Baldur's Gate 3 now runs natively on Steam Deck thanks to a single Larian engineer who started the project after hours because he 'really wanted a smoother version of the game on Steam Deck'

A new Baldur's Gate 3 hotfix is live today, and it's good news for Steam Deck fans: The update features a new native Steam Deck build, which Larian says will deliver "more stable framerate, lower loading times, and smoother gameplay" on Valve's portable platform.

Until now, Baldur's Gate 3 made use of the Proton compatibility layer, which enables Windows games to run on Steam Deck's SteamOS, which is Linux-based. But that added layer of software "requires extra CPU processing power," Larian explained. "Running the game natively on the Steam Deck requires less CPU usage and memory consumption overall!"

For those of you playing on Steam Deck, Baldur’s Gate 3 now also features a native Steam Deck build!Running natively on the platform, you should now see a better framerate, lower loading times, and smoother gameplay ????

— @larianstudios.com (@larianstudios.com.bsky.social) 2025-09-23T17:20:15.602Z

The move to a Steam Deck native build of Baldur's Gate 3 should be painless for most players, but depending on how you're set up you might have to do a little bit of work to get everything squared away. Saved games in the Deck-native build are stored in a different location: Recent saves will sync up automatically as long as Steam Cloud saves are enabled, but if you have that option switched off or want to dig back into older saves, you'll have to move them to their new location manually.

Similarly, all mods you're subscribed to will be downloaded and reinstalled automatically as long as you're logged into your Larian account and it's connected to mod.io—and if not, you'll need to either re-download them or shuffle them around.

Luckily, Larian has put together a detailed guide on doing all of that, available on Steam and the Larian support site, complete with images so you can be sure you're doing it right. The guide also explains how to switch back to the Proton version of Baldur's Gate 3 if you run into issues with the Steam Deck native build.

As for why Larian went to the effort of releasing a Steam Deck native build of Baldur's Gate 3 a full two years after the game's 1.0 release—and five years after its early access debut—Larian boss Swen Vincke said it was simply a matter of "passion."

"The Steam Deck native build was initiated by a single engineer who really wanted a smoother version of the game on Steam Deck and so he started working on it after hours," Vincke wrote on X. "When we tried it out, we were all surprised by how good it felt and so it didn't take much to convince us to put our shoulders behind it and get it released.

"It's this type of pure passion for their craft that makes me fall in love with my developers over and over again. Considering myself very lucky to have people like him on my team. Try it out!"

The Steam Deck native build is the big news in hotfix 34, but it's not the only news: The update also fixes a handful of bugs and crash issues that have cropped up, including one that caused the Apostle of Myrkul to regain hit points every time you load a savegame mid-combat in Tactician and Honour Mode. Frankly, I think the Apostle of Myrkul should regain hit points when you load a save in the middle of combat because that may be tactical but it's not very honorable, but that's just me. The full patch notes are below.

FIXES

Crashes and Performance

• Fixed a potential crash related to the Slow condition during combat.
• Fixed a potential crash related to using the Find Familiar spell on Scratch and Boo during combat.

Xbox

• Fixed a crash that could occur when suspending and then resuming the game mid-cinematic.
• Fixed a crash when loading a save while playing an Honour Mode game.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the game to hang and become unresponsive when exiting to the Main Menu from an Honour Mode game.
• Selecting View Xbox Live Profile via the Larian Friends list will now correctly show the user's gamercard.
• Fixed a Cross-Play issue where, if one player had their cross-network privileges blocked on Xbox and was then invited to a multiplayer session by a friend, they wouldn't get notified of the conflict in their settings telling them why they couldn't proceed to the lobby.
• Fixed a bug where creating a new game in Honour Mode after having loaded a previous savegame would cause the game to get stuck at 33% or 83% loading.

Gameplay

• Fixed the Hound of Ill Omen and the Accursed Spectre's HP being affected by difficulty modifiers for enemy characters.
• Fixed a bug causing the Apostle of Myrkul to regain  Hit Points every time you load a savegame mid-combat in Tactician and Honour Mode.

Audio

• Fixed a bug causing the sounds that djinn summons make when they follow you to loop continuously, creating an uncharacteristic metallic thrum.
• When you're on the ground floor of Felogyr's Fireworks, the smokepowder explosions going off on the floor above will no longer sound like they're happening right next to you.
• Fixed the audio levels for a rat in the Lower City that you, tragically, couldn't hear squeak when it squoke.
• Fixed missing SFX when preparing to cast Wind Walk.
• Fixed an issue causing the SFX to play longer than they should when preparing to cast the Way of the Drunken Master's subclass-specific actions.
• Fixed missing SFX when preparing to cast Booming Blade.
• Fixed the SFX for preparing a Starry Form continuing to play if you cast the spell quickly after selecting it.
• Fixed missing SFX when Astarion taps Woe on the ground during a cinematic.
• Fixed missing SFX in the overhead dialogue between Minthara and the questioners in Moonrise Towers Prison.
• Fixed a sound resource for Photo Mode not being generated correctly.
• Fixed the rattling Moonlantern SFX continuing to play after you unequip it.
• Recovered some missing SFX when casting Speak with Dead on the mind flayer in the Shattered Sanctum.
• Reminded Halsin to actually yell when he gains barbarian Rage instead of silently miming it.
• Fixed the SFX during Vlaakith's appearance at camp getting cut off prematurely.

Cinematics

• Told one of the imps on the nautiloid to stop looking in the wrong direction.
• Fixed a super-mega-ultra-close-up shot during  the dialogue with Raphael at Last Light.
• Removed a static pool of blood hovering mid-air in the cinematic with the gnolls on the Risen Road when playing as a short Dark Urge character.
• Fixed Karlach's line about Gale being a hero getting cut off prematurely.
• Fixed a bug causing party members to appear as floating torsos (or simply floating hair) when talking to Ketheric's dog, Squire.