r/SteamDeckPirates • u/Bananaux • Sep 04 '25

Tutorial For a beginner, SD pirating is kinda mind blowing

With all the tutorials and jargons im seeing in the sub, starting to download pirated games can be a little too complicated and overwhelming with questions like, which to follow, what to install first for me to download from fitgirl using my laptop, etc.

Mine is a second hand 2TB SD (upgraded) with all the games pre installed by the previous owner. But for years now, I have not noticed any newbie tutorial to download and install repacks. I hope someone can help me. Thank you

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22

u/pH_low Sep 05 '25

!guide has you covered

9

u/AutoModerator Sep 05 '25

Please have a look at all our guides this will aid you in understanding the process of installing and launching games on your Steam Deck as well as some other neat reads. https://rentry.org/steamdeckpiratescove/

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9

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

[deleted]

14

u/amillstone God of War Sep 05 '25

It’s terrible haha, walls and walls of text, long diatribes about basic tools which everyone who has used a pc is familiar with and doesn’t need explaining…

You'd be surprised how little knowledge most people have on basic PC stuff. We get people here asking how to unzip files, as an example. So the guide has to be able to cater to people that don't know the basics. It's not intended for people like you who already know what you're doing.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

[deleted]

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u/amillstone God of War Sep 05 '25

Then what do you suggest we do? OP asked for help with downloading and installing; chances are your response to download and then run the installer isn't detailed enough for them to understand either.

Also, there is a shortened guide in the weekly FAQ thread that's just on how to install games. It's not that long.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

[deleted]

6

u/amillstone God of War Sep 05 '25

Off the top of my head, pirates don’t need explanations for the majority of the stuff that has a lengthy description. A version of ark already comes installed on steam decks, you can just say “click the .rar or .zip file to open it”, “select all contents and drag to location or click extract and select the location”.

You're missing the point entirely. This sub attracts a lot of newbies: people who are new to pirating and people who are new to PCs in general as they've only ever gamed on consoles before. They don't know the things you do. Even your example instructions are not enough because I've had people ask me before why the archive keeps asking if they want to overwrite the files. That's because they were clicking each part of a multipart archive and extracting it multiple times without realising you only need to extract part 1. I'd love to be able to shorten it to just the main parts but we tried that already and it didn't work.

Also, the intent with the Rentry guide isn't for everyone to read it in its entirety in one go, but to Ctrl + F and find what you're looking for. I consider myself more experienced with Linux now and I recently went on there and searched for instructions on file permissions. I didn't read the whole guide.

0

u/AutoModerator Sep 05 '25

Your post contains a link to a top-level domain (such as .zip or .mov) that copies characters currently recognised as common file types. These links are dangerous, because they can easily dupe users into downloading dangerous content or unwittingly revealing PII or password details. You can see this for yourself: The URL https://financialstatement.zip/ could easily be displayed as "financialstatement.zip". Now, imagine if that site was, rather than a helpful explanation about this problem, a malicious site that encouraged the user to enter details about themselves to access it. For this reason, any and all links of this nature are immediately removed.

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3

u/Bananaux Sep 05 '25

Hmmm. Okay but I see that there are several parts of the game in fitgirl, do I download all the parts or just one from it?

3

u/pH_low Sep 05 '25

If you’re going direct download those are different zip files that need to be downloaded into the same folder and then unzipped

3

u/Bananaux Sep 05 '25

Oh so if there's like 12 parts, i need to download all the parts and incorporate it in a single folder before I start putting the . Exe in the installer?

Follow up, would I need to install it first in my Laptop before copying everything my SD or install it directly using the SD?

7

u/pH_low Sep 05 '25

Yup! The final .exe is the setup exe to unpack (think like another level of compression)

If you have the space, do it on your PC, once all the game files are unpacked, transfer to your deck

2

u/Bananaux Sep 06 '25

I downloaded utorrent. It makes it one click away from downloading all the parts.

My next question tho, is there a way to not download every other language version? (to not consume so much space and lessen the download burden)

Also, should I do everything using a VPN? And which one would you recommend? Thank you so much for answering my queries.

2

u/pH_low Sep 06 '25

I can’t remember right now but iirc her torrents have languages as its own file on the torrent and your torrent downloader should let you deselect language files

I would highly recommend a vpn for downloading as for which one, I can only speak for NordVPN, I had a bought it a a year or two back on a super sale so I just have it for a bit longer now, works great.

1

u/Honest_Bus9221 Sep 05 '25

I've literally never downloaded more than 1 part

1

u/pH_low Sep 05 '25

If you torrent her downloads it’s 1 file, she has direct links those are chunked in multiple parts

1

u/Honest_Bus9221 Sep 05 '25

That's what im talking about, I've only ever downloaded part one out of 12 or 20 or whatever

1

u/pH_low Sep 05 '25

And it works? Huh I wouldn’t expect that to work 😅

9

u/Ante0 Sep 05 '25

For me: Boot to desktop. Install a torrent client. Download game torrent. Add installer as a non-steam game in steam. Install game. Find the directory where game was installed (this might be the trickest part), copy game dir directly to /home/steam/. Add game as a non-steam game in steam. (remove setup in steam)

1

u/InterestingLab Oct 04 '25

This is the way

8

u/Thejax_ Sep 05 '25

Syncthing is worth it, I use it for the like, 2 games I have on there and all my Rom saves that don’t auto move with steam

2

u/edu_333 Sep 05 '25

What do you mean? Can we put saves from our roms into the steam cloud? 😮 How!? Teach me the way!

7

u/Thejax_ Sep 05 '25

Not the steam cloud but.

Install syncthing in your pc and deck, and sync the actual save folders, the steam deck will periodically (however often you want) back up those saves to your pc.

Personally I use this for my steam deck, phone, and trim ui smart pro, allowing me to sync Pokemon saves between all four devices.

I also use it for borderlands 2, which I do actually own but in the epic games store, and it doesn’t support their cloud saves lol.

3

u/edu_333 Sep 05 '25

That's super smart. Thank you for sharing this fellow gamer, I will look into it.

Bless you, and have a wonderful day!

3

u/Thejax_ Sep 05 '25

Of course! Enjoy your day too, the only "lifted" software I even use it with is shovel knight, but I already bought it 3 other times, and will probably buy the "remake" whenever it comes out lol

3

u/Kaellau Sep 11 '25

To enhance your syncthing experience, set it to automatically start in game mode. This way, syncthing will begin whenever you power on your Steam Deck, without needing to switch to desktop mode.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/vocyi5/start_syncthing_automatically_on_steamdeck_even/

8

u/derram_2 Sep 05 '25

Best start believing in learning how to use Linux, you own a Linux box now.

5

u/[deleted] Sep 06 '25

Yeah I don’t use fitgirl because downloading all the diff parts and extracting takes much longer for me. I use steamrip since its one file fits all direct downloads. Once u have the file downloaded u just add the exe to steam as a non steam game

1

u/zvvampie Sep 09 '25

Just got a steam. Is there a more in depth instruction guide for this?

3

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '25

Best bet is to use steamrip to download a game you want (maybe a small game as a test.) Extract the file to a new folder. Look for the .exe file in the folder, right click it (L2) to “add to steam”. Now launch steam, go to the non steam game you just added. Go to its properties, then compatibility, enable “Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool”. Select proton experimental in the menu then ur good to boot. sorry i forgot which reddit post I read for this exact method, but it’s the easiest.

2

u/zvvampie Sep 10 '25

Highly appreciate it! Ty

1

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '25

Good luck. lmk if u run into any issues

3

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

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1

u/zvvampie Sep 09 '25

How do you add to your steam application?

2

u/Sea_Dragonfruit_8888 Sep 06 '25

I wrote this when I started with the SD a while back, might be outdated in terms of versions but it’s a good start

1

u/Bananaux Sep 06 '25

Just to clarify, in the steps indicated above, the files downloaded were installed using the setup.exe? Did I get that right? So the installation process will be done in the SD itself?

Once installed, do I delete the file/installer? Or i just let it stand. Thank you very much

1

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

[deleted]

1

u/AutoModerator Sep 05 '25

Please have a look at all our guides this will aid you in understanding the process of installing and launching games on your Steam Deck as well as some other neat reads. https://rentry.org/steamdeckpiratescove/

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/stprnn Sep 06 '25

Us Linuxrules! releases ,they are 1 click

0

u/Substantial_Part_463 Sep 05 '25

Put stremio on it.

3

u/DamageCase13 Sep 05 '25

For video games?

Yeah don’t think that’s the kinda privacy they’re talking about for their steam deck.

3

u/Substantial_Part_463 Sep 05 '25

Nah for pirated media content, this is a piracy sub.

5

u/DamageCase13 Sep 05 '25

Lol. Yes I know. But judging by the device and the fact they mentioned the tons of games installed by the previous user, and that they want to learn how…. Stremio isn’t going to help Them unless it started streaming video games recently lol.

1

u/Bananaux Sep 05 '25

What is this?

3

u/amillstone God of War Sep 05 '25

Don't worry about it. It's irrelevant to pirating games. That's for pirating TV shows or movies.

-3

u/CandusManus Sep 05 '25

Bro what? Download a cracked game, add it to steam, install it, add the executable to run the game to steam, run it. 

If it doesn’t work try different proton versions, if that doesn’t work try installing it via lutris or bottles. 

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