Even thoughHelldivers 2proved its worth on day oneof its release, the developer Arrowhead Studios (also known for its impeccably weirdMagickagames) didn’t optimize the game for the Steam Deck. Thankfully, that has now been resolved, albeit with a huge caveat to keep in mind.
Indeed, the 1.0 version ofHelldivers 2did not support the Steam Deckin any meaningful capacity. Even getting the game to run was virtually impossible, and it would appear that the game’s kernel-level anti-cheat was to blame, as peruser reports. Thankfully, though it’s not been officially announced just yet,Helldivers 2doesrun on the Steam Deck as ofupdate 1.000.004. It’s just that the experience is less than stellar, to put it mildly.
Helldivers 2 is not an ideal experience on the Deck (at this time)
Steam Deck owners rushed to giveHelldivers 2a new shot after its first post-launch update dropped, and it didn’t take long for them to figure out thatsomething had changedin the backend. In fact, you don’t even need to fiddle around withcustom Proton versionsto getHelldivers 2to work: the game runs out of the box! We do recommend keeping your expectations relatively low, however, as getting a stable frame rate may be challenging from the looks of it.
As it currently stands, it appears impossible to get a stable and locked 60 or even 40 FPS inHelldivers 2running on the Steam Deck. Instead, as shown inthis handy Steam Deck Gaming video on YouTube, you’ll be hard-pressed to get anything substantially higher than 30 FPS. Disappointing as that may be, 30 FPS with solid frame times is plenty playable, and the game doesn’t often drop below 30 FPS, which is a success in its own right.
Helldivers 2on the Steam Deck is a bit of a mixed bag at this time, then. Steam Deck Gaming recommends the following settings to get the same performance as they got:
It’s a great starting point, though yours truly would recommend keeping motion blur on at such a low-performance target. It genuinely helps make everythinglookslightly smoother, preventing excessive judder without negatively affecting your performance. Though, of course, your mileage may vary with motion blur in the end.
In summary, then, though youcanplayHelldivers 2on your Steam Deck as of update 1.000.0004, you should keep your expectations in check until Arrowhead Studios can deliver a few more performance tweaks, at the very least.
