Pillars of Eternity and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire can now be played from start to finish with a controller on PC, in a public test Obsidian Entertainment opened on November 4, 2026. The test covers both of the series’ combat modes, and it reworks Deadfire’s turn-based mode along the way.
What the Public Test Adds
- Full controller support in both games, from character creation to the end credits, and in Deadfire all the way out to naval combat.
- Both combat modes: real time with pause and turn-based.
- Switch freely. Pick up the mouse and keyboard at any point and the game follows along. Deadfire’s scheme builds on the one from the console editions.
- A reworked turn-based mode for Deadfire. It gets the improvements Obsidian already made to the first game’s turn-based mode: turns follow each character’s speed, combat is more lethal, and swapping weapons or drinking potions no longer costs your action.
- Turn-based on or off mid-playthrough. You can now switch the mode during a run instead of committing at the start.
- A long list of fixes across combat, quests, audio and the interface.
Obsidian calls it a public test and says to expect bugs. It will run “for some time” while the studio updates it toward a full release, with no end date given.
How to Join
In your Steam library, right-click either game, choose Properties, open the Betas tab and select “public_beta” from the drop-down. The download should start on its own; restart Steam if it does not appear. On Steam Deck, Obsidian says to open the game’s controller settings, go to Templates, apply “Gamepad with Joystick Trackpad” (or “Gamepad” if that option is missing), then launch the game and check the inputs. Bug reports go to Obsidian’s support site or its official Discord server.
What This Means for Players
On PC, both games have been played with mouse and keyboard since launch, so this opens them up to couch and handheld play, the Steam Deck included. If you have shelved either game, the beta branch is the way to try it on a controller now, as long as you can live with test-build bugs, and Obsidian says it will fold testers’ feedback into the final update.
If you like Eora, Avowed, Obsidian’s first-person RPG set in the same world, made our list of the best PS5 games of 2026, and our news on Grounded 2’s Rot and Ruin update covers another Obsidian game. For more party-based RPGs on PC, our list of the best Baldur’s Gate 3 mods is a good next stop.
Source: Obsidian Entertainment, Pillars of Eternity and Deadfire: Controller Support Public Test is Now Live!, Steam, November 4, 2026.