Can you play The First Descendant on Steam Deck?

The First Descendant boasts having low minimum system requirements for PC players. While that’s all well and good, what about Steam Deck users? Do we get to enjoy the game on the go?

Here’s everything you need to know about The First Descendant running on Steam Deck.

Is The First Descendant playable on Steam Deck?

Yes, you can play The First Descendant on the Steam Deck. In fact, it runs surprisingly well. While the framerate won’t blow anyone away, it’s a playable and enjoyable experience on Steam’s portable PC. 

How does The First Descendant run on Steam Deck?

The First Descendant runs pretty well on Steam Deck. For our test, we used several different settings to see if they would make a difference, but given that the game has only just come out, it’s quite surprising that it runs so smoothly.

The game runs at a locked 1280×800 (16:10) resolution, targeting around 30 to 40 FPS. We did notice some frame dips here and there, but for the majority of our test, the game was very much playable, even when things got hairy on the battlefield. 

Now for the bad news: Currently, it doesn’t look like there’s any way to improve your performance on the Steam Deck. While things will likely change as updates and patches roll out, at the time of writing, the game is using up almost 100% of Steam Deck CPU and GPU while running The First Descendant on the lowest possible setting.

We tried turning off HDR lighting and playing the game in fullscreen mode, but neither improved the performance. Still, even at 1280×800 and 30 FPS, The First Descendant is very much playable on the Steam Deck, and things can only improve as time goes on.