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Ever since No Rest for the Wicked was released into early access, we have tried playing it on the Steam Deck. The developer, Moon Studios, has talked about playing it on Deck, and while it had some potential, it was plagued with micro stuttering and consistent crashing due to the high RAM requirements. There have been updates released to combat some of these issues, but ultimately, it wasn't able to completely fix it. But it may have finally fixed the long-standing issues, for the most part.

The Crucible update released yesterday, and it brought with it tons of new content, extended regions, new gear, and more. But for the Steam Deck, we got the Steam Deck Verified badge. This is supposed to be proof that the game is playable on the Steam Deck and should be "a great experience," but time and time again, this system has Verified games that should never have had it due to massive issues or not fulfilling all of the Steam Deck Verified guidelines.
To see for ourselves, we did test the new update in the problem areas we encountered before, to see if this green checkmark is warranted, and while it isn't perfect, the game has definitely been improved overall for portable play.
The biggest issue for me was RAM usage. If you were playing on a stock Steam Deck without changing the UMA Buffer or using CryoUtilities, you would end up using way too much RAM and cause your Deck to crash. This happened throughout all of the previous updates as well, even when there was Steam Deck-specific improvements. However, I am happy to say that the Crucible update does fix this for the most part, but it isn't perfect.

No Rest for the Wicked's RAM usage is still very high, and depending on your settings, you could be playing very close to the wire. When my RAM usage hit 14GB, that's when crashes would occur. Using the TAA and CAS upscaling with an 80% render scale and on the "Performance" quality preset, I was holding at around 13.3GB in the problem areas that would cause crashes before. This is better, but if you use other settings or try to bring out more of the visual quality, you will experience crashes. I did get a crash initially when trying to use FSR in Quality mode, but it may have been a one-off since I couldn't replicate it.
The RAM usage issue does seem to be fixed, but again, the usage goes very close, and depending on how fast you are going across the map or how many enemies you are fighting, this could change and cause a crash. FSR Ultra Performance mode was much better with RAM usage in these areas, but it also made the game look extremely blurry.

Then, we have the microstutters, and while there are fewer of them, they are still there. Running through these parts did cause some fluctuations, but it held at the stable framerate for a lot longer than I expected, based on experience. I am playing at 30 FPS, and I don't recommend playing above that for a stable experience, but it still felt pretty good overall.
We also still have some delayed animations, which I saw going into a town where the drawbridge wasn't down yet, but both myself and the guards could walk/stand on it. Not a huge deal, and it was mostly funny, but still noteworthy.

I love seeing No Rest for the Wicked finally improve its performance on the Steam Deck, but I still worry. The micro stutters haven't left completely, and RAM usage is still very high, to the point that I worry it could crash if I don't pay attention to it. But, it is playable, and much more so than before. I did have to change my settings to get rid of the initial crash, but the game does run better, so I think it does justify the green checkmark.
However, the Steam Deck Verified badge does not signify how well a game can run, and it has been given out to games that run poorly. Remnant 2 got a badge on release, along with The Last of Us Part 1, and both of those were not able to run well on the Deck. Keep this in mind for No Rest for the Wicked since it could go either way, but I am feeling much more optimistic overall and would say this is in a playable state.
No Rest for the Wicked is on sale for $31.99 until August 8th to celebrate the new update.
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