Can Dragon’s Dogma 2, run on the Steam Deck? We’ve tested the game for ourselves, and have some unfortunate news.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 lets you take on the role of the Arisen in the fantasy RPG as you encounter diverse monsters and engage in furious battles all the while accompanied by NPCs named pawns to guide your way.
In the Capcom-developed sequel, you can customize your Arisen and your Pawn companion as you see fit. With your Pawn along for your ride, you can master the use of swords, bows, and chant magick. With the layers of customizability and sheer breadth of exploration, Dragon’s Dogma 2 could be the ideal RPG to play on the go.
With that in mind, we’ve tested to see the best ways you can experience Dragon’s Dogma 2 on Valve‘s Steam Deck.
Does Dragon’s Dogma 2 run on Steam Deck?
As of writing, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is unplayable on Steam Deck and only reaches around 10-15 FPS in best-case scenarios. Needless to say, we don’t think it’ll pass Valve’s verification process.
Throughout our testing, Dragon’s Dogma 2’s performance on the Steam Deck left much to be desired. The highly anticipated sequel ran at an average of 10 – 15 FPS with the in-game settings all set to low and FSR ultra-performance mode enabled. At these settings, the game is almost unplayable natively on the Steam Deck, however, all is not lost.
As the Steam Deck is a PC gaming handheld, that opens up the device to a wide range of solutions for playing Dragon’s Dogma 2 on the go.
How to play Dragon’s Dogma 2 on Steam Deck using Chiaki4deck
- Switch to desktop mode
- Select the ‘Discover’ app
- Search for ‘Chaiki4deck’
- Install Chaiki4deck app
If you want a more optimized experience playing Dragon’s Dogma 2 portably, you could remote play the PS5 to the Steam Deck. If you happen to have a PlayStation 5 at hand, the Chiaki4deck app allows you to easily stream your Sony console to the Valve handheld.
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You will need a PS5 copy of Dragon’s Dogma 2 to use this setup, either digitally or physically. Additionally, you would need to be near your Steam Deck while playing the game, similarly when using the PlayStation Portal. However, with how poorly Dragon’s Dogma 2 natively runs on the handheld, being tied to remote play is a welcome alternative.
How to play Dragon’s Dogma 2 on Steam Deck using Moonlight
- Switch to desktop mode
- Open Discover and search ‘Moonlight’
- Turn on the PC & Steam Deck
- Ensure PC & Steam Deck are on the same network
- Pair PC & Steam Deck via the Moonlight app
- Add Moonlight as a non-Steam game
Moonlight is an open-source app that allows you to remote-play games on your Steam Deck. As it stands, you can officially remote-play games on the Steam Deck through Steam itself, however, it’s prone to latency issues making applications like Moonlight an ideal choice.
The main caveat with Moonlight is that you need an Nvidia graphics card for the app to work more efficiently. However, if your gaming PC happens to have an AMD GPU, you can download the Sunshine client to circumnavigate that issue.
The Dragon’s Dogma 2 PC requirements state that you will require 60GB of storage space to install natively. Additionally, the Dragon’s Dogma 2 character creator has been made available online for PC, Xbox Series S/X and PS5 owners. The free-to-play character creator requires around 5.6GB on PC, so if you want to make your pawn while on the move, this is a good choice.
Picking up one of the best microSD cards for the Steam Deck will help ensure you have plenty of storage space for Dragon’s Dogma 2, whatever it demands of your Deck. Especially if you haven’t yet picked up the 1TB Steam Deck OLED, or upgraded the SSD.
For more content on the game, check out our guides below:
How to make a new character in Dragon’s Dogma 2 | Best PC settings for performance | Best Dragon’s Dogma 2 vocation for beginners | Can you hide your helmet in Dragon’s Dogma 2? | Can you lock-on in Dragon’s Dogma 2 combat? | Dragon’s Dogma 2 Fast Travel explained | Easiest Seeker’s Tokens to get in the early game | Does Dragon’s Dogma 2 have romance? | How to unlock Mystic Spearhand Vocation
