You can now play Pillars of Eternity and Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire with a controller on PC from start to finish, thanks to a new update open for testing

Deadfire’s turn-based mode has also gotten a makeover

After gifting Pillars of Eternity a turn-based mode for its tenth anniversary, Obsidian have now rolled out full PC controller support for both the RPG and its younger sibling Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire. The support, along with some tweaks to Deadfire's turn-based mode, are currently out in public test form.

"You can now play the whole of either game with a controller, from character creation to the end credits (and, in Deadfire, all the way out to naval combat), in both real-time with pause and turn-based mode," the studio wrote in their announcement of the public test going live. "Deadfire’s support builds on the controller scheme from the console editions. Prefer to switch things up? Pick up your mouse and keyboard at any time, and the game follows right along."

"Deadfire’s turn-based mode has also been reworked with the improvements we made for Pillars of Eternity’s turn-based mode: turns now follow each character’s speed, combat is more lethal, and swapping weapons or drinking potions no longer costs your action. You can now switch turn-based mode on or off during a playthrough, and the update brings a long list of fixes across combat, quests, audio, and the interface."

Both Xbox and PlayStation controllers are included in the support, along with the Steam Deck and Steam's Big Picture mode. Radial menus have been worked in to allow rapid firing of abilities, spells, and party commands, with the interface also popping up the right button prompts for your controller of choice.

These additions are all part of Patch 1.3.10.0, the full notes for which can be found in the post I've embedded above, alongside instructions on how to get into the public test. The patch also does things like ensure "the description of Fulvano’s Boots is no longer fragmented". I'm glad Obsidian have saved those soles.

The studio haven't put a concrete end date on the test at this point, instead noting it "will run for some time as we continue to update it in preparation for a full release". As it's a test, those jumping in should expect bugs and other funkiness.