The Diablo series has long been considered one of the best ARPGs and that remains true to this day. The recent entry – Diablo IV, turned out to be a pretty well-received title, generating $666 million just within the first five days following its launch on June 5, 2023. And as fun as Diablo IV may be, many fans still prefer playing other Diablo titles. And a popular choice among many fans seems to be 2021’s Diablo 2: Resurrected. Serving as the remaster of the original Diablo 2 and its expansion, D2Resurrected was released for all major platforms, including the Nintendo Switch. Upon its release, the game received pretty good reviews, with many praising its simple yet addictive gameplay, and the new visuals. And with the rise in popularity of the Steam Deck, many have been looking to play Diablo 2: Resurrected on it.
Thanks to the Steam Deck, PC handhelds are now slowly but steadily gaining a foothold in the video gaming world. While the Deck might not be as powerful as some of its other competitors, it can still run titles like Elden Ring, Armored Core Vi: Fires of Rubicon, Read Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, and others without many issues. Diablo II: Resurrected is a pretty fun title and is one of the many games that players want to enjoy on the Deck. So, how can you install and play Diablo 2 Resurrected on the Steam Deck? Well, that’s what the following guide will help you with. So, without much further ado, let’s go ahead and find out how.
How to install & play Diablo 2 Resurrected on Steam Deck
This is going to be a bit of a long process, so make sure that you follow every step mentioned below thoroughly. Do so and you will be enjoying Diablo 2: Resurrected on your Steam Deck in no time.
Setting up Battle.net Launcher
- First of all, you need to switch from Gaming Mode to Desktop Mode on your Steam Deck. And you can do that by clicking on the Steam button on the Deck, scrolling down the options, and selecting Power. Next, from the options present, click on Switch to Desktop.
- Once you are in Desktop Mode, open whatever browser’s installed on your Steam Deck and head to this link. Next, click on Download Battle.net, located on the top-right side of the screen.
- After you have downloaded Battle.net Setup.exe, open the Dolphin File Manager on your Steam Deck. Make sure that you have enabled the Show Hidden Files option. If you haven’t, just click on the hamburger button on the top-right corner and checkmark the Show Hidden Files option.
- Now, head to the Downloads section and find Battle.net Setup.exe. Once found, left-click on it and select Add to Steam. When the Add Non-Steam Game window pops up, click on Browse and add the Battle.net Setup.exe file. Once it’s selected, click on the Add Selected Programs button.
- Open Steam and navigate to your Steam Library. Find Battle.net-Setup.exe in there. Once you have located the exe, click on the cogwheel icon and select Properties. Next, you will find two options to choose from- Shortcut and Compatibility. Switch to the latter and checkmark the Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool option. Now, from the drop-down menu, select the Proton 8.0-3 version. In case this doesn’t work, you can also try other Proton versions.
- Now it’s time to install the Battle.net installer. To do that, hit the Play button below Battle.net-Setup.exe, and select your preferred language when the installer pops up. For the sake of this guide, we will be going with English. After that, simply click on Continue.
- Now, wait for Battle.net to download and finish its updates. Once done, make sure to make a folder where you want to install Battle.net. Just open your file manager, head to wherever you want to install Battle.net, left-click, and select Create New > Folder. Rename it to Battlenet. Now you need to close the file manager and get back to the Battle.net launcher. In there, click on the Change button next to Install Location and change the install location to where you created the Battlenet folder. Now, uncheck the Launch Battle.net option and click on Continue. If everything goes normal then you should see the launcher on your screen with the account sign-in window.
- After that, close the launcher, and click on Stop under Battle.net-Setup.exe. Then, left-click on the Battle.net-Setup.exe shortcut in your Library and select Manage > Remove non-Steam game from your Library.
- Now, get back to the location where you installed Battle.net. Open the Battlenet folder from before and inside you will find several files and folders.
- Select Battle.netLauncher.exe and left-click on it. Next, select Properties and switch to the Permissions tab. Make sure to checkmark the “Is executable” option under Access Permissions. After that’s done, close the window, left-click on the Battle.netLauncher.exe, and select Add to Steam.
- When the Add Non-Steam Game window opens, click on Browse and add Battle.netLauncher.exe. Next, click on Add Selected Programs.
- Now, launch Steam and find Battle.netLauncher.exe in there. In case the name doesn’t show up, simply restart Steam, and that should fix the bug. Then, select the cogwheel icon and click on Properties > Compatibility. Once again, checkmark Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool option and select Proton 8.0-3 from the drop-down menu.
Setting up and installing Diablo II: Resurrected
- You can now launch Battle.netLauncher.exe. When it does launch, login to your Battle.net account and continue on. Next, you will come across the Scan For Games screen. Simply close it and click on Continue when you get the Welcome to Battle.net message on your screen.
- Now, it’s time to create a folder where you will be installing Diablo II: Resurrected. Simply open the Dolphin File Manager and head to the location where you want to install the game. Once there, create a new folder and name it. For the purpose of this guide, we will be renaming our D2R. Next, open the D2R folder and create a subfolder inside. You can either rename the folder or keep it as New Folder.
- Get back to the Battle.net Launcher and switch to the Games section. From there, find Diablo II: Resurrected and click on the Install button at the bottom. In the installation screen, make sure to change the Install Location to where you created the D2R folder. After that, click on the Start Install button and wait for the installation to finish.
- Once Diablo II: Resurrected is installed, close the Battle.net Launcher and click on Stop in the Steam Library. By the way, you can rename Battle.net Launcher.exe in the Steam Library to Diablo II: Resurrected if you want. It isn’t mandatory, but it should make it easier to identify it.
- Your work with Desktop Mode is now done. You should now switch back to Gaming Mode on your Deck.
- When you are back in Gaming Mode, select Diablo II: Resurrected and click on the cogwheel icon, Select Properties from the options present and switch to the Shortcut section. On the right side, scroll down to Game Resolution and choose 1280×800 from the drop-down menu. Then switch to the Compatibility section and, like before checkmark the Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool option. Don’t forget to select Proton 8.0-3 from the drop-down menu. You can now close the Settings window.
Now launch Battle.netLauncher.exe and select Diablo 2: Resurrected. Click on the big blue Play button; this should start the game if everything goes perfectly.
After the game launches, go to Options and set the Resolution Scale to either 85 or 90. For Graphics, you should set it to either Low or Medium. Now, close Options and enjoy Diablo 2: Resurrected on your Steam Deck.
And that’s all you need to do in order to install and play Diablo 2: Resurrected on the Steam Deck. Additionally, you can also take a quick look here if you want to know how to install mods for Nier: Automata on your Steam Deck. Lastly, for more such content, keep following DigiStatement. Also read: Diablo 4: How to Auto Join Voice Chat Parties?
