Wuthering Waves: A Brief Moment on the Steam Deck

Wuthering Waves, the gacha RPG with anime aesthetics and a penchant for confusing jargon, had a fleeting moment of compatibility with the Steam Deck. When it launched in May, it simply didn’t work on the Deck. It still doesn't. But for one brief, debatably glorious day on June 29th, it did. Deck owners who endured a slightly fiddly installation process (detailed here by YouTuber Deck Wizard) were finally able to step into the world of Wuthering Waves, much like a David Hasselhoff-buoyed East German crossing into freedom in 1989.

Unfortunately, unlike the Hoff's impact, it didn’t last. Within hours, Steam Deck players were booted out by a previously unseen anti-cheat failure. What happened?

In short, Wuthering Waves’ 1.1 update altered the anti-cheat system in a way that temporarily allowed the game to run on Linux-based operating systems, including the Deck’s SteamOS. Before this, you could install the Windows version of the game launcher, but actually getting into the game was impossible. Version 1.1 changed that, making the game fully playable, albeit a bit slow on the Deck’s modest hardware.

However, before you could say, "Absorption is only possible when your Data Bank’s level is equal to or higher than the Tacet Discord’s level," or understand whatever that means, a scary-looking "Anti-cheat system works error" message appeared, forcibly closing Wuthering Waves. A follow-up update soon after changed the anti-cheat again, blocking Linux devices once more. This time, instead of preventing the game from launching entirely, it allowed a few moments of gameplay before shutting it down, which is progress, I guess?

As of now, Wuthering Waves can still launch on the Steam Deck and might let you wander around in-game for a few seconds before the anti-cheat message kicks in. There's no overt threat of a ban or any other punishment, but I wouldn’t risk it, even if that single day of freedom left a smile on your face.

Despite the setbacks, I feel compelled to keep an eye on this situation (and thanks to reader Scotty for the tip). While I'm not particularly eager to play more Wuthering Waves on the Steam Deck or any other platform, I’ve invested enough time into setup and launch attempts that this specific game/hardware combo has become my own white whale. You think another solo-manned Prime Day will take me down? Nah, mate, it’ll be trying to launch the magic waifus game on my handheld. Someone take over the Steam Deck Academy when I'm gone.