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How to Play Ark: Survival Ascended on the Steam Deck

Are you having trouble running Ark: Survival Ascended on Steam Deck? Then, follow our guide for some quick tips.

It’s no secret that the graphics in Ark: Survival Ascended are tuned for high-end PCs, which has become an issue for Steam Deck owners. Our guide will provide you with tips on how to play the game on the Steam Deck without lag using smart settings.

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Ark Survival Ascended: How to Play on the Steam Deck

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If you installed and tried to play Ark: Survival Ascended on Steam Deck with default graphics settings, you’ve probably noticed that the game’s lagging like never before. Fortunately, with the help of some settings, it’s possible to reach decent FPS on the Steam Deck too. So here’s what you need to do in the “Video” tab of the “General” settings menu:

  • Custom Resolution: 1280 x 800
  • Window Mode: Windowed Fullscreen
  • Resolution Scale: 65
  • Advanced Graphics: Low
  • Anti Aliasing: Medium
  • View Distance: Low
  • Textures: Low
  • Post Processing: Low
  • General Shadows: High
  • Global Illumination Quality: High
  • Effects Quality: Low
  • Foliage Quality: High
  • Max Frame Rate: 60
  • Motion Blur: OFF
  • Light Bloom: ON
  • Light Shafts: OFF
  • Low-Light Enhancement: OFF
  • Enable Foliage and Fluid Interaction: OFF
  • Foliage Interaction Distance Multiplier: 0.01
  • Foliage Interaction Distance Limit: 0.5
  • Foliage Interaction Quantity Limit: 0.5
  • Enable Footstep Particles: OFF
  • Enable Footstep Decals: OFF
  • Disable HLOD: OFF
  • GUI 3D Widget Quality: 0.5

I was pleasantly surprised with the results of such fine-tuning, but if you feel that you can improve these settings, then be sure to try out various configurations. But this setup will allow you to reach decent frame rates without losing too much of those updated graphics. Note that the most important setting here that will impact the quality of the image is Global Illumination. So if you wish to preserve the nice look of the game, then try to keep this setting as high as possible.

That’s all you need to know on how to play ARK: Survival Ascended the game on Steam Deck. Stay tuned for more ASA tips and tricks articles right here.


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Author
Image of Serhii Patskan
Serhii Patskan
Serhii is the Writer at GameSkinny. He's been writing for GameSkinny since 2015. Before that, he's been writing for various outlets and playing video games, which eventually turned into a passion. The video games that have contributed the most to his enthusiasm for writing about this industry are Magic: The Gathering, Dark Souls, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.