Installing the Epic Games Store on the Steam Deck

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install the Epic Games Store Launcher onto the Steam Deck.

Install Epic Games Launcher on 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 Store Launcher through the Steam Deck’s Proton compatibility layer.

As the Epic Games Store 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 Store Launcher on the Steam Deck

Over the following sections, you will learn how to install the official Epic Games Store 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 Store 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.

Open the STEAM Menu

2. With the Steam menu open, navigate to the “Power” option. Despite its name, this is also how you switch to desktop mode.

Open the Power Menu

3. Finally select the “Switch to desktop” option to swap from gaming to desktop mode.

Switch to desktop mode

Downloading the Epic Games Store Installer 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.

Open web browser

5. With the browser open, you must go to the following URL (1.) to download the Epic Games Store Launcher.

https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/download

Once on the above page, click the “Download Epic Games Launcher” button (2.).

Download Epic Games Launcher Installer to the Steam Deck

Adding the Epic Games Store 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.

Open Desktop Steam Client

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.).

Add a non-steam game

8. With the “Add a Game” dialog open, click the “BROWSE” button at the bottom of the window.

This dialog box will allow us to find and select the Epic Games Store installer we downloaded earlier to our Steam Deck.

Browse to select the Epic Games Store Installer on the Steam Deck

9. We can now find where we downloaded the Epic Games Store Launcher installer to on our Steam Deck. The first step is to change to the “Downloads” directory by clicking “Downloads” in the sidebar (1.).

Next, click the “Filter” select box at the bottom of the dialog to bring up several options (2.).

The option you want to select is “All Files” (3.). We must use this as the installer is a “.msi” file and not a “.exe” (3.).

Change to downloads and show all files

10. 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 Store Launcher Installer was called “EpicInstaller-15.5.0.msi“.

Once the installer is selected, click the “OPEN” button (2.).

Select the Epic Games Store Installer Launcher

11. 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.).

Add the Epic Games Store Installer to the Steam Deck Library

Enabling Proton Compatibility for the Epic Games Store Launcher

12. 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.

Select the epicinstaller entry in the Steam Deck Library

13. 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.).

Open the properties for the Epic Games Store Launcher

14. 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.).

Force Proton Experimental Compatibility on the installer

Running the Epic Games Store Launcher Installer on the Steam Deck

15. At this point, you can finally run the installer for the Epic Games Store Launcher on your Steam Deck.

Back in your Steam library, click the “PLAY” button to continue.

Run the Epic Games installer

16. With the installer open, click the “Install” button to continue. This will install the Epic Games Store Launcher to the default location.

You can activate the mouse within this screen by holding the STEAM button on your Steam Deck.

Install the Epic Games Launcher to

17. The Epic Games Store 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.

Installation progress

Correcting the Launch and Start Target for the Epic Games Store Launcher

18. 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.).

Open the properties panel again

19. 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 Store 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.

Rename Steam Deck Shortcut to Epic Games Store

20. We now need to change the launch target for the Epic Games Store Launcher, as it is currently pointed at the installer.

To change the launch target, click the “Browse...” button.

Browse to change launch target to the Epic Games Store Launcher

Browsing to the Epic Games Store Launcher Executable

21. With the file browser open, we need to change back to the home directory. You can do this by clickingHome” in the left sidebar (1.).

Once you are back in home, click the settings icon in the top-right corner (2.).

Next, ensure that the “Show Hidden Files” option is ticked (3.).

Browse to home and show hidden files

22. You will now want to browse to the “.local” directory.

Open the .local directory

23. The next directory you must open is the “share” folder.

Select the share folder

24. Our next step is to scroll down and open the directory with the name “Steam“.

Navigate to the Steam directory

25. We can now enter the directory named “steamapps“.

Select the steamapps folder

26. 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 Store Launcher.

Change to the compatdata directory

27. Now that we are in the correct directory, ensure that the folders are sorted by “DATE” (1.). The arrow next to the heading should be pointing downwards.

Once the folders are ordered, select the one with the latest modified date (2.). Typically, this should be the folder at the top of the list.

Remember the name of this folder as you will need it for the next section.

Sort by modified and select latest Proton Folder where Epic Games Store is installed

28. Next, open up the directory named “pfx“.

Swap to the pfx directory

29. Now, navigate into the “drive_c” directory. This directory is where Proton simulates the Windows folder structure.

Select the drive_c directory

30. We can now move into the “Program Files (x86)” folder. This directory is where the Epic Games Store Launcher was installed to the Steam Deck earlier in this guide.

Navigate to the Program Files folder

31. You now must open the directory named “Epic Games“.

Open the Epic Games Store folder on the Steam Deck

32. Navigate into the “Launcher” directory.

Select the Launcher folder

33. For the next step, we need to open the “Portal” directory.

Browse into the portal directory

34. Now switch to the directory called “Binaries“.

Navigate to the binaries folder

35. We can now open up the directory named “Win32“.

Select the win32 folder

36. Since we are finally in the correct directory, scroll down until you find the executable named “EpicGamesLauncher.exe” (1.).

With the launcher selected, click the “OPEN” button (2.).

Set the Epic Games Store Launcher as the launch target on the Steam Deck

Setting the Start In Target for the Epic Games Store on the Steam Deck

37. If your “Start In” field is still set to the default value then we will also need to set that value. If the value looks correct you can skip to the next section.

To begin selecting the Start In directory, click the “Browse” button as shown below.

Browse to select the Start In Target

38. With the browse dialog box now open on your Steam Deck you will want to enable hidden folders.

To do this, you will need to right-click and then select the “Show Hidden Folders” option. You can right click using the Steam Deck by pressing the L2 trigger.

Show hidden files in start in browse dialog

39. We next need to browse to the “.local” directory.

You can navigate this dialog faster by using the D-PAD on your Steam Deck.

Swap to the .local directory

40. Once on the “.local” directory you will next needf to navigate to the “share” folder.

Change to the share folder

41. Next, change to the directory named “Steam“.

Enter the Steam folder

42. Now, open the directory named “steamapps“.

Change into the Steamapps directory

43. Once you are in the “steamapps” folder you will need to navigate down to the “compatdata” directory.

Swap to the compatdata directory

44. Now here is where you need to remember the name of the folder you entered earlier in this guide. This is the directory where the Epic Games Store launcher was installed to the Steam Deck.

Select Proton directory

45. The next folder you will need to navigate to is named “pfx“.

Change in to the pfx directory

46. Now look for the directory with the name “Program Files (x86)” and change in to it.

Open the Program Files (x86) directory

47. Once within the program files directory, look for and enter the directory named “Epic Games“.

Change to the Epic Games folder

48. As we are after the Epic Games Store Launcher we now want to move to the “Launcher” directory.

Enter the Epic Games Store Launcher directory on the Steam Deck

49. Now navigate into the directory labeled “Portal“.

Enter the portal directory.

50. Finally, we are almost at the correct place, the last folder we need to change into is the one named “Binaries“.

Swap to the binaries directory

51. Once you are finally in the “Binaries” directory, click the directory named “win32” (1.).

With the “win32” directory selected, click the “OK” button (2.) to proceed.

Select the Win32 Directory as Start In target for the Steam Deck's Epic Games Store Launcher

Ensure Both fields have Double Quotes

52. Back in the properties screen, you should see both the shortcut name and the launch target have been updated.

Before you continue, you should ensure that the “TARGET” and “START IN” fields both start and end with a double-quote ("). Some builds of Steam for some reason don’t add these required elements.

Ensure Target and Start In have Double Quotes

Creating a Directory to Store Your Epic Games

53. 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 Store Launcher is installed in on your Steam Deck.

Open Dolphin File Explorer

54. 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.).

Create new folder on the Steam Deck for the Epic Games Launcher Installation

55. 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.

Give name for new folder

56. We now need to split the Dolphin file explorer so we can easily navigate to where we installed the Epic Games Store Launcher on the Steam Deck.

You can split the file explorer by clicking the “Split” button in the top-right corner.

Split file explorer into two

57. 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.).

Display hidden files

58. With hidden files now shown, you will want to start by navigating into the “.local” folder.

Open the .local folder within Dolphin

59. Within the Dolphin file explorer, you will now want to change to the “share” directory.

Switch to the Share directory in the file explorer

60. You will now want to navigate to the “Steam” directory.

Open the Steam directory

61. The next directory that you need to open is the one labelled “steamapps“.

Select the steamapps directory within the file explorer

62. We are now almost there. We can now move into the folder labelled “compatdata“.

Change to the compatdata directory

63. 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“,

Change to sort by modified date within Dolphin

64. With the directory now ordered. Open the first directory in the list. This should be where you installed the Epic Games Store Launcher on your Steam Deck.

The directory should have the same name as the one you browsed to earlier when changing the launch target.

Open last modified directory

65. Finally, navigate into the directory labeled “pfx“.

Change to the pfx directory in the file explorer

66. Now browse into the “drive_c” directory. This directory is simulated within the Epic Games Store Launcher and will appear as your “C” drive.

Select the drive_c directory

67. 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.).

Create a symlink of the games directory within the epic games launcher directory on your Steam Deck

68. You should now have a folder named “Epic Games” with a link icon.

See that the symlink is created

Running the Epic Games Store Launcher on your Steam Deck

69. Back in the Steam desktop client, launch the Epic Games Store Launcher by clicking the “PLAY” button.

Launch the Epic Games Launcher

70. As the launcher we installed earlier is only a stub, it will now download the latest version of the client to your Steam Deck.

Launcher auto updating

71. The first time you run the Epic Games Store 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.

Sign in to your Epic Games Account

72. Next, you will be asked if you want to install the Epic Online Services.

To proceed, you will need to click the “OK” button.

Install Epic Online Services

73. At this point, you now have the Epic Games Store Launcher running on your Steam Deck.

Epic Games Launcher running on the Steam Deck

Choosing your Install Location

74. When you go to install the game through the Epic Games Store 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.

Change install location example

75. 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.

Choose directory to install your games

76. After selecting a new installation location, you will see that the “Path:” option has now been updated.

Updated install path example

Return to Gaming Mode

77. 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.

Return to gaming mode

Finding the Epic Games Store Launcher on the Steam Deck

78. 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.

Change to Steam Library while in gaming mode

79. 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.

Open Epic Games launcher within gaming mode

Adjusting the Input Controls for the Epic Games Store Launcher

80. The default input controls on your Steam Deck don’t work the best for the Epic Games Store Launcher.

To adjust this, you will want to select the controller icon on the right-side of the screen.

Adjust default input settings

81. On this screen, you must select your current layout so we can adjust it.

Select current layout

82. Scroll down this list until you find the option labeled “Gamepad with Mouse Trackpad” and select it.

Choose Gamepad with Mouse Trackpad

83. You can now apply these changes by pressing the X button on your Steam Deck.

Apply layout changes

84. With the new layout applied, we will want to make some minor adjustments to improve your experience using the Epic Games Store Launcher on your Steam Deck.

To begin editing the layout, click the “Edit Layout” button.

Edit current layout

85. 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.

Adjust right trackpad click behaviour

86. 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.).

Change trackpad click to mouse left click

87. Once the setting says “Left Mouse Click” you can safely exit out of the input options screen.

Input setting successfully updated

Launching the Epic Games Store Launcher on the Steam Deck

88. At this point, you can start the Epic Games Store Launcher on your Steam Deck while in gaming mode.

To start the launcher, press the “Play” button.

Launch the Epic Games Installer in the gaming mode on the Steam Deck

89. You can now access the Epic Games Store Launcher on your Steam Deck. Use this launcher to install and run any games through its store.

Epic Games store running within gaming mode

Conclusion

At this point in the tutorial, you should have successfully installed the Epic Games Store 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.

If you found this tutorial helpful, be sure to check out our many other Steam Deck tutorials.

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3 Comments

  1. Avatar for BlackRiver
    BlackRiver on

    the guide worked very well!

  2. Avatar for Marsl
    Marsl on

    at55
    Can i create a folder on an SD Card and link it the same way?

    and at point 74 i pick the SD Card?

    1. Avatar for Emmet
      Emmet on
      Editor

      Hi Marsl,

      Yes, you definitely should be able to! Let me know if you run into any issues.

      Cheers,
      Emmet