Any limitations on pausing a game and then putting the Deck in sleep mode?

[ZombieKidzRule!]

I know that you can pause a game, put the Deck in sleep mode, and when you exit sleep mode, the game is still paused. But I have never done this for more than a few minutes.

Has anyone experienced any limitations with this feature?

Like after a certain amount of time, the game shuts down instead of staying paused?

The battery drains in sleep mode?

Any problems with the game saves or anything by leaving it paused for a lengthy time?

Would this potentially cause any problems with the Deck?

The reason I ask is I have been trying to get a final achievement in Legend of Grimrock 2 and it only allows for a limited number of saves. Each time I try to play through, my game play gets interrupted frequently enough that I use up all my saves. I am at a point in life where I can't just sit and play a game for 5+ hours per sitting.

I am wondering if I can get around this by pausing the game and using the sleep mode.

But the Deck would have to be in sleep mode with the game paused for long periods of time, like 12 hours or more. And I would most likely have to use sleep mode repetitively with the game paused. I would only be able to exit the game and fully power down the Deck when I used one of the save points.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

I like the short term benefit of being able to pause a game and enter sleep mode, but I don't want to do anything that will mess of the Deck.

Thanks!

[Xedhadeaus]

You should be able to. I do that often with yugioh because I end up not wanting to play it unless I'm seconds from ready. Overnight, sometimes multiple days etc.

The only thing you'll notice is sometimes after you quit, your game time will look hilarious, but it fixes itself.

[ZombieKidzRule!]

Thanks! I didn't think about the game time. I thought it would stop counting because it was paused and asleep, but I can see how the game might just track the time the game was loaded and then exited.

Thanks again!

[Mahjik]

It really depends on the game. For example, some of the games that even in single player mode require internet may not pick back up correctly depending on "where" they were paused.

As an example, I play Madden '22 single player. EA requires internet connectivity even in SP mode (for no useful purpose). If I suspend the game while playing, upon resuming, it tries to start the game before the internet connection is re-established which cause it to exit the current game in progress. It's not that big of a deal as Madden will save a game in progress and it just takes me back to the main menu to start the game stopped in-progress.

Now, why I mentioned "it depends on where you are at when paused". If I pause the game going into the pause menu then put it to sleep, it will re-establish the internet connection before being back into the game.

In short, if the game you are playing requires some level of internet connection, you'll have your best sleep/resume experience going into the pause menu before putting it to sleep.

With titles that do not require an internet connection while playing, I've had no issues putting them to sleep at any point of playing but I've gotten into a habit of being in a pause menu first.

[ZombieKidzRule!]

That is great advice! Thanks!

[Brohands McSmooth]

Issues I've had with sleep mode:

Games like Dark Souls and Elden Ring which are connected to the internet before sleep will eject you from the game session after you wake it from sleep mode.

Sleeping a game and keeping the Deck in the case for about 9 hours drained the battery to zero (Portal Reloaded, only game it's happened in).

Some games, mostly emulators, will crash when you wake from sleep. Sometimes the game crashes, sometimes the emulator crashes, and sometimes the whole deck reboots. It usually only happens after a few hours of sleep, short times up to about 30-60 minutes don't usually have this issue. This does lose unsaved progress.

[PopinFRESH]

You don't even need to pause it for most things. The primary limitation is with Steam Cloud Saves. If the developer hasn't updated the game to use Dynamic Cloud Saves then when you sleep the game it will not be able to upload the latest save data to your Steam Cloud. So if you subsequently launch the game on another PC you will end up with Steam Cloud save conflicts.

Unless its a game without the ability to easily save or you are just expecting to pause it briefly to do something and then come back to the game I'd suggest saving your progress and quitting the game, allowing it to sync the save to Steam Could (if the game supports it), and then sleep the Steam Deck.

[ZombieKidzRule!]

Thanks for these responses! These really help.

I very rarely play online supported games and I haven't been tempted to explore emulations yet.

I am also a habitual saver if the game allows it. I basically save constantly, even if that means every minute or so. I also don't usually bounce back and forth between gaming devices. If the game plays well on the Steam Deck, I think I will tend to just play on that. Any game that is hard or impossible to play on the Deck, I will just play on my laptop.

I also only put the Deck to sleep for very short periods. Typically less than 30. It is only when I need to step away briefly. Otherwise, I just shut it down since it loads up super fast.

But then again, that is probably just a habit. I have never purposefully used sleep mode on any computer I have owned or used. I don't just shut the laptop. I always shut it down completely. I will lock the screen and let the screen turn off. Which is probably going to sleep. But I never leave it like that for long. Probably because I was told some time in the distant past to always power down your computer and reboot it before every use. Who knows why, but it has certainly stuck.

The only reason I even really contemplated leaving it in sleep mode longer is to try to get that last achievement in Legend of Grimrock 2.

Thanks again for all the helpful information and advice!