DragonSword Requirements, Steam Deck and Settings

DragonSword: Awakening is an Unreal Engine 5 open-world game in a 25 GB package, Windows only. The published requirements are moderate, but one line on the store page is doing more work than the rest of the table combined.

Minimum

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• OS: Windows 10
• Processor: Intel i5-9400F
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660
• DirectX: Version 12
• Storage: 25 GB available space

Recommended

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• OS: Windows 10
• Processor: Intel i7-9700F
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
• DirectX: Version 12
• Storage: 25 GB available space

The SSD line is not boilerplate

Both tiers carry the same note, and Hound13 marked it with a warning symbol:

※ IMPORTANT: An SSD is strictly required for an optimal gameplay experience. Installing the game on an HDD may result in extended loading times, texture pop-in, framerate drops, or unexpected crashes.

Most publishers list "SSD recommended." This one lists crashes as a consequence. In an open-world UE5 title that streams assets as you move, that is a plausible failure mode rather than legal cover. If you have a spare HDD and a full SSD, this is not the game to compromise on.

No macOS, no Linux build

Windows only. There is no native Linux build — Steam Deck and desktop Linux run it through Proton, which Hound13 stated before launch.

Steam Deck: Playable

Valve rates it Playable, not Verified. The single flagged caveat is interface text is not legible — some in-game text is small on a 7-inch screen. Everything else passes: the default controller configuration is fully functional, controller glyphs match the Deck, and the default configuration is performant.

A community preset that reportedly holds "very stable 30 FPS":

Effect Quality is the setting to drop first on any hardware, not just the Deck.

Two crashes with known workarounds

D3D12 crash on certain GPUs and drivers. Acknowledged by Hound13 as an open issue at the time of writing. Workaround: add -dx11 to the game's launch options in Steam (right-click → Properties → Launch Options).

Startup crash after changing certain graphics settings. Delete DS\Saved\Config\Windows\GameUserSettings.ini and the game will regenerate it with defaults. This is also the fix players use for the forced-upscaling complaint — one reviewer describes upscaling that could not be disabled and "messed up my screen" until the config file was deleted.

Frame Generation specifically has a history here: enabling it crashed the game in an early retail patch (fixed in 1.0.2), and it caused crashes in the demo builds too. If you are troubleshooting, turn it off first.

Performance reports from players

Two patterns show up consistently and are worth calibrating against.

It runs well for its class. Optimisation is one of the most-praised aspects in reviews, including on Linux, integrated graphics and the Deck.

Stutter can worsen with progress. One 24-hour review: "Performance wise its fine if it wasn't for some random stutters that i get even while capped at 60fps… Edit: the performance starts tanking later in the game to the point of constant stutter." This is a single attributed report, not a measured pattern, but it is a specific enough claim to keep in mind if your first few hours are smooth.

Invisible textures have their own discussion thread on the Steam board.

Backing up your saves

Hound13's stated policy is that mods and save editing are unsupported. Independently of that, multiple players have reported save loss — one lost 31 hours, another lost their save after quitting during a bugged quest, neither with mods involved.

Saves live in DS\Saved\SaveGames\[SteamUserID]\. Copy that folder somewhere periodically. It costs nothing and there is no in-game cloud rollback to fall back on.

Price, size and what is in the box

$29.99 at launch, no discount, no Early Access period — full release day one. A free demo ran 5 June to 7 July 2026 and was removed afterwards; demo saves did not carry over.

The base game includes 19 heroes, 8 chapters, 59 Steam achievements, Steam Cloud, family sharing, and co-op via invite codes (2-player Battle, 3-player Raid). Four additional heroes are on the roadmap as free content, not DLC.

Eleven languages for interface and subtitles: English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, French, German, Spanish (Spain), Russian, Thai and Portuguese (Brazil). Korean is the only language with full audio.

About the DLC

There are 20 DLC items — a $19.99 Deluxe Pack (familiar, artbook, OST), costumes at $3.99, swimsuit costumes at $7.99, and familiars at $3.99.

One point deserves flagging on a specs page because it affects the buying decision rather than performance: familiars are not purely cosmetic. They come in types, and owning a complete type set grants movement bonuses — per-movement-type speed and stamina-cost reduction. Every type has one or two familiars locked behind paid DLC. This is the most-cited criticism in the game's negative reviews, and the top-voted one cites "nearly $80 of DLC on the steam page."

Whether that matters to you depends on how much you care about traversal speed in an open world. It is not a combat power gap, and it is not hidden — but it is also not a hat.