Wuthering Waves really, really doesn’t want to run on Steam Deck

Sometimes you gotta know when to fold, and trying to get new hotness RPG Wuthering Waves to play nice with the Steam Deck has got me creasing like an origami crane. While its Epic Games Store release can be worked around, and Proton GE will get the game’s own launcher running, no combination of software, compatibility tools, or installation folder deep-diving seems capable of actually booting the game proper.

As such, I’m accepting defeat. Obviously with apologies to any studious Steam Deck Academy readers.

I don’t want to say Wuthering Waves will never work on the Deck, as pretty much all its issues with running on SteamOS can be dealt with – right up to that final hurdle of, y’know, launching the game. The Epic app is installable either directly or via Lutris, and I could at least get to the launcher stage by grabbing the standalone Windows installer straight from Wuthering Waves’ website. Said launcher wouldn’t fire up by itself – I had to dig out its executable, add it as a non-Steam game, and force it to launch with the latest version of Proton GE – but eventually it was onscreen and downloading the game files.

It’s literally just that final stage where all the tools and tricks stop working, the launcher’s “Start” button merely looping back to itself after a few seconds of nothing. Reinstalling, switching Proton versions, and keeping the Epic launcher simultaneously running in the Steam Deck’s Desktop Mode all proved inadequate solutions. It’s tempting to have a big “Why! WHY!” tantrum about this – I might have one after this post goes live – but sadly these “just not that into you” situations can still happen with SteamOS, despite the long-running and ongoing efforts of Valve and other game developers to improve compatibility.

One alternative – if you’re not willing to wait for a potential fix, either to Proton or the game itself – is to run the Android version of Wuthering Waves on the Steam Deck using Waydroid. Youtuber 10 Minute Steam Deck Gamer has produced an installation guide for this tool, which can essentially spoof a full Android system within the Linux-based SteamOS, though be warned it’s a pretty complex process, with plenty of command line action.

Patience might just pay off, though. Think of it this way: now that I’ve publicly admitted I don’t know how to get it working, the probability of someone else managing it within a few hours, humiliating me, must have shot up to something like 97 or 98 percent. You’re welcome.