Can you play Valorant on Steam Deck?

Can Valorant be played on Valve
Can Valorant be played on Valve's Steam Deck? (Image via Riot Games)

Riot Games' competitive tactical shooter, Valorant, has grown rapidly in popularity ever since its release back in 2020. At the moment, the game's platform availability status is fairly restricted and disappointing. As per official requirements, fans can only enjoy Valorant on a system running the latest Windows OS versions.

That said, some players may be wondering about the hero shooter's compatibility with the Steam Deck. The popular hand-held console has already garnered a massive fan base with its portability and high software flexibility. It runs on SteamOS, a Linux-based operating system created by Valve for the device.

Aside from SteamOS, users can also install Windows 10 or 11 as the primary Operating System on the Steam Deck with the help of Rufus. Does this indicate that Valorant is compatible with the Steam Deck? Let's find out whether Riot's fast-paced tactical FPS game can be played on Valve's hand-held device.


Can Valorant be played on Valve's Steam Deck?

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Valorant is officially incompatible with the Steam Deck while running SteamOS. However, one can use a technical method to work around this restriction.

Users cannot install or run the game on the Deck's original Linux-based OS, SteamOS. This is because Riot Vanguard isn't compatible with Linux and will block Valorant or any other Riot Games' IPs from running on the Steam Deck.

Fortunately, the Steam Deck allows users to load the latest Windows OS versions, which are compatible with Riot Vanguard. Fans can install Windows 10 to play Riot's tactical shooter on Valve's popular hand-held device.

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The Steam Deck is a versatile device and comes with a very comfortable grip on its hand-held aspect. It's powered by capable hardware and a flexible Linux distro, SteamOS, that can run almost every Steam game on the go.

As some video games require a Windows OS, they aren't compatible with the Deck's factory state. However, following a major SteamOS update that Valve deployed in early 2022, users can now successfully load and boot up Windows 10 and 11 on the Deck, opening up more avenues than ever before.


Is the workaround worth the effort?

To load Windows 10 on the Steam Deck, one will have to remove the original Linux-based operating system from the device's system partition, create a bootable USB drive with a Windows ISO file, and complete the installation process in a specific way. Users will also need to download compatible drivers.

Removing the Linux distro may appear to be a major headache for most users. Not only is this process hectic, but it could also arrive with its own share of problems. Nevertheless, this appears to be the only possible way to install Windows and play the tactical shooter on the Steam Deck, as of now.

The Deck is powered by an AMD APU, which boasts a pretty powerful CPU-GPU pair. However, it still isn't the best hardware to run Riot's competitive shooter. If you do plan on doing so, the shooter should be played on the lowest possible settings on the Steam Deck.

While many players have claimed that switching to a Windows OS on the Deck has allowed them to run the game, this method may likely fail due to anticipated discrepancies. Riot constantly updates its anti-cheat software Vanguard and the game itself to keep things fresh and top-notch.

While most of this is generally helpful in nature, such updates often cause massive changes in the usual software-based interactions. For example, older Windows 10 versions have also been removed from Valorant's compatibility list after a recent update.

While the workaround may appear to be promising, it hasn't been approved by Riot Games. New Vanguard and Valorant updates may remove this occurrence altogether, returning the state of the game on the Steam Deck to inactive.

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Edited by Atul S