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Find what you see below and follow its steps: each fix comes from the manual, with the exact message, file or setting to look for. Nothing fits, or the fix didn’t work? Still stuck? says where the log is and how to ask.

Before you playInstalling and building

The launcher says “This version isn’t supported”

Or: “Longshot supports build e0f3ccfa”. Longshot builds from one version of the game only.

  1. Check the version. You need program 0400486024DEC000 with update v131072 (build e0f3ccfa); see what you need. The game without its update, or with another one, won’t build.
  2. Check the files you chose. Use a .nup file, or the romfs and exefs folders. The launcher looks for .nup files in your Downloads, Desktop and Documents folders; if the right one isn’t listed, point it at the file.

Search version reports

“Your antivirus removed part of the build tools”

A false alarm on unsigned programs: Longshot isn’t code-signed yet.

  1. Get the files back. Restore them from Windows Security’s Protection history, or add %LOCALAPPDATA%\LongshotBuilder to its exclusions.
  2. Press Repair in the launcher.

The antivirus guide shows each step, and how to check first that the download is genuine.

Search antivirus reports

The build is very slow, or runs out of space
  1. Expect 10 to 45 minutes. A hard drive works, but builds are much slower than on an SSD.
  2. Free about 60 GB before building. The build’s own files (about 4 GB) are deleted once the game is ready.

Search build reports

Linux: the launcher or the build won’t start
  1. Let the launcher run as a program. In your file manager, open its Properties and turn on “Allow executing file as program”, or run chmod +x LongshotLauncher-*-x86_64.AppImage.
  2. Check your system. Linux needs glibc 2.35 or newer (Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12 or newer), and Longshot’s Linux AppImage needs a CPU with AVX2.

Search Linux reports

When you press PlayStarting the game

The game opens and closes, shows a black screen, or the log says “device lost”
  1. Update your graphics driver. On Linux, update Mesa or the NVIDIA driver.
  2. Check your graphics card. Longshot needs Vulkan 1.3; see what you need. A driver update can’t add it to an older card that doesn’t have it.
  3. AMD cards have known crashes (#708, #614). To try the other drawing path, add the line RX_VK_MESH_SHADERS=compute to longshot_env.txt in the game folder (usually a little slower; delete the line to undo it).
  4. Read the end of the log. longshot_log.txt in the game folder has the last run; its last lines usually say what failed.

Search crash reports · Search black-screen reports

Linux: the game doesn’t start, or the picture is broken
  1. Check Vulkan and mesh shaders. vulkaninfo | grep mesh should list VK_EXT_mesh_shader. The game needs a Vulkan 1.3 driver, ideally with mesh shaders.
  2. Update Mesa or the NVIDIA driver if it doesn’t.

Search Linux reports

Linux: Play closed before the game’s log appeared

Wait for the game to exit, then open longshot_startup.log in the game folder: it has up to 64 KiB of the game’s startup errors and its exit status. Started from a terminal, the game prints there instead.

Search startup reports

While playingGraphics

Parts of the picture are missing, or a message says your card has no mesh shader support

Without mesh shaders, Longshot draws through its compute fallback, which leaves some draws out (#640).

  1. Update your graphics driver: a card and driver with mesh shaders draw everything. NVIDIA RTX 20 series and newer, AMD RX 6000 series and newer, and Intel Arc have them.
  2. Check your card against what you need.

Search graphics reports

One place has a wrong texture, or a floor or wall is missing
  1. Look for longshot_damaged_files.txt in the game folder. The build writes it when your dump of the game is incomplete (about 23.3 GB instead of 23.8 GB), listing each damaged file and what was put in its place.
  2. Dump the game again and build from the new dump. The file is removed once the dump is whole.

Search texture reports

AMD: blocky textures, solid rectangles in the sky, or dark courtyard surfaces
  1. Turn on ASTC as RGBA8: open the menu (F1), go to the Debug tab, and under Developer turn on ASTC as RGBA8. Restart the game.
  2. Watch the memory. It can use much more graphics memory, and stalls when the card runs out. To undo it, turn the row off and restart.

If the row can’t be changed, longshot_env.txt sets it: remove its RX_VK_ASTC_RGBA8=1 line. The AMD texture workaround has the details.

Search AMD reports

While playingPerformance and freezes

It stutters the first time you see something

Normal for now: the game prepares each new shader the first time it needs it, and it is smooth the next time you pass. You can help remove it for everyone: send your pipeline list (Debug → Save my pipeline list in the menu).

Search stutter reports

Windows, NVIDIA: it stutters on every start, in places you have seen

The driver’s shader cache is too small to keep them all (the first start builds about 2 GB). Open the NVIDIA Control Panel, then Manage 3D settings, and set Shader Cache Size to Unlimited (or 10 GB). On Linux the game raises the driver’s limit itself.

Search stutter reports

Low FPS, or it slows down after a while
  1. Match the preset to your card. In the menu’s Graphics tab, pick the Quality preset for your graphics memory: Minimum (4GB), Low (6GB), Balanced (8GB) and so on. If the log says vk: over the driver's video-memory allowance, choose a lower one.
  2. Walk through the same spot twice once the shaders are prepared. Note whether the slowdown clears the second time, or lasts until you restart.
  3. Compare fairly. Turn off Frame generation, so the FPS counts the game’s own frames, and keep the resolution, upscaler and frame rate cap the same between runs.
  4. Keep the log from the slow run (and from the earlier version, after an update), and say where the FPS dropped. The low FPS checklist lists the log lines that matter, and a switch that times each GPU pass.

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Steam Deck: the game freezes and closes in Kokiri Forest or the Great Deku Tree

journalctl -k shows gfx_0.0.0 timeout. Add the line RX_VK_MESH_NOCULL=2c56dc1006942f74 to longshot_env.txt in the game folder: it turns off the culling pass that runs for seconds there, and every model is still drawn (#817).

Search Steam Deck reports

While playingControls, saves and language

The menu won’t open

Press F1: it always works. Insert and Esc do too, unless Controls → Menu shortcut was changed. On a controller, press Home, or Select and Start together; on a DualShock 4 or DualSense, click the touchpad.

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A and B are swapped, or a button does the wrong thing
  1. Check the layout. In the menu, open Controls → Controls and check Layout preset: Nintendo has A on the right face button, Xbox / PC and Swap Face put it on the bottom one.
  2. Rebind a button on that page: choose its row and the Gamepad or Keyboard column, press Enter, then the new button. Esc cancels, Delete clears it, and Reset to defaults puts them all back.
  3. Wrong icons? Button prompts on the same page picks the icons the game shows. It doesn’t change what a button does.

The controls reference covers the keyboard, the mouse and rumble.

Search controller reports

A save is missing, or a save transfer or update went wrong
  1. Close the game and stop copying, so nothing else is overwritten.
  2. Copy the save folder somewhere safe: user in the game folder on Windows, ~/.local/share/longshot on Linux.
  3. Put the backup back. Every copy the launcher makes backs up the save it replaces first: undo a copy shows where. An update keeps your saves; the updates guide says what else it keeps.

Keep save files private: don’t post them.

Search save reports

The game is in the wrong language

Change the code in language.txt in the game folder: the file lists them all, and an update keeps the one you set.

Search language reports

When you downloadDownloads and antivirus

Windows Defender or the browser flags the download

Longshot isn’t code-signed yet, so Defender often guesses Trojan:Win32/Wacatac.H!ml or Wacatac.B!ml: the !ml means a guess, not a known virus.

  1. Check where it came from. Only the launcher’s releases and Longshot’s are official; the download page sends you there.
  2. Let it through safely. The antivirus guide shows how to check the file, restore it, and exclude only Longshot’s folders.

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Still stuck?

  1. Make a bug report. Open the menu (F1), go to Gameplay and choose Bug report. It saves a folder in bug-reports in the game folder with the log, a picture and report.txt, which ends with a link that opens the report form already filled in. Your home folder and user name are taken out.
  2. Or find the log yourself, if the game doesn’t get that far: longshot_log.txt in the game folder is the last run, and longshot_log.1.txt to .4.txt the four before it. On Linux, longshot_startup.log has the startup errors.
  3. Search the reports. Someone may have had it already, with a workaround.
  4. Ask on Discord. The team and other players are there.
  5. Report it with the report form: your version, where you were in the game, your graphics card and driver, the log and a screenshot. What to include has the details.

Never share game files, keys or saves.