The Long Dark is challenging survival game that has players wondering how to save their progress. It’s unclear why this option isn’t readily available but since it’s still in Early Access, there’s a possibility that it’s a feature that just hasn’t been built in yet. There’s also a chance that the developers enjoy the challenge it poses to the people who play it. Either way, we’re here to help you figure out what you have to do to make sure that everything you accomplish in this game isn’t lost.
Saving Your Game
As of right now, there’s no way to manually save your progress in The Long Dark. There is an autosave feature that you can initiate if you want a simple workaround. Events that set off autosave include injuring yourself, entering or leaving structures such as houses, exploring a new region, or sleeping in a bedroll.
Where To Find Your Game Save
If you want to access your save file, it’s important that you know where to look. The Long Dark stores game saves under your computer's name in the AppData folder. Here is the complete path: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Hinterland\The Long Dark\save001
It’s important to know that this game doesn’t keep a history of saves for each profile and will clear a particular save if you happen to die or start a new character. You can make a back up of your save if you plan on embarking on a high risk venture such as killing a bear.
Overall, tampering with your game saves isn’t advised because it seems to be implemented this way by design. The developers have confirmed that cloud saves will eventually be implemented resolving many of the issues players currently have with lost game saves.
For more on The Long Dark, check out our guides that will teach you how to kill a wolf.