A Legion Was Here black screen is a WebView2 problem, not a WebGL one, which is why setting the game to the high-performance GPU changes nothing. Force WebView2 onto the dedicated card with one registry value. Linux and Steam Deck need Edge WebView2 in the Proton prefix first.

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Why The Black Screen Is A WebView2 Problem

Legion Was Here draws its interface through Microsoft's WebView2 runtime rather than through a normal DirectX or OpenGL window, and that single fact explains most of the advice that does not work. In the developer's pinned Black screen/Launch issues thread, a player put it exactly this way: the standard trick of setting high performance for the game executable in the NVIDIA or Windows settings does not work "since the game is using webview2 to display stuff". Windows is picking a GPU for a process you never configured, because the process doing the drawing is not the one you set.

The most common trigger is a dual-GPU laptop — an integrated Intel or AMD chip sitting alongside an NVIDIA card — where the game starts on the integrated chip. Setting the game itself to the dedicated card is the cheapest thing to try first, and it does clear the problem for some players:

  1. Open Windows graphics settings and add Legion Was Here as an app.
  2. Open its options and set it to use the high-performance GPU — the NVIDIA card.
  3. Close the game completely and launch it again.

If that changed nothing, you are hitting WebView2 specifically, and the fix below is the one that addresses it.

Force WebView2 Onto The Dedicated GPU

  1. Open the registry editor.

    Press Windows key + R, type regedit and confirm the administrator prompt.

  2. Create the WebView2 policy key.

    Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge\WebView2 and add a new key named AdditionalBrowserArguments.

  3. Add the executable as a string value.

    Under it, create a String value whose name is "Legion Was Here.exe" — including the .exe — and whose data is --force_high_performance_gpu.

  4. Restart the PC and start the game again.

    The switch is passed to the WebView2 browser process itself, so it is not picked up by just relaunching the game. This is the method quoted in the developer's launch thread: it makes the laptop use the real GPU instead of the one integrated in the CPU, and it is what stops the low frame rate.

    Done when: The game either starts normally or the frame rate in the operating room improves.

The Full NVIDIA Method: Overlay, Redistributable And Direct Launch

If the registry override is not enough, this is the full sequence one player reported and the developer added to the pinned launch thread:

  1. Re-assign the dedicated GPU in the NVIDIA Control Panel.
  2. Disable the Steam overlay — Settings in Steam, then In Game, then turn off Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game.
  3. Repair every Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable (2015–2022), not just install it.
  4. Restart the PC.
  5. Launch the game directly from the executable in the game folder rather than through Steam, and see whether it still crashes.

Doing all five and finding the game no longer crashes is how that player cleared it. Step 5 is also the quickest way to tell an overlay or runtime problem from a WebView2 one, because it removes both from the equation.

Delete D3D11Overlay_x64.ext.dll

If the black screen survives everything above, the developer's last suggestion in the same thread is a compatibility fault rather than a driver one: delete the file D3D11Overlay_x64.ext.dll from the game folder.

It is a graphics application extension Windows loads into rendering processes, and removing it stopped the launch failure for one player who had already tried every other fix, plus for others who reported the same result. Nothing in the game needs it, and Steam will restore it on the next file verification if a future update puts it back.

Verify The Files And Try Windowed Mode

  1. In Steam, right-click Legion Was Here and open Properties.
  2. On the Installed Files tab, verify the integrity of the game files, then start the game again.
  3. From the same Properties panel, add a windowed launch option so the game opens in a window rather than fullscreen — a fullscreen or borderless presentation that fails to hand over the GPU shows a black screen, while the windowed one usually renders.

Update Your Graphics Drivers

The store page still lists WebGL-compatible graphics with DirectX 9.0, so an outdated driver remains a reasonable thing to rule out before you conclude the machine cannot run the game. Install the current driver for your card — from the card vendor for an NVIDIA or AMD part, from the laptop vendor for integrated graphics — after the WebView2 fixes above rather than before them.

If It Crashes Instead Of Showing Black

A crash on launch usually names itself in Windows' Reliability Monitor, and the failure players have reported points straight at one file.

  1. Search reliability in the Start menu and open Reliability History.
  2. Find the crash entry for Legion Was Here and read the failing module. The reported case is an access violation, 0xc0000005, in MSVCP140.dll.
  3. MSVCP140.dll belongs to the Visual C++ 2015–2022 runtimes, so repairing that redistributable is the fix rather than anything in the game itself.

If the failing module is something else entirely, repair the VC++ 2015–2022 runtimes anyway — they are shared by a lot of software and a broken copy breaks unrelated games too.

Linux And Steam Deck: Install Edge WebView2 First

On Linux the failure has a different cause and a different fix: the Proton prefix has no WebView2 runtime, so the game launches into an empty black window. The pinned three-step answer from the Steam discussion:

  1. Download the Edge WebView2 installer.
  2. Install protontricks.
  3. Run protontricks-launch --appid 3492120 ~/Downloads/MicrosoftEdgeWebview2Setup.exe.

The appid in the original post is written 3492210; Legion Was Here is app 3492120, so correct it before running the command or protontricks will target nothing. Expect two follow-on issues even after this works:

  • AMD graphics generally run fine once WebView2 is installed. On NVIDIA, several players on CachyOS still see layers flickering in and out, which they attribute to the driver rather than to WebView2.
  • On a laptop with both an integrated and a discrete card, one player fixed the flicker by forcing the game onto the integrated AMD card only, using a utility such as cardwire.

Installing the runtime into the prefix also gives you a game that starts but shows no mouse cursor; relaunching sometimes clears that. The developer has said a native Linux build is not currently planned, so Proton plus WebView2 is the route for now.

Check The Minimum Specs

RequirementWhat Legion Was Here lists

Operating system

Windows Vista or newer

Processor

1 GHz

Memory

1 GB RAM

Graphics

WebGL-compatible graphics

DirectX

DirectX 9.0

Storage

1 GB

If You See A Purple Language Screen Instead

A purple screen carrying the language list is not a graphics fault. It is the very first screen of the game, and it also holds the "w/o flash" checkbox that controls photosensitive effects.

Ticking that checkbox during the first language pick used to hang the game on the purple screen and ignore clicks. It has been fixed in current builds. If you are on an older demo build where it still freezes, leave the checkbox unticked on that first screen, pick your language, and let the game start normally.

If The Game Starts But The Screen Looks Wrong

If the game runs but the flashing interface bothers you, the startup checkbox is the only flashing-lights control in the game and there is no accessibility menu behind it — where the flashing lights option lives covers what it does and does not promise.

What To Do Once The Game Launches

Once the game starts, the lowest-risk place to learn the loop is the free demo, which covers the tutorial and one complete mission on the same systems as the full game: the demo walkthrough covers that mission. For the campaign itself — six contracted missions, each one dossier, face and interview — the walkthrough is the overview.

Legion Was Here Flashing Lights Fix: The W/O Flash CheckboxThe Legion Was Here flashing lights fix is a single checkbox, and it sits on the very first screen you see: the language picker at launch. Tick "w/o flash" before you start and the game uses its reduced presentation; leave it unticked and you get the full one. There is no flashing-lights option anywhere in the game's menus, so the choice is made once, at startup.Legion Was Here Demo Walkthrough: The Neptunian Cover MissionThe Legion Was Here demo walkthrough is worth playing before the full game: the free demo covers the tutorial plus one complete mission, and it uses the same face creator and the same multiple-choice interview as the paid campaign. Practising the loop here means the first contract in the full game is not your first look at any of the systems.Legion Was Here Walkthrough: The Three-Phase Spy LoopThis Legion Was Here walkthrough starts with the part every mission has in common: read the dossier, rebuild the target's face in the operating room, then survive the interview with the people who knew them. Each mission below lists who you are sent to impersonate, who does the questioning, and the dossier and interview answers that run decides.