I verified that my controller’s rumble worked fine, yet I had no controller rumble in Silksong. I fixed it by forcing Proton 9.0-4 in Silksong’s settings:

  1. Navigate to: Steam Library>Silksong>right-click>Properties>Compatibility
  2. Check “Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool”
  3. Select “Proton 9.0-4” from the dropdown.

It seems that Silksong has inherited the same controller rumble issue as Hollow Knight with the native build [1].

References
  1. Type: Post. Author: “Cobwebblocks”. Publisher: [“ProtonDB”. “Howllow Knight”.]. Published: ~2025-08. Accessed: 2025-09-05T06:41Z. URI: https://www.protondb.com/app/367520#q_spejhJmH.

    No rumble on native version

    • Kalcifer@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      1·
      2 hours ago

      I modified the post’s title to account for comments like yours:

      PSA: If [you are experiencing no][your] controller rumble [isn’t working] in Silksong, then try forcing Proton in the game’s properties on Steam

  • Hazzard@lemmy.zipEnglish
    21·
    4 hours ago

    This was also the solution to me for a weirder problem, running on Bazzite with an 8BitDo Ultimate 2, I was sprinting randomly, especially when cresting ledges, and the dash button was inconsistent.

    Extremely frustrating, the game feels significantly better with sprinting working as intended via Proton (I used GE-latest, but I assume it works with most proton versions). Would be nice to see the native version fixed, but proton is perfectly fine for now, and “external controller on Linux” is likely a lower priority bugfix.

  • Fecundpossum@lemmy.worldEnglish
    81·
    17 hours ago

    I enabled proton 9.0-4 (steamdeck btw), and loaded up my save and let myself take damage a couple times, still no rumble. I honestly was so excited to play an hour yesterday that I didn’t notice if I felt any rumble or not but I don’t feel it now. Taking damage triggers it right?

    • Kalcifer@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      61·
      17 hours ago

      I enabled proton 9.0-4 (steamdeck btw), and loaded up my save and let myself take damage a couple times, still no rumble. […] Taking damage triggers it right?

      I tested it just now, and yeah there’s rumble on taking damage. There’s also rumble when hitting an enemy, when striking environmental objects, and binding (for clarity, that is not necessarily an exhaustive list; it’s just what I can recall at the moment).

      Maybe Silksong unfortunately just has poor support for the Steamdeck at the moment. I found this which seems to support that theory:

      [1]

      I’m not sure if it’s possible on the Steamdeck, but have you tried enabling Steam Input?

      References
      1. Type: Application. Title: “Hollow Knight: Silksong Controller Layout”. Publisher: “Steam”. Accessed: 2025-09-05T08:14Z. Location: “Steam”>“Library”>“Hollow Knight: Silksong”>“Controller”>“View controller settings”.
      • Fecundpossum@lemmy.worldEnglish
        21·
        16 hours ago

        Thanks, I’ll try fiddling with it. I’m busy as hell and don’t have much time to play so I haven’t even checked the in game settings to see if it’s enabled. I’ll keep poking around. Thanks for quality reply.

  • mat@linux.communityEnglish
    71·
    18 hours ago

    Thanks for the info. That’s a shame, I really want to use native builds when available. Especially since Silksong runs so well. Is there any hope for a fix, even if unofficial?

    • Kalcifer@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      21·
      17 hours ago

      […] Is there any hope for a fix, even if unofficial?

      Maybe, but, given that the same issue exists in Hollow Knight [1], I think it’s possible that it may remain, at least for a while.

      References
      1. Type: Post. Author: “Cobwebblocks”. Publisher: [“ProtonDB”. “Howllow Knight”.]. Published: ~2025-08. Accessed: 2025-09-05T06:41Z. URI: https://www.protondb.com/app/367520#q_spejhJmH.

        No rumble on native version

    • Fecundpossum@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      17 hours ago

      I’m sure Cherry is going to be working rapidly on numerous bug fixes over the next month.

      • mat@linux.communityEnglish
        41·
        17 hours ago

        Yes, but OP makes it sound like the Hollow Knight issue is not fixed either. I didn’t even know HK had rumble, but I def felt the Silksong haptics when I played it at Gamescom. I wonder how we can make Team Cherry aware of this, or whether they are already aware?

        • Fecundpossum@lemmy.worldEnglish
          11·
          16 hours ago

          I never had an issue on hollow knight. Both on PC Linux and steamdeck. Might be an older issue?

    • Kalcifer@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      22·
      17 hours ago

      […] I really want to use native builds when available. […]

      Out of curiosity, how come?

      • mat@linux.communityEnglish
        131·
        16 hours ago

        I work at a game studio that provides Linux-native builds of our game. I don’t speak for them but in my opinion this gives us an opportunity to take advantage of Linux features such as better input systems, performance, dev tooling, and in the future maybe APIs like Wayland. While the Windows build does work via Proton, it’s limited to what Microsoft allows us to do with the Windows API. We also have to use a non-standard-compliant compiler (msvc) and overall maintaining a Windows build damages code quality, performance, dev speed, and end user experience. Our Linux userbase is already small enough, imagine if all our players started using the Proton version. It’d become impossible to justify spending as much time on the Linux builds as we do, and they would probably stop being available. So, although I see WINE and Proton as a net positive, I fear it will slowly kill Linux development and eventually all games will be limited 100% by what MS decides, despite technically playing them on a free platform.

        • Hazzard@lemmy.zipEnglish
          1·
          4 hours ago

          Yeah, proton is a bit of an odd dual edged sword like that. Obviously the dream would be the Linux market share getting large enough that it’s a no-brainer to focus on that version and make it as excellent as possible, and proton is essential for that, but at least for now, proton is so good that it makes it hard to justify a native version.

          If you can’t maintain a high standard of excellence for your Linux port, savvy players will just use your Windows version through proton anyway, because it’s already a high quality port. Easy to understand why many studios forego a native Linux version altogether.