We have some fantastic new and returning Plugins from Decky Loader.
Decky Loader is a must-have for Steam Deck users. This fantastic software offers many customisation options and can help access more settings for your Steam Deck plus much more from the quick menu. You can view what's available in your browser here but we recommend using the built-in Plugin store after you have installed Decky Loader to your Steam Deck. We'll cover how to install Decky Loader later in the article but for now, let's take a look at our favourites and some of the new plugins available.
PlayCount
This plugin does exactly what you may think. PlayCount displays the current player counts for your Steam games. You can customise this plugin from where you want it to appear on the screen to the badge icon and it even has a wonderful animation when you first select a game that counts upwards to the current total number of players.
HLTB for Deck (How Long to Beat)
How Long to Beat is finally back on Decky Loader and this time is fully functional. This great plugin removes the need to use external websites if you would like to know how long on average a game may take you to play through. The plugin displays an average time for the main story, main story plus any extras and a completionist time frame. You can customise this with a "View Details" option which will take you to the external site for a full breakdown of different play styles plus reviews and much more.
IsThereAnyDeal for Deck
Is There Any Deal is now available on Decky Loader. This fantastic new plugin will show a game's lowest price on Steam along the bottom of your Steam Deck when viewing the store page of a game. You can't navigate to the bar that pops up with your controller so you have to use the touch screen or a mouse and when you click on it, it will take you to the game history via an external link in your browser.
Storage Cleaner
This plugin has had some great updates recently. The Storage Cleaner plugin now gives a full breakdown of Steam and non-Steam games installed that are taking shader cache. You also have some great warnings about games that don't have cloud save support as well. If anything this is a great tool for removing leftover files when uninstalling games and keeping your storage clean and healthy.
KDE Connect
KDE Connect can now be used from game mode which allows you to use your phone as a keyboard and mouse or remote input. This is great for copying/pasting passwords to your Steam Deck's clipboard. This is a very useful tool but can be complex to set up for the first time but you can use our guide to help you out.
AutoSuspend
We still can't believe we need a plugin for this type of feature but this one could be a lifesaver. This plugin has very simple configuration options but we have found the default to be perfect. This plugin will warn you when you reach low battery power and eventually suspend the Steam Deck in case you miss the warning. This is great if you are fully engrossed in your gameplay and don't want to risk losing progress/game save data because you missed a low battery warning.
CSS Loader
One of our favourites - CSS Loader is a unique plugin with its own plugin store that allows you to customise different themes. We enjoy using CSS Loader to make our home section display our recent games in almost full screen with larger background images but this is only a drop in the ocean compared to what it can do. You could have game tiles with rounded corners or change the layout completely to your desire. It's all very much personal preference so there is no right or wrong way to use this plugin and we're sure you'll find something in the store to suit you.
SteamGridDB
Steam Grid DB is a very quick and easy way of changing/updating the artwork on your Steam Deck for your game library thumbnails. This plugin is especially useful if you are using non-Steam games and launchers. Instead of having a grey icon you can update them with your choice of artwork for easier navigation and a much more pleasant aesthetic.
Wine Cellar
Wine Cellar is a quick and easy way to manage custom Proton versions from within game mode instead of having to switch to desktop mode. We have found updates for the Proton versions can be a day or two behind but this is a simple and easy-to-use tool to manage the installations and updates.
Junk-Store
Junk-Store is a solution for managing and integrating non-Steam games into your Steam Deck library. This plugin can remove the clunky workarounds the community has come up with but like KDE Connect it's not a simple setup. Luckily we have an easy-to-follow guide that will have you up and running in less than 7 minutes.
ProtonDB Badges
Proton DB Badges will display an interactive status badge for all your Steam games on Steam Deck. This handy tool displays the game's current status from Borked (not working) to Platinum (runs perfectly out of the box). You can click the interactive badge that will take you to their external site where you can view the status of the game across various operating systems.
Those are just a few of our favourite returning and new plugins for Decky Loader. If you haven't yet installed Decky Loader you can follow our latest guide below to get started.