How to Play The Elder Scrolls Online on Steam Deck & Best Settings

The Elder Scrolls Online shows up as “Unsupported” on the Steam Deck, and indeed if you install and try to launch the game, you will see an “InstallAnywhere” script running, but then you will be met with a black screen, and no way to move forward.

Fear not, since running ESO on your Steam Deck natively is not hard at all! Just follow this simple guide to make it happen:

1. Install The Elder Scrolls Online on your Steam Deck, and click the cog icon to access the game’s Properties.
2. There, go into the Launch Options field, and type PROTON_SET_GAME_DRIVE=1 %command% . This way, you will be able to show a fake drive to ESO’s launcher, since if it tries to install on your normal drive it will fail:
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3. Hit Play, and after the “InstallAnywhere” script is done, and you are met with a black screen, simply hit the “Quick Access” button on your Steam Deck, and bring up the touch keyboard (or press Steam + X), then hit “Enter” or press R2 on your Deck:
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4. In the following screen just choose “Install“. Don’t worry about the 20GB of required space it shows, it won’t actually use any more storage space on your Steam Deck than what you initially downloaded:
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5. The installation will be done quite quickly, and the launcher will close. Once you re-open the game, the installation will be finalized, and you will be able to click “Play” on ESO’s launcher:
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6. Enable accessibility mode on the following screen by using the touchscreen, so that gamepad defaults are loaded.

That’s it! Now you can enjoy ESO on your Steam Deck in its full glory!