Skip to content
Longshotby Team MagicBean
Menu

Moving your saves

Your adventure is a handful of small files, the same in Longshot, Hookshot and the emulators that run the game, so it moves between them as it is. The Longshot Launcher does it for you, from its Saves page: open Saves on the launcher’s home page, under the default version.

Every copy backs up the save it replaces first, and the launcher won’t copy while Longshot, Hookshot or an emulator is running, since a running game can write its save again and undo the copy. A copy replaces the other side’s slots: it doesn’t merge two adventures.

Before you start

  1. Save and quit. Save in the game, then quit it (and the emulator) from its own menu, so it finishes writing.
  2. Know which adventure you want. Note the slot and roughly when you last played: the launcher lists every save it finds with its slots and when each was saved.

Import a save into Longshot

From an emulator

  1. Start Longshot once and save, so its save folder exists, then quit it.
  2. On the Saves page, choose Import from emulator. The launcher lists the emulators whose saves it found on this PC (Lichii, Eden, Eglantine, Orchid, PokeDinner, Frizti and NX2navi), with their slots and save times.
  3. Pick the save you want. If it isn’t listed (a portable install, a copy on another drive), use Choose a folder and pick the save folder, or a folder that holds one.
  4. Start Longshot and load your slot.

From Hookshot

Hookshot, the project Longshot continues, writes the same save files, so a Hookshot adventure carries on in Longshot.

  1. On the Saves page, choose Import from Hookshot…. (When the launcher finds Hookshot saves, its home page also offers this once.)
  2. Pick the save. The launcher looks where Hookshot keeps them; for anywhere else, use Choose a folder….
  3. If Longshot already has a save, the launcher asks before replacing it, backs it up whole, and tells you where.

Hookshot’s own saves stay exactly as they were: nothing in its folders is moved or changed.

Export a save from Longshot

  1. Start the emulator you’re going to, save once so its folders exist, then quit it. Close Longshot too.
  2. On the Saves page, choose Export to emulator, and pick the emulator, or Choose a folder for anywhere else.
  3. Open the emulator and load your slot.

The emulator’s save is backed up before it’s replaced. The launcher doesn’t export to Hookshot; the save script can.

Between Longshot builds

  • Windows: each build keeps its own saves. On the destination build’s Saves page, choose Copy saves from another build. A new build or an update can also take your default build’s saves itself: Move my saves, in the build wizard’s second step.
  • Linux and Steam Deck: every build already shares the same saves, so there’s nothing to copy.

Where Longshot keeps them

Your saves The launcher’s backups
Windows <game folder>\user\save\ (the game folder is %USERPROFILE%\Games\Longshot unless you chose another) %LOCALAPPDATA%\Longshot\oot-save-backups
Linux and Steam Deck ~/.local/share/longshot/save/ ~/.local/share/oot-save-backups

To keep your own copy, copy the save folder while the game is closed. Keep save files private.

Undo a copy

Each copy’s backup is a folder in the backups folder above, named by when it was made. Close the game, then put that folder’s contents back into the save folder, the whole set of slots at once. If something looks wrong, stop before copying again and ask on Discord, without posting your save files.

For advanced users: the save script

Longshot has the same transfers on the command line: scripts/oot_saves.py, which needs only Python 3. It also exports to Hookshot, handles custom folders, portable installs and several profiles, and previews a copy with --dry-run:

Terminal window
python -I scripts/oot_saves.py list              # every save it finds, its slots and when each was saved
python -I scripts/oot_saves.py import lichii     # Lichii -> Longshot
python -I scripts/oot_saves.py export lichii     # Longshot -> Lichii

Saves: the files, the script and the emulators has every command and option, where each emulator keeps its saves, copying by hand and troubleshooting.