Congratulations! You’ve installed Decky Loader on your Steam Deck, unlocking a world of customization options. Now comes the fun part: choosing the right plugins to supercharge your handheld gaming experience. From tweaking your display’s color settings to managing multiple game suspensions, Decky Loader plugins can do it all.
In this guide, we’ll cover eight of the most interesting and useful plugins you should try. Whether you’re a casual gamer or a power user who loves to tinker under the hood, there’s something here for everyone. Let’s dive in!
Getting Started with Decky Loader Plugins
Decky Loader is your gateway to customizing almost every aspect of the Steam Deck interface and performance. If you’re looking to personalize your device beyond Valve’s default settings, these plugins are the way to go.
Installing a plugin is usually as simple as browsing the plugin list within Decky Loader, clicking “Install,” and letting the loader handle the rest. Just be sure to restart your Steam Deck or reload Decky Loader after installation to apply the changes.
CSS Loader
CSS Loader is the ultimate plugin if you crave a unique look for your Steam Deck. It lets you install custom themes and modify almost every visual element in the Gaming Mode interface, from button styles to background images.
With hundreds of options to play around with, you can turn your device into a vibrant masterpiece or keep it sleek and minimalistic. Whether you’re copying a popular theme or designing your own, CSS Loader puts the power of CSS right in your hands.
Vibrant Deck
If you feel the Steam Deck’s colors are a bit washed out, especially on the non-OLED model, Vibrant Deck is your go-to plugin. It lets you adjust saturation, gamma, and contrast separately for handheld and docked modes.
Crank the saturation up to 150% and watch your games burst with life. Just keep in mind that if you’re playing late at night or on battery power, dialing back those settings might help conserve energy and reduce eye strain.
Pause Games
By default, the Steam Deck’s instant suspend feature only pauses one game at a time. Pause Games is designed to fix that limitation, letting you freeze multiple titles simultaneously and switch between them at will.
This plugin also comes in handy for capturing the perfect screenshot or quickly testing how different titles perform without closing them down. It’s a small tweak that makes a big difference if you like hopping between games.
Steamback
Worried that some games don’t save often enough? Steamback has got you covered. It creates additional backup saves behind the scenes, giving you a safety net whenever you need to roll back progress.
Just pick the “Revert” option in the Steamback menu, and you’ll be back at a previous save point. Note that this only works with official Steam titles that support cloud saves, but for those games, it’s a lifesaver.
Power Tools
For the tinkerers out there, Power Tools is the plugin you’ve been waiting for. It allows you to enable SMT (Simultaneous Multithreading) and activate odd-core configurations on your CPU, giving you more granular control over performance.
You can also fine-tune battery behavior to squeeze more playtime out of each charge. While Power Tools has a steeper learning curve, mastering its settings can significantly boost both performance and efficiency.
Storage Cleaner
Running out of disk space? Storage Cleaner helps you reclaim precious gigabytes by letting you delete extra data that builds up over time. This includes shader caches, compatibility files, and other temporary data.
It’s perfect for games you don’t play often but still hang around and hog space. A quick cleanup can mean the difference between fitting another AAA title on your internal storage or not.
ProtonDB Badges
Ever wondered if a game labeled “Verified” by Valve actually runs smoothly on your Steam Deck? ProtonDB Badges brings community-sourced compatibility ratings directly into your Deck’s UI.
Now you can see real user feedback at a glance, so you won’t waste time downloading a game that might have performance hiccups. It’s a simple addition that can save you plenty of frustration.
Junk-Store
Want to play your Epic Games Store library without juggling multiple launchers? Junk-Store integrates Epic Games directly into the Steam Deck interface, letting you install and launch titles just like any Steam game.
No more switching back and forth between separate apps. With Junk-Store installed, you’ll have a unified gaming experience, all within the familiar Steam Deck environment.
Wrapping It Up
Decky Loader plugins open a world of possibilities, turning your Steam Deck into a fully customized handheld powerhouse. From visual tweaks to performance optimizations, these eight plugins cover all the essentials.
So go ahead, experiment, and find the combination that suits your play style. With these must-have plugins at your fingertips, there’s no limit to what you can achieve on your Steam Deck. Happy gaming!
