If you started playing The Outer Worlds upon its release on Xbox Game Pass for PC (or EGS?) on the day of release (or after), then you’ve made progress and earned achievements since that point and probably want that to carry over to Steam now that you own it (or intend to buy it) here. This is a quick guide on how to make that happen.
How to Import Saves and Achievements
All credit goes to HEKAU!
Location
The default location for XGP’s The Outer Worlds saves is:
- C:UsersusernameSaved GamesThe Outer Worlds Windows 10
The default location for Steam’s The Outer Worlds saves is:
- C:UsersusernameSaved GamesThe Outer Worlds
The Microsoft Store and Xbox Game Pass locations are the same.
The EGS & Steam versions use the same save folder, so this may not be necessary in that case.
Instruction
Step 1
The first thing you’ll want to do is launch The Outer Worlds on Steam in Online mode (launching the game in Offline mode populates a separate folder, which is what “_LOCAL_” is for) once, if you haven’t done so already, so that the game creates and populates the relevant folders.
Step 2
After that’s done, go into this folder:
- C:UsersusernameSaved GamesThe Outer WorldsThe Outer Worlds Windows 10
There should be a “_LOCAL_” folder and another folder with a long number string. In the latter folder you’ll see a lot of subfolders named “Autosave…”, “Quicksave…”, etcetera—but just as important is also a file called “Achievement.dat”, which is self-explanatory.
Select All or Copy All of these files and place or paste them all into the folder below:
- C:UsersusernameSaved GamesThe Outer Worlds
Be sure that they all go directly into that folder as is and there should be no subfolders other than those you place or paste in there.
Step 3
Now launch The Outer Worlds, once again in Online mode, and be sure to keep an eye on a Steam prompt asking which save file you would like to proceed with if you have Steam Cloud enabled. Choose the upload to the cloud option since those are the files you just added to the game’s folder. Choosing the other option will likely overwrite the files you’ve just inserted or potentially corrupt whatever save files were already present.
Conclusion
If you followed all the steps then you should see all the achievements that you’ve previously earned unlocking in succession, in sets of three, once you reach the main menu. All of your save files will also be populated in the Load Game screen as they were previously on the original alternate platform, and you’ll see the Continue option at the top. Now just enjoy picking up right where you left off beforehand without the need to replay for achievements, especially if you scored some rare or hard-earned ones in your original playthrough. I’ve done all these steps myself and can confirm that it has worked without issue, bugs, glitches, nor save file corruption or compromised save files.
Note 1
You may want to just go to your Settings when you first Launch The Outer Worlds initially to ensure that all relevant settings are to your liking.
Note 2
If you are attempting to do this from the EGS version, I can’t personally confirm if the steps are exactly the same because 1, Steam may read the save files from the EGS version of the game already since apparently the save file location for both the EGS and Steam versions are in the same folder…and 2, I don’t have the EGS version of The Outer Worlds to perform these steps myself.
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