Save Bug: Corruption, Autosave & Lost Progress

What Patch 1.0.9 Actually Fixed

The 1.0.9 patch notes say save-file corruption is “hopefully fixed” — that wording matters. It is a prevention fix, not a recovery guarantee. New saves are far less likely to corrupt, but the patch does not retroactively repair an already-broken file or reconstruct equipment that vanished before you updated. Player reports of gear disappearing after reconnects and deaths still appear on current builds.

The Patch 1.0.6 Save Rules (Still Current)

• Saving happens on manual Save, returning to the Main Menu, and on Quit.
• Autosave runs roughly every 60 seconds during normal play.
• A crash does not create a fresh save — your last written state survives.
• Corollary: reloading and re-saving repeatedly after a loss can overwrite the last good state.

Where Saves Live

The Safe Recovery Order

1. Stop saving. Do not load, re-save, or “quickly test” fixes in-game.
2. Close the game normally (Main Menu → Quit) if it is still running.
3. Copy the entire save folder to a safe location before touching anything.
4. Verify game files in Steam (Properties → Installed Files → Verify) to rule out a bad install.
5. Test on a copy, never the original — if a workaround writes junk into the file, your backup is still clean.

Prevention Habits

Before big milestones — boss kills, quest hand-ins, boat upgrades — use a manual save and quit to desktop. That gives you a clean restore point that no autosave loop can overwrite. If you play co-op, agree with your crew on who saves and when; mid-session crashes are the most common corruption vector players report.

If weapons, radar, or boat parts are already missing, switch to our items disappeared guide — the recovery flow there protects quest drops too.