Principles

Design and implementation of this layout were guided by a set of principles, listed here in order of priority.

Works with the game's default settings

A new player installing the game for the first time should be able to load the layout and start playing immediately. No manual configuration or option adjustments are required for full functionality.

Optional advanced features are easy to enable

All default game bindings are supported out of the box. For features that require manual setup, a preconfigured settings XML is provided to allow fast and complete installation.

Clean implementation without clutter

All files are cleaned prior to release - no outdated menus, unused settings, or temporary work-in-progress elements. This keeps the layout easy to understand and modify for users who want to customize it further.

Follows the game's default HUD

GW2 places key UI elements on either the left or right side of the screen. The layout mirrors this structure by assigning inputs to corresponding sides of the controller.

Room to grow

The game continues to receive updates, expansions, and new features. The layout is designed with future growth in mind, reserving space for additional functionality.

Setup

Before you start setting up the Simple & Intuitive make sure to successfully run the game at least once. This will ensure that Steam and Guild Wars 2 create relevant files and directories. Some details of the instruction also assume you are using SteamOS, but if you are proficient enough to reinstall operating system, I think I can assume you can improvise stuff like extraction of compressed archive.

It should be possible to open Steam's controller configuration for Guild Wars 2 and search Community Layouts for "Simple&Intuitive" authored by Vonsh on 14 January 2024. If search yields such entry, its enough to apply it directly, but this method reportedly fails sometimes and layout isn't listed. In such case do the following:

Switch your Steam Deck to desktop mode: press select "Power" and "Switch to Desktop".
Open internet browser, navigate to this page and press the Set Layout button. A pop-up should appear asking if you want to start application - agreeing will open Steam's Guild Wars 2 Controler Settings - you need to apply the layout. If this does not happen, either click this link or manually type address steam://controllerconfig/1284210/3338357161/ into browser's address bar. In rare cases window will open in background - refocusing steam should fix it.

You are done now! Layout works with game's default settings out of the box - no additional settings nor downloads are necessary. I believe it should be intuitive enough to learn on your own pretty quickly, but you are free to go to overview section to read on some tips and explanations.

There are several additional, fully optional and/or aesthetic features that are easiest to enable in desktop mode. Following instruction steps assume you are already in it. If you'd like toinstall everything at once using single script, it is also provided at the end.

Installation of icons for virtual menus

Layout has built-in support for in-game icons to be used virtual menus. This is purely aesthetic addition and serves no other purpose than to help with visual connection of in-game GUI elements with invoked actions. Without icons, virtual menus in layout still provide textual description of all operations.

Open internet browser, navigate to this page and press the Download button. If no file is downloaded, navigate to releases page and manually download latest .tar.gz compressed assets.
Open the directory where the file was downloaded, right click on it and choose Extract > Extract here and delete archive from context menu.
Two new directories should be produced, for now we are only interested in TouchMenuIcons
Move the directory with its contents to /home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Guild Wars 2

Activation of additional features

Unpack the compressed assets archive as described in previous section. This time we are interested in InputBinds directory.
The directory with its contents should be moved to a wine eqivalent to C:\Users\steamuser\Documents\Guild Wars 2. Assuming you've run the game already, you are using official steam version and your client's language is English, the path should be
```
/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/1284210/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents/Guild Wars 2
```
Launch the game, and sign in - again, its irrelevant if you use Steam or ArenaNet credentials.
Open Game menu by pressing
Navigate to Options > Control Options using to move cursor
In bottom right corner of the panel, there is Export button and Import selection box. To preserve your current settings, you can press Export. From available options listed inside Import, select "SteamDeck Simple".

Install everything with one script

tarball_url=$(curl -s https://github.com/jsantorek/steamdeck-gw2-layout/releases/latest | grep tarball_url | cut -d\" -f4) &&
curl -# -L $tarball_url -o steamdeck-gw2-layout.tar.gz --no-progress-meter
tar -xf steamdeck-gw2-layout.tar.gz &&
rm -f steamdeck-gw2-layout.tar.gz &&
mkdir -p "/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/1284210/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents/Guild Wars 2/InputBinds"
mv InputBinds/* $_ &&
mkdir -p "/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Guild Wars 2/TouchMenuIcons" &&
mv TouchMenuIcons/* $_

After script is run successfully, you still need to perform the in-game steps to Import "SteamDeck Simple" input binds.

Overview

Base layer — Layout base. Movement-related actions are tied to , , and . Camera movement activates when is touched; the cursor can be controlled with . Weapon skills and weapon swap are tied to , , and . provides access to basic dialogs, while are used for targeting, for interaction, and to access the map. `Esc` (dialog closing, game menu) is accessible through a short press of ; a long press opens the logout dialog.

steam deck left joystick — Layout base. Movement-related actions are tied to , , and . Camera movement activates when is touched; the cursor can be controlled with . Weapon skills and weapon swap are tied to , , and . provides access to basic dialogs, while are used for targeting, for interaction, and to access the map. `Esc` (dialog closing, game menu) is accessible through a short press of ; a long press opens the logout dialog.

Profession skills layer — Slot and Profession skill layers. Holding the , focuses the right side of the skill bar (slot skills). Holding the , focuses the top-left side (profession skills). Pressing either one while the other is held activates the special action key.

Slot skills layer — Slot and Profession skill layers. Holding the , focuses the right side of the skill bar (slot skills). Holding the , focuses the top-left side (profession skills). Pressing either one while the other is held activates the special action key.

Mounts and Novelties layer — Mounts and Novelties Layer. Holding the changes the trackpads into virtual menus for selecting a novelty , or mount . A short press activates the currently selected mount instead.

Masteries and Templates layer — Masteries and Templates Layer. Holding the changes the trackpads into virtual menus for selecting an equipment or build template , or selecting a mastery skill . A short press activates the currently selected mastery skill instead.

Utility layer — Utility Layer. Holding the enables several less-used utilities. Scrolling can be done with the back buttons, the can be used to split item stacks. becomes `Enter`, becomes `Backspace`. Bumpers become shortcuts to `/gg` and `/wiki` chat commands. and become shortcuts to create chat links. The can be used to place commander markers.

Movement and Camera

Joysticks are the most self-explanatory and intuitive controls. When starting a new game on a modern system, the player should expect steam deck left joystick to move the character and steam deck right joystick to operate the camera - which is exactly what happens.

In most popular layouts this behavior is achieved by relying on the action camera, which forces the user to set an additional keybinding manually. The toggle is also not preserved between play sessions, and in some cases the user must remember to switch it depending on whether they are navigating the UI or playing normally. My attempt instead replicates typical PC gameplay: having the pressed most of the time while moving.
Using ↑↓←→ instead of WSAD makes it possible to use for Character Selection screen navigation or for making corrections in text or numeric fields.
Autorun R is available with a short hard press of .
Advanced Feature: Walk toggle is available with a long hard press of .
Advanced Feature: Action camera toggle is available with a hard press of .
Notice the pattern: all camera-related actions (move camera, toggle action camera) are on the , while all movement-related actions (move, autorun, walk) are on the .
Learn to keep your right thumb lightly resting on so the device correctly detects touch.
If you leave the mouse cursor hovering over a HUD element (map, skill bar, inventory etc.), camera movement might not work until you move the cursor away.
Customization: I've set analog sensitivity along both axes to match my preferred look-around range, but feel free to adjust this according to your preference.

Keeping the theme "left side/hand is for movement," dodge V is bound to steam deck left trigger , and jump Space is bound to steam deck left bumper . To improve mount usability, Mount Skill 2 C is triggered with steam deck right bumper . You will be moving and looking with the analog sticks while mount skills are available through bumpers (jump, fly up, skill 2) and triggers (engage skill, skill 1).

Customization: In the past I experimented with having two activation modes: half-press for plain dodge and full-press for a dodge jump V+Space. While this setup works well in many areas, it unfortunately makes some mounts - notably the Griffon and Raptor - much harder to use. I ultimately removed it (you can still press and at the same time for a dodge jump), but feel free to experiment, especially if you rarely use those mounts or primarily play WvW or PvP.

Combat

The second theme is "the right side is for skills." All weapon skills, slot skills, and profession skills are accessible via: steam deck right bumper , steam deck right trigger , and steam deck XYAB face buttons . Since there are more skills than buttons, two chord (modifier) buttons are needed:

Hold to access profession skills (top left of the skill bar).
Hold to access slot skills (right side of the skill bar).

No back button held	held	held
Weapon Skill 1 `1`	Profession Skill 1 `F1`	Healing Skill `6`
Weapon Skill 2 `2`	Profession Skill 2 `F2`	Utility Skill 1 `7`
Weapon Skill 3 `3`	Profession Skill 3 `F3`	Utility Skill 2 `8`
Weapon Skill 4 `4`	Profession Skill 4 `F4`	Utility Skill 3 `9`
Weapon Skill 5 `5`	Profession Skill 5 `F5`	Elite Skill `0`

is Weapon Swap `.
Special Action N is triggered when both top back grip buttons (the chord buttons) are pressed simultaneously. You may press them one after the other or at the same time.
Customization: Button ordering follows the general trend of placing frequently used skills on the left side of any skill group. Thus - the most frequently pressed button - becomes auto-attack 1, self-heal 6, or F1. The next three easily reachable buttons - , , - map to skills 234, 789, or F2F3F4. Finally, the furthest button becomes the least-spammed, most impactful skill: 5, 0, or F5.
Targeting is done through with short presses cycling through next/previous target. long press marks current target for allies, long press takes currently marked target.
To cancel target or skill use .

Interface

steam deck Right trackpad is a mouse, plain and simple - click is steam deck Left click , double click, drag and drop - all works as you would expect it to.

To right click (eg on salvage kit to salvage all, bag to consume all or player in party/squad to join their map) simply hover over target with cursor using the trackpad, then gently tap the top part of right joystick.
To split stack use trackpad when holding
To use mouse scroll, press or when holding

steam deck Left trackpad is designated as a virtual menu for frequently used panels: inventory I, friends Y, guild G etc. These are all also accessible through icons in top left corner of screen.

Customization: The three most commonly used by me shortcuts are all in central horizontal line: hero panel, inventory panel and wizard's vault - you are free to reorder them as you like though. It's also possible to add new entries, which I felt needed no shortcut eg Pet Dialog K or Party Dialog P.
CustomizationAdvanced Feature: You are additionally able to create shortcuts for Mail Dialog [ and PvP Panel ]. Game's original icons for these are also available for manual assignment.

Remaining dialog and interface related functions are:

To close last focused panel use . If no dialog/widget is open this will open the game menu Esc instead. A long press will open the logout dialog directly.
is Map M (as in "I want to move somewhere else")
is Interact/talk/pickup F (as in "I want to grab this toward me")

Extensions

Mount selection virtual menu — when is being held becomes virtual menu for selection of mounts.

steam deck Right trackpad — when is being held becomes virtual menu for selection of mounts.

Mastery skill selection virtual menu — when is being held becomes virtual menu for selection of mastery skill.

Build and Equipment template selection virtual menu — when is being held becomes virtual menu for selection of build and equipment templates.

steam deck Left trackpad — when is being held becomes virtual menu for selection of build and equipment templates.

Commander marker placement virtual menu — when is being held becomes virtual menu for placement of positional Commander Markers. If you also hold while doing this, you can place target Commander Markers.

steam deck Right joystick — when is being held becomes virtual menu for placement of positional Commander Markers. If you also hold while doing this, you can place target Commander Markers.

Tips and Tricks

It takes some practice to place your thumb on top of steam deck right analog to make it register touch for camera movement. Another good practice is to try and leave cursor near the center of the screen after you are done with navigations on panels - this helps with areal effects placement.

The last layer set by holding steam deck options button has the most room for customization and bundles together numerous less used but still relevant functions. Because of that, they aren's as neatly orgniazed and are least intuitive - they are probably the bigest part of getting used to layout. The following list is meant to help you with that.

is a Debug Key, returning layout to Default Layer. This is a fix to rare StemInput issue of incorrec cleanup of layers. If the bug happns to you, you will be stuck in Profession or Slot skills layer, despite holding no chord button.
becomes Enter for chat or generic confirmation - eg. Play button in character selection screen.
becomes Backspace for chat or other input fields.
become scroll up/down.
become page up/down.
stays as mouse but with added Alt, so drag-drop can split item stacks and click on minimap creates personal markers.
is /wiki + Ctrl + + Enter turning it into a wiki shortcut. If you mouse does not hover over anything that could produce a link, it will just open home page.
is /gg + Enter - shortcut to concede defeat.
and become chat link creation for whatever is under the cursor.
changes automatically activated skill to whatever is under the cursor.
becomes a virtual menu to place commander markers - with center acting as "clear all"
becomes plan Shift key - which allows to change placed commander marker type.

Customization: steam deck Entire DPad is free for customization to your liking. One of the keys that I've assigned there at some point were Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V for copy-paste in chat or password.

Guild Wars 2 Simple & Intuitive

Steam Deck and Controller layout for Guild Wars 2