Squad, the tactical military fps from Canadian indie video game developer – Offworld Industries, continues to cater to a thriving and active player base. And that’s all been possible thanks to the devs regularly releasing new content and resolving major issues. Just recently, Offworld also announced the addition of a new faction called Private Military Contractors, which they will be releasing later this year. Aside from that, the ongoing Steam FPS Fest has the game at 60% off, and that seems to be helping a ton in introducing new players to the game. This also includes Steam Deck players. Well, this guide here will help you know the best Steam Deck settings for the game to run it at high FPS and performance.
A game like Squad needs to be enjoyed with the best possible settings. Now, officially, it isn’t supported for the Steam Deck. However, Valve has categorized it as Playable, so you can definitely run it on the Deck. So, what are the best settings for Squad that will get you high fps and performance? Well, let’s go ahead and find out.
Best Squad game Steam Deck Settings for high FPS & performance
Before changing the in-game settings, launch Squad once on your Steam Deck and see if you can enter the game. If you can, then ignore the steps below and skip to the changing settings part of this guide. However, if you aren’t able to enter and the game gives you an EAC error, we highly recommend that you use the following steps to circumvent this issue:
Bypassing the Easy Anti-cheat (EAC)
- First switch to Desktop Mode, open a web browser, and then head to this link. This will download a file from Valve’s GitHub page.
- Extract the recently downloaded files to this location: .local > share > Steam > steamapps > compatdata > 393380.
- Inside the 393380 folder, you will come across three folders (gstreamer-1.0, pfx, and easyanticheat_wine_x64.tar.gz) and a few files.
- Now, open the easyanticheat_wine_x64.tar.gz archive and keep opening one file after another until you find a folder named 55. The path should resemble something like this: pfx > drive_c > users > steamuser > Application Data > EasyAntiCheat > 55. Inside this folder, you will find two files: easyanticheat_wine_x64.eac and easyanticheat_wine_x64.eac.metadata.
- Next, you also need to open the pfx folder located next to gstreamer-1.0. Open all the folders, till you come across the 55 folder, same as the one from the archive. However, unlike the archive, there will be no files inside 55. In case it isn’t empty, delete everything inside.
- You can now either cut-paste or copy-paste easyanticheat_wine_x64.eac and easyanticheat_wine_x64.eac.metadata files inside the empty 55 folder.
- After that, select the 55 folder, right-click on it and select Properties. Switch to the Permissions tab and change the Owner setting to Can View & Modify Content from the drop-down menu. Then, just click on OK to close the window.
- Next, open Squad’s Properties window, and switch to the Compatibility section. Make sure that it’s running with GE Proton7-14 or Proton Experimental.
- You can now launch Squad.
Changing Squad in-game Settings
Once you are inside the game, click on Settings, located at the top-right corner of the screen. After that, switch to the Graphics tab and set the settings as mentioned below:
Display
- Window Mode: Borderless
- Resolution: 1280×800
- Resolution Scale: 100
- Max FPS (Menu): 90
- Max FPS (In–game): 240
- VSync: Uncheck
- Nvidia Reflex Low Latency: Disabled
- Renderer (RHI): DirectX 12
Graphics
- Graphics Quality: Custom
Scopes
- Scope Image Clarity: Prioritize Clarity in Scopes
- Scope Resolution Scale: 100
- Scope Update Rate (FPS): Unlimited
Antialiasing
- Enable AA: Check
- AA Quality: High
- AA Samples: 4
Super Sampling/Upscaling
- Upscale Mode: None
View Distance
- Dynamic Mesh Quality: Low
- Low Quality Environment: Uncheck
Shaders
- Material Quality: Low
- Enable Tessellation: Uncheck
Textures
- Texture Quality: Low
- Anisotropic Filtering: 4
- Texture Pool VRAM Usage: 1500
- Uncap Texture Poolsize: Uncheck
Shadows
- Shadow Quality: Low
- Contact Shadows: Check
Ambient Occlusion
- AO Quality: Low
- Screen Space AO: Uncheck
Particles
- Particle Quality: Low
Ocean
- Ocean Quality: Medium
- Wake Simulation: Uncheck
Post Processing
- Post Processing Quality: Low
- Lens Flares: Check
- Motion Blur: 0.00
- Screen Sharpening: 0.50
Color Grading
- Brightness: 1.00
- Contrast: 1.00
- Saturation: 1.00
Click on the Apply button to apply the changes. The above-mentioned settings will let you play Squad at above 30 FPS most of the time. However, be ready to experience some fps dips here and there. It’s nothing major, but still, it’s better to be aware of such things. You will notice that the above settings don’t use any upscaling. If you do want to use it, then the following settings will be of help to you:
Super Sampling/Upscaling
- Upscale Method: AMDFSR
- Enable FSR2: Check
- FSR2 Mode: Performance (2.0x)
- FSR2 Sharpness: 0.70
If you enable Upscaling, FPS dips from now on will be much less compared to the previous settings. However, you still wouldn’t be able to enjoy Squad at a stable 60 fps on the Deck. In fact, the FPS you will get after enabling Upscaling is comparable to the previous settings, ranging from 30 to 40 fps. If you are someone who prefers performance over graphics, then you can set everything to low, and that should allow you to play Squad at a much higher fps than before.
Well, now you know the best Squad settings to get high FPS on the Steam Deck. Additionally, you can also take a quick look here if you want to know the best Steam Deck settings for Manor Lords. And for more guides and content like this, keep following DigiStatement. Also read: Best Black Mesa Steam Deck Settings for High FPS & performance
