Can you play Dwarf Fortress on Steam Deck? Answered

The new version of Dwarf Fortress on Steam has introduced a whole new audience to the world of digging in your base, making sure your dwarves don’t wander off to their deaths, and making long lists of supplies that your colony needs. And nowadays, where there’s a Steam version of the game, players have to wonder if the game is supported on Steam Deck too. Some games don’t need support out of the box but are able to be played on the mobile platform regardless, but is that the case for Dwarf Fortress? Here’s the answer.

Related: Does Dwarf Fortress have multiplayer? Answered

Can you play Dwarf Fortress on Steam Deck

While Dwarf Fortress doesn’t ‘technically’ have full support for the Steam Deck platform, players within the community have tried to play it and have reported that it works “surprisingly well” in fact. It launches normally and has little to no issues with lag. Many others have chimed in on the game’s official Reddit page, echoing that the game is fully playable on the Steam Deck, so if you’re a proud owner of the mobile device, you can boot up Dwarf Fortress and play to your heart’s content. 

However, there are a few caveats to consider. Firstly, the default controls are a bit wonky and require some getting used to. You can go into the options and adjust them to better suit the platform, although many suggest that you play through the game’s tutorial to get better familiarized with the controls that way. The second issue is with cloud saves. They simply don’t work on the Steam Deck, which means that you can’t easily transfer saves from one platform to another. You will have to keep a local save on the device, and look to other options if you want to play the same save between your PC and the Steam Deck.