How to play Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord on Linux

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is a strategy/action RPG for Microsoft Windows. The game was developed by TaleWorlds Entertainment and is a prequel to their previous game Mount & Blade: Warband. In Bannerlord, the player controls their created character as they adventure across the world of Mount & Blade.

If you’d like to enjoy the epic adventure of Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord on your Linux PC, it is possible, but it requires a bit of configuration and tweaking. In this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to do just that! Follow along to get Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord working on Linux!

Getting Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord working

Setting up Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is a tedious process on Linux because it is rated “Gold” on ProtonDB. Sadly, unlike a lot of other video games, you won’t be able just to install it and go. You must configure it a little to get it working. Follow the step-by-step instructions outlined below to get the game set up.

Step 1: To start the installation process, you must install the Steam Linux client. To get Steam working on Linux, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Shift + T or Ctrl + Alt + T on the keyboard. Then, enter the commands below to get Steam working.

Ubuntu

sudo apt install steam

Debian

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

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S steam

Fedora/OpenSUSE

For best results on OpenSUSE and Fedora, install the Flatpak release of Steam.

Flatpak

First, ensure you have the Flatpak runtime installed onto your computer. Then, enter the commands below.

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

flatpak install flathub com.valvesoftware.Steam

Step 2:  Now that Steam is installed, we need to install a custom compatibility tool. This custom compatibility tool is called Glorious Eggroll, and its a special release of Valve’s Proton with various game fixes, including ones for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord.

To get your hands on the latest GE, use the following wget download command.

wget https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/releases/download/5.11-GE-3-MF/Proton-5.11-GE-3-MF.tar.gz

After downloading Proton-GE, you’ll need to install some Wine dependencies. To install these dependencies, head over to the Proton-GE Github page, and enter the commands listed by your Linux operating system. Once you’ve installed the Wine dependencies, you must install Vulkan drivers. To set these up, head over to this page on the Proton-GE Github page.

Step 3: When the file is done downloading, use the mkdir command to create a new folder. This new folder will house the GE compatibility tool you just downloaded.

mkdir -p ~/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d

Alternatively, if you’re using Flatpak, do the following.

mkdir -p ~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/data/Steam/compatibilitytools.d/

Step 4: Extract the contents of the GE archive you downloaded to the newly created folder from step 3. To extract, run the following tar command below.

tar xvf Proton-5.11-GE-3-MF.tar.gz -C ~/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d/

Or, for Flatpak, do:

tar xvf Proton-5.11-GE-3-MF.tar.gz -C ~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/data/Steam/compatibilitytools.d/

Step 5: After extracting the contents of the GE archive into the correct folder, you must create a workaround for the Bannerlord launcher. To do this, execute the commands below in a terminal window.

cd ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Mount & Blade II Bannerlord/bin/Win64_Shipping_Client

mv ./TaleWorlds.MountAndBlade.Launcher.exe ./TaleWorlds.MountAndBlade.Launcher.exe.backup

ln -s Bannerlord.Native.exe TaleWorlds.MountAndBlade.Launcher.exe

ln -s Bannerlord.exe ManagedStarter.exe

ln -s Bannerlord_BE.exe ManagedStarter_BE.exe

Once all commands have been executed, open up Steam for Linux and log in. When you’ve logged into Steam, look for the “Steam” menu in the top-left and click on it with the mouse.

In the “Steam” menu, select “Settings” to open up the Steam settings area. Then, locate the “Steam Play” section, and click on it with the mouse.

Step 6: In the “Steam Play” section, find the “Enable Steam Play” for supported titles, and check it. Then, check “Enable Steam Play for all other titles.”

When both boxes are checked, find “Run other titles with” and click on the drop-down menu next to it. In the drop-down menu, select “Proton-5.11-GE-3-MF,” and click on the “OK” button.

Step 7: Find the “STORE” button in Steam and click on it with the mouse. By selecting this button, you will be brought to the Steam Storefront. From there, find the search box and search for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord.

Step 8: Click on “Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord” in the search results to move to the Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord store page. Then, locate the “add to cart” button, and click on it to purchase the game.

Step 9: After purchasing the game, find the “LIBRARY” button, and click on it to go to your Steam library. Once there, find “Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord” and select it to access Bannerlord’s Steam library page.

On the Steam library page for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, click on the blue “INSTALL” button to install the game onto your computer.

When the installation is complete, the blue “INSTALL” button will become a green “PLAY” button. Click on this button to start up Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord.

Troubleshooting Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is not a Platinum rated game on ProtonDB. It’s rated as Gold, so you will run into issues while playing it. Hopefully, the custom release of Proton will mitigate the issues, but it can’t account for everything.

If you run into problems playing Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord on your Linux PC with Proton, be sure to check out its ProtonDB page to report bugs, or to find solutions!

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