How to play Zenless Zone Zero on Steam Deck & best settings

❘ Updated: 2024-07-04T17:29:28

Steam Deck OLED overlayed on Zenless Zone Zero artwork

Zenless Zone Zero works and plays quite well on the Steam Deck. You’ll have to take a few extra steps to get it running, but it’s not a major struggle.

We recommend installing NonSteamLauncher and using it to download the Epic Store. Developer and publisher MiHoYo has not yet released the game on Steam, so we’ll have to go the long way around.

NonSteamLauncher (NSL) isn’t the only method you can use here. We have a dedicated guide to show you how to install Epic Store games in a few ways. However, NSL is far and away the least complicated.

How to install Zenless Zone Zero on Steam Deck

While we have a dedicated guide for this, here’s a quick rundown on how to get NSL running and install Zenless Zone Zero:

Head to the Steam Deck’s desktop by pressing the Steam button
Choose Power from the menu and choose “Switch to Desktop”
Use your chosen internet browser to head to NonSteamLauncher’s GitHub page
Hit the download button (it’s the big colorful one as you scroll down)
Move the downloaded file out of your Downloads folder – maybe to Documents or the Desktop
Run the software by double-clicking and pressing Execute
A menu will pop up, be sure to update or install Proton-GE which is listed at the top
After that, it’ll relaunch the menu for you and restart Steam
Continue and choose Epic Store. While HoYo Player is available, it’s unreliable compared to the Epic version on Linux
After installation head back to gaming mode via the icon on the desktop or by restarting the device
Listed under “Non-Steam games” in the library, you’ll find the launchers you’ve installed, simply run them as you normally would

After completing this, you’ll just need to download Zenless Zone Zero itself from the Epic Store. The free-to-play game will pop up a version of the HoYo Player to download the game itself when you launch it.

If you restart your device, the next time you go over to Non-Steam games, you’ll find NSL will have populated ZZZ. Now you don’t need to launch the Epic Store to play your game.

Best Steam Deck settings for Zenless Zone Zero

There’s no real reason to tamper with the settings on Steam Deck, as it plays at a smooth 60FPS out of the box. However, we found this to be a solid fit for each graphical setting:

Medium settings:

Image Quality: Medium
FPS: 60
Vertical Sync: Enable
Rendering: 1.0
Anti-Aliasing: TAA
Shadows: High
FX Quality: Medium
Shading Quality: High
Character Quality: High
Mirror reflections: Medium
Volumetric fog: Medium
Bloom: Enable
Distortion: Enable
Color Filter Strength: 10

On these settings, from what we’ve seen, OLED players might be able to hit the full 90FPS the screen offers. Just set the FPS to Unlimited.

If you notice big frame drops, try turning Shadows and Shading Quality down to Medium.

High Settings:

ZZZ does play okay on high settings too. You’ll have to make some sacrifices regarding frame rate, but it’s not game-ruining. Without any adjustments, we managed to average around 40FPS with these settings:

Image Quality: High
FPS: Unlimited
Vertical Sync: Disable
Rendering: 1.0
Anti-Aliasing: TAA
Shadows: High
FX Quality: High
Shading Quality: High
Character Quality: High
Mirror reflections: High
Volumetric fog: High
Bloom: Enable
Distortion: Enable
Color Filter Strength: 10

Ideally, you’d change your Steam Deck’s refresh rate as well to force 40Hz.

When we set this to 60FPS, the gameplay was choppy as it was striving to reach a goal. Unlocking the framerate provided a far smoother experience and sat comfortably around 40FPS.

We also toggled the Steam Deck’s built-in FSR to no real effect and Half Rate Shading provided a minor benefit in less hectic areas of the game.

As Zenless Zone Zero plays smoothly at 60FPS, we do recommend sticking with medium settings. In the open world, the framerate does drop a fair bit as it gets busier on high. We had no issues on medium.

Zenless Zone Zero Steam Deck Screenshot comparison between high and medium

Low settings

For Low, we used the default settings the game offers with no adjustments. This will ensure that OLED users can hit that 90FPS cap.

Will you get banned from Zenless Zone Zero for playing on Linux & Steam Deck?

There’s a 99% chance you will not be banned from ZZZ for playing on Linux or Steam Deck. However, MiHoYo could initiate a ban wave at any time if they chose to.

It’s also running through an official launcher, just under Proton’s emulation of a Windows environment. Nothing is being altered to get the game running, as with almost every other game you can install on the Steam Deck.

There were a few bans when the community discovered that Genshin Impact worked on the Steam Deck. However, those have been few and far between since. In some Reddit threads, banned users wouldn’t admit to not doing other bannable offenses.