You can’t talk about colony-sims without mentioning Tarn and Zach Adam’s Dwarf Fortress. It essentially set the foundation for colony-sim games and still continues to do so. As of this year, Dwarf Fortress has completed 21 long years in development and the developer duo has no plans to stop anytime soon. The game already offers a ton of fun to its players, be it on PC, or on the go, thanks to the Steam Deck. And speaking of the Deck, some DF players have complained about a crashing issue that they would like to get rid of. If you too are encountering the same, read this guide for workarounds to fix the issue for good.
Dwarf Fortress isn’t Verified for the Steam Deck. However, the native Linux version is there and it is what most players are using. Now, crashing issues like this on the Deck aren’t new. Anything from missing game files to the game process being too much for the Steam Deck to handle can be a cause here. Whatever the cause may be, this issue needs to be fixed ASAP. So, let’s go ahead and take a look at all the available workarounds for this issue.
Dwarf Fortress crashes on Steam Deck: How to fix it
Players can use the following workarounds to fix this issue since there are no official ones. Try them all and see which ones prove useful to you.
Update –
Before trying out other workarounds, we highly encourage you to use this update method. It’s pretty simple, actually. All you have to do is check if there’s an update available for the game and if there’s one, download and install that update. Along with that, make sure that the Deck itself is updated to the latest version too.
Use Proton –
If you’ve been running the Native version so far, then we recommend forcing Proton and using it to deal with this problem. You can use the following steps if you don’t know how to force Proton on a game:
- First, select Dwarf Fortress from your Steam Library and then press the Options button.
- Once that’s done, select Properties and switch to the Compatibility section.
- Now, checkmark the Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool option.
- Next, select a Proton layer from the drop-down menu located below. You can start with Proton Experimental and then use other versions if it doesn’t work. There’s also Proton 7 which seems to have helped a player fix this crashing issue.
Start a new fortress –
If you are comfortable with starting a new fortress, then please go ahead and do so. Some players had success dealing with this issue this way, so it might be all you need to fix this issue too. However, if the issue persists, you can switch to other workarounds.
Install the game on the internal memory –
For players who have Dwarf Fortress installed on a microSD card, uninstall the game from there and reinstall it on the Deck’s SSD. It’s a pretty common method to get rid of crashing issues like this, so give it a try. However, if DF is already installed on your Deck’s SSD, then you will have to follow another fix.
Turn off keyboard haptics –
If the crash occurs mostly when you bring up the digital keyboard, then you could try this “potential fix”. Essentially, what you have to do is head into your System settings and turn off keyboard haptics in there. For a more detailed process, you can take a look at the steps below:
- Click on the Steam button and scroll down to Settings.
- After selecting Settings, once again, scroll down until you find Keyboard.
- On the right side of the screen, you will find the Haptics option. Select it and choose Off from the options present.
- You can now close Settings.
Replace Gamescope –
Only follow this particular fix if you are okay with replacing Gamescope. Furthermore, this is also kind of an old fix, so it might not work at all either. Regardless, you can try this if you want. Provided by u/kelvie, players can head to this link to check out the fix provided. Basically, all you will be doing is switching to Desktop Mode, opening Konsole, and using the commands given in the link to replace Gamescope.
Repair game files –
Corrupted or missing game files are a thing and can cause issues like this to occur. The only way to fix them is to simply repair those game files. To do that on the Deck, you will need to select DF from your Library, press the Options button, and select Properties. Next, switch to Installed Files, and click on the Verify integrity of game files option.
Well, that’s all the workarounds we have for this issue. You can also take a quick look here if you are experiencing a similar crashing issue with Little Kitty, Big City on your Deck. And for more such content, keep following DigiStatement. Also read: Dwarf Fortress Unable to Purchase error troubling players: Is there any fix yet?