Saving in Aliens: Fireteam Elite is a little bit weird. There are times when the game saves your progress and tells you, and there are times when it keeps changes and doesn’t tell you. And then there are times your changes aren’t kept at all, even though it seems like they should be.
Let’s start with the basics: There is no manual save function in Aliens: Fireteam Elite. There is a trick to keep progress manually, but we’ll get to that in just a sec.
Technically, everything is kept track of automatically in these two ways:
- When you complete a mission
- When you make any changes in the “Settings” menu
It’s worth noting that you cannot, in any way, save during a mission. You either complete the mission or die trying.
When you do complete a mission or die, you’ll see the end-mission tally screen and then choose to either load into the next level or go back to the UAS Endeavor hub area. Nothing says “Saving,” but the work is going on in the background.
The trick to manually saving is this: Pause the game while at the Endeavor -> tab over to settings -> change the value in the aim sensitivity option (the first option in the list) -> change it back to your desired value -> tab to another menu or exit completely. Again, this can’t be done during missions.
When the game is saving, you’ll see a black box with text and a spinning icon in the top right corner of the screen.
Doing anything else without completing a mission or doing the Settings trick, and your changes/progress won’t be kept if you close the game. This includes changes to any of the following:
- Weapons
- Attachments
- Outfits
- Head accessories
- General appearance
- Perks
- Modifiers
- Emotes
- Tactical Opportunity rewards
As of this writing, a day after launch, saving changes to your general appearance is bugged.
The menu in which you do so has a big green save button at the bottom, and if you make changes without clicking it, the game asks if you’re sure. Alas, changes aren’t kept even if you click it.
Note that your appearance will change in-game, but if you close the game without completing a mission of making changes in Settings, you’ll revert to your previous appearance when you log back in.
Of course, that’s not right and an obvious bug. It’s likely the development will be issuing a fix, though there’s no word yet.
And that’s all you need to know about how to save in Aliens: Fireteam Elite. Hopefully, the Settings menu trick helps you keep all of your changes and progress, and you’re not left re-equipping weapons and attachments over and over. For more on AFE, consider checking out our other guide articles.
