Whenever I see people in the community ask "Is it possible to play ToME on the Steam Deck?", they are almost always met with negative and skeptical answers. Some people will even claim it is impossible without a full keyboard, which is just straight up wrong.

There is a lot of fear over the small screen, inventory management, and hotbar/mouse usage. I'll touch on these in later sections, but let me be perfectly clear:

1. You do not need to use a trackpad mouse to activate hotkeys or aim abilities. (But the option exists)
2. You can use as many hotbars as you want, and fill them with as many hotkeys as you want.
3. A single touch menu can handle 6-8 hotbars worth of hotkeys if you really need to. (That's 96 hotkeys)
4. It's often easier / more enjoyable to play on the deck than your PC. (Really.)

I assure you proud deck owner and ToME enjoyer--the game works great on the deck. However, there is no 'native' support, and that can turn some people away. What does that mean? It means that rather than the game supporting a controller directly, you are using Steam Input to emulate a keyboard and mouse, with a little extra help from custom radial and touch menus.

If this is your first deck title where that is the case, this may sound intimidating or clunky. I won't lie, it can take some getting used to. I have played many games on the deck this way, and it can definitely be a mixed bag. Not knowing what button on your deck translates to what button in game can be inconvenient and frustrating.

You'll see a button prompt or tooltip in game that tells you to press the 'E' key, but how the hell are you supposed to know where 'E' is bound to? I don't have a 'E' key! So you open your controller layout and skim the text until you find out. It can be an annoying thing when you're trying to 're-learn' how to play the game on a different device.

With a proper Controller Layout and a little bit of time, the confusion fades and things start to feel good. Let's see if I can get you there.

ToME's Steam install at least, is very simple and straightforward. Just install via your library, select a controller layout and you're good to go. (I'll go into more depth on layouts in the next few sections)

If you are one of the people who play the game via the client distributed on ToME's website, you'll have to do a bit more. The main issue with this version of the game is that you do not have access to the community controller layouts, and ToME does not have one built in natively.

There are steps you can take to resolve this, which I will try to guide you through. I do not have a 'perfect' install guide here as I do not use this version of the game and I have not gone through the full steps myself. I am pretty confident in the process, though. Feel free to leave a comment if you ran into trouble.

First, enter desktop mode on your deck. Then navigate to the ToME 4 website and download the game. Once downloaded, you can honestly put it wherever, but I have a "Non Steam Games" folder in my home drive. Launch steam (within desktop mode), and then click Games -> "Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library". (You should be able to find a guide on how to do this with -any- game by searching online as it is a very common thing people do on the deck.)

Next you must create a text file in the base game directory (next to the t-engine.exe file) and call it steam_appid.txt Once the file is created, open it and write a single line of text 259680. After you have done this, launch the game once, and then close it (You may have to manually shut the game down via the steam options button, as you will be unable to access controller layouts until you have finished this step.)

By emulating steam's appid files, you can gain access to community layouts for the application id you wrote in the file (which we are matching with ToME's). If you have done this correctly, you will be able to see all of the community controller layouts available for ToME.

This is the big one. In order to be able to properly control the menus and the game itself, you'll need to browse and select a layout to use. You can also make one from scratch if you wish, but I'd advise against it unless you are extremely particular about your control scheme and willing to invest a lot of time. It is definitely worth the investment if you think you'll want that, but just know what you're getting into.

I have put considerable time and effort into my own custom setup with the goal of making ToME play as naturally as humanly possible. With how much functionality is packed into ToME, that meant a lot of touchpad and joystick radial menus.

⠀
I will go into my own custom layout more in the next section, but before I inflict my bias on you, feel free to browse the top layouts available. There are a few other popular layouts that you may find preferable

A big part of playing games on the deck is finding what works for you. So try a few of them out, and experiment/tweak to your heart's content. I am biased towards my own efforts of course. So without further ado~

⠀
As the name implies, it assumes default game controls. If you've played ToME with different keybinds on the deck, or if you've copied over hotkeys from your PC, you'll need to reset to default in order to use this layout.

Even if you have a desire to make your own layout from scratch, I highly recommend using my layout as your starting point, as the touch menu configuration can be quite time consuming, and I'd hate to see someone else go through the pain that I have.

If you want the smoothest starting point for playing the game via this guide, I'd recommend using my layout over other popular layouts, but it is not required. Just skip over the "Layout Overview" and "Layout Tips" sections if you are using a different layout.

Shared/Uploaded Controller Layouts cannot be updated by their authors. I cannot 'fix' a layout that everybody has already downloaded and started using. This was a design choice by Valve. In some ways that is a good thing (a layout author cannot suddenly move stuff around once you are used to it), but in others, it means any bugs / annoyances the author fixes are lost to you unless you download the new layout.

What this means for you, dear reader, is that the latest version (V3.2) is not the most popular layout. The newer versions have less playtime. When you browse "Community Layouts" on your deck, the highest rated and most used layout will be of an older version.

⠀
As you can see, the latest version is the lowest one in the list. You will have to scroll down to see the latest. The earlier versions work just fine, but there are a few bugs / annoyances with each that I have rectified over time.

I will go into more detail on how to use it and what to expect in a later section. For now let's get your game 'playable'.

Before I guide you through the necessary setting changes, let's take a quick peek at how the game looks by default.

⠀
The game/UI on the deck is...a little on rough side. The low resolution means bigger UI, making hotbar icons really big. It barely has room for a single hotbar row! The viewport feels a bit too zoomed in, and font size can be a bit of an issue.

In this section I will guide you towards fixing these problems.

Before we can really get started you're going to need to know how to perform basic tasks. If you are using my controller layout, you can simply use the D-Pad and the A/B buttons to perform most of these actions (with a little steam keyboard usage). You can also use the right trackpad for mouse movement, and the right trigger for selecting options.

If you really feel the need you can skip to the section of my guide that goes over controls but my hope is that the basic menu navigation will require no instruction.

First, we'll need to open up the game options.

⠀
We'll be making the following changes:

• Graphic Mode. Set it to Modern 56 x 56. You'll have to select custom and type it in.
  (If you've never brought up the virtual keyboard before, all you need to do is hold the Steam button and press 'X')
  
• Font Size -> Big
  
• Icons Hotkey Toolbar Icon Size -> 32 (I'd go lower if it would let me, but alas, this is the minimum)

⠀
Graphic mode settings are honestly a little bit of personal preference. Some may go much lower, and some may be fine with the default. This felt right for me but your mileage may vary. The Icon hotbar and font size are the only truly necessary changes, but feel free to experiment.

I touched on it in the previous section, but the UI for ToME is rough at lower resolutions (such as the one the steamdeck is using). By shrinking the icon sizes we can get our hotbar into a semi-manageable state, but we have almost zero visible hotbar slots.

First we'll need to unlock the UI.
⠀
Use the right trackpad to move your cursor to the bottom right corner, and hit the right trigger to activate the button. Then re-arrange your bar as you see fit.

How you arrange things is entirely up to your personal preference, of course. Just know that if you are using my Controller Layout, you do not actually need to click any skills with the mouse. They can all be accessed via hotkey (as well as various menus such as inventory).

Here are a couple of examples of how you could setup your hotbars for the deck though.

⠀
⠀

If you use any controller layout that supports hotkey paging (which mine does), you truly do not need anything more than the "True 1 Bar", and that definitely gives you the most visibility. But I'm a bit of a hotbar fiend and so I tend to lean towards the other two.

You likely have your own preferences for hotbars already, but if you are looking for guidance, I'd recommend the 4 Bar 4 Row, as it is the easiest to think about when using the trackpad for hotkeying.

If you only want one bar to save screen space, you will want to refer to the "Layout Usage - Hotkey Paging" section of the guide.

Let's get into the specifics of my layout and how to use it. I'll start by showing you a 'clean' version of the "View Controller Layout" screen


A lot of this should feel very straightforward and intuitive. D-Pad for basic directions, the left joystick for full omnidirectional movement, A and B for Confirm / Cancel, the start button to open up the menu, the right trackpad for mouse movement, and the triggers to emulate mouse clicks. All of that should be extremely standard for controller / steamdeck users. (Unless you are a Nintendo guy, in which case you'll probably want to swap A / B yourself)

But then there's...the rest of the layout. Depending on how familiar you are with steam input or ToME hotkeys themselves, this can start feeling a bit intimidating.

Before I delve into the 'advanced' stuff though. Let's go over movement and ability usage.

Movement in ToME is binary and turn based. This means that traditional analogue joystick usage is quite incompatible with the game. However, Steam Input is incredible, and I was able to translate it well into ToME.

From the moment you start using the joystick, you'll see the following menu popup on your screen.


You can wait a turn by pressing the joystick in (L3), which is very useful on higher difficulties. But as far as movement itself goes--simply hold the joystick in your desired direction. You will 'pulse' a movement in that direction.

There is a large enough delay between these pulses to protect you from situations where you could move too much too quickly and get yourself killed from wasting turns. My hope is that this feels very natural and intuitive without being frustrating.

Now you could use the right touchpad as a mouse and then use the right trigger to select hotkeys, followed by mouse based targeting. Sometimes this makes sense and I do occasionally do this.

But there is a better way!

Upon touching the left trackpad, you will see the following touch menu:

The hotbars themselves have their hotkeys displayed on them. Press 1 on the touchpad (topleft corner), and it activates the '1' hotkey. Easy, right? Ahh but what about hotbar 2, 3, and 4?

The back paddles of the deck have the standard keyboard modifiers on them.
L4 is Shift
R4 is Control
R5 is Alt.
These are all viewable on the "View Controller Layout" page on your deck, but you can also refer to the image at the start of this section. To activate the first ability on the second row (Labeled 'C1' on the hotbar tooltip), simply hold R4 and press '1' on the touchpad.

I'm using the 'Four Bars Four Rows' setup as it is the easiest to showcase this, but it is not required. The hotkeys work the exact same regardless of what your hotbar setup looks like. Even if the hotbars are not visible, these modifiers will work.

Ideally Hotbar Paging would solve this, but the way that ToME handles paging is...bad. Even if you page to a different hotbar, the hotkeys do not change. It's unfortunate but there's nothing I can do about that one.

The extreme solution would be to make your own custom layout or modify mine to use "nested" touch menus for modifiers. But this is a pretty advanced configuration that would take a lot of time and effort to get working. If you're the tinkering type and really hate modifiers, be my guest. Otherwise, you're gonna have to bare with it.

My PC gamer brain prefers using modifiers, which is why I designed the layout this way.

Now, movement and hotbars are straightforward enough, but ToME has a LOT of hotkeys. We've got an Inventory, a Character Sheet, a Talent / Level Up sheet, and many many more. But there aren't that many buttons available on the deck and the two trackpads are already in use...so where are they??

The answer is Action Sets. It is a semi-advanced feature within Steam Input, and can be a tad off-putting to the casual user, but they are immensely powerful and easy to use.

L1 and R1 are action set modifiers, and they are how you access extra menus containing much of ToME's functionality.

Simply put, when you hold L1 or R1 your entire control scheme changes to this:
⠀
There's a lot less clutter in here, but the true functionality is nested within the touch pads and joysticks.

For example, if you hold L1 or R1, and then touch the left joystick, it opens the "Actions" touch menu.
⠀
Clockwise, starting from the top

• Level Up
  
• Character Sheet
  
• Journal
  
• Abilities
  
• Combat Log
  
• Show Keyboard
  
• Landmarks (Requires the Zomnibus[te4.org] or Go To Landmark[te4.org] Addons)
  
• Map

Simply move your joystick towards the action you want to perform and hold it there. After 1 second it will activate the hotkey. This may feel a tad clunky at first but it becomes second nature after a few.

You may ask "Why didn't you just let me press L3 to activate the selected option!?" Unfortunately steam doesn't let you do this. I know that sounds crazy but they treat this whole thing as a "touch menu" action, and button presses cannot interact with it. It's unfortunate, but I went with the next best thing--just point the joystick towards your selection and wait.

As you may have noticed by now, I am using L1/R1 interchangeably. This is because they are the exact same function. While using two buttons for the same action may seem wasteful, I found this to be the most comfortable way to provide access to the extra touch menus on both sides of the deck.

While holding L1/R1, touch the left trackpad. These are "Actions" that were not common enough to warrant a dedicated button, but still useful for typical play.

If, earlier in this guide, you decided you wanted a more sleek UI experience, you may find yourself in need of hotbar paging.

To do this, you need to access the "Actions" touchpad. This is done by holding L1 or R1, and then touching the left trackpad. Upon doing so, instead of seeing the usual hotkey touchpad, you will instead see this:
⠀
Simply select Next or Previous hotbar with the touchpad, and then release L1 or R1.
⠀
In a perfect world this would also modify the hotkeys so that Ctrl/Shift/Alt modifiers were not necessary to use hotbar items, but alas, ToME does not work this way.

Note that you only need to page hotkeys if you want to change or see the abilities. These hotkeys work regardless of whether or not the hotbar is visible.

Okay on to the next set of actions.

• Restart Sustains (Mod Action)
  This is a neat little function for automatically handling sustains, but requires the Zomnibus[te4.org] or Restart Sustains[te4.org] addons to use.
  
• Change Level
  This is a common enough action that I gave it a dedicated button via L5. However a few of my friends felt they would rather rebind L5 to something else, so I added a redundancy in case anyone else felt that way.
  
• Toggle Automatic Talent Usage
  This is a godsend for the steamdeck. If you're tired of always holding modifiers and using hotkeys on the trackpad, you can simply setup automatic talents and mostly run on autopilot. Then use this action to turn off that functionality when the real threats appear.

• Pickup Item
  
• Drop Item

Picking up and Dropping items are incredibly niche actions. If you've played enough to get the Transmogrification Chest[te4.org], picking up items happens automatically upon touching them. But for those who are new to the game, picking up items is a relatively common action. The drop buttom is more or less just there for consistency/mild convenience. Worry not new players, I have thought of you (at least a little).

==== This Section is Under Construction ====

Hold L1/R1 and use the right joystick to select different members of your party. If you are holding the R4 button while you select a party member from the wheel, you will instead give an order to that party member instead of selecting them.

==== This Section is Under Construction ====

Use R1/L1 and the right trackpad to gain access to the uncommon actions that you will rarely need.
The MTX Shop, MTX menu, hiding the UI, and even chatting with other players (this is very rough on the deck)

You could go an entire playthrough without ever using these actions, but at least they are here if you need them.

Inventory management on the deck is initially kind of scary. Oh no! Big tooltips and lots of precise selections! Not the mouse! Anything but mouse usage!

First and foremost, you can use your D-Pad to move through items, the A button to select what to do with them, and the A button to choose options. Simply go up and down to view the items, and make any selections that you need. You can hold R4 to compare gear to your currently equipped items, and tap L4 while holding R4 to compare the 'other' item for duplicate slots such as weapons, rings, or infusions.

The right trackpad is always an option for the mouse-inclined. Press R2 to select an item under your mouse cursor.

I don't have a clean, dedicated and properly named button for cycling categories. But the 'Map' hotkey is shared with this function. Simply hold L1 or R1, and move the Left Joystick over the map icon to cycle through them.

It's a little clunky, I know. Perhaps it should have been on the Left Trackpad as a dedicated button rather than the slow Joystick menu, but to be honest I didn't even know there was a hotkey for this until a month before this guide was written. Perhaps in a future version.

If you've played long enough to acquire this, it will be responsible for storing all of the items that you pickup between levels. Every time you change level, the inventory window pops up and gives you the list of items in the chest. If you do not move them out of the chest, they are melted down.

Once the menu pops up, simply use the D-Pad to go down the list and press A then select "Move to Normal Inventory" with A again, and you'll be fine. Once you are done reviewing the items, simple Press B or Start, and the rest will be melted down.

But you really need to be careful about using the Start or B buttons while in this menu. When using a mouse on a PC, I can't say I've ever accidentally melted down every single item before looking at them, but I sure as hell have done this on the deck. Maybe you select an item to move, decide not to do it, and then press B to cancel out of the selection. Maybe the game lags, or maybe you accidentally double tap it. Suddenly every single item is gone. Ugh.

Just...be careful.

====This Section is Under Construction. I intend to add some screenshots in the future====

The right joystick has one primary purpose, and uses three functions to accomplish them. Firstly, up and down on the Right Joystick will emulate a mouse-wheel. You scroll up and down. Simple. This can be used while doing inventory management, but the primary benefit is for...

Let's get this one out of the way real quick. While in the 'Level Up' menu, you can press the Right Joystick in (R3) to toggle advanced descriptions. I personally like to leave these on advanced mode all of the time, but that'll be up to your personal preference.

Descriptions in ToME can get kind of...wordy. Lots of text, lots of variance between levels, and because of our low resolution and increased font size, many descriptions for abilities within the 'Level Up' menu are too long to fit on screen.

"Oh, that's easy, I'll just scroll down whenever I see that then!"

Yeah....no. Unfortunately, there is no way to scroll a description without having your mouse be on top of the area you want to scroll. Due to how cluttered the 'Level Up' menu is, it's actually really difficult to move your mouse to the right side of the screen without accidentally moving it over a different ability (changing the tooltip that you wish to scroll)

You can simply wait for the description to scroll on it's own...but it'll also start scrolling back up before you're done reading it. However I have added a neat little Steam Input feature to the Right Joystick. Simply move the Joystick to the right, scroll up/down as you desire, and then move your Joystick back to the left.

Moving the Right Joystick to the right or left 'teleports' your mouse to a particular section of the screen, bypassing all of the landmines that are the other ability tooltips. It's rather convenient for solving this particular problem.

For whatever reason, the right/left teleport functionality does not work properly if you dock your Steam Deck. No idea why, or how to fix this. You probably aren't docking your Steam Deck and still holding it in your hand (so this may not affect you), but I ran into it in my own setup and just found it really odd.

Upon using your first ranged or targeted ability, you might be inclined to use the Right Trackpad to move your mouse cursor towards your intended target. On PC, this is usually what I do. But on the Deck, this is...not the fastest or smoothest experience.

You see, ToME is a Roguelike, through and through. And that means its' roots are in using the keyboard by itself. No mouse usage required! (mostly)

Once you use an ability that requires targeting, simply use the D-Pad or Left Joystick to nudge the target in the direction you want it, and it will auto-target to the closest enemy in the direction you pressed. Then you can use the A button to confirm your selection and cast the ability (or the B button to cancel).

Sometimes though, you want a more fine-tuned targeting. Maybe your beam spell just isn't hitting all the enemies that you know it can if you just aim to a random block behind them.

For these situations, you have two options. First, you can simply use the right trackpad mouse to aim it directly where you want it. And honestly I still do this a lot of the time. But you can also hold down L4 and continue to use the D-Pad/Joystick to move without the 'auto target' functionality.

Figure out what's most comfortable for you, but I definitely recommend using the D-Pad for those quick targets whenever possible!

Honestly, anything that you'd like to use on PC is a good choice for the SteamDeck. There are no addons that are explicitly required to play on the deck, or to use my layout. But I do have some that I'd recommend to improve the experience.

ZOmnibus Addon Pack
This is a mod that is often recommended for its QoL additions and annoyance reducing tweaks. My custom layout even supports a couple of hotkeys from it due to how popular the addon is--but it is by no means required. There are many that think this addon goes a bit too far in some of its changes.

Better Item Descriptions
| ‎‎‎‎OR |
Cleaner Item Descriptions
This is a must-have on the Deck (for me), as the item tooltips in ToME are extremely cluttered. When staring at a tiny screen, any improvement to readability is a treat. The difference between these two addons is negligible, and is up to your personal preference. Look at the screenshots and pick one.

EquipDoll - Clean Item Names
In that same vein, this mod reduces some visual clutter in your inventory.

Easy Map V2
This is a pretty nice mod to have in general, but I highly recommend it for the deck. It transforms the Map button from a 3-state toggle (minimap, large map, off), to a 2-state toggle (minimap, large map). It also drastically improves the legibility and quality of the map.

Clean UI
I'd definitely recommend this one if you like the look. I personally felt that it made the UI cleaner and easier to read, but it's not for everyone.

Faster Run/Rest/Explore
Essentially this mod just gives you the ability to reduce your max FPS during autoexplore or rest. Saves you time, and (maybe?) some battery life!

Make sure you follow the configuration instructions properly once you see them in-game.

Steam Cloud has unfortunately been disabled for ToME, and there is a very high chance it isn't ever coming back. If you want to play the same character on multiple devices, your options are many but none are ideal.

First, let's talk addons. If you are using the Steam Workshop for all of your addons, then you are in luck. Everything will be automatically downloaded to all of your devices and you don't need to do anything extra.

But many addons are not on the Steam Workshop. A vast majority of the big ones are, but there are some niche mods that just aren't there. This means you'll have to keep these in sync manually.

This does not sync at all and must be copied manually every time you want to switch devices. Make sure you save and quit on your steamdeck before switching to another device, as failure to do so will cause a conflict between your two devices.

You can use SyncThing, DropBox, FreeFileSync, an FTP server, sshfs, and more! But explaining how to setup any of those tools is very much outside the scope of this guide. You'll need to do your own research if you want to setup an automatic sync between your deck and your PC.

I personally use SyncThing, but the setup and usage of that tool can be confusing for some people. You can look up some setup guides for each and decide which one will be easiest / best for you. For a long time I just used sshfs and manually dragged and dropped files between my PC and my deck.

All solutions boil down to the exact same thing however. When one device is used, you need to copy the affected files to other device. I will tell tell you the relevant folders, and the rest will be up to you.

Addons:

• SteamDeck
  \home\deck\.local\share\Steam\steamapps\common\TalesMajEyal\game\addons
• Windows
  
  C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\TalesMajEyal\game\addons

Saves:

• SteamDeck
  \home\deck\.local\share\Steam\steamapps\compatdata\259680\pfx\drive_c\users\steamuser\T-Engine\4.0\tome\save
• Windows
  
  C:\Users\[YOUR_PC_USER_HERE]\T-Engine\4.0\tome\save

And just to clarify, that last path for saves on windows is different depending on what your computer username is. For me, the path is
C:\Users\Delfofthebla\T-Engine\4.0\tome\save

Yours will be with a different username.

I'm usually not playing too far from a place I can charge, so admittedly, I have not gone into as much depth here as others might have. However there are a few very simple tweaks you can make to extend your battery life while playing ToME.

First, press the '...' button on your deck, and navigate to the performance and battery section
⠀
First, enable the "per-game profile" so that you do not have to come back and tweak this again. Then set the framerate limit to 30. Allow Tearing, and enable Half Rate Shading.

⠀
Then we enable the TDP limit and set the max watt usage to anywhere from 7-10. You really don't need more than this for ToME.

I've messed with the Scaling Filter / FSR settings a little and honestly I did not notice any difference in my battery life regardless of what I chose. You can play around with it if you want.

After that, enjoy a longer battery life.

In this section I'll list the changes that I have made or will make to my layout. Ideally there will never be another version ever again, but alas, I cannot say for sure.

• V3.2 - Fixed the annoying "Layout Changed" notifications from holding and releasing L1 / R1 (sorry about that...)
  Added "Mod Action" text to a few hotkeys that I didn't previously know were mod only (oops)
  
• V3.1 - Fixed a few instances where activating one of the touch menu binds could instead open up the wrong menus entirely. (This was due to modifiers not being held down in time for the hotkey, causing it to activate a completely different hotkey)
  
• V3.0 - Pretty big overhaul of the touch menus. Added more actions that were missing, and fine tuned a lot of the press delays on movement and menu opening.
  
• V2.4 - First truly usable version, but missing some functionality.
  
• V2.0 and below - Mostly just a proof of concept, don't really remember too much about these

• v1.5 (May 26th, 2024)
  - Expanded the recommended addons section for Easy Map V2, and reformatted the whole section.
  - Reworded Installation section for non-steam tome client users.
  
  
• v1.4 (January 5th, 2024)
  - Expanded Installation Section to contain info regarding non-steam installs and the steam_appid fix.
  - Reworded the "Layout Usage - Actions" section to be a bit less jarring once it moves on from hotbar paging.
  
  
• v1.3 (September 30th, 2023)
  - Added two new sections. "Layout Tips - Inventory Management" and "Layout Tips - The Right Joystick"
  - Added some more information to the "Layout Tips - Using and Targeting Your Abilities" section regarding manual ability targeting.
  - Renamed all of the "Layout Usage" sections.
  
  
• v1.2 (September 25th, 2023)
  - A few grammar/formatting fixes in the Game Settings and Recommended Addons sections.
  
  
• v1.1 (September 22nd, 2023)
  - Added recommended addons section.
  - Reworked Introduction.
  - Cleaned up some typos and overly wordy parts.
  
  
• v1.0 (September 11th, 2023)
  - Initial guide release