Is Zenless Zone Zero Steam Deck compatible? Much like some other HoYoverse games, Zenless Zone Zero hasn’t launched on Steam, making it a little tricky to start playing on the Steam Deck. It’s far from impossible, though, and once you’ve jumped through some hoops, the performance is pretty good.
Despite being the best handheld gaming PC, the Steam Deck is often at the mercy of Valve’s game library, and if a game doesn’t launch on Steam, it can lead to complicated workarounds being required. With Zenless Zone Zero, it’s possible to play it on the Steam Deck, but you’ll need to venture into desktop mode to get it installed.
Is Zenless Zone Zero Steam Deck compatible?
Zenless Zones Zero is not currently available on Steam, therefore it has no rating. However, it can be downloaded via the Epic Games Store to play on Steam Deck.
Not every PC game launches on Steam day one, or at all, but fear not as you can still play Zenless Zone Zero on Valve’s handheld, and we’re going to tell you how to get it downloaded.
How to download Zenless Zone Zero on Steam Deck
Downloading non-Steam games onto the Steam Deck is quite simple, despite seeming like a daunting task. Before we show you how to get the game downloaded, make sure you have an active Epic Games Store account to save you from having to create one during the process.
Here is how you download Zenless Zone Zero on Steam Deck:
- Head into Desktop Mode on your Steam Deck.
- Search for and download the Heroic Games Launcher from the Steam Menu.
- Boot up the Heroic Launcher and link it to your Epic Games Account.
- Find and download Zenless Zone Zero.
- Heroic sometimes automatically adds games to Steam, but if you can’t see it in your library, return to the Heroic launcher and remove the game from Steam before adding it again.
- Return to Steam and boot up Zenless Zone Zero. From here you will need to select a file pathway to install the rest of the game.
- Done! You can now launch Zenless Zone Zero from Steam on your Deck, it will always boot up the Launcher first, which requires mouse input (trackpad), but the game itself has full controller support.
Best Steam Deck settings for Zenless Zone Zero
With Zenless Zone Zero not being on Steam, and the developer unlikely to consider specific handheld support for the Steam Deck, the game doesn’t currently have an 800p resolution option. Instead, you’ll play at 720p.
On the plus side, the Zenless Zone Zero system requirements paint the picture of a game that shouldn’t struggle to run on gaming handhelds regardless of this minor resolution issue.
- Image Quality: Medium
- FPS: Unlimited
- VSync: Enable
- Rendering: 1.0
- Anti-Aliasing: TAA
- Shadows: High
- FX Quality: Medium
- Shading Quality: High
- Character Quality: High
- Environment Quality: High
- Mirror Reflections: Medium
- Volumetric Fog: Medium
- Bloom: Enable
- Distortion: Enable
The above settings result in a frame rate that sits comfortably in the 70-80fps range, with occasional drops to the mid-60s in more cinematic combat moments. There’s no AMD FSR in play here, but you can adjust the rendering scale to 0.8 to achieve a consistently higher frame rate at the cost of some visual fidelity.
All in all, Zenless Zone Zero runs great on the Steam Deck, and hopefully a native 800p resolution mode can be added in a future update to prevent the minor letterboxing caused by the 720p option.
Time will tell whether Zenless Zone Zero becomes one of the best Steam Deck games available, but if you’re keen to get started with this latest gacha game, check out our best weapons guide to make sure you’re properly equipped.