Palworld is a game that, against all odds, is real and actually pretty successful right now. Players are flocking to this one in droves, and the Steam version is preferable over Game Pass as of writing. However, what if you wanted to play Palworld on Steam Deck? Does it work, or is it a bad time?
To answer this, I’ve tested Palworld a bit on my own Steam Deck, and it does work. Though Valve merely lists Palworld as “playable” on the device, the game functions pretty seamlessly. All buttons are bound to the correct actions, and the graphical settings will adjust to what the Steam Deck can handle. You’ll have to juggle your onscreen keyboard to use in-game chat features, but beyond that, Palworld is completely functional on the handheld. If you’re looking to play the world’s craziest Pokémon knockoff on the go, you’re covered.
That said, if your eyes aren’t great, note that you’ll see a warning that the text in Palworld is pretty small. It’s readable, but you might need to strain to read things like the persistent tutorial window. Keep this in mind if you plan to mainly play this on Steam Deck.
How does Palworld run on the Steam Deck?
Now, whether you’d want to play Palworld on the Steam Deck is another matter. The game is certainly playable, but its performance is mediocre. By default, the game will run on the “low” graphical preset and won’t hit framerates much higher than 30 FPS. That doesn’t ruin the game, but it does feel sloppy. You can adjust the graphics down to the “very low” preset, but even then, the game will hit a maximum of 50 FPS.
Now, if you’re primarily playing Palworld on your PC, this is an acceptable way to play the game in a pinch. After all, cloud saves do work with this game, so you can easily continue your adventure on the go. But if you must only play this game on Steam Deck, you might want to think twice about how badly you want to play Palworld.
