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In this tutorial, we will show you how to install the Epic Games Store onto the Steam Deck.
The Epic Game Launcher has its fair share of exclusive games that aren’t available directly through the Steam store.
While there isn’t a Linux port of this store client, you can run the Epic Games Launcher through the Steam Deck’s Proton compatibility layer.
As the Epic Games Launcher has had a wealth of giveaways over the years, there is a high chance you have something that you would want to play on your Steam Deck.
By the end of the following section, we will install the Epic Games Launcher to your device and run it within Steam Deck’s game mode.
How to Install the Epic Games Launcher on the Steam Deck
Over the following sections, you will learn how to install the official Epic Games Launcher onto your Steam Deck.
These steps are relatively straightforward and mainly involve navigating folders on your Steam Deck. This process can be made a little quicker using a keyboard and mouse, but it is fully completable using the Steam Deck’s controls.
Changing to Desktop Mode
1. To install the Epic Games Launcher on the Steam Deck, you must swap from gaming mode to desktop mode.
The desktop mode allows us to install additional software unavailable through the Steam store.
To get to desktop mode, you must first open the STEAM menu. You can open this menu by pressing the deck’s STEAM button or tapping the “STEAM menu” option in the bottom-left corner.
2. With the Steam menu open, navigate to the “Power” option. Despite its name, this is also how you switch to desktop mode.
3. Finally select the “Switch to desktop” option to swap from gaming to desktop mode.
Downloading the Epic Games Store to the Steam Deck
4. Now that you are in desktop mode, you will want to open a web browser.
In our case, we have the Google Chrome web browser.
5. With the browser open, you must go to the following URL (1.) to download the Epic Games Launcher.
https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/download
Once on the above page, click the “Download Epic Games Launcher” button (2.).
Adding the Epic Games Launcher Installer to Steam
6. With the Epic Games Store installer downloaded, we must add it to the Steam Deck desktop client to launch it using Proton.
Start by returning to the desktop and opening the Steam desktop client by double-clicking/tapping the Steam icon.
7. With the Steam desktop client open, click the “ADD A GAME” option (1.) in the bottom-left corner.
In the context menu that appears, tap the “Add a Non-Steam Game...” option (2.).
8. With the “Add a Game” dialog open, click the “BROWSE” button at the bottom of the window.
9. We can now begin browsing to where we downloaded the Epic Games Launcher installer to our Steam Deck. The first step is to open the select box at the top of the screen (1.).
Next, click the “/home/deck” option (2.) to move from your current directory to the “deck” user’s home.
10. Now, find and open the “Downloads” folder within the home directory.
11. If you see nothing in your “Downloads” directory, you will need to open the “File type:” select box (1.).
With the select box open, you will want to choose the “All Files” option (2.).
12. Within your downloads folder, look for the file that starts with “EpicInstaller” and ends with “.msi” and select it (1.) On our Steam Deck, the Epic Games Launcher Installer was called “EpicInstaller-15.5.0.msi“.
Once the installer is selected, click the “OPEN” button (2.).
13. Now that we are back in the “Add a Game” dialog box, ensure that the Epic Installer has a tick next to it (1.).
Once you are sure the installer is selected, click the “ADD SELECTED PROGRAMS” button (2.).
Enabling Proton Compatibility for the Epic Games Launcher
14. Our next step is to enforce Proton compatibility for the Epic Games Store on our Steam Deck. This compatibility layer allows us to run a Windows-based installer on our Linux device.
You must find the launcher within your Steam library to change the compatibility mode. The easiest way to do this is to use the search box and search for “epicinstaller” (1.).
You should eventually see an entry labeled something like “EpicInstaller-15.5.0.msi” (2.). Once found, click it to open it’s steam entry.
15. With the Epic Games Launcher entry open, click the COG icon on the right side of the screen (1.).
In the context menu, select the “Properties” option (2.).
16. With the properties screen open, change to the “Compatibility” tab (1.).
Once on the compatibility tab, ensure the “Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool” option is enabled (2.).
With the option enabled, you will must that the Proton version is set to “Proton Experimental” (3.).
Running the Epic Games Launcher Installer on the Steam Deck
17. At this point, you can finally run the installer for the Epic Games Launcher on your Steam Deck.
Back in your Steam library, click the “PLAY” button to continue.
18. With the installer open, click the “Install” button to continue. This will install the Epic Games Launcher to the default location.
You can activate the mouse within this screen by holding the STEAM button on your Steam Deck.
19. The Epic Games Launcher will now be installed to your Steam Deck. This process can take a couple of minutes to complete.
In our experience, once the installer completed, it disappeared without any prompts.
Correcting the Launch Target for the Epic Games Launcher
20. Once the installation process is complete, we need to open the Steam properties page for the launcher.
Bring up the context menu by clicking the COG icon on the right-side of the screen (1.).
Within the menu, click the “Properties” page to continue (2.).
21. With the properties page open, you will want to start by renaming the shortcut from “EpicInstaller” to something like “Epic Games Launcher” or “Epic Games Store“. Renaming the launcher will make finding the Epic Games Launcher in your Steam Deck library easier.
You can bring up the keyboard on your device by pressing the STEAM and X buttons at the same time.
22. We now need to change the launch target for the Epic Games Launcher, as it is currently pointed at the installer.
To change the launch target, click the “Browse...” button.
Browsing to the Epic Games Launcher Executable
23. With the file browser open, we need to change back to the home directory. Start by opening the select box at the top of the dialog box (1.).
You will now see a few different options. Click the “/home/deck” directory (2.).
24. You will now want to browse to the “.local” directory.
25. The next directory you must open is the “share” folder.
26. Our next step is to scroll down and open the directory with the name “Steam“.
27. We can now enter the directory named “steamapps“.
28. The next folder we need to open is the “compatdata” directory. This directory is where applications handled by Proton are stored on your Steam Deck. This includes the Epic Games Launcher.
29. Now that we are in the correct directory, ensure that the folders are sorted by “DATE MODIFIED” (1.). The arrow next to the heading should be pointing upwards.
Once the folders are ordered, select the one with the latest modified date (2.). In our case, the latest modified folder was the second directory for some reason.
30. Next, open up the directory named “pfx“.
31. Now, navigate into the “drive_c” directory. This directory is where Proton simulates the Windows folder structure.
32. We can now move into the “Program Files (x86)” folder. This directory is where the Epic Games Launcher was installed to the Steam Deck earlier in this guide.
33. You now must open the directory named “Epic Games“.
34. Navigate into the “Launcher” directory.
35. For the next step, we need to open the “Portal” directory.
36. Now switch to the directory called “Binaries“.
37. We can now open up the directory named “Win32“.
38. Since we are finally in the correct directory, scroll down untilyou find the executable named “EpicGamesLauncher.exe” (1.).
With the launcher selected, click the “OPEN” button (2.).
39. Back in the properties screen, you should see both the shortcut name and the launch target have been updated.
Next time you launch the Epic Games Launcher on your Steam Deck, it should run the launcher itself and not the installer.
Creating a Directory to Store Your Epic Games
40. Back on the desktop, you will want to open the Dolphin file explorer. You can do this by clicking the Folder icon on the taskbar.
We will use the file explorer to create a directory within your home folder. We will then create a symbolic link between this and the Proton folder the Epic Games Launcher is installed in on your Steam Deck.
41. With the file explorer open, ensure that you are currently in your home directory (1.).
Once you are in the right location, right click anywhere within the folder to bring up the context menu. You can right-click by pressing L1 (left trigger) on your Steam Deck.
With the context menu open, select the “Folder...” option (2.).
Next, select the “Create New” option (3.).
42. You can now give a name to your new folder. In our example, we will be naming this directory “Epic Games” (1.).
Once you have named the folder, click the “OK” button (2.) to proceed.
43. We now need to split the Dolphin file explorer so we can easily navigate to where we installed the Epic Games Launcher on the Steam Deck.
You can split the file explorer by clicking the “Split” button in the top-right corner.
44. Once split, click the hamburger icon in the window’s top-right corner (1.).
In the context menu that appears, you will want to ensure that the “Show Hidden Files” checkbox is ticked (2.).
45. With hidden files now shown, you will want to start by navigating into the “.local” folder.
46. Within the Dolphin file explorer, you will now want to change to the “share” directory.
47. You will now want to navigate to the “Steam” directory.
48. The next directory that you need to open is the one labelled “steamapps“.
49. We are now almost there. We can now move into the folder labelled “compatdata“.
50. Our next step is to change how the file browser sorts the directory. To do this, open the hamburger icon again (1.).
Next, hover over the “Sort By” option (2.).
Now, make sure that the “Modified” setting (3.) is selected and that the order type is set to “Newest First“,
51. With the directory now ordered. Open the first directory in the list. This should be where you installed the Epic Games Launcher on your Steam Deck.
The directory should have the same name as the one you browsed to earlier when changing the launch target.
52. Finally, navigate into the directory labeled “pfx“.
53. Now browse into the “drive_c” directory. This directory is simulated within the Epic Games Launcher and will appear as your “C” drive.
54. Now that we are in the correct location, click and drag the folder “Epic Games” (1.) to the right side of the screen. You can left-click by pressing the R1 trigger.
In the context menu, click the “Link Here” option (2.).
55. You should now have a folder named “Epic Games” with a link icon.
Running the Epic Games Launcher on your Steam Deck
56. Back in the Steam desktop client, launch the Epic Games Launcher by clicking the “PLAY” button.
57. As the launcher we installed earlier is only a stub, it will now download the latest version of the client to your Steam Deck.
58. The first time you run the Epic Games Launcher on your Steam Deck, you must log in to your account.
When logging in, we recommend ticking the “Remember me” checkbox. Additionally, you can activate the mouse within this window by pressing the STEAM button.
You can also open the virtual keyboard by pressing the STEAM and X buttons simultaneously.
59. Next, you will be asked if you want to install the Epic Online Services.
To proceed, you will need to click the “OK” button.
60. At this point, you now have the Epic Games Launcher running on your Steam Deck.
Choosing your Install Location
61. When you go to install the game through the Epic Games Launcher, you can choose the installation location. It doesn’t allow you to set a default location.
To choose the location, click the “BROWSE” button.
62. Within this dialog box, you can choose where to install your games. If you want to install these games to your Steam Deck itself, start by navigating to the “C” drive (1.).
Next, you will want to select the “Epic Games” folder (2.) that we created earlier in this guide.
63. After selecting a new installation location, you will see that the “Path:” option has now been updated.
Return to Gaming Mode
64. With everything now set up, you can return to the Steam Deck gaming mode.
The easiest way to do this is to click the “Return to Gaming Mode” icon on the desktop.
Finding the Epic Games Launcher on the Steam Deck
65. Now that you are back in gaming mode, you can start by opening the library on your Steam Deck.
You can open the library by bringing up the STEAM menu and selecting the “Library” option.
66. Once you are within the library, change to the “NON-STEAM” tab (1.).
When you have changed over to this tab, you should now have an option labeled “Epic Games Launcher” (2.). Select this to continue.
Adjusting the Input Controls for the Epic Game Launcher
67. The default input controls on your Steam Deck don’t work the best for the Epic Games Launcher.
To adjust this, you will want to select the controller icon on the right-side of the screen.
68. On this screen, you must select your current layout so we can adjust it.
69. Scroll down this list until you find the option labeled “Gamepad with Mouse Trackpad” and select it.
70. You can now apply these changes by pressing the X button on your Steam Deck.
71. With the new layout applied, we will want to make some minor adjustments to improve your experience using the Epic Games Launcher on your Steam Deck.
To begin editing the layout, click the “Edit Layout” button.
72. Within the edit screen, change to the “Trackpads” screen (1.) using the sidebar.
Now that we are within the Trackpads screen select the “R” click option (2.) under the “RIGHT TRACKPAD BEHAVIOR” heading.
73. Now, you will want to switch to the “MOUSE” tab (1.).
Once on this tab, you will want to select the “Left Mouse Click” option (2.).
74. Once the setting says “Left Mouse Click” you can safely exit out of the input options screen.
Launching the Epic Games Launcher on the Steam Deck
75. At this point, you can start the Epic Games Launcher on your Steam Deck while in gaming mode.
To start the Epic Games Launcher, press the “Play” button.
76. You can now access the Epic Games Launcher on your Steam Deck. Use this launcher to install and run any games through its store.
Conclusion
At this point in the tutorial, you should have successfully installed the Epic Games Launcher on your Steam Deck.
Installing this launcher gives you access to any game exclusive to the Epic Games Store and a wealth of free games.
Please comment below if you have any issues getting this launcher to work on your device.
