No, but technically yes
HoYoverse’s free-to-play RPGHonkai: Star Railhas exploded in popularity. While this should be no surprise for the follow-up to the massively successfulGenshin Impact, it’s still impressive to see how viral the game has gone. Part ofStar Rail’s success involvesits cross platform play between PC and mobile. But what if you wanted the best of both worlds in one device?
The Steam Deck should be the handheld that fits that bill. After all, even games that don’t natively launch on the device’s operating system may still load thanks toSteam Proton. Unfortunately, even if you like to tinker with your Steam Deck to make games run,Honkai: Star Railrequires an above average amount of work. It’s technically possible, but you might prefer playing the game on your mobile device.
How to runHonkai Star Railon Steam Deck
You will not findHonkai: Star Railon Steam in any capacity. In fact,Honkai: Star Railwon’t run on Linux at all. The game’s anti-cheat just won’t play nice with the operating system, no matter how many built-in workarounds you try. MiHoYo did releaseHonkai Impact 3rdon Steam, soStar Railcould receive an official release on the platform. However, considering the Steam version ofHonkai Impact 3rdlacks any cross-platform support, I wouldn’t count on it.
If you feel truly determined to runHonkai: Star Railon your Steam Deck, you have a specific way forward.By installing Windows on your device, you’re able to makeHonkai: Star Raillaunch successfully. Players who have gone through the hassle of a Windows installationreport runningHonkai: Star Railat around 45 FPS. Some have noted sound glitches and other similar issues, so your milage may vary.
That said,unless you have a ton of games to play on your Steam Deck that require Windows, this isn’t necessarily recommended. The Steam Deck was built with SteamOS in mind, so running Windows will typically add more hassle to your user experience than anything. In the future, the Steam Deck community may come up with workarounds to runHonkai: Star Railon SteamOS. However, since the game is still new, I wouldn’t necessarily wait on this option if you really want to play the game.
If you do want to go through with a Windows Installation,you’ll find Valve’s official support page here. While I’d personally recommend just playing the game on a mobile device or finding a way to stream it from your Desktop, the option is there if you want it. Best of luck, Trailblazer.
