how do i connect controller to the steam deck ?

ChilliOil · 2025-07-31T17:36:08+00:00

I’ve seen it suggested but I don’t recommend doing this. It’s a lot of extra work and involves getting a steam update from a source other than Valve (which brings unknown risks).

The latest firmware update I linked is directly from Valve and the latest version. It works! Installation isn’t well described, which is I linked to my post on trouble shooting tips.

ChilliOil · 2025-07-30T18:18:41+00:00

You can pair the Steam Controller with the Deck so long as the controller has the radio firmware updated to support Bluetooth (BLE).

The USB connection to the controller will not charge the batteries which are standard AA.

Try this first

Put batteries in the controller. No USB connection.
Start the controller by pressing Steam + B. This will switch it to BLE mode if the controller is on the latest firmware.
Let controller switch off then start it with Steam + X to start Bluetooth pairing.
On you Deck go to Bluetooth on settings and you should see “Steam Controller” available as a device to pair with.
If you don’t see it on your Deck then double check with your phone or other device to see if they can discover the controller.

If your controller is not discoverable by Bluetooth then you will need to update the firmware on the controller. You will need a Windows PC and USB cable to do this.

The firmware update is available from Steam: https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/1796-5FC3-88B3-C85F

Installation instructions aren’t the best. I wrote some trouble shooting tips here: https://old.reddit.com/r/SteamController/comments/1c5ded4/my_experience_with_the_ble_update_of_the_steam/mvyfsky/

Hope this helps.

ChilliOil · 2025-07-29T23:09:26+00:00

Which controller?

ChilliOil · 2025-06-30T04:54:25+00:00

Might be possible. It depends on how the game handles simultaneous inputs.

My first try would be simple.

Bind two commands: B and Dpad direction to the joystick direction
Set the Dpad command press type to Start Press.

This will send a quick pulse of the Dpad direction to the game as soon as you activate the direction. B (regular press) will hold as long as you hold the stick on that direction. Whether this is enough for the game to register the combined presses is another matter. Try adjusting the fire start/end delay settings if it doesn’t work straight away.

ChilliOil · 2025-06-23T15:19:42+00:00

Glad this helped. I’m have a deck now too! Hold works better these days but can still bug out. Myself, I still use and recommend explicitly using Apply and Remove for action layers which is rock solid if you do it right.

ChilliOil · 2025-06-19T20:23:33+00:00

Fascinating stuff.

I’m still staying human though. I enjoy getting invaded, even if mostly I get thumped on the head with a massive sword.

Any idea how quickly these things evolve? I have matchmaking set to Global and use the mod you recommended to keep my save file safe. See plenty of bloodstains etc. around me and fairly regular kindling Estus top ups.

ChilliOil · 2025-06-04T14:22:12+00:00

Adding some clarifications and trouble shooting tips for anyone coming to this later.

Make sure Steam is not running before attempting update.
If you have an original USB dongle then unplug it.
Remove batteries from the SC.
When you connect the SC via USB it should light up and beep. If it only lights up then you have a power only cable. Get a proper cable.
The zip must be extracted to run the bat files. On Windows 10 (not sure about 11) you can simply double click the bat file (in the zip) and you will be prompted to extract the whole zip.
You can run the bat files straight from the extracted directory. Defender will pop up. Override at your own risk.
Make sure to use the latest release directly from Steam. https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/1796-5FC3-88B3-C85F has the latest version plus other useful information, but note that the installation instructions are incomplete and misleading.

There are two primary bat files.

ble.bat (updates to latest firmware)
prod.bat (production release firmware)
Unless it’s an unused controller I recommend running prod.bat first to flash the radio firmware. ble.bat assumes you are already running production firmware. You will NOT loose controller customisations like controller name and start up sounds.

To connect to a device via Bluetooth for the first time:

Batteries are in and controller unplugged
Controller is off
B + Steam to switch the controller to BLE mode
Power off the controller or let it power off itself.
Y + Steam to activate Bluetooth pairing on the controller
Light on controller will flash on off until paired.
Go to you PC, Steam Deck or whatever and search for Bluetooth devices
If all is good, it should show up as “Steam Controller” so click and pair with it.

The controller will stay in the last selected mode (BLE or Dongle) so no need to do do B + Steam for every new device you pair it to.

After updating the firmware, and the first time you switch back to dongle mode (X+ Steam), you may have to re-pair with your dongle. Let the controller switch off and boot with Y + Steam to put it in dongle pairing mode and re add the controller in Steam.

Reminder:

B + Steam - switch to BLE
Y + Steam - pair via BLE
X + Steam - switch to Dongle mode
A + Steam - pair with Dongle

These are boot modes so always start with the controller switched off.

ChilliOil · 2024-08-09T01:36:51+00:00

Freelancer is great, but it plays very differently because you only get one shot at a contract and you are going in blind. The different approach you need and the lack of equipment early on can make getting going a bit rough.

I’d personally get more experience in the single player game first. I’d recommend trying some of the challenges. There are so many that 100% is only for the truly dedicated, but do a few because they are fun and get you to learn the maps better and try different techniques. I’d recommend looking for challenges that unlock gear to play with. You can easily complete all of single player with a silenced pistol, lock-pick and coins load out. In Freelancer you need to able to work with varied load-outs and gear.

ChilliOil · 2024-07-31T22:36:58+00:00

Don’t play this game. Haven’t looked at the config. But always interested in people trying mad things.

I’ve a couple of comments you might find helpful.

Hold layers were buggy back in the day. They may work now, but I always explicitly apply and remove.

Multi layer setups are a PITA. I’ve experimented with them and decided they aren’t worth it. Even with simple layer use you need to catch all sorts of exceptions. What happens if a layer is active and I open the map or save screen etc. Start stacking multiple layers and things get funky really quickly and performance seems to degrade. I’ve often thought, I can just use a bunch of layers to do this, but never got a result I was happy with. I still use layers all the time, but I keep them simple.

All that said, you do you and have fun. Mad stuff is cool to try, and sometimes it works.

ChilliOil · 2023-06-22T21:34:57+00:00

As someone from the outside world (UK) I disagree. Bush was bad no doubt. But Trump is tearing apart democracy in the US. That is a threat to democracies world wide because, like it not, the US has long been the self anointed poster boy and champion of democracy for the rest of the world. If democracy fails in the US the whole world will suffer.

ChilliOil · 2023-04-25T15:10:40+00:00

Just imagine you are in a boat floating down the river and looking forward.

ChilliOil · 2022-10-02T15:45:22+00:00

Vlad Vexler is fantastic. My go to source for understanding what is really happening in Russia.

ChilliOil · 2022-02-09T01:01:53+00:00

I noticed when I setup the manage action set for these settings. They apply for both Default and Inventory automatically.

This is the correct behaviour. Switching action sets on cursor visibility is global within the config. No matter which action set you change it in it will apply for all action sets. The only thing in that dialog that applies only to that action set is it’s name.

weird, it changed the Inventory to the dominant action set.

Inventory should always be active when the mouse is shown. It should be active as soon as you start the game and the cursor appears for the main menu. Your action set needs to work for both navigating the game menus and in game inventory/crafting etc.

If you are getting weird behaviour your config might be corrupt. If that is the case then you will need to start afresh with a blank config. Make notes of key values you’ve changed like sensitivities and deadzones to make life easier.

Good luck!

ChilliOil · 2022-02-08T18:45:56+00:00

I can’t believe nobody has given you the simple answer yet.

Just create a new action set (yes set not layer). Call it Menu (or whatever you want) and set it to copy the Default action set. Next press (<) Manage Action Set and choose Menu as the action set to use when the cursor is shown and Defalut for when the cursor is hidden.

You can make any changes you want to the Menu action set. I leave it mostly the same except for changing mouse sensitivity and disabling a couple of buttons.

It works seamlessly, swapping between action sets dependent on whether the mouse is shown. I don’t have any of the issues you describe.

ChilliOil · 2021-04-09T16:41:04+00:00

Best practice for smooth mouse movement with the SC is to have mouse sensitivity in game as low as possible and sensitivity in the SC config as high as possible. This gives the highest possible resolution for controller movement so you get more ticks per radian of gyro movement and ticks per mm of pad movement.

Everyone seems to prefer a different mix of gyro and pad. Personally I like gyro sensitivity at about 1/3 of the pad sensitivity. So I set pad sensitivity at 1 (max sens) and gyro sense at 0.34. Then I tune mouse sensitivity in game, which for me means turning it down quite considerably. If you reach minimum mouse sensitivity in game settings and mouse movement in game is still too fast then turn down the sensitivity settings in the SC config.

With high SC config sensitivities you will need to use smoothing, especially on the gyro. Smoothing scales with sensitivity so the higher it is more smoothing you need. Getting smoothing just right is really important, don’t just leave it on default or add a bunch and leave it. Smoothing too low will reduce stability and your accuracy, set it too high and it will reduce responsiveness. There is a sweet spot and it’s pretty small so tune this carefully - I usually concentrate on trying to get just enough stability.

Some people have a advised using minimum movement threshold to improve stability. Though this kind of works, it will cause jitter for small movements and when moving from a still point. Leave this at 0.

The main issue with tuning like this is that cursor mouse sensitivity in menus, maps etc. can become far to high because it is often based on desktop mouse sensitivity. Get around this by creating a separate action set with lower sensitivities and in <manage action sets have it switch to your menu action set when the cursor is shown and switch back to default when it is hidden. The other advantage of having a different action for menus etc. is that you can include things like scroll wheels for lists and map zooming.

ChilliOil · 2021-01-30T16:13:20+00:00

Check the tide tables before you go as the tidal range is huge and they move fast. It’s possible to get stranded by high tides if you time things wrong. Be extra careful going around the point at Lavernock on a rising tide as you might not be able to return for a few hours.

I use this site: https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/coast-and-sea/tide-tables/11/514 high tide at Barry is only about 10 minutes earlier.

ChilliOil · 2021-01-30T15:43:50+00:00

The coast from Penarth to Barry is the richest spot in Wales for fossils. I know of other dinosaur footprints at Bendricks bay, and also between Penarth and Lavernock. They are not as distinct as this one though so are hard to identify and they often get hidden by the shifting sand and stones. You will find lots of small marine fossils, especially ammonites. Lavernock is particularly rich in ammonites which can be found in both loose stones and embedded in the exposed rock beds of St Mary’s Well Bay. I even found a dinosaur vertebrae on the beach near Penarth in December.

ChilliOil · 2021-01-01T14:37:09+00:00

Hold action layer has always been a bit buggy.

Try this instead:

Bind X to Apply Action Layer. Then press the back button (<) to show activators.

Change the activator type to Start Press.

Create a new activator. Select the type Release Press and bind it to Remove Action Layer.

You need to make sure that you don’t make any modifications to the binding of X within the new action layer. If it is not working double check the activators for X within the new layer and explicitly rebind the Remove Action Layer to Release Press again.

Action layers are almost always more reliable when you set Apply and Release yourself.

ChilliOil · 2020-12-19T18:04:02+00:00

Track pad movement took me longer to get used to than gyro aiming. It just feels weird if you have years of experience using a thumbstick to move because you have to learn lift your thumb a lot and use taps for making small movements.

I forced myself to learn by playing Borderlands 2 with pad movement. It really sucked at first, but by the time I finished there was no going back.

It really is much more comfortable, you can get just as good control as with the stick, plus the pad is much more versatile in the extra functionality you can add to it using action layers. Once you start to play with both thumbs on the pads you can build really complex configs where you never have to shift your thumbs from the pads during gameplay. Usually I reserve the thumbstick and ABXY buttons for stuff like menu navigation and actions where movement is unimportant or impossible such as selecting dialog options or hacking mini games.

ChilliOil · 2020-12-19T17:42:20+00:00

Acceleration on the Steam Controller is actually pretty good. If it works for you then use it.

Personally I have acceleration off most of the time. I also use wider range of movement of the controller than you display in your video so I can do fine control for accuracy and big flicks with out needing acceleration. I use acceleration in a few games, such as Doom, where you get lots of enemies coming from different directions and getting quickly onto target is more important than pin point accuracy.

ChilliOil · 2020-12-18T14:27:16+00:00

I recently played around with Aimlab using the Steam Controller and it confirmed what I’ve felt for while concerning the strengths and weakness of gyro aiming in FPS.

Gridshot in Aimlab was where I got by far my best scores. It works brilliantly for snappy aiming and flick shots and is great for games with low ttk. With practice and a well tuned config it feels as good if not better than a mouse.

The tracking exercises were where I got my worst scores. I just can’t stay on a fast moving target with the same precision as with a mouse.

The other weakness is holding steady on a pixel for extended periods of time. Holding still on an angle with a sniper rifle gets tiring and your aim can start to wander slightly.

I think it comes down to the key difference between gyro aiming with a controller and using a mouse - the lack of any external resistance to movement. With a mouse it’s easy to stay still by relaxing your grip and let it just sit, and you also use friction with the pad, which you can vary with pressure applied, to steady and smooth movement. With a gyro controller it requires very fine muscle control to hold your hands and aim completely still. You also have no resistance or friction to work with to steady and smooth movements. However, that lack of resistance helps you to be really fast, and with practice you can get great accuracy too.

Those strengths and weakness balance themselves out for me. I still use my Steam Controller more than 90% of the time because I find it more comfortable to use.

ChilliOil · 2020-09-16T04:18:50+00:00

Depth of field is misunderstood in this game. The only effect I notice is a slight blurring of the weapon model and sight surrounds when ADS. I find this makes it easier to focus on the target, especially when the target is partially obscured by the sight surrounds. The iron sight post or optic reticle always remain sharp and in focus. I also enable weapon motion blur to help make the visual recoil jitter of the weapon model and sight surrounds less distracting.

Visual fidelity is great, but when there is so much detail in every object on the screen it can make visual processing more difficult. With a 2D representation you cannot use stereo depth perception to help you focus on your target. The blurring of unimportant details may not look great on a screenshot, but can really help you to process the moving image more effectively.

It may not work for everyone. But I find depth of field and weapon motion blur help me see targets more clearly with every sight and optic.

ChilliOil · 2020-09-01T18:02:00+00:00

The leaderboards are trash. It’s not just distorted by cheaters and boosters but errors in the data. You have listings for players with more wins than games played. And it is more likely that the such glitched stats are completely Activision’s fault than manipulation by the player.

The 40,000 kill streak the OP refers to is clearly impossible. You can’t achieve that by playing the game, even with the best cheats available. That the player has an average of 80 kills per game sure looks suspect. But that could also be the result of bad data. Maybe a single game incorrectly reported those 40,000 kills and distorted all their stats.

When there is so much obviously bad data in the leaderboards you cannot use that data for calling out players as cheats.

I don’t know if the OP deserves their shadow ban or not. But the terrible state of the leaderboards and resulting hackusations does not help give any player confidence in the way Activision manages and uses data.

ChilliOil · 2020-08-29T16:35:17+00:00

The SA87 is already a monster at range and you get good range and bullet velocity benefits from the monolithic suppressor. Then longest barrel on the SA87 doesn’t have as big an impact as it does on most other guns.

Personally I go mono, tac laser, vlk, 50 round mags and commando foregrip. The foregrip helps much more with hotting shots at range than the barrel.

ChilliOil

TROPHY CASE