How to play Diablo 4 on the Steam Deck

Blizzard Entertainment's upcoming action role-playing game, Diablo 4, is easily one of the biggest and most highly anticipated games of 2023, especially for longtime fans of the dark fantasy series. With the game's beta receiving an overwhelmingly positive reception from critics and players alike back in April 2023, fans are understandably quite excited to get their hands on the action RPG this coming week.

The fourth mainline entry in the iconic dark fantasy series is releasing as a cross-gen title, meaning the game will be available on both current-gen (PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S) as well as previous-gen (PlayStation 4 and Xbox One) consoles.

That said, it is the PC version of the game that has a few players somewhat curious, especially with the recent rise in popularity of handheld gaming computers, most importantly, the Steam Deck. Here's a comprehensive guide on how to get the game running on the Steam Deck with little to no issues.

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Prerequisites to run Diablo 4 on the Steam Deck

Steam Deck is arguably the best device to play Diablo 4 on, especially since the game is played in a fixed isometric perspective instead of the traditional third-person perspective seen in most modern action role-playing games. The game is also best played using a controller as it does not require precise inputs and mostly relies on a few commands at a time, which can easily be issued with the face buttons.

However, the issue with Diablo and Blizzard's games, in general, is their lack of native support of the Stam Deck hardware since these games are unavailable on Steam. To play Diablo 4 on a PC, you need Blizzard's Battle.net client installed on your system. Given Steam Deck's native Steam OS does not play well with third-party launchers, it is a little bit tricky to set up Blizzard's games on the handheld device.

Fortunately, you can easily get Diablo 4 up and running using the tool called Lutris, specifically built to install Battle.net on the Steam Deck. You can install Lutris by going to "Desktop Mode" on the device and searching for the app using the "Discover" icon on the taskbar. Once you find Lutris in the All Apps list, click "Install" to get the app running on your device.

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How to set up Battle.net and Diablo 4 on the Steam Deck?

Once you get Lutris on your Steam Deck, you can download and install Battle.net and the required games. Here are the steps to install Battle.net using Lutris on the Steam Deck:

• Open Lutris (preferably in the Desktop Mode)
• Click the plus (+) icon on the top left to add a game to the list, opening up a search bar.
• Search for Battle.net and click install.

Once you finish downloading and installing Battle.net, you can simply log into your account and download Diablo 4 or any other Blizzard title you want, such as Overwatch 2. There might be a few additional distributable packages that you may need to install alongside the Battle.net client, but most of what is required will be taken care of by Lutris.

To launch Diablo 4 using the Handheld Mode, you only need to add Lutris as a "Non-Steam game" and launch Battle.net via the program. Remember that whenever you want to launch a Battle.net title in Handheld Mode, you will need to restart Lutris.