Hello, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 players. I think lot of people interested in Steam Deck experience of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 - one of the "heavy" 2024 games.

I have optimized game for my self and I will share my experience with you. This guide will be also helpful for old and low-end PC's.

You will need install two mods: Ultimate Engine Tweaks and Optimized Tweaks S.2.

Ultimate Engine Tweaks - https://www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/17

Copy file to (Windows):
%localappdata%\Stalker2\Saved\Config\Windows

Directory on Steam Deck:

/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/1643320/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Local/Stalker2/Saved/Config/Windows/

Also don't forget to set "Read only" in Properties.


Optimized Tweaks S.2 (download BOOST variant)
- https://www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/7?tab=files

Place file to internal game folder (Windows):
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Heart of Chornobyl\Stalker2\Content\Paks\~mods (create ~mods folder if it is absent).

Steam Deck directory:
/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Heart of Chornobyl/Stalker2/Content/Paks/~mods/

This two mods will be compatible. You can ignore incompatibility in description.

Next you need just to start game and choose minimum settings. You also need to turn on FSR 3.1 Frame Generation and set "Balanced" or above (if you need more performance and ready to sacrifice graphics quality).

This way has made S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 playable on Steam Deck for me. I have tested game for more than 4 hours without problems and was satisfied.

You can play with 35-50 FPS most of time but you also have some drops to 25 FPS in cutscenes and some moments. But game is playable and it's really awesome result for handheld console.

I hope my experience and guide will be useful for you.