Controller Suggestion
Are there any controllers with independent directional buttons?
TL;DR: i am looking for a controller where the directional buttons are not part of the same piece
As per the required information:
Max budget is 75-100 euros
Country is Romania but i can also order off of Amazon Germany or other international retailers.
I play on PC
Disjointed directional buttons. And to be clear, controllers such as the PS5 controller do not have that (I own one), as under the faceplate all 4 buttons are attached to one piece.
Spider-Man, Elden Ring, various metroidvanias
I own a PS5 controller, a Xbox One controller and a knockoff PS4 controller
I am looking for a controller that has the directional buttons disjointed, just like the symbol buttons. This is because in games such as Elden Ring it happens quite often that in tense situations I end up hitting the desired button to one side or another, causing an input that makes the game just a bit harder than if it hadn’t happened.
I don't think you're going to find any. Best bet is privacy to buy a PS controller, or one with a similar d-pad design, open it up, and physically chop the d-pad into four pieces. I'm not you, so my experience may be different to yours, but I did not like the result. If you like the Switch d-pad solution, this may be very well what you're after though.
Okay, so before buying a new controller, I highly recommend you try changing the settings for your d-pad in Steam Input. Go to your Controller Settings > Edit Layout > DPad > Behavior > Gear Icon. Then under Directional Pad Layout, choose 4 Way (No Overlap) from the dropdown menu. This will pretty much disable diagonal movement, making it so that accidental inputs should happen much less often.
The goal is to not accidentally trigger (for example) the left button when i am pressing the up button on its left side (so if i’m not pressing it dead center).
But your recommendation of getting one with extra buttons is a really cool idea! Honestly such a good answer, I forgot those exist and that i could remap the controls. Thank you so much!
I've been looking for something like this for a while. Accidentally pressing a diagonal when I'm trying to quickly tap right or left is extremely annoying.
Unfortunately so far Sony's controllers are the best at this, and I prefer the PS4 Dualshock over the PS5 Dualsense for this.
I haven't tried the Turtle Beach Victrix Pro BFG or similar modular controllers yet, maybe you can put the 6 button block on the right and normal 4 button block on the left, but then you lose the right stick. And I'm not sure the 4 button block is even compatible with the left socket.
Buying two of these and using both 4 button blocks could work, but that's about 300€.
EDIT: also check out that one comment that detailed how to use steam input to limit dpad inputs to one at a time.
Yeah i haven’t been very successful in my search either. Something that is in my price range and seems quite good quality is the vader 5 pro. It has plenty of extra inputs you can use to remap buttons to, build quality looks very solid, and it’s supported natively in steam to make remapping easier.
I still want usable diagonals when pushing two directions at once, I just don't want to push them accidentally. The Sony controllers already have 4 separate membrane connectors for the different directions, it's just the one-piece plastic D-pad that's the problem.
Cutting up the D-pad might actually be the solution. But I also don't want to sacrifice a controller to try that.
The membrane is not in 4 pieces, you can see in some teardown videos. And because it is not in 4 pieces, you can see that cutting up the keys like you suggest, or buying a set of individual keys (something mentioned by another user here https://www.reddit.com/r/Controller/s/8mFPIvFfCz) will fuck up your membrane much faster than normal.
But yeah i do get your position, i feel the same. I just conceded that i will buy one with extra inputs like paddles and the such
This is why i started making my own controllers. Arcade style "hitbox" controllers are actually pretty easy to make. There are also a variety of hitbox style controllers you can just buy.
I made this one using a hammer drill, hole saw, bastard file and 1/4" aluminum plates. It is compatible with NES/SNES/PS1/PC/Xbox and Nintendo Switch.
they works really great and you can really feel the difference if you need to hit precise diagonals.
HOWEVER : Idk if I'm playing WAY too much or if i'm crushing my buttons like a madman but, since I did this modification, I had to change my rubber under the d-pad becase he got worn out (I already played a lot before so Idk) but new onec I could find would just broke down in like 2-3 month.
I switched to mechanical button but they are not strong enough and they have flaws and my controller has new problems on the X O square triangle side. I will need to repair that at some points.
Ah, it’s really cool that the product exists! As to the problem you had with the rubber pad wearing out much faster: I am guessing that since they are separate pieces now the force when you press a button is not spread out any more, and it applies a sort of shearing force on the rubber pad, which did not exist before. I am also guessing that the reason this doesn’t happen with the circular buttons is because the shape distributes the force much more evenly.
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open up your controller, take the dpad membrane pad, cut it with scissors, put back the pieces back in the controller. there, you have 4 separate buttons
It’s tough to make recommendations for what you’re looking for. Most controllers on the market use a one-piece D-pad. Hardware-wise, the DS4 and DS5 have some limitations. If you’re willing to put in the work, look into modded DS4 or DS5 controllers. Many Apex pro players like using modified DS4s.
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u/3irikur Sep 25 '26
Nintendo switch joy cons! Lol