Monster Hunter Wilds has been a commercial success for Capcom, with one main caveat: poor performance. The game soon reached over a million players on PC (not long after we reported on almost getting there), and this comes despite many reports of sub-par performance and crashing, which led to the game holding ‘Mixed’ reviews on Steam.

Capcom is pushing out a patch, but it fails to address performance, and there is currently no sign of optimization improvements on the way. For those on lower-end hardware, it’s a waiting game. For Steam Deck users, there is a silver lining in the form of a new mod posted online.

Steam Deck config for Monster Hunter Wilds tries to improve performance

Monster Hunter Wilds doesn’t run great on the Steam Deck; we tested it and decided you’re better off waiting for GeForce Now support, whenever that may be. However, as mods start to appear online, we’ve come across a recent config file that hopes to make the game at least bearable on Valve’s popular handheld device.

This mod is titled ‘The Little Engine that Shouldn’t – Steam Deck config (OLED)‘ and it’s clear that you shouldn’t expect any miracles. As the title suggests, all testing has been done on the OLED model, but you should have similar results if you own one of the original LCD devices.

The config alters texture settings to help make some FPS gains and claims that you “should be able to hold a solid 30FPS throughout the game” but with input lag that is “more or less similar” to what you’d get on a streaming service. Considering MH Wilds isn’t yet available on services such as GeForce Now, this is probably the best you can get right now.

How to install and use this mod

• Log in to Nexus Mods (make an account if you don’t already have one)
• Download the config file
• Place the config file in your steamapps/common/MonsterHunterWilds folder and set the file permissions to ‘Only View’
• Before launching the game, ensure you are using Proton Experimental or GE Proton 9-25
• Edit the MH Wilds launch options to include the following command: __GL_SHADER_DISK_CACHE_CLEANUP=1gamemoderun %command%
• It is recommended to lock the framerate to 30 FPS and set the GPU clock to 1,600MHz

The creator of this mod only recommends using this config if you’re a “MonHun diehard” as the performance is far from ideal. But if you do happen to fall into that category and primarily game on the Deck, this mod is better than nothing.

If you want to play Monster Hunter Wilds on a handheld, your options are limited, but alternatives such as the ROG Ally and Legion Go should offer marginally better performance than the Steam Deck. We can only hope that Capcom offers some optimization moving forward. The previous entry, Monster Hunter World, was ‘Verified’ on the Deck, but it doesn’t look like MH Wilds will ever get the same treatment.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.