Diablo IV works on the Steam Deck
Just tested it myself. Here’s the process that worked for me, in case anyone else needs a guide. No guarantees, of course, but hopefully it works for others too:
From Desktop Mode
Download the Battle.net installer
Add the installer as a non-Steam game
Change the installer settings in Steam to run with Proton Experimental
Run the installer
(tip: to make it easy to find the launcher in the next step, you can change the install path to be in your downloads folder instead of deep in the Proton path)
Once installed, exit the installer
Add the installed Battle.net Launcher.exe as a non-Steam game
Change the launcher settings in Steam to run it with Proton Experimental
Run the launcher
Log in
Install Diablo IV
(tip: uncheck the high res textures option which is on by default to save yourself about 40 GB of space)
Close launcher
(tip: if D4 is the only Bnet game you’re planning on playing, you can rename the launcher in Steam to Diablo IV)
From Gaming Mode
Launch the launcher
Click the Play button on Diablo IV
Enjoy!
Other Tips
During installation or the game, whenever you need a keyboard, press STEAM + X to call it up.
Occasionally, during installation or in the Launcher in game mode, my trackpad input would get wonky or stop responding. When this happens, hold the STEAM button down while using the trackpads, and they should work again.
Beyond that, the game automatically worked from me. It loaded low graphics settings (which are perfect for the Deck) and recognized my controller. It even opens with some accessibility settings before you start playing that lets you scale the font size up too, which makes it easier to read on the small screen.
I can’t say much about how the game actually plays as I really just did this to test if it works. I’ll be putting in my first actual time with the game tomorrow.
I've had zero temptation to put D4 on my Deck yet, but good to know the install is pretty painless if not directly in Linux.
That said, I can see myself doing this if spending some extended time at a friend's place or during some upcoming plans. Keeping an eye out for an update @kfwyre!
I wasn’t planning on playing it on my Deck (I mean, am I even playing Diablo if I’m not frantically clicking a mouse 9 times a second?) but my Linux laptop wasn’t playing nice with the installation. Lutris crashed on me when I tried to install it through that, and when I tried the same method described above, Battle.net opened once but then got shy and refused to show up again.
I’d prefer to play it on my laptop and will keep trying to get it running this week, but my husband and I have our Diablo launch celebration planned for tonight, so I wanted to make sure I could at least run it somewhere.
You could also try Bottles instead of Lutris. For one game, Bottles worked for me where Lutris wouldn't / had some issues.
Yeah, I’m going to try using Bottles this weekend. It’d be nice to get it running on my laptop and Deck so that I can trade off between the two depending on my mood/location.
I mean, if you're already using a mouse, why not just use the Deck like a desktop? I bought mine as a handheld, but it's become my gaming desktop and media server since I found I have more use for it that way. Only gets unplugged when I'm going on a trip.
I was actually being cheeky on how it feels to play it with a controller!
How has your docked experience been? I bought the official dock when it came out but it honestly has never worked well for me, which is disappointing.
It’s definitely a bit more locked down than my other Linux computer, which I suppose makes sense for a mass market device. Most of my use for it is going to be atypical, as I tend to tinker rather than play… I’m not sure why I keep biting all these games if I’m being completely honest… But it works well for my Skyrim modding, online ttrpging, and media serving. As a plus, if I ever want to play hades or dead cells I just undock it and switch to steams ui. What kind of trouble has it given you?
Resolution issues and controller issues.
I don’t know if it was the dock’s fault or my TV but even with it set to a low resolution, some games would try to load in much higher resolutions that were too much for the device. I’d also sometimes get a partial screen or black screens. It was very sporadic and I couldn’t seem to find consistent patterns or anything that would help me debug.
I also had dreams of it being a portable 4 player local multiplayer machine, but I ran into irregular issues trying to get four controllers connected. Sometimes they would work perfectly; sometimes it took multiple attempts; sometimes it looked like they connected but the Deck wasn’t responding to inputs like it should.
I don’t know if it was all related to the dock — the controllers are probably an issue with the Deck itself, but I never have a need to connect controllers while undocked. I should also probably give it another shot. I haven’t tried it out docked in months now, so it might be better now. The system has come a long way in a short time, and I’m also more than happy to wait for it to take the time it needs to mature. Despite my complaints I still love my Deck and can see myself using it in a setup like yours eventually.
Oof, yeah, I feel that. Bluetooth is definitely a bit iffy on this device, and I always switch to game mode before I actually load a game, it's not quite there in desktop mode.
Update:
I haven’t had as much time to play as I’d like, but I’ve put maybe 2 hours into the game and it has been flawless the entire time. I was initially skeptical of playing it with a controller (Diablo = clicking!), but it looks like the game was designed with a choice of input in mind, and it works great.
I haven’t had any performance issues or glitches or errors or anything like that. I’m playing on low settings for the sake of heat and framerate, so the graphics are a little chunkier than I’d like, but I don’t really notice it in the thick of things.
I’m honestly kind of impressed that it’s been so frictionless. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop (and given that I’m only two hours in it very well might), but so far I couldn’t be happier with how it runs. If I didn’t know better I’d think it was meant to be played this way.
I was surprised how well Diablo IV (and Diablo II: Resurrected too!) works with a gamepad/Deck. When I am playing D2R on PC I still prefer mouse + keyboard but for Diablo IV I went exclusively with gamepad as it somehow feels more natural to me (at least with Druid).
Right?! Now that I'm probably 20 hours in with the controller, I can confidently say I don't miss using mouse/keyboard. I think I actually prefer the controller at this point? They did a great job with it.
I was originally using the Deck as a stopgap until I could get it running on my laptop, but I haven't even attempted to reinstall it on my laptop because I haven't felt the need.
Tangentially related, but streaming D4 through Google Remote Desktop has been surprisingly tolerable as well. Some lag, for sure, and maybe I just have an unreasonable tolerance for that, but I put in a good 40 minutes earlier today and didn't die, so there's that.
I... would not recommend playing HC this way though.
Why use remote desktop instead of something like moonlight or steam share?
Mostly because I needed something browser-based given company restrictions on installing software. Might not be the most elegant solution but it works well enough.
Fair enough haha, if it works it works!
Keep us posted, I'm very interested.
I read that the game runs better with the high res texture pack installed, even if you don’t use the maxed out textures. Not sure why that’d be, but it might be worth a try if you’ve got space to spare!
Don’t have the game myself to corroborate, unfortunately, but I’ve seen it mentioned so often that I figured I’d pass it on.