I'm back and welcome back. In this video, guys, instead of teaching you what to do with your steam deck, I'll teach you seven things to never do with your steam deck. Tip number one, don't unplug your steam deck when playing at home, especially if you're near an outlet. So here's the deal. Your battery wears the most when constantly charging and discharging it. And the steam deck has this feature that most laptops have, which is called a pass-through. What it does is when your steam deck is plugged, it powers it from the outlet instead of the battery. So once it's fully charged, the battery will stop charging and your steam deck will only be powered by the outlet. And to make it even better, there is this plugin for the decky loader, which is called power tools, which can help you limit your maximum charge of the battery to 80, 85%. Your battery wears the most between 80 and 100% when charging. So it's best to leave it at around 80. You can limit that and leave it there while playing. So your battery will charge to 80%. It will stop charging and you will then play from the outlet directly powering the steam deck, keeping your battery at 80% in a very healthy state. To learn more about the decky, you can watch my other video, which I will link in the description about the seven steam deck hacks you must know. Watch that video. It will guide you through how to install decky loader, how to install power tools and then how to activate this charge limit. And now if the cable is really bothering you, you can always purchase an elbow adapter, which will help move the cable back and not be in your way so much when playing plugged in. I also recommend a longer power delivery cable, something like three meters. But what's wrong with a little burp now and then? Tip number two. Don't let your battery go below 15% and especially discharge fully. As we stated in tip number one, batteries hate charging and discharging. And they especially hate charging to full and discharging to zero. So try to keep it over 15%. But there is one more reason to not let your battery die. There was a bug that if you use any form of underclocking or your steam deck, lowering the frequency of your CPU, GPU or so on, and you let your battery die completely, you might be stuck with this lower frequency. There are multiple reports that happened to some people that even happened to me. And I had to return my deck for replacement because of it. Never discharged fully and try to not go below 15%. But of course, it's tip number one. If you're at home, if you have an outlet convenient next to you, play plugged in. Tip number three. Don't use standby mode unless you really need it. And I mean really need it, especially overnight. Standby mode is there so you can pause your game for a while, come back to it and continue the tricky thing about standby mode is that it uses a lot of power. It's not like turning your steam deck off. Most of your components will be powered. If you keep it like that for a long time, your battery will drain. And remember tip number two, you will breach the 15% and sometimes it will die completely bang, bing, Bang, Bing And sometimes it will die completely being on a standby mode. So use it only with a purpose. Don't use it as a shutdown method for your steam deck. Please. Tip number four. Don't use a screen protector. I know some of you will go, but Zhak! going to get scratched. He's going to be broken. Are you stupid? Let me share my perspective. You don't need a protector for your steam deck. When I first purchased my steam deck before it came, I had stocked all sorts of accessories while waiting for over eight to nine months and I have a screen protector, but I have purchased was the 512 gigabyte version. In my view, the steam deck is a robust piece of equipment that is usually placed somewhere in a protective case in the bag on the desk. It's not like a phone screen. You're not putting it in your pockets and protect it. You will not leave it display down somewhere. it will not jump around in your back and unprotected without the cover. So I had the protector for maybe over six months. So not only it completely made my math screen useless, but it also didn't serve any purpose. Tip number five. Don't ever charge your steam deck in its case. A lot of people think that's a great idea. They drill holes on top of their cases. First charging generates heat. Heat is the main enemy of electronics and especially batteries. When you're charging inside the case, it's generating more heat. Not to mention it can turn on while it's in the case, which will generate even more heat. It can set something on fire. It can kill your deck because it has no way of cooling out while in the case. Not to mention all those steam decks you see falling from the cases when people grab them. A lot of people don't zip up the case. And when they grab it by the handle to carry it somewhere, the deck just flies out of it and breaks. So never charge your deck inside the case and to protect yourself from having your deck accidentally falling from your case. I recommend you buying a case like mine. It has a Velcro strip that goes over the deck. So even if it's unzipped and you grab it, your deck will not fly away. It also has slots for SD cards. It has a big compartment underneath the deck where you can store your power bank, your charging adapter, USB hub, cables, all sorts of things. It's amazing. Check the links in the description if you want to purchase them. I have included links from Amazon and from AliExpress. And keep in mind that those are affiliate links. So while there is no additional cost for you, you're helping this channel by purchasing from those links. And I thank you very much. Tip number six, don't leave your frames uncapped. And I know we're all striving for those 60 and above. But let's put that on pause for a moment and consider something different. Optimal frames per second can be a bit of a moving target. Dynamic and subjective. Picture this, your game is sometimes going to 60 frames, sometimes dipping down to 45, 50, instead of leaving this uncapped, which will create visual stutters for you. Tap it to 40 frames per second with 40 khertz refresh rate of the screen. This will create a way better and smoother visual experience, more responsive game to also save battery juice so you'll be able to play longer while having a smoother gaming experience. So don't be afraid to experiment with games that are not hitting that 60 frames target. And even if they are, always cap them. Cap them at 60 and leave them there. There's no point of going over 60. Now let's talk about the final tip, which is never forget to use the back buttons of the tech. I've always hated to sprint, clicking the joystick down. It's so inconvenient. I feel like I'm applying so much pressure, I'm going to break it. So instead I use the back buttons. It's easy to hold. You can just hold it, move around, jump around, look around. And that's not all. The back buttons can be easy to access buttons that are always on the tip of your fingers for dashing or jumping picture. This, are you able, let's say you're jumping with a at some game. Are you able to jump and maybe rotate at the same time? Let's say we are playing Deep Rock Galactic for instance, and there's so much more use of those buttons. If you're not used to using them yet, they've seen my words, make sure you assign them right away quick actions, fast paced actions, something you need to reach quick. Dodging is an amazing example and start using them now. One more tip. I've covered this in my previous video with the steam deck hacks. Don't put them on the side. Instead, push inside. It's way easier to use them like that. When I learned that this changed the way I use them and I started assigning every single button to every single game I play. That's it for this video guys. Seven things to never do with your Steam Deck. I know I haven't been uploading for a while. There was a lot going on. I made a lot of promises and some of them I didn't keep. As you can see, I'm in a new place, in a proper studio now. I love it here. I will start uploading more frequently. So expect more videos. Please subscribe to the channel. It helps me a lot, a lot more than you think. I love seeing new subscribers. I love seeing comments. I love people asking questions. I usually respond to every single comment, especially if somebody needs help. So please subscribe, comment, like the video and I'll see you guys in the next video.
