Path of Exile 2 Is Playable on Steam Deck, But It Shows Some Warning Signs

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I really can't state how excited I have been for Path of Exile 2. Ever since trying it at Summer Game Fest and seeing the differences for myself, I was completely sold on it and couldn't wait to play it in the palm of my hand. With its release, I have now had the chance to do just that, and while it is working right now, I am starting to see some warning signs that could destabilize the experience, especially later on in the game.

I have only played for about an hour, so this is more like educated speculation. This ARPG MMO is massive and has a ton of content to play around and test, so any full recommendations will come later. However, with the game in early access, I wanted to discuss what I have experienced so far and why you may want to hold off until the full release, which will be free to play.

Quick aside before getting into the worries. If you do have Path of Exile 2, I recommend switching the upscaler from NIS (Default) to FSR. It costs around 2 FPS in performance, but it looks significantly better than how it is by default.

The developers have stated they are aiming for a 40 FPS experience on the Steam Deck, and I do think they hit that most of the time. The open areas with enemies generally stick above 40, while the inside areas of houses and caves can even go up to 60. But there can be some major fluctuations in framerate depending on the number of enemies and the skills being used, and it can fluctuate a lot.

I am not completely surprised by this. It's a common problem in ARPGs like Diablo and Last Epoch, where the sheer number of skills and their effects/particles can be excessive, causing problems when playing on limited hardware devices, like the Steam Deck. Path of Exile 2 is no exception, and I did have drops when fighting bigger enemies or using my skills against a pack of normal enemies. They weren't excessive drops, and they still stayed above 30 FPS, but they did stick around 35 - 38 FPS.

I also notice major drops when entering towns with tons of people in them. Going into the first town, I was hit with a massive drop to 18 FPS that stuck around for a minute. It did eventually settle at 37 FPS, but it was very noticeable.

I can only imagine how hard this may be on the Steam Deck when you hit endgame and your skills have been modified to really take over the screen. I will be continuing to play and finding out for myself, but it's an issue I am worried about. Since Path of Exile 2 is in early access, this could improve later on, but as of right now, these are the issues.

There is also some small text here and there. Nothing unreadable, but it is noticeable and can be a bit hard to read at times.

Regardless, I am loving Path of Exiles 2, and even if it is a little bit hard on the Steam Deck at times, it's still a wonderful experience overall. I even created a "SteamDeckHQ" guild you can join, if you want to play with myself or other Deck users.

Path of Exile 2 is in early access and costs $29.99 to play right now. It will be free to play after early access is finished though.

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