The unofficial community project TotK Recomp converts the game code of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom into native applications for Windows and Linux—a process known as recompilation. Although TotK Recomp is not the first project of its kind for this game, it appears to be running exceptionally well at this early stage.
According to a post by a player in the Reddit Steam Deck subreddit, Tears of the Kingdom can achieve 30 to 40 FPS even in more demanding areas. In less intensive sections, the frame rate can reportedly exceed 60 FPS. Proton is said to be unusable.
Unfortunately, the author did not provide any detailed information about the graphics settings. The only evidence is a single photo, which seems to show Link on the initial sky island—the starting area of the game. The displayed 54 FPS is an interesting snapshot, but it hardly reflects the overall performance of the rest of the game.
It's worth noting that UltraTears is another recompilation project for Tears of the Kingdom, although it has previously been plagued by various technical issues. However, a major update released on November 2 aims to resolve most of these problems. It is currently difficult to determine which project is the better choice. Since TotK Recomp appears to be running smoothly, we will provide a detailed guide on how to set it up below. The process for UltraTears is similar.
The necessary installation files can be found on GitHub. For copyright reasons, the download package does not include the game itself. The legitimate method is to use a legitimate copy of the Switch game and extract the game files from the console. This can be done using the homebrew tool nxdumptool. Although many websites offer ROM files, owning a legitimate copy does not make downloading these files legal. Additionally, one of the following three supported game update versions is required: 1.1.0, 1.2.1, or 1.4.3.
Once the original game files are on the Steam Deck, the setup process involves the following steps:
Switch to Desktop Mode
Download the installer: In the "valentderah/totk-pc-recomp" GitHub repository, download the TotK-Setup-x86_64.AppImage file from the "Releases" section.
Make the file executable: Open a terminal in the download folder and enter the command chmod +x TotK-Setup-x86_64.AppImage.
Start setup: Open the AppImage, select the game files, language, and installation folder, then begin the build process.
Launch the game: After installation is complete, open the totk file in the installation folder.