I’m considering purchasing a steamdeck. I may be away from my computer when I get the steamdeck. Could there be any issues with setting up games without access to a computer with my steam account? I assume cloud saves will be available. What about setting up a game that requires rockstar launcher?
Edit: Thanks for the feedback. It looks like the answer is no, I don’t need access to a computer with my steam account.
You only need your Steam account and wifi access. Everything can be done on the device. You can pop up a virtual keyboard with Steam+X. When you hold down the Steam-Button you get an overview of all the shortcuts.
The Steam Deck generally does not use an external PC to set up. It is a PC, and can be put into a (Linux-based) desktop mode, which is generally what you’d use for any configuration beyond what the Steam menus give you.
Out of the box it works, including cloud saves.
The only thing I needed my PC for was to upgrade the SSD: I used my desktop to prepare a flash drive with the SteamOS image. Honestly you could probably do that using a USB adapter on the Steam Deck, booting with the original SSD.
It really comes down to convenience. It takes a minute or so to switch between desktop and gaming modes on the Deck. A lot of stuff is easier if you have a larger screen or two, plus a mouse and keyboard. And file transfers are faster over Ethernet. All of those things you can either work around with the Deck as it is, or you can use a dock or hub to plug in those extra peripherals, but it’s still an inconvenience unless you’re planning on using it docked often.
I never needed my computer for any reason while setting either of my Decks up so you should be good. Never tried any Rockstar game on the deck so I can’t be sure but I don’t see any reason a computer would be needed.
You can always just switch to desktop mode on the Deck and use the regular version of Steam if anything requires it. The only time I’ve needed to do that though was when I wanted to add some box art to a non-Steam game.
Just make sure all your cloud saves are synced from your PC and you should be good!
Oh and make sure you can access your email somehow, or Steam Guard on your phone if you have it set up, it’ll probably have to verify your account when you sign in the first time.
Not really. The only big issue I could see is if you needed create a bootable USB to restore SteamOS.
It’s also occasionally easier to install non-Steam games on a desktop and transfer over the files but that’s mostly just about saving time.
And you can create the bootable USB with the Deck before you swap the SSD. You should never need a second PC to set up the Deck unless you bought your Deck without an OS installed already.
Yeah but what are they going to create the bootable USB on if SteamOS is corrupt?
I don’t really expect someone to always have a bootable USB on hand for each OS they use.
You could probably use your phone. I haven’t tried it but I’m pretty sure it’s possible.
And you don’t need a bootable USB for every OS you have. You only need one and can create whatever you need on that live system. In case of the steam deck you could also have an SD card with a different OS and create your SteamOS stick there.
It’s also occasionally easier to install non-Steam games on a desktop and transfer over the files but that’s mostly just about saving time.
And honestly that would be solved with a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard.
Not really. The issue I’m talking about is long install times not clicking and dragging. Tale of Two Wastelands I think took took me twelve hours to install on my Steam Deck versus one and a half on my PC
I mean, that’s very uncommon. TTW is notorious for taking a long time to install. Most installers that are not bizarrely CPU heavy will work fine.
How did you install TTW on your steam deck without a pc to run the installer? I’m willing to put up with the 12 hours if I have to.
