Steam Deck is the first handheld gaming platform of Valve which is basically a way to play PC games in a more portable way. Even with all the great games Steam has to offer, players may find themselves wanting to play games outside Steam. Although a bit tricky, it is indeed possible. Here’s how to install Epic Games to Steam Deck, where we try to explain the way as simple as possible for you.
Using The Herioc Game Launcher
This is perhaps the simplest way of how to install Epic Games to Steam Deck. Since Epic Games doesn’t have a launcher of its own that supports Linux, we will need the aid of another launcher. We’ll be using the Herioc Game Launcher which would allow us to launch and play from Epic Games.
- First you need to switch your Steam Deck to desktop mode. In order to do this, you just have to press the Steam button and scroll till you find the power option. You would then get the power menu and from there you can click the “Switch to Desktop Mode”.
- Open your “Discover App” and look for “Herioc Games Launcher”. After you discover the needed launcher, you just have to install it to your Steam Deck.
- Open your “Start Menu” then head to “Games”. Search for the “Herioc Games Launcher” then right click it to get the “Add to Steam” option.
- Once added, you now have to Launch the Herioc Games Launcher from the “Game Menu”.
- Look for the log-in option on the app. There you will see an “Epic Games Login” option and from there you can enter your account.
And that’s it for How to install Epic Games to your Steam Deck. To start using the app again, simply go to your Steam Launcher and select Epic Games from the library under non-Steam Apps.
Using The Proton Emulator
This is another option for how to install Epic Games to your Steam Deck, although it can be a bit trickier than the first one. For this, we will use the Proton which is an emulator that will enable us to play Epic Games.
Using the Installer
- Open up your “Power Menu” by holding the Power button of your Steam Deck. From here select the “Switch to Desktop” mode. This will allow you to switch to Linux Desktop.
- Open any browser you have installed like Firefox or Chrome. Search for Epic Games installer and go to their download page. Now download the Windows executable.
- Open your Steam and go to Game then add non-Steam Game to my library option. Go and click on Browse and in your Dropbox, click “/” to go to the top level of the folder. Keep on searching until you find your Downloads Folder.
- In your library search, type in “Epic” to find the installer. Go to properties, then compatibility, and run the “Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility Tool”. From here select the latest version of Proton.
Installing Epic Games
- Go ahead and select “Play” to start the installation process.
- Find the folder in Steamapps for the Epic Launcher. Open Dolphin File Explorer and select “Show Hidden Files”. You then have to navigate along this path: Home/ .local/ share/ Steam/ steamapps/ compatdata. Now keep searching until you find the folder that contains Epic Games.
- Once you find the Epic Games, navigate along this path: Home/ .local/ share/ Steam/ steamapps/ compatdata/ [Big number folder]/ pfx/ drive_c/ Program Files (x86)/ Epic Games/ Launcher/ Portal/ Binaries/ Win64. Find the EpicGames Launcher and right click it and select copy location.
- Go back to Steam and right click the Epic Installer to open the properties then select shortcut. Highlight the target field then right click and select paste. Use your keyboard and re-add the quotation marks from the start and end. Do the same process to the “Start In” Field but delete the EpicGamesLauncher.exe at the end.
- You can opt to rename the EpicInstaller to Epic Games to make it sound better.
- Go to “Return to Gaming Mode” and boot SteamOS.
- Open your library and go to Non-Steam Games. Locate the Epic library and go to the controller icon to setup your controls. It is recommended to use “Gamepad with Mouse Trackpad”.
- Go and boot up the launcher and login your Epic Games account. Be sure to disable the following: Run When My Computer Starts, Show Free Game Notification, and Show News and Special Offers Notification.
Conclusion
As the first handheld console of Valve which pretty much offers the convenience of playing PC games anywhere, it is still relatively new. Although Steam already offers tons of games, people would of course want to play some outside it. The methods on how to install Epic Games to your Steam Deck is still a bit shaky at the moment. The process can be a bit tedious and stable gaming isn’t assured for all the games yet.
Hopefully, as time passes, there will be a more stable and simpler play to play games outside Steam on your beloved Steam Deck.
