Elden Ring: Save file locations and how to back them up

Every Elden Ring player has wanted to back up their saves and reload them using a save manager at some point. Thankfully, this is possible and fairly easy.

Elden Ring is a game that forces players to make many choices. Whether it’s a binary choice during an NPC’s questline or deciding whether to use those precious materials to max out a wapon’s level, players are forced to make irrevocable choices. This makes it incredibly frustrating when a boss soul is used, only to have the weapon feel weak.

Thankfully, there are ways to work around this. PC players who own Elden Ring have the ability to back up their save files, even if FromSoftware doesn’t offer that option. Not only that, but newbies looking for a shortcut in the game can load in someone else’s save in order to get a fast start. Here’s how to do this.

Elden Ring save file location and how to back up a save

For PC players, Elden Ring’s save files can be found in the game’s folder. The standard location of the folder on Windows PCs is as follows:

C:\Users\[name of user]\AppData\Roaming\EldenRing

Players can find the file easily by opening up My PC, navigating to the C: drive, and then navigating to the game’s folder from there. Naturally, the [name of user] directory will be your user name in Windows.

It’s worth noting that the folder that actually contains the same may be hidden. Users can remedy this by disabling file hiding. On Windows 11 this is done by clicking on the View tab in the folder, mousing over “Show” and then clicking on “Hidden Items.” On Windows 10, click on the View tab, select Advanced settings, and then click “Show hidden files, folders, and drives.”

This will allow users to see the folder where their save files are hidden. Saves have a .sl2 extension, with the file name being a seemingly arbitrary set of numbers. For users who have multiple save files, there’s no easy way to tell which is which from the file names.

An Elden Ring save file can be backed up by simply copying the file to another folder. If players want to restore their previous save, this can be done by replacing the new save file with the old one.

The best use of this is to quickly get all the achievements for Elden Ring’s endings. Normally, this would require multiple lengthy playthroughs but instead, players can get this done by beating the final bosses a few times.

Elden Ring save file manager lets players use others’ saves, copy their own save files

Elden Ring fans can duplicate their save files or import save files from other players using save file manager mods.

FromSoftware doesn’t let players freely copy their characters, nor can players use their friends’ characters. Modders remedy this, however. The Elden Ring Save Manager mod is one of a few that offers players the ability to freely manipulate their saves. This includes copying the same character across multiple save files and importing saves from others.

Make sure to verify the legitimacy of save files before utilizing them, however. Elden Ring does have anti-cheat measures and if an illegal save is used, it could result in a player’s Steam account being banned from the game.