Can you play Honkai: Star Rail on Steam Deck?

Can you play Honkai: Star Rail on Steam Deck?
Images via MiHoYo

Written by 

Dave McAdam

Published 

26th Apr 2023 09:46

Does Honkai: Star Rail run on the Steam Deck? Honkai: Star Rail is a great game for when you're on the go, and is perfect for mobile devices. Steam Deck is an excellent way to bring your PC games anywhere, but not all games are available on it. Here is everything you need to know about Honkai: Star Rail on Steam Deck.

Is Honkai: Star Rail Steam Deck verified?

A small character in a big hat running towards a large, ornate building in Honkai: Star Rail
Click to enlarge

Steam Deck verification is a system by which games on Steam are verified to work as expected on the Steam Deck. This is usually the first port of call for finding out if a game works on the Steam Deck, and it can be found on the side of a game's Steam page.

Unfortunately, Honkai: Star Rail is not on Steam, and therefore is not eligible for Steam Deck verification. Furthering the bad news, the PC version of Honkai: Star Rail is only available on Windows. As the Steam Deck uses Linux, this means Honkai: Star Rail will not run as standard on the Steam Deck.

Can you side-load Honkai: Star Rail onto the Steam Deck?

Key art of a very sci-fi spaceship bridge in Honkai: Star Rail
Click to enlarge

For the industrious among you, there are ways around the issue here. If you really want to play Honkai: Star Rail on your Steam Deck, you will need to install Windows on it. This takes a bit of work, but it isn't too difficult to do.

You will need to get a Windows key, and an SD card to load Windows onto your Steam Deck. We'll link to a Tom's Hardware guide on how to do this, so you shouldn't have too much trouble getting it done.

Once Windows is installed, download Honkai: Star Rail from the website and you are good to go. Bear in mind, the game is not designed for the Steam Deck, so there are no guarantees that it will run optimally.

That is it for Honkai: Star Rail on Steam Deck. For more on the game, check out our guide on the Honkai: Star Rail characters.

Dave McAdam
About the author
Dave McAdam
Dave is a Senior Guides Writer at GGRecon, after several years of freelancing across the industry. He covers a wide range of games, with particular focus on shooters like Destiny 2, RPGs like Baldur's Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, and fighting games like Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8.
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