As we’ve already learned, Patch 8 lands at a good time for portable players. It also adds a Deck-specific graphics preset and tweaks the interface, so text and menus fit the small screen without extra fiddling. Upscaling gets attention too, with an update to AMD FSR 3.1.4, and there are stability fixes for audio and Steam Input. All of this adds up to an update that does not change combat or quests, yet changes how often you need to tweak settings before you can play on the couch or on a commute.
For a big open-world game, these are the small things that make handheld play better. The official notes and Steam post confirm all this, including when the Verified badge was added and that Legends is now a free DLC on Steam.
The hidden glue that shapes portable play
When people ask what turns a desktop game into a smooth handheld one, the answer is rarely just “more frames.” It is the whole path between the game and the device. On a portable, memory, bandwidth, and power budgets are tighter. That is why presets, UI scaling, and smart upscalers matter, because they tune what the game asks of the device without breaking the look and feel. In the middle of that process is a basic idea that often gets missed when talking about games, but it shows up in any system that connects to the internet. But what is a proxy?
In computing, a proxy is a helper that sits in the middle, between your device and the website or service. It routes or saves data to speed things up. In the world of PC gaming that can mean faster and more reliable content delivery during patches, cleaner asset downloads, or stable handshakes for online features. None of that changes swordplay, but it changes how quickly you get back to it.
Proxies are also neutral tools, they do not make new content, they make the route to content smoother. When a patch streamlines menus, tightens input handling, and refreshes upscaling, it is doing similar “middle-layer” work. The portable win is consistency. You boot, the game matches the screen and controls, the picture holds up under motion, and online features remain predictable. If a device can rely on that layer, you spend less time tuning and more time chasing foxes and taking back outposts.
What Deck owners actually gain with Patch 8
For Steam Deck owners, the gains are concrete. The game’s single-player is now Steam Deck Verified, there is a Deck graphics preset, UI elements scale better, AMD FSR is updated to 3.1.4, and crash fixes include one tied to Steam Input. Legends is split out as a free DLC, which keeps the campaign’s compatibility clearly separate from the multiplayer add-on. These changes are called out in the official notes and on Steam.
A few numbers help explain why this matters. The Deck’s screen is 1280 by 800 pixels, and the OLED model supports refresh rates up to 90 Hz. A preset that lands near 800p and an upscaler tuned to the latest FSR build can hold image stability without burning extra power. Verified status also reduces the chance you will run into mismatched button icons or unreadable text, both common pain points on small screens.
Verified status in practice, and how to tune around it
Verified is not a trophy, it is a promise about how a game behaves on the device. Valve’s own page explains the program clearly. As the company mentions, “After each game is reviewed, it is categorized for its level of compatibility with Steam Deck.” That line sums up the goal, which is to reduce guesswork for players who want to jump in without a settings hunt.
On the stability side, the Steam Input crash fix and UI improvements reduce stumbles that matter more on a handheld, where short play windows magnify small delays. Taken together with the status badge and the preset, the update makes Ghost of Tsushima easier to pick up and play in portable form, with fewer detours through settings and a cleaner picture at the Deck’s native resolution.
