Managed Deckocracy
Helldivers 2is turning out to be an absolutelaugh riotof aco-opshooter; it may even have the potential to rivalDeep Rock Galacticon good vibes and teammate deaths as accidental comedy masterstrokes. Even ongoingserver connectivity issueshaven’t done much to spoil the sense of fun, which incidentally, can also be shared on theSteam Deck.
Indeed, following a quickProton update on Valve’s part, its previously SteamOS-incompatible anti-cheat will no longer put the kibosh on you dropping into Helldivers 2 via your Deck. I’ve been testing on both an original 512GB model and the newerSteam Deck OLED, and as long as you don’t mind dropping the quality settings, it can usually run tidily above 30fps.
That is, mind you, will some occasional drips into the twenties. But these are either momentary, quickly recoverable shudders (like when a particularly explodey airstrike goes off) or, weirdly, come when framerates don’t count for much, most often on the peculiarly demanding mission loading screen. Missions themselves tend to tick along more or less fine, even when the Steam Deck’s screen is filled with more bugs than an Asda fruit aisle.
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Control-wise, all the defaults work well, and any onscreen prompts are properly converted to the Deck’s Xbox-style scheme despite Helldivers 2 being a Sony-published, PlayStation-exlusive joint on console. The only potential issue is that some can be hard to read on the Deck’s little 800p display, so before muscle memory can fully take over, you might need to identify certain prompts by button shape instead of the text within. Mercifully, this lack of readability doesn’t extend to the D-pad codes needed to call in airstrikes and support drops, and most other text is reasonably legible at a glance.
Helldivers 2: best settings for the Steam Deck
You can actually go lower than the settings I’m about to suggest, and you may well get a few extra frames out of them. You shouldn’t, though. Lowering the render scale option in particular will send Helldivers 2 into overly pixellated disarray, while skimping on render distance can turn even a simple tree into a pop-up jumpscare.
These settings deliver a better balance between playable visuals and a comfortable – by Steam Deck standards – framerate. That means keeping some essentials (render distance, anti-aliasing) and sacrificing less noticeable features to compensate.
These will generally secure you 30-35fps, and even if that drops a bit during large-scale detonations, I’ve never experienced more sustained chugging spells. Even with a full squad of four, and lemme tell ya, that involves alotof dubiously aimed ordnance.
