Until this issue is fixed, I suggest making manual copies of the saves each time you have played. I even make some during play, when I play for a long time and have gathered new stuff I don’t want to lose. On PC this is easy.
Same issue topics merged.
//Mod
After taking a small break from the game to play something else with friends, I joined back today on July 14th to find my save file… corrupted? Gone?? My character is invisible, my level, XP, upgrades, all missing. I picked up a bat and my friend said that all I was was a floating bat to him. Any way I can fix this? I was very far into the game and suddenly I’ve lost everything. Please help, I play through steam if it’s important info. 
there are others experiencing this at the moment your topic will probably be merged with
PC Crash - all saves lost
1 Like
Same issue topics merged.
Also, do search the forum before reporting an issue since chances are that someone else has already reported it.
//Mod
1 Like
I got this unusual message popping up when I try to load the game. It says “Restoring of the game backup failed. Do you want to delete your save game?” which made me pretty upset considering 10 mins before I closed and rejoined the game, my friend gave me 4.3k 7.62 and a 6 crown AG4. It happened 14 July at around 23:50.
Is there a way it can be fixed without me losing any items?
Same issue topics merged.
//Mod
Today i joined the group of corrupted save file gamers.
Luckily my cloud back up had save file from less than 24 hours ago.
Steps To Reproduce:
Use multiple characters with overloaded inventory, switch between them until games crashes. And presto you will get corrupted save file.
This has to be something to do with inventory items, and them being in memory when crash happens. There has to be some sort of bug in handling memory. Memory leak, memory not correctly cleaned when you have too much items in inventory.
There are mods that increase the capacity over what the game allows, probably some of the corrupted save files are reason of using those mods. Excluding console players.
Could the memory capacity of the PC also play a role. I talked to some gamers who have only 8GB where 16GB is more the norm nowaday I believe.
Very good observation. Might be something to do with problem.
I have 16gb memory.
I don’t think RAM amount would be the issue since when PC runs out of free RAM, it automatically starts to erase oldest data in the RAM and writing new data on it. Only side effect of that is barely noticeable slow down of opened applications.
Today’s PCs are so efficient and fast that slow down caused by the RAM erase/write cycle isn’t noticeable most of the times. If you would have older system, e.g from 2006 and running Win XP, then you may see slow downs. But those days are long past where application (or entire PC in that matter) crashed once you ran out of on-board memory (e.g IBM XT with it’s 256 KB of RAM).
When it comes to the RAM, the speed of RAM (Mhz) is more important than the total amount of it (e.g 8 GB or 16 GB), especially when you’re using AMD Ryzen CPU.
For example;
Which of the two Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 RAM sets would be faster in real life use? 
- 2x 4GB (8 GB), CL15, 3000 Mhz
- 2x 8GB (16 GB), CL13, 2133 Mhz
The 16 GB set, while having twice the RAM amount and also faster response time due to the Cas Latency of 13, is in real life usage actually slower in all tasks, than the 8 GB set with lower response time but much better speed (Mhz).
Real life comparison of both sets as well;
link: https://ram.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Corsair-Vengeance-LPX-DDR4-3000-C15-2x4GB-vs-Corsair-Vengeance-LPX-DDR4-2133-C13-2x8GB/m90523vs3543
In the end, with RAM; Cas Latency, timings, speed (Mhz), single- or dual-channel, DIMM amount, brand, model - all that plays a role, not just the total size of RAM in GB.
After 229 hours of playing, I’m at Level 31, I have a fully 5-starred Kpist and I’ve saved the Hotel defence mission until now, when I have a huge stash of Landmines and Gas bottles. So I return to the hotel, lay my traps and go talk to the resistance girl in the basement. Here come the machines - three lots of 4 waves, and I absolutely NAIL them. I go outside to loot the wreckage, and the game throws a blue screen in Windows 10 Pro 64.
After the restart, Steam shows my handsome level of progress and loads of finished missions, but Gen Zero tells me my Save Game is corrupt, and do I want to delete it? Saying OK is the only option. When I get back to the menu the only thing available to me is New Game.
Can I recover from this nightmare or is this the end of my Gen Zero adventures?
Same issue topics merged.
//Mod
Hey @Marko 
Really sad to hear about your save getting corrupted after crashing.
I’m wondering if you would be up for providing us with a copy of your save file, IF you still have it?
- Your save file can be found here: Documents\Avalanche Studios\GenerationZero\Saves
- Right-click the save folder (containing “savegame” and “savegame.bac”) > send to > compressed (zipped) folder
- Go to https://wetransfer.com/ (No account required)
- Click the “…” button and select “get transfer link”
- Add/attach the .zip archive with the save file(s)
- Upload and copy the link
- Send me a DM here on the forum and include the link from wetransfer
I’m afraid I can’t make any promises that we can restore your data, but we would be very interested in taking a look at your file and see what we can do!
Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for reporting! 
Thanks for the prompt response! I suspect that (unless the game stashes another copy somewhere that I don’t know about), when I clicked on the ‘OK’ at the point where the game said the save file was corrupt, the game deleted the save file and replaced it with a new default copy. The save file was over 3Mb in size, while the new save file is just 1.7Mb.
I will see if I can recover the corrupted file using some undeletion software (‘Recuva’ or similar) and I will message you again if I have any luck (the game - and my Steam account client - is installed on another machine that I use almost exclusively for gaming).
In the meantime I have a separately backed up save file from 5 days ago. I have my fingers crossed that I can just copy that over the new default save file and carry on from there (please let that work!) I can live with the loss of 5 day’s play, but I don’t think I could contemplate starting over from the beginning! It’s a real shame if this ends my Gen Zero experience, as this is the best open world game I have ever played, and I’ve been gaming on a PC since the 1990s.
I will let you know if I can successfully recover the corrupt file…
1 Like
Ah, I see.
Well, @Marko, let me know if you manage to recover that corrupted save file, and best of luck with your 5 day old backup, hoping it’ll serve you well and stay un-corrupted!
I’ve heard more players are making manual backups on a daily basis which seems like a good safety measure if you are up for it and concerned with this happening again.
PS. and thanks for the kind words <3 I’ll make sure to pass it along to the rest of the team.
No luck finding a deleted save file to recover I’m afraid, so I can’t send you the corrupted file for investigation, sadly.
However, the 5 day old save file has successfully been loaded by the game, and I am just having to replay the last week or so of sneaky fun and destruction.
To be honest, the only thing bad about that is that I’ve lost my Exp Kpist in the process, and I am not sure I can remember where I found it in the last week! Hopefully I’ll come across it again along the way - using that on the Overdrive setting helped greatly with the Hotel defence challenge!
I found a little utility called ‘Game Save Monitor v1.0’ on the web, and I’ve been using that once a week as a fall-back option. That’s where the 5 day old save file came from - I hadn’t actually tested that it worked until now, so I’m soooooo glad I used it, as it seems to have saved me a lot of grief. I’ll be using it constantly from now on!!
I’m not sure who wrote it, but you might be well served by distributing it officially, as it could save other people a lot of angst!
This was the first time that Gen Zero had triggered a BSOD in Windows, it was just unfortunate that it followed a successful defence of the Hotel - I was so deflated when it crashed!
Anyway, thanks again for the prompt attention - it’s way more than I have come to expect from many games. So Gen Zero once again comes up trumps for me.
OK, back to killing robots and figuring out what the heck is going on in late 1980s Sweden…
1 Like
No clue where to really say this (I’m a bit confused by this site) but I lost at least 80% of my data when I login to the game. I noticed I had nothing from my inventory, but I everything in my storage bin. I had no levels or XP but I had my ranks. All my missions were done too. AND my character isn’t even in the game anymore!! It’s just a floating weapon!! my whole profile game is completely messed up and there’s nothing I can do now!! Is there a way to fix this?!? We’ve tired loading on another Xbox one but it’s still messed up. Please help!!
This was in single player
And even after reloading this persists.
Same issue topics merged.
Also, based on description above, game save file got corrupted but not in the level of it being completely unusable (like in most cases), still, corruption was enough to produce broken save file upon game loading.
//Mod
Sounds like it’s worth to get this sent to the devs for investigating.