Is Helldivers 2 on Steam Deck?

Looking to play Helldivers 2 on Steam Deck? We’ve got you covered with everything we know about the title, and how it could perform on Valve’s portable powerhouse.

Just about everything on every planet in Helldivers 2 wants you dead. In the upcoming third-person shooter, it’s up to you, and a squad to protect the galaxy by taking down ferocious beasts with immense firepower and all the tactical prowess you can manage.

You and your fellow Helldivers are tasked with capturing enemy planets, defending against invasions, and completing missions to contribute to the war effort. There’s a variety of weapons and stratagems at your disposal to kill the alien threat, making the squad-based shooter an ideal game to play on the go.

With that in mind, here’s everything we know about whether or not Helldivers 2 is playable on Valve‘s Steam Deck.

Arrowhead Game Studios

Can you play Helldivers 2 on Steam Deck?

Helldivers 2 is playable on the Steam Deck, and has been officially verified by Valve. However, running the squad-shooter requires the handheld to use a specific version of Proton.

Helldivers 2 has finally landed, and the shooter has received a ‘playable’ commendation by Valve. Its predecessor, Helldivers Dive Harder Edition, currently sits on Steam, also with a playable status. So it should come as no surprise that its sequel followed suit.

While Valve has listed Helldivers 2 Steam as playable, its Steam page also lists the game’s use of DRM, named NProtect GameGuard. DRM software is typically used to combat piracy, especially in live-service titles, they have also been known to affect how games perform on the Valve handheld. At launch, many took to the r/Steam Deck SubReddit to state the game did not work on the device, and they believed the DRM was to blame.

According to GamingOnLinux, Valve developer Pierre-Loup Griffais took to X/Twitter to announce that a Proton Hotfix for Helldivers 2 has since been implemented. This Proton Hotfix negates any issues with the game not launching on the Steam Deck and can be accessed by changing the Proton version in the Helldivers 2 settings on Steam.

While a Proton Hotfix has improved the performance of the game on the Deck, servers are currently overloaded with the unexpected success of Helldivers 2. As it stands, the number of pings to the login server has been increased multiple times to help, yet you may still experience a ‘login limited reached’ error. If the server error persists, restarting the game and ensuring your internet connection on the Steam Deck is stable will help.

The Helldivers 2 PC requirements aren’t demanding, especially where the minimum specs are considered. The Steam Deck is more than equipped to take on the minimum system specs, which call for an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 470 equivalent, and at least 8GB of RAM.

The Helldivers 2 Steam page tells us that the game will take up a staggering 100GB of storage. But, if you’re planning on playing, you might need to equip yourself with big enough storage so you don’t have to delete anything from your console.

Picking up one of the best microSD cards for the Steam Deck will help ensure you have plenty of storage space for Helldivers 2, and any Steam Deck game you want to play. Especially if you haven’t yet picked up the 1TB Steam Deck OLED or upgraded the SSD.