PlayStation has finally launched the Director’s Cut version of Ghost of Tsushima on PC. As with any major game that is ported to Steam, many gamers wonder if the game will work with Steam’s flagship handheld console: the Steam Deck. If that’s you and you’re wondering what the best settings are for it, this guide will help you out.
Can Ghost of Tsushima run on the Steam Deck?
Looking at the game’s Steam Deck compatibility, the company says it is unsupported. However, if you read the Steam note, it mentions that the developer provided more information about playing it on the Steam Deck. By reading their post, you’ll see that the game actually runs great.
The developer notes, “We know many of you want to play Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut on handheld gaming devices like the Steam Deck. We’re happy to share that the single-player experience, including the Iki Island expansion, can be enjoyed on Steam Deck and similar portable gaming PCs because we’ve worked hard to optimize performance and deliver the best possible experience on these devices.”
Steam marked the game as unsupported due to the multiplayer mode. This requires the Steam Deck to access PlayStation Network features that are unsupported (similar to what Sony tried to do with Helldivers 2 recently). So, the game works perfectly fine on the Steam Deck for single players; however, you won’t be able to play multiplayerwhich makes perfect sense.
Best settings for Ghost of Tsushima on the Steam Deck
Looking at Ghost of Tsushima’s settings, the Steam Deck usually automatically makes them all medium, which works well. This keeps the frame rate around 30 FPS, which isn’t too bad for a game of this size running on a handheld. When I had it on medium, my Steam Deck lasted about an hour and a half, which isn’t too shocking again.
Here are the best settings for a intermediate arrangement:
- Texture Quality: Medium
- Texture Filtering: Trilinear
- Shadow Quality: Medium
- Level of Detail: Medium
- Terrain Detail: Medium
- Volumetric Fog: Low
- Depth of Field: Low
- Surrounding Occlusion: SSAO Quality
- Bloom: On
If you are looking for a way to increase battery life, I recommend moving all settings to low. With settings there, I was able to get around 40-45 FPS, and my Steam Deck lasted close to two hours, so I felt it was definitely worth it; I’m more than willing to sacrifice some graphical fidelity to save battery. Honestly, the game doesn’t look bad at all on low settings.
- Texture Quality: Low
- Texture Filtering: Trilinear
- Shadow Quality: Low
- Level of Detail: Low
- Terrain Detail: Low
- Volumetric Fog: Low
- Depth of Field: Low
- Surrounding Occlusion: SSAO Quality
- Bloom: Disabled
Ghost of Tsushima works great on the Steam Deck. As the developer said, you can tell they’ve worked hard to make sure their game can run on the handheld. The only downside is not being able to play multiplayer, which isn’t great, but everything else works perfectly fine. In fact, the game looks amazing on the Steam Deck without changing the settings much at all!
For more information on Ghost of Tsushima, check out All Animal Sanctuaries Ghost of Tsushima Directors Cut Iki Island DLC and How to solve the Forbidden Shrine Riddle in Ghost of Tsushima: Iki Island.
