Fariha Bhatti 
Marvel Rivals is finally launching, and fans are wondering if it will run on Steam Deck and what the best settings are to use for it.
Marvel Rivals is a team-based hero shooter that plucks many of Marvel’s most recognizable heroes and villains out of the comics and tosses them into a PvP arena. While fans were eagerly awaiting the game for its flashy gameplay and familiar faces, NetEase has also sweetened the deal with a zero-rush battle pass that never expires.
So far, players have only heard good things about the Marvel Universe, and now Steam Deck owners are eager to join in. During a recent Discord Q&A session, Marvel Rivals addressed whether the game will be compatible with Linux-based handheld devices.
Is Marvel Rivals Steam Deck compatible?
NetEase confirmed that Marvel Rivals will be compatible with Steam Deck.
This is excellent news for fans who were worried that NetEase would follow the lead of developers locking out Linux from PC games due to potential cheating problems. Many third-party DRMs and anti-cheat engines are incompatible with Linux, something that has made games like Rainbow Six: Siege and PUBG: Battlegrounds unplayable on Steam Deck. However, for now, the only concern for Steam Deck users looking forward to Marvel Rivals is the best settings to use.
According to a reported Discord Q&A, the Steam Deck experience for Marvel Rivals will not be perfect at launch. Players might encounter black screens in place of cutscenes, along with other potential issues. Additionally, the developer has not provided any updates regarding the game’s performance status on Steam Deck. The Steam Deck has felt underpowered with many major releases since its launch, something that has seen major titles struggle to steadily maintain 30 FPS.
If NetEase is working with Valve directly to iron out kinks, it’s safe to assume Marvel Rivals will become Steam Deck Verified. But as Dragon’s Dogma 2 players know, “Steam Deck Verified” doesn’t inherently mean the game runs well on the portable PC.
Marvel Rivals is a demanding game, with recommended specifications including an AMD Ryzen 5 1600X CPU and 16GB of RAM. Despite these requirements, there’s hope for Steam Deck performance, as games like Overwatch, when optimized, can deliver a stable 60 FPS on the device. If Marvel Rivals is similarly optimized, it has the potential to run smoothly on the handheld system.
Best Steam Deck settings for Marvel Rivals
For the best experience on Steam Deck, players should use uniformly low graphics settings.
Though Marvel Rivals is a casual-friendly game, it’s still a competitive shooter. That means that the performance of the hardware impacts the performance of the player in a way that impacts the chances of victory. Because of that, players will want to maintain the highest possible FPS:
- Anti-Aliasing and Super Resolution Type- EPIC TSR
- Super Resolution Mode- Performance
- Anti-Aliasing- Low
- Super Resolution Sharpening- 20
- Graphics Quality- Low
- Global Illumination- SSGI Low Quality
- Reflection Quality- Screen Space Reflections
- Model Detail- Low
- Post-Processing- Low
- Shadow Detail- Low
- Texture Detail- Low
- Effects Detail- Low
- Foliage Quality- Low
With these settings, Marvel Rivals can maintain a fairly steady 40 frames per second during combat. The framerate jumps even higher when there isn’t any action happening. Players may want to set a fixed framerate to both smooth out the experience and improve battery life, but it’s not recommended.
Marvel Rivals doesn’t look as striking as it otherwise could on these settings, but it’s the best way to actually enjoy the game on Steam Deck.
The most important thing is that these settings prevent the dreaded stutter that can happen when an enemy jumps out from around a corner. Many players have rage quitted out of games after going through this, and these performance-focused settings reduce the chances of this happening.
