Find Your Darkest Dungeon Save Files: A Guide to Locating, Backing Up, and Transferring Game Progress

Lost Your Save Game? Don’t Panic! A Gamer’s Guide to Finding and Protecting Your Precious Progress

We’ve all faced it. Hours melt away as we conquer digital realms. Then, dread strikes. A missing save file appears. It’s like losing car keys. Instead of running late, you replay 20 hours of gameplay. Fear not! This guide leads you to locate, back up, and move your game saves. Keep your victories secure.

Where Are My Saves Hiding? The Mystery of Game File Locations

Game saves can hide well. They aren’t always where you expect. Often, they linger in folders with cryptic names. But don’t worry, we will uncover the spots where your files dwell.

Steam Saves: Your Cloud-Powered and Manual Options

Steam, a giant in PC gaming, offers ways to manage saves. Let’s explore:

Steam Cloud: The Automatic Backup Buddy

Think of Steam Cloud as your save game valet. If a game supports this feature, your progress transfers safely to the cloud. This helps when playing on different PCs. You’ll feel reassured knowing your saves are safe.

How to Check if Steam Cloud is Enabled:

• Open Steam first.
• Navigate to “Steam” in the top-left corner, then click “Settings.”
• Go to the “Cloud” tab.
• Ensure “Enable Steam Cloud synchronization for applications that support it” is checked.

For per-game checking:

• Right-click a game in your Steam Library.
• Select “Properties.”
• In the “General” tab, confirm “Keep game saves in the Steam Cloud for [Game Name]” is ticked.

Where are Steam Cloud Saves Stored Locally?

• Windows: C:Program Files (x86)Steamuserdata
• MacOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/userdata
• Linux: ~/.local/share/Steam/userdata

In the userdata folder, folders appear with numbers. These represent your Steam IDs. You may find game-specific folders inside. Typically, Steam Cloud manages saves without trouble.

Manual Steam Save File Hunting

Not every game uses the cloud. Some keep saves local, making you a manual backup hero. It’s not rocket science; sometimes it feels like deciphering code.

General Locations for Manual Steam Saves:

• The “Documents” Folder: A classic hiding spot. Look in %USERPROFILE%Documents (paste that into your File Explorer address bar). Sometimes they hide in “My Games” subfolders or folders named for the game or publisher.
• The Game’s Install Directory: Not common, but worth checking.
• %APPDATA% Folder: Another hidden gem. Type %APPDATA% into your File Explorer address bar and enter. Look inside “Local”, “LocalLow”, or “Roaming” subfolders.
• Steam Userdata Folder: Even if a game lacks Steam Cloud support, it might store saves in the userdata folder we mentioned earlier. A gamble, but worth exploring.

Easiest Way to Find Game-Specific Save Locations (The “Browse Local Files” Trick):

• Right-click the game in your Steam Library.
• Go to “Properties.”
• Click on the “Local Files” tab.
• Select the “Browse Local Files” button to access the game’s installation folder.

Darkest Dungeon Save Files: Delving into the Depths

Darkest Dungeon, a grim RPG, has save files in varied locations depending on your setup:

• Documents Folder: Documents/Darkest/profile_0/1/2. The profile numbers seem cryptic, but your saves typically live there.
• Steam Userdata (Remote): steam/userdata/<your Steam ID>/262060/remote. Replace <your Steam ID> with your actual number.

If you back up Darkest Dungeon, check both spots to be thorough.

Dark Souls (DS1) Save Files: Prepare to Backup (and Maybe Die Less?)

Dark Souls: Remastered, the game that teaches humility repeatedly, stores its saves differently:

• Windows: %USERPROFILE%DocumentsNBGIDARK SOULS REMASTERED. NBGI stands for Namco Bandai Games Inc.
• Steam Play (Linux): <SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/570940/pfx/. Linux gamers use this location for their saves.

Your save file usually goes by DRAKS0005.sl2 or a similar name (numbers vary). For backups, copy the whole NBGI folder (or the relevant Linux folder). Easy right? Backing up is simple. Playing Dark Souls? That’s another matter.

Fun Fact: Dark Souls keeps track of your death count in RAM, updating the save file when it changes. Every time you die, your save file reflects your increasing tally of digital demise.

Dying Light and Dragon Age: Quick Save Location Spotlights

Here are two more save file examples:

• Dying Light: Often found in /My Documents/ or within the /userdata/ folder in your Steam installation directory.
• Dragon Age: Can typically be found at C:UsersDocumentsBioWareDragon Age. BioWare games often follow a pattern with the “DocumentsBioWare” location.

Backing Up Your Saves: Because Digital Mishaps Happen

Backing up save files serves as protection for your gaming progress. It guards against hard drive failures, accidental deletions, and mishaps from curious pets that enjoy napping on your keyboard and may delete saves.

Backup Methods: Choose Your Weapon

• Manual Copying: The simplest method. Locate save files using tips above. Copy them to an external drive or another folder on your computer. Simple yet effective.
• Cloud Storage: Services like Google Drive or Dropbox can back up any files, including game saves. Create a folder for saves and sync to the cloud.
• Specialized Backup Software: Tech-savvy users may automate processes with backup software, scheduling backups for version histories of saves.
• Steam’s Built-in Backup (Entire Games): Steam has an option to back up full games and save files. Right-click a game in your Library, go to Properties, Local Files, and choose “Backup game files…”. This creates a larger backup than needed if you want only saves.
• Disk Images: Disk images provide complete copies of drives or partitions. While more complex, they serve complete system back-up needs.

Transferring Saves: Moving Your Progress Between Machines

wWant to continue a Witcher 3 playthrough on a different PC or even a Steam Deck? Transferring saves is often easy.

Steam Deck to PC (and Vice Versa): Save Swapping

Steam Cloud to the Rescue: If a game uses Steam Cloud, transferring between devices tends to work smoothly. As long as both devices use the same Steam account and both have Steam Cloud enabled, saves sync automatically.

Manual Transfers: If a game doesn’t support the cloud, you must handle file transfers manually. Connect your Steam Deck to your PC with USB and explore files to copy saves from one device to another. File transfer programs can help here too.

Uninstalling Games: Will My Saves Vanish?

Uninstalling a game may seem risky—what happens to your hours of effort? Good news: uninstalling a Steam game usually keeps your save files intact, especially if Steam Cloud is enabled. Still, double-checking is wise:

• Steam Cloud Games: Saved data is often safe in the cloud. When you reinstall, your progress should return.
• Non-Cloud Games:Saves typically exist separately from installation files (in “Documents” or elsewhere).
• %APPDATA% folders). Uninstalling the game shouldn’t erase the saves.

Best Practice: If you are unsure, back up your save files before uninstalling a game. This takes a minute, and it can save you from heartache later.

Moving Steam Games to Another Drive: Reorganizing Your Digital Kingdom

Running out of space on your main drive? Want to move your games to a faster SSD? Steam makes it easy to move games without losing saves or re-downloading everything.

Steam’s Storage Manager to the Rescue:

1. Open Steam Settings (Steam -> Settings).
2. Go to the “Storage” tab.
3. Click the “+” icon to add a new drive if it’s not listed. Steam will see connected drives.
4. Click on your current drive for game installation.
5. Check the boxes next to games you want to move.
6. Click the “Move” button.
7. Select the new drive as the destination.
8. Confirm the move. Steam will transfer the game files.

Your saves should stay safe during this process, especially with Steam Cloud enabled. But it is always a good idea to back up saves before. A quick backup can prevent issues later.

Darkest Dungeon Game Mechanics: A Grim Aside (Because Why Not?)

Let’s throw in a few interesting game mechanics for Darkest Dungeon:

• Expedition Failure: If all heroes die in an expedition, it’s a failure. Lost in Darkness.
• No Retreat in the Final Quest: In the final quest, there’s no turning back. Commitment is essential, even if it leads to annihilation.
• Burnout for Veterans: Heroes who conquer quests on Darkest or Stygian difficulty refuse to return. Consider it a traumatized retirement.
• No Game Over (Officially): No traditional “game over” exists in Darkest Dungeon. You can keep playing with depleted rosters. The Hamlet must endure.
• From Beyond Town Event (A Glimmer of Hope?): A tiny chance of the “From Beyond” Town Event allows resurrection of one of three heroes from your graveyard. They keep quirks and resolve level, but lose gear and skill upgrades.

Here is your guide to game saves! With this knowledge, you can manage your progress. Backup your victories and transfer your adventures. Go forth, game on, and may your save files always be found and backed up!