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Documentation Index

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Some games ship bundled launchers or update helpers that don’t work correctly when invoked through Legendary. Others require specific command-line arguments, a particular language locale, or a wrapper like gamemode to run properly. Legendary provides a flexible set of per-game configuration keys and CLI overrides to handle these situations without modifying game files. All per-game settings live in ~/.config/legendary/config.ini (Linux/macOS) or %APPDATA%\legendary\config.ini (Windows) under an [AppName] section, where AppName is the game’s app name as shown by legendary list.

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Overriding the Game Executable

Some games install a launcher executable as their default entry point — for example, Borderlands launches a separate LauncherPatcher.exe before the actual game binary. Legendary allows you to bypass this and point directly to the real game executable using a path relative to the game’s install directory. 
[AppName]
override_exe = relative/path/to/game.exe
You can also override the executable for a single launch without saving it: 
legendary launch <App> --override-exe relative/path/to/file.exe
Legendary includes built-in executable overrides for certain known titles (such as Civilization VI on Linux/macOS) that are applied automatically. These are fetched from the Legendary API and do not require manual configuration.

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Setting Start Parameters

To pass additional command-line arguments to a game every time it launches, use start_params. These are appended to the arguments that Legendary already constructs (Epic authentication tokens, locale flags, etc.): 
[AppName]
start_params = -windowed -dx11

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Pre-Launch Commands

Legendary can run an arbitrary command before launching a game. This is useful for setup scripts, mounting drives, or starting companion services. The command is specified as a shell string and split with shlex, so quoting works as expected. 
[AppName3]
pre_launch_command = /path/to/script.sh
; Set to true to block game launch until the command exits
pre_launch_wait = false
When pre_launch_wait = true, Legendary blocks until the pre-launch process exits before starting the game. When false (the default), the command is started and the game launches immediately without waiting. You can also set a default pre-launch command for all games in the [default] section: 
[default]
pre_launch_command = /usr/bin/some-global-script.sh
pre_launch_wait = false
Game-specific settings in [AppName] take precedence over [default].

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Language Override

Legendary passes a locale flag to games via the Epic command-line parameters. To override the language for a specific game: 
[AppName]
language = fr
Or pass it at launch time without saving: 
legendary launch <App> --language fr
The value should be a two-letter ISO 639-1 language code. If no language is configured for a game, Legendary falls back to the system locale.

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Launching Offline by Default

Games that don’t require online authentication can be configured to always launch in offline mode, skipping the Epic token exchange: 
[AppName]
offline = true
Equivalent CLI flag: 
legendary launch <App> --offline

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Skip Version Check

To suppress the update check when launching a game (useful if you intentionally stay on an older version): 
[AppName]
skip_update_check = true
Equivalent CLI flag: 
legendary launch <App> --skip-version-check

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Using a Wrapper

Wrappers such as gamemode, mangohud, or custom scripts can be applied globally or per-game: 
; Apply to all games
[default]
wrapper = gamemode

; Apply to a specific game (overrides [default])
[AppName2]
wrapper = "/path/with spaces/gamemoderun"
Or via CLI for a single launch: 
legendary launch <App> --wrapper "gamemoderun"
Wrap the wrapper path in quotes inside the config.ini value if it contains spaces.

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Wine and No-Wine Options

On Linux and macOS, Legendary uses Wine to run Windows game binaries. You can configure the Wine executable and prefix globally or per-game: 
[default]
wine_executable = wine
wine_prefix = /home/user/.wine

[AppName]
wine_executable = /path/to/wine64
wine_prefix = /mnt/tank/games/Game/.wine
Or pass them directly at launch: 
legendary launch <App> --wine /usr/bin/wine64 --wine-prefix ~/.wine
If your wrapper already handles Wine (e.g. a Proton wrapper), you can tell Legendary not to add the Wine binary to the launch command: 
[AppName2]
no_wine = true

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Per-Game Environment Variables

You can set environment variables for a specific game by adding an [AppName.env] section. These are merged into the game’s launch environment and override any variables set in [default.env]: 
[AppName.env]
WINEPREFIX = /mnt/tank/games/Game/.wine
DXVK_CONFIG_FILE = /mnt/tank/games/Game/dxvk.conf

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Override Username

To present a custom display name to the game instead of your Epic account username: 
legendary launch <App> --override-username myname

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Download Order Optimization

For certain known titles, Legendary automatically reorders file downloads to reduce RAM usage during patching. This optimization is enabled by default for the following games:
GameApp Name
World War Zwombat
Metro Exodussnapdragon
Diaboticalhoneycreeper
Pillars of Eternity (v1.0.2)bcc75c246fe04e45b0c1f1c3fd52503a
The list is refreshed from the Legendary API on each run. You can also enable this optimization manually for any game with: 
legendary install <App> --enable-reordering

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Getting a Dry-Run Launch Command

Legendary can print the full launch command it would use — including all Epic tokens, locale flags, and Wine invocations — without actually launching the game. This is useful for feeding the command into external launchers like Lutris or Steam: 
legendary launch <App> --offline --dry-run
Use --dry-run together with --offline to generate a standalone launch command that doesn’t require an active Epic session. You can then paste that command directly into Lutris’s “Manual Game” configuration or a Steam non-Steam game entry.

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