How to play Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin on Linux

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin is an action RPG video game developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco. In the game, the player’s character becomes Undead, cursed never to die, and becomes a hollow zombie creature with no memories or purpose.

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin came out on Microsoft Windows in 2015. However, a Linux release never came about. That said, with a little tweaking, you can play it on Linux. Here’s how!

Before we begin

Both Dark Souls II and Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin work on Linux. However, Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin has a higher rating on ProtonDB and thus is more compatible with Linux systems. As a result, we will be focusing on this game in the tutorial.

Note: although this guide focuses on Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, you can also install Dark Souls II by following the directions below. Just search for Dark Souls II in the Steam store rather than Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin.

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin on Linux

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin works on Linux with the Steam Play feature’s help. This feature, created by Valve, makes it so that Windows video games on Steam are compatible with Linux.

Install Steam

To gain access to Steam Play, you must first install the Steam Linux client. To do that, open up a terminal window and follow along with the installation instructions outlined below that corresponds with the distribution you currently use.

Ubuntu

On the Ubuntu distribution, you can install Steam with the Apt command.

sudo apt install steam

Debian

Debian Linux users can get Steam working by enabling the “non-free” repository in their sources file. However, that method of installation isn’t exactly friendly to new users. A better way to get Steam working on Linux is by downloading the latest DEB package using wget.

wget https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/client/installer/steam.deb

After downloading the DEB package to your Linux PC, use the dpkg command to install it.

sudo dpkg -i steam.deb

Once the latest Steam is set up on Debian, fix the dependency issues using the apt-get install -f command.

sudo apt-get install -f

Arch Linux

Arch Linux has the Steam Linux client in the “multilib” software repository. Enable “multilib” in your Pacman.conf file. After that, you can install the client using the Pacman command below.

sudo pacman -S steam

Fedora/OpenSUSE

If you’re using Fedora or OpenSUSE, you should consider installing Steam with the Flatpak instructions, as they are easier to follow. The installation for Steam on OpenSUSE and Fedora isn’t very friendly to new users.

Flatpak

Steam is installable as a Flatpak package in the Flathub app store. It’s excellent that Steam is available, as Flatpak works on nearly every Linux operating system and brings Steam games to everyone.

To start the installation of Steam via Flatpak, you must set up the Flatpak runtime on your system. Once you’ve gotten the runtime working, use the flatpak remote-add command below to get, the Flathub app store working.

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

With the Flatpak runtime up and running, you can get the Steam app working using the flatpak install command.

flatpak install flathub com.valvesoftware.Steam

Install Dark Souls II

With the Steam app set up, launch the program by searching for it in your app menu. After that, follow the step-by-step instructions below to get Dark Souls II working on Linux.

Step 1: In the Steam app, look for the “Steam” menu, and click on it with the mouse to open up the Steam settings area. Once in the Steam settings area, find “Steam Play” and select it with the mouse.

Upon selecting the “Steam Play” button, you will be in the Steam Play area. From here, check the box “Enable Steam Play for supported titles” as well as “Enable Steam Play for all other titles” to turn on the compatibility tool that will allow Dark Souls II to run.

Click “OK” to save your settings.

Step 2: Find the “Store” button, and select it to access the Steam Storefront. From there, find the search box and click on it. After that, select “Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin” to go to its Storefront page.

On the Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin page, select the green “Add to cart” button to purchase the game.

Step 3: Once you’ve purchased the game, select the “Library” button to move to your game library. Inside your game library, search for “Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin,” and select it. By selecting the game, you’ll access its Steam library page.

Step 4: In the Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin library page, locate the blue “INSTALL” button and select it to download and install the game.