About
City of Heroes: Homecoming is the community-run revival of the beloved 2004 superhero MMORPG originally developed by Cryptic Studios and shut down by NCSoft in 2012. Homecoming Servers, LLC runs the game free to play under license from NCSoft, making it one of the most accessible MMO revivals. On Steam Deck it runs via the community LinuxHC installer, which sets up the official Homecoming Launcher under Proton, bringing full character creation, hundreds of zones, and cooperative missions to handheld play.
Identity
Launch
- Binary
- launcher.exe
- Options
- %command%
- Needs files
- none beyond the binary
Proton
- Version
- Proton 7.0
- Winetricks
- —
⚙ Setup notes
Overview
City of Heroes: Homecoming is the community-run revival of the 2004 MMO, operated under
license from NCSoft by Homecoming Servers, LLC. It is free to play — there is no game
purchase. There is no Steam release; you install the official Homecoming Launcher and run
it on the Deck under Proton via the community LinuxHC installer.
What you run
The Homecoming Launcher (launcher.exe) is the official client/patcher. The LinuxHC
installer places it at ~/Games/Homecoming/ and creates a desktop launcher (ahc-launcher.sh wrapper that runs launcher.exe through your chosen Proton runtime).
You add THAT shortcut to Steam and launch the game from it in Gaming Mode.
Installation (Desktop Mode)
1. Switch to Desktop Mode (Steam button → Power → Switch to Desktop).
2. Open Konsole (taskbar or application menu).
3. Run the one-command LinuxHC installer:
bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FaultlineHC/LinuxHC/main/hc-install.sh)
4. When prompted, pick a Proton runtime (the author tested with Proton 7.0; the script will
offer to download GE-Proton if none is detected). Follow the prompts — it downloads the
full client and creates a "City of Heroes" desktop shortcut.
Adding to Steam
1. In Desktop Mode, right-click the "City of Heroes" desktop shortcut → Add to Steam
(or Steam → Games → Add a Non-Steam Game and browse to it).
2. Back in Gaming Mode the launcher appears in your library; open it, log in, and let it
patch on first run (the launcher already invokes Proton via the wrapper, so you usually
do not need to set a Proton version on the shortcut itself).
Proton Version
Testing was done with Proton 7.0 and it is a safe default for this old engine. The installer
reports it should work with other versions too, including GE-Proton; GE's newer-title
optimizations give little benefit here. If you hit display issues, try addingPROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 %command% to the shortcut's launch options.
Controller / Input
This is a mouse-and-keyboard MMO, so plan on a Steam Input layout. In Gaming Mode the right
trackpad works well as a mouse for camera and targeting; map power trays to the buttons.
After adding the non-Steam shortcut, open the controller settings and browse community
layouts (search "City of Heroes") as a starting point.
Performance
- The engine is from 2004 and largely single-threaded; the Deck CPU, not the GPU, is the
usual bottleneck during big team fights.
- Reduce shadow and reflection quality first if frame rate dips; the game otherwise runs
comfortably at the Deck's native resolution.
Account Creation (free)
Register a free forum account at https://forums.homecomingservers.com/register/, verify your
email, then create a free Game Account from the Game Account Center before first launch. No
purchase is required.
The one thing to know
- Not on Steam; install via the community LinuxHC bash installer in Desktop Mode Konsole, then
add the created "City of Heroes" desktop shortcut to Steam.
- The thing you launch is the official Homecoming Launcher (launcher.exe), installed at
~/Games/Homecoming/ and run through Proton by the installer's wrapper script.
- Proton 7.0 is the tested default; other versions (including GE-Proton) reportedly work. If you
see display glitches, try PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 in the shortcut's launch options.
- Free to play — no purchase. Create a free forum account at forums.homecomingservers.com, verify
your email, then make a free Game Account before first launch.
- Operated by Homecoming Servers, LLC under license from NCSoft; ongoing availability depends on
the Homecoming team.
- Mouse-and-keyboard MMO; right trackpad as a mouse + a community Steam Input layout strongly
recommended for comfortable handheld play.
- Full client download is sizable; ensure SD card or internal storage has room before running the
installer.
- Status is needs-test: the launcher path works for the community, but this specific recipe has
not been verified on-device.
Community guides
Write-ups and threads from people who got this (or a similar) game running. deckport links to them — it doesn't reproduce them.
Get the artwork
deckport never hosts game images. Open this game on SteamGridDB, pick
the cover / hero / logo / icon you like, and drop them into the
game folder under .deckport-art/ before you push it to the
Deck. The importer files them under the right names automatically.
Run it on your Deck
Two files: the one-time importer (deckport.py) in your
Deck's home folder, and this game's install helper. Copy the game
into ~/Games and run the helper with Steam closed — it
writes the recipe (binary, launch options, Proton version)
and registers the shortcut with artwork.