How to Install and Play Wuthering Waves on Steam Deck

Wuthering Waves has sent ripples throughout the gacha gaming category and is easily one of the best games you can play right now. While the game is available across multiple platforms such as Android, iOS, and Windows, and has partnered with Epic Games, the game isn’t available on Steam. Due to the built-in Anti-cheat in the game, it wasn’t available on the Steam Deck either until version 1.1 of the game dropped last week, enabling support for SteamOS and Steam Deck. Here’s how to install and play Wuthering Waves on Steam Deck.

Now, since the game isn’t officially available on Steam, you will need to download the standalone installer for Windows and use Steam’s “Add a non-steam game” feature. For a better experience, we recommend installing it on an SSD.

Install Wuthering Waves on Steam Deck

We’ll start off by installing and setting up the Heroic Launcher so that you’re all ready to play the game.

1. Switch to Desktop mode on Steam Deck.
2. Launch Steam, click on Add a game and select Add a non-Steam game.
3. Now, open a browser instance on your Steam Deck and go to the official Wuthering Waves website.
4. Click on the Windows tile and the WutheringWaves.exe file will start downloading.
5. Go back to Steam and click on Browse. Select the WutheringWaves.exe file and click on Open.
6. Before you start it, navigate to the cogwheel icon > Properties > Compatibility.
7. Check Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool and select the latest Proton version from the dropdown below.
8. Now, close the window and click Play.

9. Check the “Terms of Service” box and click on Install. Make sure you have at least 50GB of free space. We do not recommend installing the game on a microSD card.
10. Once done, click on Start. When the launcher opens, click on Download.
11. The installation will take time depending on your internet speed.

12. Once installed, do not start yet. Open Steam and click Add a non-Steam game again.
13. Open the File Manager and go to /home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata.
14. Use the search option to search the keyword “Wuthering Waves.” If there are multiple folders with the same name, then sort by Size.
15. Locate and open the largest Wuthering Waves folder > right-click on the launcher.exe file.
16. Now, select Copy location.

17. Come back to Steam and click on Browse. Here, Paste the location you just copied and click on Open.
18. Then click on Add Selected Programs.
19. Find the launcher.exe we just added in the Library > Settings cog > Properties.
20. Check Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool once again and select a Proton version from the dropdown below.
21. Finally, hit the Play button and the Wuthering Waves launcher should open.

22. Click on Start. You’ll be prompted to install Microsoft C++ Redistributable for Unreal Engine 4. Hit Yes.
23. Once installed, the game should start. Make sure to log in using Desktop mode as logging into the game mode is hard.
24. The game requires a final in-game download and restart. Once you’re done with that, launch the game again.
25. Log in to your account using your credentials. Use a physical keyboard as there are currently a few issues with bringing up the on-screen keyboard when playing the game.

Voilà! You’ve successfully installed Wuthering Waves on Steam Deck. Now go back to Game Mode and start launcher.exe to play Wuthering Waves. You can change the name by going into Properties. Similarly, you can use the SteamGridDB Deckyloader extension to select a thumbnail and a wide capsule to make the game look more presentable in your library. You can now go ahead and delete the WutheringWaves.exe we added at the beginning.

Best Wuthering Waves Settings for Steam Deck

The best graphics settings to play Wuthering Waves are as follows:

• Graphics Quality: Medium
• Screen Mode: Full Screen
• Frame Rate: 45fps
• Shadow Quality: Medium
• Special Effects Quality: Medium
• LOD Bias: Low
• Capsule AO: On
• Volumetric Fog: Off
• Volumetric Lighting: Off
• FSR: On
• Motion Blur: Off
• Bloom: Off
• Crowd Density: High

When adjusting the frame rate in-game, make sure you enable the per-game profile and limit your Steam Deck’s refresh rate to 40Hz. Given the game is new, it feels extremely unoptimized for Steam Deck-like hardware, which becomes evident with significant stuttering at times.

The average FPS we could get on Steam Deck when exploring the city was 34 fps. However, the overall FPS tends to drop significantly (up to half, at times) when in combat. We hope it only gets better over time, with Proton devs and the game developers taking time to optimize the game for Windows and Steam Deck.

The game doesn’t particularly look good on the Steam Deck, especially compared to Genshin Impact, which runs phenomenally well at constant 45fps no matter what the scene. There’s still a lot of work to be done in terms of optimization.

Moreover, Kuro Games hasn’t made an official announcement of Wuthering Waves working on the Steam Deck or Linux. Hence, it’s possible that the availability was unintended. If that’s really the case, running the game on the Steam Deck probably breaks anti-cheat, which might result in an account ban. Hence, until it’s confirmed as intentional, we recommend you tread carefully and not use your main account on the Steam Deck.