How do you manually back up a save?

[Thomas Devlin]

I remember hearing some reports that people's characters were being deleted when they transferred to another map, so I've been making backups just in case, also want to keep seperate files in case I want to run some wackier mods that would conflict with my existing saves.
I've been keeping a copy of the "Saved" folder in a file on my desktop and I think that's how you do it, but I want to make sure that's how you do it because I'm not positive, the last thing I want is to lose a save thinking I have a backup, then plug it in to find out it doesn't work

[OldManBob]

Assuming single-player Island, your save folder would be something like D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\ARK Survival Ascended\ShooterGame\Saved\SavedArksLocal\TheIsland_WP. In there are two files of most significance: LocalPlayer.arkprofile holds the player stats, and TheIsland_WP.ark holds the map state. I frequently make backup copies of these (especially the latter). If I ever want to roll back for some reason, I just restore one of the backup copies. Try it - make a backup copy (after ensuring you have a current save), attack a giga riding your favorite raptor (guess who wins), then restore the backup to see you and your raptor still alive and well.