I actually recommend using Starlight instead of Phosphor for performance as it is just better. Quoting: BloodaxeNORDid you try the game with Fabric installed? Using the mods Sodium, Lithium and Phosphor should grant some insane performance improvements, and you can play on vanilla servers without any issues. You can find many more Steam Deck guides on the GamingOnLinux YouTube. Update: how to get Steam Deck and Gamepad controls in Minecraft. Controller mods were also suggested, but they're rarely updated and often only work with specific Minecraft versions so sticking with Steam Input and just adjusting a few keys is the best choice for that. Some YouTube comments suggested trying out some optimized modpacks, but really I didn't see a big enough difference in terms of performance or power use to make them actually worth it on Deck compared with vanilla Minecraft when testing on the same map seed.

To be able to launch directly from Steam: go to the Games menu up the top -> click add a Non-Steam game and then find PolyMC in the list.

Click Add Instance in the top left, then pick either normal Minecraft or find some mods with the built-in search and it installs everything you need for you.

Ensure in the PolyMC Settings that Java is set to the latest version, which is needed for the latest Minecraft.

Otherwise, loading in Game Mode / Deck UI on Steam Deck it will flicker between the two windows. Go into the main PolyMC Settings, click Minecraft in the left panel and click the option to close PolyMC when the game window opens.It supports both Mojang and Microsoft logins.

Launch PolyMC and add your account in the top right corner.

Install PolyMC from the Discover Software Centre on Steam Deck, or Flathub directly for desktop Linux.

You will find this video also on the Steam Deck section of the PolyMC Wiki! YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view.

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