7 mo. ago • 97%

Best deck games for a flight? (as in...possibly running on batteries)

Hi guys! So, yeah...Which games are good for a nice gaming session while on a flight? Last time I played one of the newer Tomb Raider games, and while performance was good, it decked (heh) the battery in less than 1h... So, while I like these too, if the flight doesn't have a socket under the seat I might want to play games that don't kill the battery immediately. What's your best/most addictive Deck games? Also, after the whole big N mess...how's the Switch emulation these days?

48 comments

You can call me a shill,

But I just get an Anker Prime 27,650mAh battery bank because it supports 140w PD.

Lasts my wife and myself a 4 hours flight with maybe 30% left over.

I got it because it can charge my laptop as well.

Steam deck is 40Whr and the battery is nearly 100Whr.

So you'll get 2.5 times longer playing time with it.

37
- Same here (well, different model--26k and 87W--but same strategy). Even just as a backup in case of unexpected travel hiccups, a large (airline approved) PD-capable battery back is very handy to have. I never worry about finding an outlet in an aircraft or airport, and I've spent my fair share of time stranded in transit.
  
  7
- Second this, especially if you do want to play bigger games like Cyberpunk. Also tends to come in handy for road trips, or extended stays outside which I love.
  
  3
- I've got a similar battery bank. It'll turn 4 hours of capability into 12, with no issues.
  
  Mine is a veektomx MAX65W. 20,000mah.
  
  Just be aware of capacities. The limit is either 100Wh or 160Wh depending on the airline. That works out at 27,000mah or 43,250mah respectively. Most power banks are below this, but not all.
  
  3
- Limitations are the spice of life
  
  2
- I have a small 10,000mAh power bank too, but given some countries restrictions, I refuse to travel with anything bigger. Some picky countries will take away (confiscate) anything bigger than 10k mAh. I already lost a 13,000mAh and another 15,000mAh on this mistake, on separate trips. This 10,000mAh power bank does provide some additional juice, but gets killed pretty fast.
  
  2
  
  Woah, which countries?
  
  I've traveled quite a lot and no one has even bothered me about my size.
  
  6
Stardew valley. Set tdp to lowest it can go. Doesn't affect performance. I was getting like an 8 hr runtime estimate.

34
- I've seen people get Stardew down to 3.8w on the original deck for 10+ hours. Think it requires tweaking CPU settings with Power tools though.
  
  5
Most 2d games give me solid battery life. Hades, balatro, dead cells, pizza tower, streets of rage 4 all kept me entertained through cross country flights with no external power. But really you should just get a fat battery pack, it's just plain useful for keeping all your devices topped up.

14
- Most 2d games give me solid battery life
  
  I can’t agree here, 2d games have the capacity to be extremely resource efficient but a lot of PC 2d games were developed by developers with monster gaming PCs and they never really bothered to optimize them.
  
  4
  
  Yeah I mean I definitely have games like Noita that are 2d and happily empty the battery in 2, 2.5 hours. Guess I was just speaking relatively to tomb raider, 2d games I can usually minimize the tdp with no performance impacts and carry on for 4 to 6 hours, compared to any average AAA 3d game that is going to have a hard stop around 1.5-3 hours.
  
  I figure a cross country us flight is around 4.5 hours, those games I listed proved they go the distance. I'm struggling to think of a single 3d title that would make it.
  
  1
I've been getting into Stardew Valley for the first time and it sips on battery power. I think I went almost 5 hours before charging, and that was with WiFi and Bluetooth enabled. I imagine it would go for at least an hour longer with airplane mode on.

12
I once played Terraria for more than 5 hours on battery and it still had battery leftover.

11
- How comfortable did you feel with gamepad based control with the steam deck in terraria.
  
  2
  
  It’s been a while but if I remember correctly Terraria instead of using the default gamepad config it took advantage of all the controls on the Steam Deck for a unique and pleasant experience.
  
  1
Anything 2D... Or emulators for old (2D) consoles, or DosBOX...

7
Hallow Knight is a good Metroidvania. I think i can run it at 90 fps with no drops with the 8w profile.

7
Xonotic against the (reallllyy hard) bots is a great time if you are comfortable with playing fps games with joysticks and gyro. I mention it just because it probably has the best performance of any 3D shooter/action game in existence given it is built on the darkplaces engine which is a descendent of the original quake engine.

The steamdeck is stone cold when I play Xonotic whipping around multiplayer levels at 60fps blasting opponents, the fan doesn’t even go on lol. I am not suggesting playing it for the whole flight but it is a great game you can start playing quickly and immediately jump into really intense FPS combat.

Maybe people will think this is an obscure suggestion for the steam deck but boomer shooters have become more and more popular and yet… Xonotic’s combat is WAYYYY more locked in and nuanced than those games will ever be since Xonotic is the end result of decades of tweaking the Quake multiplayer combat formula whereas boomer shooters are trying to recreate the vibes from scratch.

The rocket launcher in Xonotic that you can steer with your aim after it has launched is hands down the best rocket launcher in multiplayer shooters, is a strong contender for being Best Rocket Launcher Ever and is a BLAST to control with gyroscope.

What kind of games do you like?

7
Here's a similar question, my answer should also be relevant to your question.

As for Switch emulation, yuzu still runs great, with many playable games on the deck. If you don't have the AppImage or Flatpak already, make sure to get it from a reputable source.

Edit: Or, if you're lazy, just use Ryujinx (also available in EmuDeck).

7
Factorio is great on battery life until you start doing the mega factory things but that's post game which will take you a long time to get to

6
Wife and I did Dorf Romantik on a recent long train ride and we had a great time. It’s very cozy/calm which helps when you want to stay low energy and not bother your neighbors. And I fully agree with the battery pack idea - it gives me a ton of peace of mind when I’m traveling.

6
- This is my airplane go to. Love it!
  
  2
Also, after the whole big N mess...how's the Switch emulation these days?

It's still solid, but battery life will be terrible compared to native options.

5
- Thanks! Last time I tried TOTK performance sucked. It was a few months ago.
  
  2
  
  Yeah, I never got my copy of TotK to run well enough on my deck to be worth playing over the switch version. I've heard other people claim it runs good, so I don't know if they're using better settings than me, if they have lower standards, or if they don't have it on switch to compare performance.
  
  2
cassete beasts is a pokemon-like game, that wont require to much power.

ember knights is very simmiliar to hades, both are great roguelikes.

doom2, blood, duke nukem 3d etc run with low power consumption.

a hat in time is a 3d jump n run that can ve limitted to 10 watt tdp (maybe less)

5
- ember knights is very simmiliar to hades, both are great roguelikes.
  
  Some more relatively resource efficient roguelikes, all of these are extremely critically acclaimed and are absolute bangers:
  
  Enter The Gungeon
  
  Voidigo
  
  Star Of Providence (previously called Monolith)
  
  Spirits Abyss
  
  Deep In Galaxies
  
  Deathroad To Canada
  
  One Step From Eden
  
  Atomicrops
  
  Spelunky 2
  
  Wizard Of Legend
  
  Fury Unleashed
  
  Colt Canyon
  
  Heroes Of Hammerwatch
  
  KeeperRL
  
  Teleglitch
  
  Tangledeep
  
  Wayward
  
  Caveblazers
  
  Shattered Pixel Dungeon
  
  Sky Rogue
  
  Brigador Up Armored Edition
  
  Sigma Impact
  
  Nuclear Throne
  
  1
- Thanks! I've been playing a hat in time for a bit...looks promising! Will need to try the couch multiplayer, might be interesting!
  
  1
OpenTTD.

5
- Do you have any good guides or QuickStart videos for getting into OpenTTD? Or recommendations for curated and balanced mod packs?
  
  1
I haven't been on a flight in 10 years that didn't have an outlet or USB to plug into. You'll probably be fine.

2
- IME most domestic flights and commuter flights don’t have them.
  
  5
- LOL no I won't. I had this issue just last year on a flight from Indonesia I believe. Might have been Vietnam. There's quite a few countries that might have not updated their planes with plugs. Hence the question.
  
  4
- Ooook ya I guess I'm full of shit. Vietjet never had them that I can recall. I guess I just wasn't thinking of short flights like that. My bad.
  
  2
  
  Which long flight have you flown that had them? I've flown a few over the last five years, and only one had USB. Air Canada, WestJet, RyanAir, Korean Air, and Aer Lingus didn't have one, all for international flights that weren't short.
  
  2
Get a battery pack, and a flight with power plugs, they are much more common these days

1
- I have a small 10,000mAh power bank too, but given some countries restrictions, I refuse to travel with anything bigger. Some picky countries will take away anything bigger than 10k mAh. I already lost a 15,000mAh and another 13,000mAh on this mistake. This power bank does provide some additional juice, but gets killed pretty fast.
  
  3
All depends on how long your flight is.

1

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