to add them to Game mode for straightforward entry.

To accomplish that, launch the Steam app whereas in Desktop mode. Then, hit the “Games” tab within the high menu and choose Add a non-Steam Game to My Library. If the app or recreation doesn’t seem within the checklist that pops up, use the “Browse…” button to seek out it, then hit “Add Selected Programs.”

When you come to Game mode, you’ll discover these video games within the “Non-Steam” part of your library.

Install various recreation sources

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After getting snug with Desktop mode, the subsequent step is to herald video games from storefronts aside from Steam. Some choices to contemplate:

• Heroic Games Launcher offers entry to your Epic Games Store and GOG libraries and is on the market by the Discover retailer. A separate utility known as HeroicBashLauncher can mechanically add these video games to your Steam library, full with paintings.
• Lutris offers entry to the above shops and extra, and can also be obtainable by the Discover retailer.
• Emudeck makes it straightforward to play basic recreation emulators by the Steam Deck’s Game mode, assuming you could have the mandatory recreation information.
• Check out this Reddit thread for one of the best ways to play Itch.io video games on the Steam Deck.

Transfer information with ease

Need to maneuver some information to your Steam Deck from one other pc? Instead of swapping thumb drives backwards and forwards, take a look at Payload. Install this free app on each your pc and the Steam Deck (in desktop mode), and you may switch information over your Wi-Fi community simply by dragging and dropping.

Consider a USB hub

For critical Steam Deck desktop customers, a cheap USB hub with HDMI output may be a useful addition. Plug it into the Deck’s USB-C port, and you may add an exterior mouse and keyboard whereas outputting video to a monitor or TV. (A correct Steam Deck dock can also be price contemplating, official or otherwise.)

Deck out your Steam Deck

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To take Steam Deck customization to the subsequent stage, install Decky Loader, which extends the Deck with a variety of user-made plugins. Want to swap out the Deck’s menu sounds or add management your music by the sidebar menu? Decky Loader makes it straightforward to take action. It’s additionally one of the best ways so as to add cowl artwork for non-Steam video games, utilizing the SteamGridDB plugin.

To set up Decky Loader, visit the project’s GitHub page from Desktop mode and click on the Download button on the high, then run the installer out of your Downloads folder. After set up, return to Game mode, and also you’ll see a brand new 🔌 plug icon within the … sidebar menu. Hit the shop icon on the high of the menu to browse for plugins from there.