Help & troubleshooting
Practical fixes for the day-0 issues players actually hit — verified against Steam forum threads, Discord support, and patch notes.
Launch failures
Paralives won't launch
Black screen, instant crash, stuck on Steam launching dialog — eight verified fixes.
Apple Silicon
Paralives on Mac
M2 / M3 support, Rosetta status, performance expectations, common Mac issues.
Handheld
Steam Deck guide
Verified status, controller layout, recommended TDP and frame cap, battery life.
Hardware
System requirements
Minimum and recommended specs from the official Steam store page.
Customization
Mods & custom content
Steam Workshop and Nexus install paths, plus stability warnings for EA.
Buying decision
Is Paralives worth it?
Aggregated reviews from PC Gamer, Destructoid, TheGamer, plus Steam score.
Common questions
Platform support, quick answers
- Crashing on startup or random ctd mid-session: usually a corrupted shader cache — verify files, then delete
%localappdata%\Paralives\Shader. - MacBook (M1/M2/M3) running hot: lock the frame cap to 30 fps and disable background servers, instances of other Electron apps (Slack, WhatsApp, Discord) — they eat GPU budget.
- Steam Deck OLED: works docked or handheld; mouse trackpad helps the build mode. The dock mode boosts the available power budget noticeably.
- No Epic, no iOS, no PS5 launcher. Steam only. There is no separate Paralives launcher to install or sign into.
- Mods: install via Steam Workshop; verify file integrity if a downloaded mod causes a ctd or freezes the loading screen.