Is PoE Playable On Steam Deck?

With the Steam Deck being the first device to play Path of Exile, many wonder if it will be a great experience compared to playing it on PC.

The Steam Deck is officially out – or at least, for a few people that managed to get a hold of them. With the ongoing chip shortages, it’s challenging to get any new tech on your hands these days. GPU prices are through the roof, PlayStation 5 consoles are still being scalped, and the Steam Deck is yet to be on the lap of the masses.

However, Valve has been making sure to keep their buyers and onlookers interested in the progress of their machine. More specifically, their list of compatible games for the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck isn’t necessarily a powerhouse, but it’s powerful enough to run modern games. They’ve just added Path of Exile to that evergrowing list of games that you can immediately launch through the Steam Deck’s software, but is it playable enough for you to farm PoE currency without any kickbacks?

The Handheld Experience

Path of Exile features the usual fantasy tropes where you can choose between seven classes, including Witch, Ranger, and Templar, before setting off to build your skill tree and explore the vast world of Wraeclast. This free-to-play roleplaying game that’s chock full of terrifying dungeons, spells, and dungeons is loved by millions worldwide. If Valve wanted to take that chunk of people into their side, they had to make the process of playing Path of Exile and farming PoE currency a smooth experience. After all, surviving against the undead and alive enemies like Spectral Corsairs and Mage Mercenaries is already hard, so why make everything for the player even more difficult?

Currently, Path of Exile is available on Mac and Windows and consoles like the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. There’s still no news about when Grinding Gear Games will make that jump to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, but we expect that this will happen sometime soon. If we’re to count the Steam Deck, it’ll be the first handheld console that will introduce Path of Exile compatibility – that is, if everything goes well.

A Rough Start

Initially, it was deduced that Steam Deck players wouldn’t get the best experience playing Path of Exile. The handheld device faces many problems concerning its compatibility with Path of Exile’s “gameplay.”

For starters, some functionalities won’t be accessible when using the default controller configuration. If you want to type something through chat, you’ll be required to use the touchscreen, a virtual keyboard, or a community configuration.

Another problem Steam Deck gamers would face is that the game requires manual configuration when tweaking the graphic settings to perform well on the handheld. The Steam Deck will sometimes show keyboard, mouse, or Steam Deck controller icons if they don’t.

Last but not least, entering any text in Path of Exile with the Steam Deck requires manually invoking the on-screen keyboard, and we know how tedious that is. As a result, instead of getting a Verified status on its Steam Deck compatibility page, Path of Exile merely gets a Playable rating due to the list of issues that players will face.

To sum it up, Path of Exile will technically work with the Steam Deck, but its keyboard issues and the lack of controller support might frustrate the majority of novice players – the fun factor would be ruined. There are always die-hard veterans willing to work around these issues as long as they get to play their favorite online ARPG portably, but not everyone would be willing to make that same effort.

GGG Announces Controller Support

Unlike its fellow rival (Diablo 3), Path of Exile never had controller functionality on its PC version. PoE is indeed available on consoles, but what about PC players who just want to kick back and use a controller now and then instead of the usual keyboard and mouse setup? You’ll be happy to hear that the controller support beta has arrived in Path of Exile with the 3.17.3 patch. Although it’ll only be available in the game’s Steam version, you’ll finally be able to switch over to a controller by opening the input options panels and changing the input method to Gamepad (Beta) mode. The controller support will stay in the Beta until the 3.18 expansion in early May.

Grinding Gear Games has asked people who currently have a Steam Deck to test this function and if they run into any problems. So far, reviews of the controller support for Steam Deck owners have been mixed. On the one hand, the dedicated loot button is a huge help; on the other hand, they face problems concerning the UI elements blocking vast swathes of the screen. Some even argue that the lack of auto-cast on LMB and mouse input leaves the controller beta feeling (in some ways) a step down over using the usual K+M controls adapted to the buttons and trackpads.

In A Nutshell

Path of Exile is relatively playable on the Steam Deck, and with the addition of controller support, the gameplay experience – at the very least – got a tad better than previously. The addition of the loot button is excellent for PoE Trading, and despite the flaws that concern it, Grinding Gear Games plans to improve the functionality moving forward.