wes
Published
Extreme stuttering occurs due to shader compilation occurring only when in-game. This can be fixed by placing a community-compiled DXVK state cache file "r5apex.dxvk-cache" (can be found in Reddit's /r/linux_gaming) in .../steamapps/shadercache/1172470/DXVK_state_cache/. Afterwards, the game runs flawlessly.
The latest patch (on 2022-03-14, https://steamdb.info/patchnotes/8312665/) removes the "easyanticheat_x64.so" (sha256: d971d8d9b4f68021ef3330d500f1c9a2b7e91e484a0d26c0233ad63fe8ac2388 easyanticheat_x64.so) file from the game folder. With it absent, the game will kick you from matchmaking immediately when trying to enter queue. Readding the same file back to .../steamapps/common/Apex Legends/ fixes this and you can play again. Since Linux EAC support is still enabled server-side and the game is Steam Deck verified, its removal is almost certainly an accident and will be corrected very soon.
After applying the DXVK state cache fix and the (hopefully) temporary anti-cheat fix, the game runs perfectly and with zero stutters.
Having to perform annoying manual fixes in order to get a playable experience is definitely going to scare away some Steam Deck and Linux users from playing this game. I'll say that it's worth the hassle to get a great battle royale game to play on Linux better than intended on its native platform, Windows.
Proton-GE-6.21_GE_2-1 GloriousEggroll
Server issues appear to be frequent as the game only just came out and is receiving hotfix updates very often. One such update that released while I was in-game halted the match I was in, forcing me to surrender. (Unsure if this is a one-time issue, but it was definitely not OS-specific)
All issues you will face like slow matchmaking in Conquest Trial and the game's default language being Mandarin will occur regardless of your system until the game itself is patched.
The game runs almost identically to native Windows.
Cloud saves don't seem to work correctly, even on Windows.
Runs perfectly.
Cloud saves don't seem to work properly, even on Windows.
Perfect, for now.
Only issue is that Unity engine crashes when exiting the game. Anti-cheat is in the works so compatibility in the future is unknown.
EasyAntiCheat error on start.
Usual EAC popup on starting game (EasyAntiCheat Error: Failed to create IGameClient instance!). You will receive a warning stopping you from connecting to a server (Cannot join an Anti-Cheat server without Anti-Cheat enabled.). There's no EAC-disabled servers at the moment so I'm unsure of how the game performs on Linux. The game works fine on a QEMU/KVM virtual machine.
EasyAntiCheat breaks the game.
The game starts with an EAC error popup. Another popup will show before trying to connect to a server, so you won't be able to even enter the game. There are no EAC-disabled servers at the moment so performance is unknown. This game will work fine on a QEMU/KVM virtual machine.
Unplayable, cannot connect to a match
gamemoderun mangohud %command%
When entering queue for either mode, the game says that it's collecting the player's level but does not continue any further.
No longer able to enter matches.
The game menu starts and you can begin matchmaking. However after finding a match, you'll receive a "Could not connect to server" message before being able to choose a class and you will be kicked back to the main menu with a leaver's penalty. Unsure if this is EasyAntiCheat related.
F1-F8 menus are missing backgrounds and they appear blurry with high bloom, making it hard to read. It seems that the background to these menus does not render.
Enabling certain DLC in multiplayer sessions with friends who don't own the DLC caused the game to not start. Disabling the cosmetic-only DLCs seems to fix the issue.
Proton-GE-7.3, Proton 7.0, and Proton Experimental resulted in crashes immediately upon starting the game. Proton 6.3 works out of the box.
gamemoderun mangohud %command%
Averaged a stable 18 FPS with no stutters. The game utilizes very little hardware.
These performance issues occurred on Proton-GE-7.3, Proton Experimental, Proton 7.0, and Proton 6.3. While the game is technically playable, it is very hard to enjoy at under 20 FPS.
Game freezes shortly after pressing the initial PLAY button.
As of the playtest the game freezes during the loading account data loading screen.
Default Proton 8.0 caused the game to load infinitely. Forcing Proton Experimental in game properties fixes it. The game runs flawlessly at the 60 FPS cap and can be played online.
Latest update kicks you from game immediately.
Proton Experimental tested as well.
Unable to play multiplayer matches anymore. You will be kicked either during the map loading screen or shortly into hero select.
Proton-GE-6.21_GE_2-1 GloriousEggroll
Proton BattlEye Runtime must be installed on Steam. You can find this in the Tools tab.
You must include the "--disable-gpu" parameter in the launch options in order to use the launcher. I would recommend getting gamemode and optionally mangohud for better performance and monitoring. (gamemoderun mangohud %command% --disable-gpu)
The game performs very well on my mid-range system, often reaching 100+fps out of combat, solid 144fps in the training grounds, with dips into 60fps while in dense fights. It's a very enjoyable experience on Linux that I would recommend to anyone interested in a very social (free!) MMOFPS.
gamemoderun %command% -nostartupmovies
Multiplayer works perfectly as of March 2025.
Proton 9 fails to start the game. Proton Experimental allows the game to run without further issues. No problems with multiplayer.
The %command% -nostartupmovies launch option skips the intro videos.
BattleEye Linux support is not enabled.
I was able to play through the tutorial perfectly fine but when in-game or just in the player hub, you will constantly be kicked and placed somewhere in the player hub. Doing anything in this game, even exploring the hub, is completely impossible.
The game will not launch.
Changing OS setting and installing some dependencies like .Net and Visual C++ did nothing.
An error window titled "Themida" with the dialogue "An Error has ocurred while loading imports. Wrong DLL present." will open and dismissing it closes the game. This appears to be due to the code obfuscation software Themida, which may be a form of this game's anti-cheat.
DXVK_ASYNC=1 %command%
Infrequent stuttering occurs even when the game is on SSD storage. It's less terrible with launch argument DXVK_ASYNC=1 using GE-Proton.
On desktop, the game will crash at complete random every few hours. On Steam Deck, the game crashes even more frequently, often in under an hour of play. This occurs on both Proton 7.0 and GE-Proton
The EasyAntiCheat update completely broke SteamVR support. The headset will not show any image from the game but on the monitor and on desktop mode it seems to work fine. Virtual reality through Proton is completely unusable, despite promises for complete Proton support.
Video player support is also broken due to an ongoing bug involving Windows Media components (https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/1199). Due to this, Proton has disabled video players by default. Experimental video player support can be re-enabled by including --enable-avpro-in-proton as a launch argument. However, this will cause the game to crash upon loading a video player.
The inclusion of EAC broke virtual reality support for this virtual reality social game. SteamVR users on Linux are currently not allowed to play this title using their hardware. Unfortunately, the lack of AVPro support also prevents you from joining watch parties.
The EAC update has broken basic functionality and we may lose Proton compatibility at any time. I would recommend ChilloutVR for SteamVR users until VRChat re-enables virtual reality support, if ever.
Proton-5.9-GE-8-ST GloriousEggroll
Proton-5.9-GE-8-ST
Launcher has audio, but by default, the audio in game is completely missing.
Game runs slightly worse than on Windows, especially when many enemies are on screen.
The laucher gives me an error preventing me from hitting the red start button. (Failed to load URL http://launcher/agreement.html?page=CBA&language=en&steam=1&cluster=http://content.warframe.com with error ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED (-105).)
I was able to bypass this bug by switching the language to something other than English and then switching back to English and rapidly spamming the red AGREE button. This will create a crash error report window that can be ignored completely since nothing important actually crashes. The launcher will then show PLAY as normal from now on.
The error has to do with their terms and conditions agreement window and thus this workaround will likely have to be done every time it would normally ask you to agree to it. (e.g. using a language you've never played on before, using a different account, playing on a new update, etc.)
The game averages 60 FPS even with decent hardware capable of more.
A few crashes happened while changing graphics settings during game.
No matchmaking issues or launcher problems, even with EAC.
This report was made during day one of the pre-order early access.
