How to play Fall Guys on Linux
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is a 2020 platformer battle royale game. It is developed by Mediatonic and published by Devolver Digital. The premise of the game is to complete various solo and team-based challenges, all while avoiding being disqualified.
The game was announced in June of 2019 and came out on August 4th, 2020. Currently, the game is on Microsoft Windows 10 via Steam and Sony PlayStation 4. However, it is possible to play the game on Linux as well. In this guide, we’ll show you how!
Update: As of September 17th, 2020, online support for Fall Guys on Linux is broken due to Easy Anti-Cheat. We will update this guide with a solution as soon as possible.
Setting up Fall Guys on Linux
Fall Guys is only on Steam, so if you want to play it on Linux, you will need to install the Steam for Linux client.
Install Steam
To install Steam, open up a terminal window on the desktop by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. After that, follow the command-line installation instructions down below that corresponds with the Linux OS you currently use.
Ubuntu
Steam is available to all Ubuntu Linux users directly from the main software repositories. To install the app, run the Apt command below.
sudo apt install steam
Debian
Those using Debian Linux can get Steam working no problem. However, the Steam app is in the “Non-free” software repository, and that can be a bit annoying to enable. An easier way to set up the app is to just download the DEB package directly from the Steam website. To grab the latest release of Steam, use the wget command below.
wget https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/client/installer/steam.deb
Now that the package is done downloading, make use of the dpkg command below to install Steam on your Debian Linux PC.
sudo dpkg -i steam.deb
Arch Linux
If you’re an Arch Linux user, you’ll be happy to know that the distribution has the Steam application available in their primary software sources. To install it on your system, run the following Pacman command.
sudo pacman -S steam
Fedora/OpenSUSE
While it is possible to set up Steam on both Fedora and OpenSUSE, it can be tedious, and in some cases, you may even need to add in a special non-free software repository. It’s much easier to set up the Steam for Linux app via Flatpak.
Flatpak
Steam is on the Flathub app store as a Flatpak. So, if you’re running a Linux distribution that does not make it easy to set up Steam, you’re in luck! To get started, you must have the Flatpak runtime set up on your computer. To do that, follow our in-depth guide on Flatpak here.
Once your Linux PC has the Flatpak runtime set up, it is time to add the Flathub app store to Flatpak. To add Flathub, make use of the following flatpak remote-add command below.
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
With the Flathub app store added to your Linux PC, it is time to install the latest release of Steam for Linux. Using the following flatpak install command below, install Steam.
flatpak install flathub com.valvesoftware.Steam
Install Fall Guys
Now that Steam is set up log into your account and follow the step-by-step instructions below to get Fall Guys working on Linux.
Step 1: To run on Linux via Steam, Fall Guys needs Proton. Proton is a feature that is only accessible in the Linux Steam client via the Steam Play feature. As a result, this feature must be enabled. To enable it, launch Steam on Linux, and sign in. Then, click on the “Steam” menu, followed by “Settings” and then “Steam Play.”
In the “Steam Play” menu, check both the “Enable Steam Play for supported titles” box and the “Enable Steam Play for all other titles” box to enable Proton on your Steam client.
Step 2: Locate the “STORE” button at the top of Steam, and click on it with the mouse to access it. Once on the “STORE” page, find the search box, and click on it. After that, search for “Fall Guys” and click on “Fall Guys” in the search results.
Step 3: After clicking on “Fall Guys” in the Steam search results, you will be taken to the Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout storefront page. Look for the green “Add to Cart” button, and click on it with the mouse to add it to your Steam cart. Then, click on your Steam cart to go through with purchasing the game.
Step 4: After purchasing Fall Guys, click on “LIBRARY” with the mouse. Then, search for “Fall Guys,” and click on it with the mouse. Search for the blue “INSTALL” button and select it to install the game for Linux.
Step 5: With Fall Guys installed on your Linux PC, the blue “INSTALL” button will turn into a green “PLAY” button. Select it to start up the game! Enjoy!
Troubleshooting Fall Guys
Fall Guys has a platinum rating on ProtonDB and, as a result, should run quite well on Linux and without issues. However, not all PCs are built the same. If you have problems playing Fall Guys on Linux, please check out the Fall Guys ProtonDB page for help!
It doesn’t work. It keeps saying, “Disk Write Error”. Please help me fix this.
Don’t buy this game! It use to work flawlessly. On September 14th 2020, an anti-cheat was implemented and now Linux users just receive the message “Anti cheat not initialized” when you try to start a game.