R.E.P.O. is an online co-op game for up to six players, so a run can stretch across an evening and the question people search first is whether any of it is being written to disk. The results are a mess: guessed folder paths, third-party save editors, and confident rules about what happens when the whole crew dies. Almost none of it points at a developer announcement. This guide collects only the save facts that can be read in the Steam patch notes and on the store page as checked on 16 October 2026, and puts the popular claims in the same table marked as unconfirmed so you can tell them apart. If you are still putting a crew together, start with finding co-op friends and parties instead.
Split every save question into confirmed and unconfirmed first
R.E.P.O. is in Early Access and the save behaviour has been reworked several times. Version 0.4.0 is where the truck rule was written down. Version 0.4.2 added a backup system on the meta save file for the case where the game quits unexpectedly during saving and corrupts it. Version 0.4.3 fixed a rare case where a save file was deleted after the truck let a player survive a death and they then left to the main menu in the next level. That means a large share of the guides still circulating describe a build from before those changes. Two rules keep you out of trouble. First, treat something as a rule only when a developer announcement states it in a sentence. Second, when the announcements are silent, call it unconfirmed and test it in your own lobby rather than repeating it. If you want to compare symptoms with other crews or report one, the selection criteria in finding an active game Discord server are a good starting point. One practical note: on the date we checked, the store page still lists English as the game's single supported language, which is why the menu labels below are given in English.
How to save in R.E.P.O. and what to check when progress disappears
- 1End the run while you are in the truckThe v0.4.0 patch note states that exiting the game while in the truck now saves your game and spawns you back in the truck when loading the save, and that the game also saves when you exit to the main menu or quit while in the truck. If your habit is to close the window mid-level, you are outside what that sentence covers.
- 2Tell your saves apart by name in the save menuNamed save files arrived in v0.3.0, and v0.4.2 fixed long names disappearing from the save info panel. A share of vanished-save reports are really a different slot being loaded, so expand the full list and read the names and dates before assuming anything was lost.
- 3Press Restore from Backup before anything elseThe v0.3.0 notes add a Restore from Backup button to the save menu to recover corrupted save files from the latest backup. It is the documented route that ships inside the game, so use it before you go looking for a way to touch files yourself.
- 4Delete the corrupted file from the menu if it still will not loadSince v0.2.0 corrupted saves can be deleted from the saves menu, and v0.3.0 fixed corrupted saves hiding other saves and taught the menu to delete more types of broken file. A list that looks empty is sometimes one broken file covering the rest.
- 5Stay on the current buildOn the date we checked, the newest patch is v0.4.4 from 25 May 2026, where the cosmetic menu was changed to save only when the menu closes in order to reduce the likelihood of save file corruption, and the meta save backup logic was improved. Save fixes keep stacking up, so there is no reason to sit on an older build.
- 6Keep a recording of the next runIf the file never comes back, what you bought and how far you got lives only in memory. A full video of the session lets you read back the upgrades you picked in the shop and the levels you cleared. The paragraph below covers what a recording keeps and the disk rules around it.
Save questions: what the patch notes and store page confirm
| Question | Confirmed by patch notes or the store page | Unconfirmed community claim |
|---|---|---|
| When does it save? | Quitting the game or leaving to the main menu while in the truck saves your run, and loading the save puts you back in the truck (v0.4.0) | That the game autosaves at the end of every level - no announcement states this |
| My file is corrupted | Restore from Backup in the save menu recovers a corrupted file from the latest backup (v0.3.0), plus a backup system on the meta save file for crashes during saving (v0.4.2) | That you should overwrite the backup file by hand - no announcement describes that procedure |
| Whose machine stores it? | No announcement explains which player holds the run on disk | That only the host keeps the save - you have to take turns hosting and compare save menus to see it |
| Is it synced to the cloud? | The store page lists Steam Cloud in the feature categories | That every piece of progress is synced automatically - the scope is stated nowhere |
| Does a team wipe erase it? | Two deletion bugs are listed as fixed: a wipe, a revive and the host quitting (v0.3.0), and a case where the truck let a player survive a death (v0.4.3) | That a wipe always deletes the save - no announcement states this as a rule |
| Where is the save file? | No announcement gives a file path | Folder paths and save editors passed around in communities - this guide does not walk you through them |
Check this before you lose a run
- You were in the truck when you ended the session
- You expanded the whole save list and looked for a slot with a different name or date
- You pressed Restore from Backup first when a corruption message appeared
- Your copy of the game is updated to v0.4.4 or newer
- You looked at the Steam Cloud entry on the store page and at your own Steam settings
- There is a video of the run you can replay to reconstruct progress
When progress disappears, the video of that run is the record you still have
A corrupted file or a host who drops leaves nothing behind inside the game. DOR is a free Windows app that detects R.E.P.O. the moment it launches and records the whole session to one video until you close the game, so the upgrades you picked in the shop and the level you reached stay readable afterwards. On a personal PC the full-session recording is on by default, and you can turn it on or off per game under Settings and then Games. A moment you want to keep is saved separately with the F8 key by default, which writes the segment that just happened. Resolution, frame rate and clip length are set before you launch. The storage rule is worth knowing in advance: the full-session share of your library defaults to 5GB, so once that share is full the oldest run's folder is cleared out, including the F8 clips saved inside it, while anything you liked stays. Mark anything you want to keep with a like on the spot, or trim it right away. Below 30GB of free disk space you get a warning, and below 20GB a recording will not start or will stop, so if space is tight, work through the cleanup order in fixing low disk space for Steam game recording first. If all six of you recorded your own view, pulling a party's recordings into one video covers that too.
