Installing Battle.Net on Steam Deck Guide

There are a lot of guides getting around the internet with the steps on how to install Battle.Net on Steam Deck. I’ve tried some out with varying success and then just decided to have a crack at installing it myself in different ways. You can also use a third-party standalone app/script called NonSteamLaunchers to complete this process for you, if you so choose. NonSteamLaunchers is also available as a Decky Loader plugin, if you prefer.

I’ve run through the Battle.Net install quite a few times now, mainly due to my own fuck ups. For example: there was one time Battle.Net just simply stopped launching and when I started digging into why, I found out that this was because when I was trying to clean up unused folders in compatdata I accidentally removed it entirely…

So ah, don’t do that. Anyway, my own mishaps aside, onto the guide:

How to install Battle.Net on Steam Deck

Disclaimer: There are some games that will NOT work online. For example, later Call of Duty titles generally have another level of anti-cheat that will probably get you banned if you do attempt to play online.

1. Swap into Desktop Mode on your Steam Deck
2. Open ProtonUp-QT(if you don’t have have this, open Discover and download it) select ‘Add version’ and select GE-Proton10-4. At time of writing, GE-Proton10-4 works best.
3. Head over to to the Battle.Net website and select ‘Download Battle.Net’ from the top-right menu
4. Right-click the Battle.Net installer and select ‘Add to Steam’
5. Open Steam and right-click on your newly added shortcut, select ‘Properties’, head to ‘Compatibility’, click the checkbox for ‘Force the use of specific Steam Play compatibility tool’ and select GE-Proton10-4′
6. Run the installer by launching your shortcut on Steam. You can do this either in Gaming Mode or Desktop Mode. I recommend staying in Desktop Mode.
7. Once the install is complete, you’ll need to find the folder it has installed into which will be located in your compatdata folder. The compatdata folder will be located in this path: ‘/home/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata’. You will need to find the number that corresponds to your install, open that folder then head through to ‘/pfx/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Battle.net’ then right-click the Battle.net.exe and select ‘add to Steam’
8. You’ll need to do the same to the installed Battle.Net exe as you did with the installer. Right-click your newly added exe, select ‘Properties’, head to ‘Compatibility’, click the checkbox for ‘Force the use of specific Steam Play compatibility tool’ and select GE-Proton10-4′
9. Swap back into Gaming Mode and run Battle.Net

A small note: To find the number that corresponds to your Battle.Net install, you will have to manually dig through the ‘drive_c’ folder of each numbered folder within your compatdata folder to find your Battle.Net install. I would suggest sorting the folders by ‘modified date’ and digging through the latest folders first.

Now that you’ve been through the steps to install Battle.Net on your Steam Deck, you can go ahead and login to your account to access your library. However, please do keep my disclaimer in mind so you don’t get yourself banned from any online play. As my first test, I Installed Warcraft 3 Reforged and had a crack at the fan-made Warcraft 3 campaign ‘Rise of the Blood Elves’. That test was fairly lengthy as I ended up playing it right through to the finish. I went on to write a review of it. I highly recommend it.