System Requirements

Tears of Metal runs on PC for Windows only. Mac and Linux are not supported. The specifications below are those published for the Early Access build and may change during the Early Access period, since Paper Cult has listed further performance and stability work among its goals for the full version. The Microsoft Store build is a 3.4 GB download. The following system requirements apply to the PC version.

Minimum Requirements

Recommended Requirements

The recommended specifications call for a broadband internet connection, which is required for online co-op play with up to four players. Single-player mode does not require an internet connection beyond initial Steam activation.

Linux and macOS are not officially supported. The public demo was reported to run via Steam's Proton compatibility layer. Paper Cult has since worked on handheld play directly: the August 13, 2026 patch was described as helping bring more stability on Steam Deck, and it fixed a crash in the Quarry and third boss levels specific to that hardware. No compatibility rating has been published for the game, and the studio has not claimed one.

Performance Since Launch

Performance was one of the most-reported issues of the Early Access launch, and Paper Cult has treated it as an ongoing effort rather than a single fix. Optimisation passes landed on July 31, 2026 for Acts 1 and 2 and again on August 1, 2026, covering both Acts with Act 3 still in progress, and several rounds reduced texture resolutions to cut memory pressure. The studio has said it will keep releasing improvements as they are ready rather than holding them back for one large update. Two further passes followed in August. A hotfix on August 9, 2026 stopped the Epic Online Services overlay from initialising after players reported sudden mouse stutter, and the August 13, 2026 patch bundled crash fixes with art asset optimisation, safer release of animation data, a fix for loading pool contexts that could create race conditions, and a fix for a minimap render texture that could carry stale data into the next level.

Two settings changed after launch. The default maximum framerate was lowered from 120 to 60 on July 24, 2026, still adjustable in the options, and a Drift Correction option was fixed twice, first because it was not applying and then because setting it to 1 could lock player controls.

Storefront Features

Local save files on Windows sit under the user's AppData folder in a Paper Cult directory, which the studio pointed players to when it recommended backing up before staying on an older build.