If you’re thinking of picking up Palworld to play on the Steam Deck, great news, the new Pokemon-Ark-hybrid works for the most part.
If you’d prefer to watch this settings guide, or you’d like to see Palworld in action on the Steam Deck, check out my video below.
Performance.
First things first, it’s worth pointing out Palworld hasn’t been officially optimized for the Steam Deck. That’s fine, though. Very few games are. That said, Palworld doesn’t require a high-end PC to run to its fullest, meaning the Steam Deck isn’t going to have to work too hard to get solid performance.
I’ve currently logged around 20 hours so far and I’m impressed with what I’ve seen but it’s not perfect. With tweaks to the settings, you can get a smooth 30 frames per second for a lot of the time, although that does come with a caveat. When the screen is busy, or when your Pals are trying to pick up a large amount of resources scattered on the ground, the framerate can dip. It is also possible to get a few extra frames here and there depending on how quiet the area you’re in is, but I strongly recommend setting a cap on the framerate to 30 to keep things feeling most fluid.
There is, however, going to be some crashes. I had the game lock up on multiple occasions. Sometimes it’ll pause for 10 seconds then everything will be fine, other times I had to hard reset the Steam Deck by holding down the power button until the light blinks. It’s not great, but when it works, it works.
It’s also worth keeping in mind as Palworld is currently an early access game, expect bugs aplenty. There is a small save game deletion bug going around, people can fall through the floor, and resetting perks is advised against right now. I personally haven’t ran into too many issues, though, and for an early access game with this many moving parts, I’m impressed by how polished the game feels. Most will be able to play it and enjoy it with minimal problems.
One final point because I’ve seen too many people get burned by this: If you like the look of the game, grab it now even if you’re not going to play it. The price is currently $26.99 and for those unaware, there’s always a chance when it leaves early access, that price could increase. So if it sounds like your thing, get it now and save some money. Your future self will thank you.
Settings
In-game settings:
- Max FPS: 30.
- Vsync: Off.
- Motion Blur: Off.
- Anti-Aliasing: TSR.
- View Distance: Medium.
- Grass Detail: Medium.
- Shadows: Low.
- Effects Quality: Medium.
- Texture Quality: Medium.
Steam Deck Quick-Access Menu:
- Frame Limit: 30 frames per second.
- Allow tearing: Off.
- TDP Limit: 12 watts.
- Scaling Mode: Stretch (or auto).
- Scaling Filter: FSR.
Verdict.
Early access games are a mixed bag. Sometimes you’ll get something like Palworld that feels like a full release at a budget price tag. Other times you’ll get something that barely works like Ark.
It’s great that Palworld is releasing in such a mostly playable state. There’s still work to do, and hopefully down the line the Steam Deck does get some further optimizations and bug fixes, whether that’s from the developer or Valve via Proton.
So far the game is a mix of everything: It’s the survival of Minecraft, the creature capture of Ark, the mechanics of Zelda, and the art style of Sonic Frontiers and Pokemon. It’s everything everywhere all at once in that regard.
If the question you’ve got is are you safe to play it now or should you wait? I’d say Palworld is currently very playable and the Steam Deck, and despite the issues like crashes, lockups, and bugs, it’s still great to play on the go.
If you are worried about the bugs, I suggest leaving it at least a month or two, just to see how the developer responds. However, keep in mind the game has been a runaway success, so it may take a little longer to get bug fixes out.
In the meantime, if you’re happy to overlook these problems, feel free to get Palworld now and play on the deck in a smooth 30 frames per second.
