Installing Guild Wars 2 on Linux can be done using Steam’s Proton compatibility layer or by adding the game as a non-Steam game. Here’s how to achieve this:
Option 1: Install Guild Wars 2 via Steam using Proton
Enable Steam Play for all titles:
Open Steam and go to Settings.
Navigate to Steam Play.
Enable the checkbox Enable Steam Play for all other titles and select the latest Proton version from the dropdown.
Download Guild Wars 2 setup:
Go to the official Guild Wars 2 website and download the Windows installer (Gw2Setup.exe).
Add Guild Wars 2 as a non-Steam game:
Open Steam.
Go to Games > Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library.
Click Browse and locate the Gw2Setup.exe file you downloaded.
Add it to your library.
Force compatibility with Proton:
Locate the added Gw2Setup.exe in your Steam library.
Right-click it and select Properties.
Under the Compatibility section, check Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool and select the latest Proton version.
Run the Guild Wars 2 installer:
Launch the added game from Steam. The installer will open.
Install the game in a desired directory.
Configure the game executable:
Once installed, replace the shortcut for Gw2Setup.exe with the actual game executable (e.g., Gw2-64.exe) by right-clicking the entry in Steam, going to Properties, and editing the Target field.
Play the game:
Launch the game through Steam. Proton will handle compatibility.
You can also use one of the many Launchers if you don’t want to add it to Steam as a non-steam game. Alternatively, you can also launch it directly with proton/wine yourself, though this is the most annoying option.
Yeah, too many little details to remember in the manual option.
That said, it’s worth it to learn how to do it by hand if only for the handful of games that won’t just run when launched from a Launcher like Lutris and you have to manually read the logs and then tweak the config or just because there some interesting advanced features in the various adaptor layers we’re using that aren’t mapped to config options in the Launcher - for example, just yesterday I discovered how to get DXVK - the layer than translates DirectX calls to Vulkan calls - to overlay various pieces of useful or interesting information such as FPS and CPU load on screen (in what’s called the DXVK Hud) on the game during play and because I understood how it was launching Windows games a while ago I figured out how to get Lutris to default to launch games inside a firejail sandbox which disables networking and blocks system level access.
I think all you have to do is add it to Steam as a non-Steam game and then run it with Proton.
Ok have steam installed. Have steam set to the newest proton version.
To add the game as a non steam game :
Click games then click add a non-steam game to my library
Not sure where to go from here.
Do I download the game from arena net?
Sorry for the dumb questions
I should add I didn’t get the game from steam. I bought the game on a disc years ago when it first came out.
Installing Guild Wars 2 on Linux can be done using Steam’s Proton compatibility layer or by adding the game as a non-Steam game. Here’s how to achieve this:
Option 1: Install Guild Wars 2 via Steam using Proton
Open Steam and go to Settings.
Navigate to Steam Play.
Enable the checkbox Enable Steam Play for all other titles and select the latest Proton version from the dropdown.
Go to the official Guild Wars 2 website and download the Windows installer (Gw2Setup.exe).
Open Steam.
Go to Games > Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library.
Click Browse and locate the Gw2Setup.exe file you downloaded.
Add it to your library.
Locate the added Gw2Setup.exe in your Steam library.
Right-click it and select Properties.
Under the Compatibility section, check Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool and select the latest Proton version.
Launch the added game from Steam. The installer will open.
Install the game in a desired directory.
Once installed, replace the shortcut for Gw2Setup.exe with the actual game executable (e.g., Gw2-64.exe) by right-clicking the entry in Steam, going to Properties, and editing the Target field.
Launch the game through Steam. Proton will handle compatibility.
Got to step five. Got stuck. I’ll send details tomorrow. I will get five hours of sleep at this point.
Haha. You were supposed to be asleep already. Goodnight!
Thank you. I will work on this tomorrow. I need to get some sleep.
Or add it to Lutris, then it’s also click-and-play without needing an account with another proprietary service that needs to run in the background.
You can also use one of the many Launchers if you don’t want to add it to Steam as a non-steam game. Alternatively, you can also launch it directly with proton/wine yourself, though this is the most annoying option.
Yeah, too many little details to remember in the manual option.
That said, it’s worth it to learn how to do it by hand if only for the handful of games that won’t just run when launched from a Launcher like Lutris and you have to manually read the logs and then tweak the config or just because there some interesting advanced features in the various adaptor layers we’re using that aren’t mapped to config options in the Launcher - for example, just yesterday I discovered how to get DXVK - the layer than translates DirectX calls to Vulkan calls - to overlay various pieces of useful or interesting information such as FPS and CPU load on screen (in what’s called the DXVK Hud) on the game during play and because I understood how it was launching Windows games a while ago I figured out how to get Lutris to default to launch games inside a firejail sandbox which disables networking and blocks system level access.