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Savegames

This page covers everything around saving in 1.13: where saves live on disk, the expanded save-slot system, the three kinds of auto-save, and — most importantly — which changes to your configuration are safe mid-campaign and which ones break a running game. Everything here was verified against the current 1.13 source code and game data on github.com/1dot13 (fetched July 2026).

Where saves live

In a standard install, saves are written to the SavedGames folder inside your writable user-profile folder:

<game folder>\Profiles\UserProfile_JA2113\SavedGames\

The profile folder is the only layer of the virtual file system the game writes to. Each playable mode has its own profile (UserProfile_JA2113, UserProfile_JA2Vanilla, UserProfile_UnfinishedBusiness), so saves from 1.13, vanilla-mode and Unfinished Business never mix. Multiplayer games save separately again, in SavedGames\MP_SavedGames.

Every save is a single file. The names tell you what kind of save it is:

File What it is
SaveGame01.sav, SaveGame02.sav, … Regular numbered save slots
QuickSave.sav The quicksave (Alt+S / Alt+L)
AutoSaveGame01.sav – AutoSaveGame05.sav The five rotating timed auto-saves
Auto00.sav, Auto01.sav The two alternating end-of-turn saves

One level up, the profile folder itself holds Ja2_Settings.ini, a file the game generates to remember your in-game options-screen choices and the last save slot you used. It is not part of any savegame, but back it up together with the saves if you want to restore a machine exactly.

Slots and the save/load screen

1.13 massively expands vanilla JA2's 11 save slots: the save list shows 19 slots per page across 13 pages — nearly 250 slots. Flip pages with Page Up / Page Down. The top of the first page is reserved for the special slots: the quicksave, *Auto Save

1–5 and End-Turn Save #1–2*; regular slots follow.

The keys, in short (the hotkey reference has the full list):

Key Effect
Ctrl+S Open the save screen
Alt+S Quicksave (no dialog)
Ctrl+L Open the load screen
Alt+L Quickload
Alt+C (main menu) Load the most recent save

Hold Ctrl on the load screen

Highlighting a save on the load screen while holding Ctrl shows the campaign options baked into it — difficulty, Bobby Ray quality and quantity, arsenal, game style — plus the save's internal savegame version number (see compatibility below).

Auto-saves

Current builds have three separate auto-save mechanisms:

  • Timed auto-saves. AUTO_SAVE_EVERY_N_HOURS in the [Troubleshooting Settings] section of Ja2_Options.INI (default 12, 0 disables) writes a save every N game hours, rotating through the five Auto Save slots so you always keep the last five snapshots.
  • End-of-turn saves. The in-game options screen has a Tactical End-Turn Save toggle (off by default; stored as TOPTION_USE_AUTO_SAVE in Ja2_Settings.ini). When on, the game saves into the two alternating End-Turn Save slots after each of your turns in combat — insurance against crashes during long battles.
  • Emergency saves. AUTO_SAVE_ON_ASSERTION_FAILURE (default TRUE, same INI section) makes the game attempt a save the moment it hits an internal error. The INI asks you to attach that save when you report the bug. The emergency save lands in a slot number beyond the normal list; the game's own message tells you its file name and that you can rename it to a regular SaveGameNN.sav to load it.

With cheat mode enabled there is also Ctrl+Shift+T, which writes a timed auto-save on the spot — see cheats & debug tools.

Iron Man: restricted saving

The Extra Difficulty choice on the new-game screen decides when you are allowed to save: Save Anytime, Iron Man (no saving in combat or with enemies in the sector), Soft Iron Man (no saving in combat only) or Extreme Iron Man (saving only at one fixed hour per day — on the hour exactly). The new game options page describes all four modes; the Extreme Iron Man hour and its notification behavior are set in Ja2_Options.INI.

When saving is not allowed, the save keys and buttons simply refuse with an Iron Man message. Auto-saves are the exception — Extreme Iron Man's INI options explicitly support an "in auto-saves we trust" style of play.

Two things 1.13 does not have:

  • No "Dead is Dead" mode. Other JA2 projects offer a named permadeath mode; in 1.13 the Iron Man family is the complete list of save restrictions, and permadeath is self-imposed (just never reload after a death).
  • No way out. The mode is locked into the savegame at campaign start, like the rest of the new-game options. The game warns you before you pick any Iron Man mode.

Iron Man honor system

The restriction applies to when the game will save, not to the files: copying the SavedGames folder aside is always possible. Iron Man is only as strict as you are.

What breaks saves

Choices locked into the savegame

Since build r8610 the new-game screen follows a deliberate design rule, announced by 1.13 developer Flugente on the Bear's Pit forum: the start screen only holds choices that are stored in the savegame and genuinely cannot change later — while anything the code can change at any point in a campaign ("half the start screen, really") was moved to Ja2_Options.INI precisely so you can adjust it mid-game. The full story is on the new game options page.

That means everything on the current new-game screen is fixed for the life of the campaign: difficulty, the trait system (Old/New — this is why the trait settings INI notes most of its values only apply to campaigns started with the New Trait System), game style, the save mode above, the inventory and attachment systems, progress speed, arsenal size, maximum squad size, and the Bobby Ray settings.

Safe to change mid-campaign

  • Most Ja2_Options.INI settings. This is the point of the r8610 redesign: INI settings are read at startup, not stored in the save. The recommended settings can generally be applied to a running campaign — just remember that values consumed during campaign setup (starting cash, initial garrison sizes) won't retroactively change a game that already started.
  • NCTH. The New Chance to Hit system was moved off the new-game screen into the INI at r8625 because it can be flipped at any point.
  • The 1.13 Features screen toggles. The feature-toggle screen is explicitly designed to switch optional systems on and off during a campaign (it warns you that doing so changes your experience).

Known hazards

Change Risk Where it's documented
[System Limit Settings] in Ja2_Options.INI (MAX_NUMBER_PLAYER_MERCS, MAX_NUMBER_PLAYER_VEHICLES, the people-per-sector caps) The INI warns these can make existing saves unloadable. The fix is equally documented: revert to your previous values and the "broken" saves load again. Ja2_Options.INI tour
Toggling the food system (FOOD) Not designed to be switched once a campaign is running; there is a documented workaround to neutralize it instead. Food & water
Enabling Rebel Command mid-campaign Loads fine, but the INI itself recommends a new campaign "unless you're up for a challenge". Rebel Command
Removing or renumbering entries in Items.xml (and friends) Savegames store inventories as item numbers. Editing an existing item's values shows up in a running campaign, but deleting or renumbering entries makes saved inventories point at the wrong items — effectively scrambling or breaking the save. Item-set overhauls (mods) need a new campaign. XML files, XML modding
Installing or removing a mod under a running campaign A mod is a different data layer with its own items, maps and profiles — treat the switch like a version jump and start a new campaign. Mods built on 1.13
Lowering your screen resolution Saves record the campaign's squad size and inventory system. A squad-size-8 campaign refuses to load below 800x600, squad size 10 below 1280x720, and New Inventory saves need the higher resolutions as well. Raise the resolution back and the save loads again. verified in the load code

Not every new feature breaks old saves — the game data is full of counter-examples (enemy generals, for instance, are simply created on the map when an older save is loaded into a build that has them). When in doubt: copy your SavedGames folder first, try it, and revert if the load fails. If a load fails and you can't tell why, ask on the forum or Discord — the FAQ lists where the community answers questions.

Savegame compatibility across 1.13 versions

Every save records two version stamps in its header: the exe version string of the build that wrote it and an internal savegame version number. The source code increments that number every time a code change invalidates the existing save layout — it has been raised over 80 times, and stands at 186 in the current development code (the "Increased Team Sizes" change).

What happens when the stamps don't match at load time:

  • Same savegame version, different exe build — the game asks to confirm with "it is most likely safe to continue", and it usually is.
  • Older savegame version — the game offers to automatically update and load the save. The engine carries upgrade code for many old versions, so this often works across small updates; saves older than internal version 65 are refused outright (unless cheat mode is on).
  • Newer savegame version than your exe — there is no downgrade path. Saves are always written in the newest format, so once you save a campaign in a newer build, older builds cannot read it correctly.

In practice the community rule stands: plan on one 1.13 version per campaign. Updates within a stable series can keep compatibility — the v5 release notes state it "maintains the pre-ITS savegame compatibility of v3" — but the rolling Latest (unstable) release includes save-layout changes (such as Increased Team Sizes) that a stable-release campaign will not survive. Check the version history before updating a machine with a campaign in progress, and keep the old install around until the campaign is finished.

Back up before updating

Before installing a new 1.13 release, copy Profiles\UserProfile_JA2113 (your saves and settings) somewhere safe, along with any INI files you edited — updates overwrite the INIs in Data-1.13. See keeping your changes across updates for the INI-merge mechanism.

Backing up and moving saves

  • Backing up is a plain file copy of the SavedGames folder (or of individual .sav files). Do it before INI experiments, version updates and mod installs.
  • Renaming works. Slot numbers come from file names, so renaming a save to a free SaveGameNN.sav number moves it to that slot — the game's own emergency-save message recommends exactly this.
  • Moving to another PC works the same way, but the receiving install must match: same 1.13 version (or newer, accepting the update prompt), same mod and data layer, and a resolution high enough for the campaign's squad size and inventory system.

Save editors

There is no working savegame editor for 1.13 — the vanilla-JA2 editors do not understand the 1.13 save format, and when the question was put to the developers on the Bear's Pit forum the advice was to use in-game cheats or edit the XML data before starting a campaign instead. Details and the forum thread are on the tools page.

Sources