Does Ghost of Tsushima work on Steam Deck? (Best Settings)

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 players are wondering if the game will run on Steam's flagship handheld console: the Steam Deck. If that's you and you're curious about what the best settings are for it, this guide will help you out.

Can Ghost of Tsushima run on the Steam Deck?

When looking at the game's Steam Deck compatibility, the company says that it is unsupported. However, if you read the note from Steam, it mentions that the developer provided additional information about playing it on the Steam Deck. Upon reading their post, you will see that the game actually runs great.

The developer notes, "We know many of you are eager 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 handheld gaming PCs as we’ve worked extensively to optimize performance and deliver the best possible experience on these devices."

Steam has marked the game as unsupported due to the multiplayer mode. This requires that the Steam Deck access PlayStation Network features, which is unsupported (similar to what Sony tried to do with Helldivers 2 recently). So, the game runs perfectly fine on the Steam Deck for single players; however, you won't be able to play multiplayer, which makes complete sense.

Best settings for Ghost of Tsushima on the Steam Deck

When looking at the settings of Ghost of Tsushima, the Steam Deck usually automatically makes them all medium, which works all right. This keeps the framerate around 30 FPS, which isn't too bad for a game of this measure running on a handheld. When I had it on medium, my Steam Deck lasted around an hour and a half, which isn't too shocking once again.

If you're looking for a way to increase battery life, I recommend moving all the settings down to low. With settings there, I was able to reach around 40-45 FPS, and my Steam Deck lasted close to two hours, so I felt it was definitely worth it; I am more than willing to sacrifice some graphical fidelity to save on battery. Honestly, the game doesn't look bad at low settings at all.

• Texture Quality: Low
• Texture Filtering: Trilinear
• Shadow Quality: Low
• Level of Detail: Low
• Terrain Detail: Low
• Volumetric Fog: Low
• Depth of Field: Low
• Ambient Occlusion: SSAO Quality
• Bloom: Off

Ghost of Tsushima runs great on the Steam Deck. As the developer said, you can tell that they have worked hard to ensure that their game can run on the handheld. The only downside is not being able to play multiplayer, which isn't great, but everything else runs 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 Sanctuary Locations | Ghost of Tsushima Directors Cut Iki Island DLC and How to solve the Forbidden Shrine Riddle in Ghost of Tsushima: Iki Island.