Most problems reported since launch have been fixed in the developer’s daily patches (the latest, on October 17, is build r67271). This page lists the ones players keep running into, what causes each, and what to do, with the patch that fixed it where there is one. Make sure the game is up to date before trying anything else.

Progress lost or reset

Only the first Skipping Stones level went back to the start. That was on purpose. The October 14 patch (r67121) broke partial saves of the first Skipping Stones level, so the October 15 update reset that level’s version, which wipes any half-finished progress in it. The developer says the loss “is limited to only this one level; other progress throughout the game is unaffected”, and that if you had already finished the level, or hadn’t started it, you aren’t affected (October 15 notes). There is no way back: replay it, which goes quickly the second time (solutions).

The whole save looks new, or the overworld map is blank. Players on the Steam forums report this after an update, after switching between a Steam Deck and another PC, or after quitting the game from the system menu instead of the game’s own menu (142 levels wiped, lost all progress, update broke my save). Players suspect a Steam Cloud sync problem; the developer hasn’t confirmed a cause, and there is no official fix yet. What has worked for players:

  1. Back up the save folder before you touch anything. On Windows it is C:\Users\<you>\Saved Games\Order of the Sinking Star\ (the path the game writes in its own log). On Steam Deck and Linux it is inside the Proton prefix: steamapps/compatdata/499170/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Saved Games/Order of the Sinking Star/.
  2. Look for a _temp_ file. Each campaign is a folder next to the default folder. Inside the broken campaign’s folder, a file whose name starts with _temp_ may hold your real progress. Rename it to remove the _temp_ prefix.
  3. Load it. Start the game, open the menu and pick Load a different campaign. Players who did this found their old progress there.
  4. If you play on two devices, launch the game on the device that still has the good save before the bad one syncs back, as players on the forum suggest.

If none of this works, report it on the game’s official Discord (linked from Thekla’s Steam announcements) with your log files.

Fixed: resetting many times after pushing a rock or redirecting a river could crash the game or create giant save files (fixed October 16). Cleared fog of war sometimes didn’t stay cleared in the save (fixed October 15).

Reset doesn’t reset the level

Symptom: since the October 16 update, holding reset takes the level back to where you left off last time, or to an unwinnable state, rather than to the start (forum thread).

Status: a known issue. The October 17 notes say the team is looking into it (notes).

Workaround: hold undo until you are back at the start of the level. From there, reset works correctly again. Undo history is kept per level, so this doesn’t touch your progress anywhere else. It’s slow in long levels, but it works.

Can’t switch to a hero: quitting and re-entering a level after a transmutation could leave you unable to swap characters. The October 17 update fixed it; on an older save, undoing back to the start of the level also restored control for players in the thread above.

Stuck in an ending

The Antipode’s Skipping Stones room has no lily pad. In the first Endgame, the South room (puzzle 3) sometimes loads with only two skipping stones and no lily, which makes it unsolvable (forum thread). The October 17 update (r67271) says it “actually” fixes the missing lily in an end level, after the October 16 attempt didn’t. If it still happens, the fix players found is to hold undo until the previous puzzle loads, then re-enter the room; the lily is back. Solutions: The Antipode, puzzle 3.

The last freezer in an end level won’t unlock. Fixed on October 12. Before that, exiting the level and re-entering it got around it.

Things you transmuted are still visible after leaving an end level. Fixed on October 15.

The game closes after the Exit. This is not a crash. Leaving through The Exit after the first Endgame closes the game on purpose; load the save again and you are back just before the exit, with two more stages to go (details).

The hologram in the final Endgame judges a placement wrongly. In the version 塞德莎 played, it calls some solvable placements unsolvable and the other way round, and one lily pad spot in the second South room shows an “Unknown reginame” error. We haven’t seen this in the patch notes yet. You don’t need the best answer to pass a room, so use the placement the hologram accepts (Endgame Low).

Steam Deck and Linux

  • Compatibility: Steam lists the game as Steam Deck Verified (controls, on-screen glyphs, readable text and performance at default settings all pass Valve’s checks).
  • The game won’t start (launch week): the October 9 update downgraded the Steam SDK version to fix the incompatibilities many players had. The game now needs SteamClient021, or Proton 9 or newer on Linux and Steam Deck. If you forced an older Proton version in the game’s properties, switch to a newer one (October 9 notes).
  • “E_INVALIDARG” crash: a DirectX 12 error that hit players running through Proton (Linux, Steam Deck, Steam Machine). On October 12 the developer said it believed it had found the cause, and shipped a fix later that day (“hopefully”, in the patch notes) (notes).
  • Crash on startup after changing the graphics mode: since October 14 the game accepts a -graphics launch option that overrides the mode set in the menu, for when a setting crashes the game before you can change it back. The patch notes don’t list its values.
  • Frame rate: the demo’s July technical update added a lower Very Performance graphics setting for handhelds; the developer reported 60 fps on most levels on Steam Deck with those optimizations (notes).
  • Switching between Deck and PC: see progress lost or reset above. Most whole-save losses on the forum involve moving between devices.

Missing achievements after the demo

Symptom: you finished levels in the demo, but the full game doesn’t award the matching achievements, typically Mirror Isles and the HxM Gold Room (forum thread).

Fix: the October 12 update awards achievements on load if they haven’t been awarded yet, specifically “to fix demo players missing achievements”. Start the game once on the latest version and they pop. The full list is on all 32 achievements.

Stuck inside a wall or in an impossible spot on the overworld

Several patches removed overworld “jailbreaks”, places where a hero could get out of bounds. The October 12 notes say that if a fix leaves you inside a wall, undo takes you back to a valid position. Undo works on the overworld as well as in levels.

In the West, carrying a gem into another room or pushing an emitter into a corner can make an area look unsolvable. That is usually a soft-lock you can undo out of, not a bug: see Am I soft-locked?.