The Ultimate Steam Deck Plugin Tier List

everyone loves a good tier list and especially when you get a bunch of steam deck addicted nerds together like us and sure to spark some heated debate in the comments that's what we're gonna do today we're going to go through all the steam deck plugins and we're gonna rank them as we go these are not going to be in any specific order so stay tuned to the end to see the full list we are obviously going to have some different thoughts and opinions so you might not agree with all of these and that's okay what's up guys my name is Randall and you are watching Tech Stewart so for this video we're going to be focusing primarily on decky loader which is where we're going to get all of our steam diet plug-ins for our steam deck first off let's answer the question what is decky loader for those of you not familiar ducky loader is a Homebrew application that can be installed on your steam deck and it can be utilized in gaming mode by using the quick access menu button it's super convenient and it offers users like you and me to create plugins to solve problems that the steam dug doesn't have natively these are most likely developers and Avid steam deck users that have identified new and creative ways to enhance your experience while using the steam duck big shout out to you guys gals for all your hard work on these and this tiered list is in no way shape or form a knock on the work you've done on these based on what tier I assigned them to they're all awesome in their own ways I'm excited to show some of these and give some tears based on my own experience with them everyone will have their different opinions so I definitely want to hear that in the comments below so let's look at how you install decky loader first off we need to head over to desktop mode on the steam deck press and hold the power button on the top of our steam deck we're now going to switch to desktop mode you should be able to do this on just the steam deck using the track pads for Mouse movement but if you want to make it easier on yourself you can connect to a mouse and keyboard you know if that makes it easier for you open up whichever browser you are using and download the application from their website linked on the screen click right here to download ducky loader and you'll be able to see it in your downloads folder when it finishes double click on it from here you have two options the first is the pre-release option and then you also have the release option I would just go with the release option once the install is finished we can go back over to gaming mode now that we're back to gaming mode it's very conveniently located by using the quick access menu on the right side of the steam deck you know the one with the three dots scroll all the way to the bottom where you see the plug symbol here you can download and access all the plugins available for decky loader there is a little Store icon here with all the free to use plugins that you can download to your device okay so let's move on to the steam dug plugins and let's start doing our tier list so this first one up I felt like this one for me it just wasn't really that interesting but for you it might be amazing this is the hltv which stands for how long to beat a simple plugin that gives you time frames for how long you can be expected to meat any particular game this is probably very useful for linear games but for your open world RPGs it's going to mean very different depending on the player so for me I don't really care too much about how long it's going to take me to get through a game I mean this is completely subjective but I am assigning hltv to the F tier moving on to the next one one of the more self-explanatory plugins on the list is the decki recorder which it does just what it says it does if for whatever reason you want to record your screen this is the option for the steam duck since this is not native functionality into the steam deck in my opinion it's a big one on this list and even if it's relatively simple it matters a lot Deku recorder is a great addition to the steam deck and it's one that is going to be critical for a lot of people I ranked this one really really high on my list not be a tier the next one up let's take a look now at our next one called proton DB badges you're all familiar with the steam deck compatibility program where steam tests games and gives it a specific rating such as verified playable unsupported or unknown well there are still a lot of unknown out there and for those of you who have a large steam Library the proton demon badges could be very beneficial in knowing how well a game could work on your steam deck you'll encounter varying tiers decided upon by proton DBS such as platinum gold silver bronze native and hopefully that's it because that's all I was able to find the biggest drawback is this is only helpful if you have purchased the game it will not help you while on the store trying to buy a game in my opinion that is a huge downside to this but overall if you have a big Library this actually really does help out a lot and it just adds to what the steam deck is already doing through a steam store proton DB badges is another one that I'm particularly fond of and most likely will keep installed for the life of my steam deck its only flaw is that you can't use it while buying games on Steam that's a big drawback and I get why you can't but still it's the only reason that I'm ranking this as an interior plugin instead of an S tier so up next we won't be adding this to our to your list because it's no longer available but decki settings mysteriously was taken down from decky loader hopefully it makes a triumphant return soon but I wanted to just say that I wasn't going to add this to the tier list so rest in peace decky settings I hope to see you soon moving on even if you don't like any other plug-in I mentioned today this one is the one you should download anyways this one's called vibrant deck a plug-in that sole purpose is to make your steam deck colors pop and get you even closer to that OLED screen we all love and endure from the Nintendo switch OLED this allows you to completely customize the screen saturation to your liking you can overdo it though so be careful I like to keep mine at around 150 160 and I typically lean more on the side of more saturation and any more than that it's just too much in my opinion this plugin is the must have option for your steam deck that can really transform the look while you're playing games it just makes the colors pop more more and for me that's a super important feature I'm raking this one at the very top of this list in the S tier if you don't install any of these other plugins but vibrant deck you'll be super happy with your decision this next one is super handy for those of you that have multiple controllers connected at any one time it's intuitively called controller tools and it shows you all the USB or Bluetooth connected controllers and even more importantly a battery percentage level next to it that's super convenient if you are docking the steam deck and playing it on a monitor TV you can quickly go over and see how much battery you have left in your controllers and what Bluetooth devices and controllers you have connect for those of you who dock your steam deck and play with the separate controller this one is a must-have option for you for me it definitely deserves to be up there I'm giving this one a d-tier ranking on my list for some this won't matter and others it'll be gold this one is called the storage cleaner and it allows you to quickly visualize select and clear all your Shader cache and compact data that is taking up extra space on your hard drive there is a way to kill Shader cache by using a script through desktop mode but this allows you to do it directly from gaming mode and through decking loader as a plug-in storage cleaner is a great addition to the steam deck and even if it doesn't make it to the top of this list it still deserves credit for being a valuable plug-in option I'm ranking this one along the beach here up next if you're like me there are days where you just don't know what the hell to play for those days you need the deck roulette plug-in that helps you by randomly selecting a game in your library for you to play obviously not as necessity but if you're feeling indecisive this might be a nice to have I'm a super big fan of this plugin and if you're someone who is a little bit on the indecisive side I'm ranking this one pretty high up on my list as being super unique we are going to rate this one along our B tier everyone loves to get their freebies and this next one is just them this plugin is called free games and once installed we'll send you notifications of the free games that come up every so often on the epic game store and other game stores as well because everyone loves free we're gonna rank this one pretty high on our list today it's this is probably way too high on this list but out of the sheer convenience factor this one is getting ranked High I mean come on who doesn't love free games I'm ranking this one all the way up at an a tier that's probably stupid but whatever it's too late to turn back now let's talk about our next one it's called Auto flat packs this plugin automatically updates flat packs for you so you don't need to go back to desktop mode to do it super helpful if you have a bunch of apps installed through desktop mode Auto flat packs is really convenient if you spend most of your time in gaming mode which most of us are for me this one is definitely not the flashiest plugin on the list but it's super useful I'm ranking this one at RC tier I'm super excited about this next one it's definitely one of my favorites it's called steam grid TV this plugin allows you to browse a library of game art that can replace different aspects of the original artwork in your steam library for any of your games I love this so you can customize it the way you want and you are just stuck with a box art that can sometimes be super boring and Bland I'm sure there are some games where it's a little limited but let's just take a look at my favorite game currently and that's Elden ring for example after we have steam grid DB installed go to the game you want to change the artwork for click on the menu button on your steam back at the top right go down to change artwork and then if you scroll over to manage at the top you see all the different options we have it'll show you the current artwork and allow you to change each one how you like take a look at these here that I changed for Elden ring these are super super cool my second favorite on this list of plugins for the steam deck is the steam grid DV I absolutely love the customization options it provides you and for for me I'm ranking it right up there at the top with the vibrant deck this one was in s tier from the moment I installed it next up on our list we have another favorite and that's the power tools plugin this is yet another way you can further customize your performance on the steam deck this is definitely for more advanced users and I don't recommend it for all but hey it's there and if you're a tinkerer and you need better performance and you want to perfect that performance or the system this is your go-to but I think in general but you already have access to in the performance settings it's pretty good already this one is definitely going to appeal to more advanced technical users of the steam deck for me I feel that it can be also really risky if you don't know what you are doing and for that reason I'm gonna rank it a little bit lower at our D tier on my list alright the next one we're going to take a look at it's called CSS loader this is another one that's pretty awesome honestly this plugin allows you to install different themes or change to the look of the UI it's almost like a plug-in within a plugin with all of the options you have here I really like the round one it rounds the corner on all the game artwork that one's really cool I like that one another one I really like changes the size of the game artwork on the individual title screen less is more for me but there are lots of options to choose from here so definitely check this one out it's there's a lot to look at in hindsight I think that I could ranked this one a little bit higher but I'm not turning back we are moving on the CSS loader is a fantastic option honestly it's it's another layer of customization that's great for us I'm ranking this one out of B tier but honestly it's Fringe a tier as well I really like this next one as well it's called audio loader and it allows you to customize the sound effects and songs playing in your menus this one is pretty cool let's just say you're a big user of Xbox game pass and you want your steam dug to sound more like the Xbox you can do that here let's say you want to use the breath of the Wild theme for Legend of Zelda you can do that here as well and you can apply the sound effects and music in some of those cases so pretty awesome definitely another way that you can customize the steam deck audio loader is another great customization option that allows you to really make the steam deck even more specific to your own needs I really like this one but it definitely has some limitations I'm ranking this one at a c tier on my list moving on much like some of the other plugins this one is another way to further customize your experience on Steam duck another crowd favorite is the animation changer that allows you to customize your boot and suspended animations now you have the opportunity to change it to your liking I'll show something here just for reference but go and explore these more on your own but just be warned sometimes it can take a little bit more time to boot up or suspend because of these animations so if you pick a longer one it's going to take longer for it to shut down it's going to take longer for it to open so keep that in mind this one is honestly really cool having the ability to change the boot up or suspend animations is pretty freaking cool man how many other console-like devices can you do that with it definitely can impact performance and or cause longer boot or suspend times and for that reason alone I'm ranking this one along RC tier on to the next one now if you are like me and you absolutely hate getting the 10 notification right before your steam dug battery runs out you'll really like this one the auto suspend plugin allows you to customize two different notifications for your steam deck battery with a warning and critical level I absolutely love this one because finding out at 10 usually is an oh crap moment for me trying to scramble to find the charger now I can customize at what point to warn me and at what point I need to absolutely get this sucker plugged in to my power bank or the charger so I don't interrupt my gaming this is a great additional feature for those of us that need that extra notification that it's time to plug in your steam deck for me this one is getting up to a c tier on my list and it's definitely staying on my steam deck forever this next one is for those of us who like to swap between games without having to lose our progress and close it out we have the pause games plugin for the steam deck man the decky loader it's pretty awesome isn't it these plugins are all but incredible here you can switch between two games to suspend and resume playing at will with minimum to no loss performance I have not tried this on all games so I don't want to say a hundred percent of the time you won't experience any performance loss well most consoles can't even do this so it's a big win in my book this is honestly going to be a lot higher ranked for some of you and I totally get why for me the pause games plugin is pretty unique and for most systems you can't even accomplish pausing games and moving directly to another game like this but I never do that and typically binge on one game at a time so it's just not useful enough for me you can roast me for this in the comments I'm fine with it this one is getting a d ranking for me on my tier list another useful plugin to make our lives easier is called the shoddy plug-in this one allows you to move all your screenshots to a specific folder making it much easier to find and it just helps with organizing them I'm not super big on screenshots but if you are this one is the right option for you I actually don't take screenshots as much as I do recording my screen so shoddy it's just not as critical for me still a great plug-in that conveniently organizes your screenshots I'm ranking this one as a d tier plugin on my list it's just a little limiting and I think that's the biggest drawback moving on if you are using Bluetooth headphones while you're playing games this next one is going to be of particular interest to you this one is just called Bluetooth that's it but there is a significant importance to this because honestly it's a pain in the butt to go to the Bluetooth settings within the settings menu and connect to your Bluetooth headphones every time you turn on your steam deck this makes it so you can get to it from the quick access menu and the plugin menu much faster much easier to read connect when you want to use your headphones it will also show other Bluetooth devices like controller but for me the headphones is the biggest one a quick note you still have to pair it originally with steam duck through the steam menu settings to start then after that you can use it through the plugin I actually like this one overall but compared to some of the other plugins the benefit and features they don't quite measure up as a headphones User it's great but if you don't use headphones it's not going to be that useful for you in my opinion so for this one I'm going to end up ranking it at the e-tier next up on this list is just okay in my opinion but it could be a lot better the deck FAQs is what it's called and it provides some game guides at your fingertips while you're playing your game obviously not all games will have a guide and from my experience the guides available are not very thorough or all inclusive but I like the idea it just needs more content so for you guys out there and you're interested in doing guides definitely go check this out and let's add some more guides to this unfortunately this one just doesn't hit the mark for me it's definitely convenient but there just isn't enough content yet to make it worthwhile I'm ranking this one at the bottom of our list for now at the F tier but I think this one has a lot more potential for this next one if you're really big into emulation then the meta deck plug-in will appeal to you this plugin allows you to use metadata for non-steam games that you have added to your library so if you have Super Mario or some other game installed you can apply the metadata to the info tab for that game I'm not tested this on all games but the ones I have it works pretty well if you are playing a lot of non-steam games this one could come in really handy for me I played primarily steam purchase games and it just doesn't appeal to me that much it's definitely helpful for emulation but other than that not of much use I'm raking this one at the e-tier on my list up next this one is going to be great if you're playing music software while playing your games on a deck it's called music control and allows you to control your music using the Quick Settings menu while you're in game super helpful even though it's not something I typically do I'm boring I like that no matter how repetitive the score is in a game I'm going to suffer through it a great added plugin to provide music users the ability to play Spotify or others like it with ease it's super convenient for sure but I don't use any of these so for me using control is getting ranked a little lower but I realize the value here I'm ranking it up here as a c tier this next one is helpful if at any point you need to take some quick notes while you're playing your games if you needed to remember a passcode to get into that locked Treasure Chest but have a horrible memory here you go this one's for you congratulations no more paper no cell phone needed you have your handy steam deck plug-in to save you this next one is definitely unique and probably has more use cases than what I thought of for me it just in a sense is limiting on the steam deck in general I'm ranking this one towards the bottom at our up tier if you have other ideas or are using the notebook plugin let me know down in the comments and tell me why well that was fun wasn't it this is definitely completely subjective and you might have your own opinions on what tier each one of the steamed up plugins fits into no we didn't cover every single plugin available through deckyloader but honestly we got pretty close and I tried to pick out the ones I thought would matter the most to people let me hear from you down in the comments on which ones I missed or what tier you would change for which plugin I'm sure you have your opinions let's hear them thank you so much for joining me again today it's always nice to see some familiar faces with the new if you enjoy the content don't forget to subscribe to my channel for future Tech related videos I'll see you all in my next one bye guys [Music] foreign

Channel: Tech Stewart

Views: 145,095

Keywords: Steam Deck, Steam Deck Plugins, Plugin Tier List, Steam Deck Plugin Tier List, Valve Steam Deck, Steam Deck Review, Steam Deck Configurations, Customize Steam Deck

Id: PBZFpJWul9g

Length: 19min 52sec (1192 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 01 2023