Download botw save files

You know how you've already spent, like, 90 hours wandering around Hyrule in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild? How would you feel if all that progress disappeared?

It's very easy to delete all of your save data in Nintendo's latest Zelda game. Frighteningly easy. All it takes is starting a new game. You get one pop-up message — "Overwrite previous save data?" — and that's it.

So here's some friendly advice: if you want to start a fresh save in Breath of the Wild — say, for speedrunning — just create a new user profile on the console. You don't need to pay for any subscriptions or anything to play Zelda.

You can save just about anywhere in Breath of the Wild — plus there's an aggressive autosave feature — but the game only keeps a record of your last six. So each time a new save happens, the oldest one in line gets wiped out.

If you're playing on a Wii U, you could always back up your save data on a USB device. But Switch users will need to create separate user profiles if they want multiple in-progress games. Why? Nintendo still hasn't given Switch owners a way to back up their save data.

All Switch save files live in the console's built-in storage. While the hardware does sport a microSD slot, expandable storage is only useful so far for downloaded games from the eShop and screenshots.

I've hammered Nintendo for this already, but here we go again: it is mind-boggling that there's no way to back up your Switch save data. How is it possible that a new piece of specialized computer hardware doesn't include a basic file management system in 2017?

The ease with which Switch save data can be lost is astonishing. It almost happened to my Kotaku pal Jason Schreier when he tried to let his fiancée play. 

Or imagine this scenario: you drop your non-waterproof Switch in the toilet. It's entirely possible; if you're not playing Switch in the bathroom, you're not doing it right. Water seeps in, the console dies. And since you can't set the microSD as a save destination, it's bye bye save data.

So. Yes, be careful with Zelda. Create separate user profiles if you want multiple active playthroughs for whatever reason. But you should also let Nintendo know it needs to step up — sooner rather than later — and give you the means to protect your data.