For fans of Supergiant Games and their remarkable history with Valve’s portable console, the exceptional Hades 2 Steam Deck performance will come as no surprise. Now that Hades 2 has officially launched out of early access, we’ve gathered the confirmed game rating and put together a guide to help you get the absolute best out of it on your Steam Deck.
Hades 2 is quickly proving to be one of the finest titles you can enjoy on the Steam Deck, just like its predecessor. It offers a seamless ‘boot and play’ experience, making the Steam Deck, despite its aging hardware, a top-tier handheld gaming PC for games of this caliber. If you’re planning to play this roguelike on a traditional gaming PC instead, you might find our dedicated guide to the best Hades 2 settings helpful.
Is Hades 2 compatible with the Steam Deck?
Yes, Hades 2 has earned a ‘Verified’ rating for Steam Deck. It has been a fan-favorite on the handheld since its initial early access release.
Considering the modest system requirements for Hades 2, its superb performance on the Steam Deck isn’t much of a shock. Throughout our testing on Valve’s handheld, we consistently experienced a remarkably fluid 90 frames per second on default settings for most of our playtime. Even during the most action-packed moments, the Steam Deck maintained its composure without any noticeable slowdown.
It’s quite rare for games, even indie titles, to adapt so perfectly to the Steam Deck’s 800p display, but Supergiant Games has once again delivered a gem. Hades 2 looks absolutely stunning, especially on the vibrant Steam Deck OLED screen.
Optimal Hades 2 settings for Steam Deck
Hades 2 doesn’t offer a vast array of video or gameplay settings, but here are the configurations we found most effective:
- Graphics Quality: High
- VSync: On
- Resolution: 1,200 x 800
- Fullscreen: No
- Borderless: No
- Reticle Speed: 1800
- Dead Zone: 15%
By default, the graphics are set to high, and we saw no reason to change this; the game runs beautifully. During gameplay, Hades 2 typically consumes around 8.5W, which translates to an impressive battery life of approximately 6 hours on the Steam Deck OLED. While a small update during early access introduced a minor frame dip when transitioning to a new level, it’s usually just a brief drop to about 50 frames per second, which is hardly noticeable.
On average, the GPU utilization hovered around 50%, and the CPU rarely exceeded 30%. This demonstrates that Hades 2 is not only easy for the Steam Deck to run but is also an incredibly well-optimized experience, making it one of the best titles you can play on the handheld device.
If you’re still weighing your options for a handheld gaming PC, you can explore reviews of other devices to understand how they compare in the current market.