The sequel to the award-winning game Hellblade Senua’s Sacrifice, Senua’s Saga Hellblade II, is a huge hit, just like its predecessor. Following the storyline of Senua and her journey in the Viking Iceland, the game features a very immersive storyline and unforgiving combat. Since its release on PC and Xbox Series X/S, many have also tried running it on their handhelds, including the Steam Deck. However, due to the Deck’s inferior system configuration, running Hellblade II is a very difficult task for it. With the default settings, you will just manage to hit the 24–25 FPS mark, which is, for an immersive game like this, not enough. So, in this guide, we have shared the best settings for Senua’s Sage Hellblade II so that you can run it above 30 FPS at all times.
The cost of portability that handhelds are known for is lack of raw power. You cannot expect a 4090 to be featured in a handheld device and then carry it around. Powerful GPUs are large and hefty and require adequate ventilation for heat transfer. These are not to be coupled with handhelds, which is why handhelds come with custom-made CPUs and GPUs. That said, the hardware configuration of the Deck is not something to write home about, but it can still do its job with the right in-game settings.
Also read: Senua’s Saga Hellblade II Steam Deck Lenovo Legion Go & Asus Rog Ally Support Details
Best Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II Steam Deck Settings for high FPS & performance
Although the game is currently not listed as Playable or Verified for the Deck, players have been successful in running it on the handheld. If you load the game on your Deck for the first time, the in-game Graphics settings will be set to Low by default. But even after this, you will notice that the FPS is below the 25 mark. So, to get a decent boost, open the game, go to Settings, then select the Graphics option, and apply the given changes as shared:
Display:
- Display: 1
- Display Mode: Fullscreen
- Resolution: Default or 1280x800p
- Custom Upscaler: AMD FSR 3
- Upscaler Quality Mode: Performance
- Sharpness: 20
General:
- HDR: Off
- Gamma: 50 (doesn’t affect FPS)
- Vertical Sync: Off
- Variable Rate Shading: On
Quality:
- Global Preset: Custom
Advanced Settings:
- Antialiasing: Low
- Post–Processing Quality: Low
- Effects Quality: Standard
- Shadow Quality: Low
- Reflection Quality: Low
- Global Illumination Quality: Low
- Volumetrics: Low
- Texture Quality: Low
- View Distance: Medium
- Foliage Details: Low
With these settings applied, your Deck should be able to run the game at over 30 FPS in most areas, but expect a few FPS drops here and there. And, if you are someone who prefers performance over visuals, you can set the Upscaler Quality Mode to Ultra Performance and get around 35+ FPS in-game on your Deck. But do note that the visuals will take a huge hit.
That said, these are the settings we recommend you try while running Senua’s Sage Hellblade II on your Steam Deck. Feel free to customize these settings according to your preferences. Anyway, we hope that you find this guide informative. If you did, consider visiting Android Gram for more such content on all things gaming.
