Sequel to the popular Town of Salem game, Town of Salem 2 is yet another successful title from indie developers, BlankMediaGames LLC. Released back in August 2023, Town of Salem 2 has been catering to a decent player base with consistent updates. Recently, the May 17 patch marked the end of the Ranked Season 2 in the game and also brought a ton of new changes, including role reworks, role changes, and even balance changes. Anyway, as the game is available on PC (also on Android and iOS), handheld gamers have been trying to play it on the go. But it has come to our attention that reports of the game not working on the Steam Deck have been more common recently. If you too are encountering this issue on your Deck, consider reading this guide until the end for more details.
The Steam Deck’s dependence on a Linux-based SteamOS is one of the primary reasons why many games fail to work properly on the handheld. Other popular handhelds, like the Asus Rog Ally and Lenovo Legion Go, run on Windows, which is why compatibility issues on such devices are a rare case. But since this is not the first time a game has encountered issues while running on the Deck, there are a bunch of workarounds for you to try and fix it.
Also read: EVERSPACE 2 crashing on Steam Deck: How to fix it
Town of Salem 2 not working on Steam Deck: How to fix it
Before jumping into the workarounds, you should understand that Town of Salem 2 is not a Deck Verified game. Due to this, such issues are to be expected. And, if you were hopeful of an official fix for this issue, it’s better to give up on this thought, as the developers themselves don’t recommend playing the game on the Deck. Anyway, here are the workarounds worth trying:
1) Change Proton Version
It is possible that the Proton version in use to run the game is causing it to not work on the Deck. To make sure this isn’t the case, you can switch to a different Proton version. You can do this by heading to your Steam Library, opening the Town of Salem 2’s tile, and selecting the Options button. Now, tap on Properties, and then on the Compatibility tab. Here, checkmark the Force Proton option, and select a different Proton version from the drop-down menu. You can consider using Proton Experimental, Proton GE, or Proton 8.0.1 (older version) to check if the issue persists.
2) Verify Game Files
Corrupted game files can also lead to this issue. So, we recommend that you verify the files to rule out this possibility. For this, access the game’s page in your Steam Library, and select Options. After this, go to Properties, and select the Installed Files tab. Here, tap on the Verify Integrity of Game Files option. Once selected, the scan will commence. Wait for a while for it to complete, and then launch the game to check if the issue persists.
3) Launch Options
You can try launching the game with a bunch of launch option commands. For this, go to the game’s Properties menu via Steam, and in the General tab, enter the following commands in the Launch Option textbox:
- PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%
- DXVK_ASYNC=1 %command%
- gamemoderun %command%
Once added, launch the game and check if the issue persists.
4) Reinstall
If nothing worked, all there’s left to do is reinstall the game on your Steam Deck. A faulty installation can also be the reason for crashing issues, which is why we recommend a complete reinstallation. Also, remember to install the game on your Deck’s internal storage, rather than an external one.
That said, these are the workarounds worth trying if Town of Salem 2 is not working on your Steam Deck. We hope that this guide has been helpful in providing you with all the workarounds you needed. For more such content on all things gaming, consider visiting Android Gram daily.
