Any and all advice, guides, and reviews are unbiased and based on my personal experience. If you buy through affiliate links, I may earn commissions, which helps support my website. This does not have an impact on posts or my opinion of any reviewed products. If you find this post helpful and want to say thanks, please buy me a coffee or take a look at my book on Amazon. It keeps this page ad-free. Thank you!
I have had a Steam Deck for a few years now, but have never really posted about it, but over the past days I started using it more and thought it would be good to share my best ways to mod and hack the Steam Deck to get the most out of it. Plus, like most of my posts, this guide exists so I don’t forget it myself…
How to Install Steam Deck Plugins/Hacks/Mods
It all starts by switching to Desktop mode, to do this:
- On your Steam Deck, press the Steam button.
- Select Power.
- Select Switch to Desktop
Your Steam Deck will reboot into desktop mode, with a taskbar like a standard desktop. You will see Firefox in the Taskbar. Firefox is the key to being able to download 3rd party tools to your Steam Deck.
- To select Firefox, use the right touchpad to move the pointer and R2 to select Firefox. You can also use the touchscreen to move the pointer.
- A new window will launch, move the pointer to the top right and press R2 to select “Install from Flathub”.
- Wait for Firefox to install, when it’s installed, the window will show the word “Launch” or you can just click the Firefox icon in your taskbar.
- You’re now in Firefox and ready to install 3rd party Steam Deck mods, tools, and more!
How to Install Decky Loader: The Best Steam Deck Mod Tool
Decky Loader is the best and easiest to install Steam Deck mod tool. You will need to be in Desktop Mode and using Firefox to install it.
- Use the right touch pad or touchscreen to go to the Firefox address bar, and select the address bar.
- Press the STEAM + X button to launch the on screen keyboard.
- Search for Decky Loader or got direct to decky.xyz (no www).
- Scroll down the page, you will see a Download link, click it.
- The download will be fast, but nothing will happen as now you need to install Decky.
- On the taskbar, launch the Dolphin File browser. It’s the icon that looks like a Windows File Manager, but it’s blue/white.
- In the Dolphin File browser, on the left pane, select Downloads.
- There should be an icon for file in Downloads called “decky_installer.desktop.download”
- Tap the icon, you will get a safety prompt, tap Execute.
- You will get another safety prompt, tap Continue.
- You will get another prompt, this time from Decky, telling you that you haven’t set an admin password, tap Yes.
- You will get another prompt, asking which branch to install, I recommend the default “release” option, select OK.
- Decky will now download and install, once it’s done you will get a ‘finished’ notification, tap OK.
- Decky is installed!
- Shutdown and restart your Steam Deck to return to the standard full screen (non Desktop) mode.
- You can now launch Decky!
How to Launch Decky and the Decky Plugin Store
Once Deck is installed, launching Decky is easy!
- Click the Steam Deck 3 dot button “. . .”
- On the bottom left of the menu that appears, you will see a plug icon.
- You will see Decky, but there will be no Decky Plugins, so now you need to launch the plugin store – to do that tap the Store icon.
- You can now browse and install Decky plugins!
What are the best Decky plugins for the Steam Deck?
If you want to see what everyone else recommends, change the Sort order to “Most Downloaded First”, this will give you an idea of what everyone else likes, but these are what I think are the must have Decky plugins.
To install any plugin, just tap Install. You will need to always re0confirm you want to install.
You can find them quickly using the Search bar.
IsThereAnyDeal for Deck
This taps into the fantastic IsThereAnyDeal database, providing an overlay and launcher to see if there are better prices than buying direct on Steam. Once installed, you will need to tap the icon to turn on the stores it will search across. I also find that the Steam OS controls tend to block visibility if the game has video (you can click off a games preview video to get a clearer view), but a useful tip is in to adjust the font size/spacing. In the IsThereAnyDeal option, I put a font size of 10px and a Padding Bottom of 24px. Either way, when you’re browsing a game, you should see a “Lowest Price from” message and you can also tap that to launch IsThereAnyDeal straight from your Steam Deck.
ProtonDB Badges
Super useful plugin that taps the ProtonDB database and adds additional badges to confirm whether a game works on the Steam Deck. Great if you’re trying to make a decision about a game.
CSS Loader
If you want to skin or theme your Steam Deck, a great way to get a custom UI. To install CSS Loader themes, launch Decky, tap CSS Loader, and tap the File Download Icon (top right).
PowerTools
If you are a hardcore framerate, hardware, etc. modded. This is for you. It’s also helpful if you player older titles that are less demanding, as you can drop your specs to stretch your battery life.
All of the above Decky plugins are free and are my go-to on my or for a friend when they get a Steam Deck.
Hope this helps someone else!
Any and all advice, guides, and reviews are unbiased and based on my personal experience. If you buy through affiliate links, I may earn commissions, which helps support my website. This does not have an impact on posts or my opinion of any reviewed products. If you find this post helpful and want to say thanks, please buy me a coffee or take a look at my book on Amazon. It keeps this page ad-free. Thank you!