VA-11 Hall-A Cyberpunk Bartender Action: Controller Mod Guide (Steam Deck included)

First and foremost, you will want to head over to https://www.moddb.com/mods/controller-mod/downloads/va-11-hall-a-controller-mod and grab the files needed for this mod.
In the next section I will paste the install instructions from the page, as it is pretty much the same, but later we will cover what is different for the Steam Deck installation.

I have setup a mirror just in case anything happens to the original page:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cgfLRU0P7f5MI2jGzzVj9lUf-wgPfitM/view?usp=share_link

• Installation:
• Make a copy of your game’s folder! (you can only backup the data.win file if you like)
• Extract the .zip to your desktop
• Run DeltaPatcherLite (run it as administrator if the game is in the C: drive)
• In “Original file” select the game’s data.win file (by default is at C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\VA-11 HALL-A)
• In “XDelta patch” select ControllerMod_v01.xdelta
• Hit “Apply Patch”
• You are done!
• Known bugs:
• – “Language Change” button doesn’t take you to the language change screen (so you are stuck with english for now)
• – The game might crash with the old settings file, you can remove it by going to %LOCALAPPDATA%/VA_11_Hall_A/saves and deleting Waifu Preferences.txt

This section will be similar to the last, however there are a few steps you need to do in order to get this working on Steam Deck or (presumably) Linux. I won’t pretend to be an expert with Linux so if anyone reading this has an easier method, feel free to correct me in the comments.

• Installation:
• On the Steam Deck, press the Steam button and go down to Power
• Select Desktop mode and launch into it
• Once in Desktop mode, open Steam and right click (left trackpad press) VA-11 Hall-A, and select “Properties”
• On the left side go to Local Files and then click Browse (Alternatively, you can navigate to /home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/VA-11 HALL-A/)
• Inside the game’s directory on the Deck, there’s a folder called “assets” open this folder and inside there is a file called “game.unx”
• We will want to copy this file to our Desktop or any Windows based PC that can run the file linked in the getting started section. You can do this via Google Drive in Firefox on the Deck while in desktop mode, or email, or whatnot.
• Once you have the game.unx file in a Windows environment, you are good to go. The guide is pretty much the same, except you need to make sure to click the gear next to “Apply Patch” in the delta patcher and uncheck checksum validation, otherwise it will throw errors.
• Extract the .zip to your desktop
• Run DeltaPatcherLite
• In “Original file” select the game.unx file we copied from the Steam Deck
• In “XDelta patch” select ControllerMod_v01.xdelta
• Click the gear next to “Apply Patch” in the delta patcher and uncheck checksum validation
• Hit “Apply Patch”
• Copy the “game.unx” file that we’ve just patched back to the Steam Deck, overwriting or replacing the original in the directory (/home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/VA-11 HALL-A/) when prompted.
• You are done!

  Note:
  After you launch VA-11 Hall-A on the deck, you must press the Steam button and go into Controller Configuration and choose a layout that is gamepad/controller oriented. Otherwise the game will just assume you are using mouse/keyboard. I have uploaded a layout called “VA-11 Hall-A Gamepad Mod Layout” you should be able to find in the community layouts.

• Known bugs:
• – “Language Change” button doesn’t take you to the language change screen (so you are stuck with english for now)
• – The game might crash with the old settings file, you can remove it by going to %LOCALAPPDATA%/VA_11_Hall_A/saves and deleting Waifu Preferences.txt

All credit goes to the creator of the mod, I only figured out how to get this working for Steam Deck.