This project is a library and command line application (written in Java) for reading and copying Elden Ring save files. It is useful for copying characters between save files or slots, or for duplicating a character before you go and do something dangerous. The save file is a binary file that contains your character slots, up to a maximum of 10. The application can read and write these files, and it can also copy characters between slots or files.
Locate your save file and (optionally) copy it to an empty directory. The save file from the game is ER0000.sl2 typically located in a folder called AppData/Roaming/EldenRing/<steamid>. On Windows you can usually find it at C:\Users\<username>/ and on Steam Deck it will be in a Proton virtual drive /home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/1245620/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/. The steamid is a 17-digit number that corresponds to your Steam account - you can see it in your profile details in the Steam web UI at https://store.steampowered.com/account/ - and 1245620 is a unique identifier for Elden Ring. The ER0000.sl2 file is a binary file that contains your character slots.
You don't have to run the application on the same machine as where you play the game. Steam Decks are fine for running Java but if you want to develop new features it might be easier to copy the file over. What I do with my Steam Deck is enable SSH then sudo systemctl start sshd and copy the save file to my laptop with scp. You can of course use a USB stick to copy the file between the Steam Deck and your computer.
You can also download other player's save files from the internet and copy their characters into your save file (e.g. at Nexusmods). This is useful for trying out different builds or for recovering a lost character, but be careful if you don't know the other player because there might (allegedly) be stuff in other people's save files that could get you banned from multiplayer. You can use the application to copy your characters between different computers or operating systems, but if that's all you need Steam Cloud works fine for me.
Build the project with ./mvnw package. You can run it with java -jar target/*-exec.jar or compile it to a native image with GraalVM using native-image -o jersc -jar target/*-exec.jar. The native image will be faster to start up and use less memory. The tests will be skipped unless there is a valid save file in the current directory.
Basic usage is to scan a file to inspect the character slots - just exit with Ctrl-C or enter "n" when prompted. File names ending in ".gz" will be treated as compressed (saving 90% of disk space for a typical ER save file). The default is to prompt on the command line for responses and confirmations. You can skip the prompts with "-y" as a command line argument, and by providing some of the responses as command line arguments:
$ java -jar target/jersc-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT-exec.jar -h
Usage: jersc [-y] [-i slot] [-o slot]
-y: no wait for user input
-i slot: input slot (integer, default 0)
-o slot: output slot (integer, default 1)
-n name: new name for character (default to existing output slot name if it exists)
Example (assuming ER0000.sl2 exists in the current directory):
$ ./jersc
Input file (ER0000.sl2)?
SaveFile: [id=76561197960267366, valid=true]
Slot=0: Foo=[Level=99,Played=1534s]
Do you want to copy a game from the file (Y/n)? nYou can also copy a game slot, duplicating it into an existing slot (using a file name ending in ".gz" will cause the output to be compressed). You can overwite the existing file if you want to, but by default a different filename is used, just in case you change your mind. Example (assuming ER0000.sl2.out does not exist):
$ ./jersc
Input file (ER0000.sl2)?
SaveFile: [id=76561197960267366, valid=true]
Slot=0: Foo=[Level=99,Played=1534s]
Do you want to copy a game from the file (Y/n)?
Which slot do you want to copy from [0]?
Output file (ER0000.sl2.out)?
Writing to:
SaveFile: [id=76561197960267366, valid=true]
Slot=0: Foo=[Level=99,Played=1534s]
Which slot do you want to copy to [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]? 1
New name for character (777)? Bar
Do you want to inspect the status (Y/n)? n
Do you want to inspect the inventory (Y/n)? n
SaveFile: [id=76561197960267366, valid=true]
Slot=0: Foo=[Level=99,Played=1534s]
Slot=1: Bar=[Level=99,Played=1534s]
Continue (Y/n)?If the output file already exists, you can copy a game slot from one file to another. The output file will be from the steam id that you intend to play with. The input file could be from someone else, and you can adopt their character including all the stats and inventory. Here we copy a game from a file, updating the player ID and saving it into an empty slot in an existing save file (assuming ER0000.sl2.out already exists):
$ ./jersc
Input file (ER0000.sl2)?
SaveFile: [id=76561197960267366, valid=true]
Slot=0: Foo=[Level=99,Played=1534s]
Do you want to copy a game from the file (Y/n)?
Which slot do you want to copy from [0]?
Output file (ER0000.sl2.out)?
File ER0000.sl2.out already exists.
Do you want to overwrite this file (Y/n)?
Existing content:
SaveFile: [id=76561199114987181, valid=true]
Slot=0: BigFish=[Level=197,Played=646829s]
Slot=1: RedFish=[Level=138,Played=165214s]
Slot=2: LittleFish=[Level=184,Played=573239s]
Do you want to update or replace this file (U/r)?
Writing Foo to:
SaveFile: [id=76561199114987181, valid=true]
Slot=0: BigFish=[Level=197,Played=646829s]
Slot=1: RedFish=[Level=138,Played=165214s]
Slot=2: LittleFish=[Level=184,Played=573239s]
Which slot do you want to copy to [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]? 3
New name for character (Foo)? Bar
Do you want to inspect the status (Y/n)? n
Do you want to inspect the inventory (Y/n)? n
SaveFile: [id=76561199114987181, valid=true]
Slot=0: BigFish=[Level=197,Played=646829s]
Slot=1: RedFish=[Level=138,Played=165214s]
Slot=2: LittleFish=[Level=184,Played=573239s]
Slot=3: Bar=[Level=99,Played=1534s]
Continue (Y/n)? If you answer "Y" to the prompt to inspect the status, you will see the character's stats and progress. You can respec the character by entering key=value pairs for the stats you want to change (comma-separated). The key names are VIG (vigor[sic]), MND (mind), END (endurance), STR (strength), DEX (dexterity), INT (intelligence), FAI (faith) and ARC (arcane). Example:
...
Do you want to inspect the stats (Y/n)?
Status[VIG=50, MND=40, END=30, STR=40, DEX=40, INT=80, FTH=40, ARC=30], level=271
Enter updates as name=quantity,name=quantity (or empty to skip) ()? STR=50,DEX=50
Respec to: Status[VIG=50, MND=40, END=30, STR=50, DEX=50, INT=80, FTH=40, ARC=30] (Y/n)?
...If you answer "Y" to the prompt to inspect the inventory, you will see the character's inventory listed in CSV format: name, quantity. The name will be quoted if it has a comma in it (e.g. "O, Flame!"). You can add or remove items from the inventory by entering name, quantity pairs (line-separated) in the same format. Example:
...
Do you want to inspect the inventory (Y/n)?
Champion Headband, 1
Erdleaf Flower, 1
Finger Severer, 1
Flask of Cerulean Tears, 1
Flask of Crimson Tears, 3
Golden Rune :[1], 2
Memory of Grace, 1
Mushroom, 2
Root Resin, 3
Rowa Fruit, 10
Small Golden Effigy, 1
Smithing Stone :[1], 1
Spectral Steed Whistle, 1
Tarnished Wizened Finger, 1
Tarnisheds Furled Finger, 1
Throwing Dagger, 40
Do you want to update the inventory (Y/n)?
Enter inventory updates one per line as
name, quantity
or
name, new_name, quantity
Rowa Fruit, 100
Erdleaf Flower, Lords Rune, 99
Updated: Rowa Fruit, 100
Updated: Lords Rune, 99
...The name of the item has to match the printed output and you can't add items that are not already in your inventory except by replacing an existing item, as in the example (any line of input that doesn't match an existing item will be ignored). Also be careful how large the quantity is because the game has different limits for different items and the app doesn't know how to enforce them. Crafting items are generally limited to 999, tools mostly 99, but with quite a few exceptions. Key items are usually limited to 1 as are re-usable tools (e.g. Tarnished Wizened Finger). Check in the game to see what the limits are for the items you want to add.