Wireworks Save Files, Demo Progress & Technical FAQ

Quick answer: your Wireworks save lives at Wireworks/Wireworks_Data/UserData/{SteamID}/save.json, demo progress does not carry over automatically because the demo and full game use different wave-clear thresholds, and difficulty unlocks are stored in that same file under the maxDiffUnlock variable — confirmed by solo dev JJJ on the official Discord, March 2026.

This page collects the technical, save-file, and progress-carryover questions that don't fit neatly into a mechanics or build guide. Everything below is sourced directly from developer answers in the JJJ Games Discord #general channel.

where is the wireworks save file located

The Wireworks save file is located at:

Wireworks/Wireworks_Data/UserData/{SteamID}/save.json

Dev JJJ posted this exact path on Discord (March 18, 2026) in response to a player asking about carrying progress from the demo into the full release. {SteamID} is your own Steam64 ID folder — each Steam account that has run the game on a given install gets its own subfolder under UserData. Inside save.json you'll find, among other run/progress data, the maxDiffUnlock variable that tracks which difficulty tiers you've unlocked.

JJJ was explicit that this information was shared to answer a specific carryover question, not as an invitation to edit saves freely — treat the path as informational, and be aware that hand-editing save.json is not an officially supported workflow (see below).

can i carry my wireworks demo progress into the full game

Not automatically. Demo progress does not transfer into the full game, because the demo and the full release use different unlock thresholds: the demo unlocked its (limited) content after beating the first 10 waves, while the full game requires clearing 30 waves to unlock the next difficulty tier. JJJ confirmed this directly on Discord (March 18, 2026) when a player asked "any way to carry progress on from the demo?"

Because the two thresholds don't line up, the game doesn't attempt an automatic migration — a 10-wave demo clear isn't equivalent to a 30-wave full-game clear, so there's no clean mapping to carry forward.

If you want your full-game difficulty unlocks to reflect prior demo clears, the only route JJJ described is manual: open save.json at the path above and change maxDiffUnlock from 0 to 4 to unlock all five difficulty tiers directly. This is a manual save edit, not a built-in "import demo save" feature, and — as with any save-file editing — it's unsupported and done at your own risk. Back up save.json before touching it.

how do difficulty 5 (level 5) unlocks work, and is that stored in the save file

Yes — difficulty unlocks (players often call the top tier "difficulty 5" or "level 5" interchangeably) are tracked by the same maxDiffUnlock variable inside save.json. There are 5 difficulty tiers total. Per the wiki's FAQ and Mechanics pages (sourced from JJJ's Discord answers), you unlock the next tier by beating (clearing) wave 30 on your current difficulty — clearing wave 30 on difficulty 4 unlocks difficulty 5/level 5, the highest tier.

maxDiffUnlock runs from 0 (only the base difficulty unlocked) up to 4 (all five tiers, difficulty 1 through difficulty 5/level 5, unlocked). This is the same variable referenced in the demo-carryover answer above — setting it to 4 unlocks every difficulty at once, which is why that value shows up in both contexts.

is it safe to save and reload mid-run

Yes. Per the community-compiled Mechanics reference (sourced from dev and community testing), save-and-reload is safe mid-run — quitting and reloading does not corrupt your save or void your progress. Permanent buffs such as kill stacks, crafted items, and tool-use damage growth survive a save-reload wave reset. You can also hold R or the backtick key (`) to instantly quick-restart a run without going through menus.

One community report on Discord (March 10, 2026) noted a case where a wand appeared to retain roughly 14,000 stored MP after reloading a saved game — the player suspected this persisted between rounds as an edge case, though it isn't confirmed as an official mechanic and MP itself is normally capped at 99 during active play (see the Mechanics page for the mana-cap details). Treat this as an observed anomaly rather than a documented save behavior.

does editing the save file risk breaking anything

The dev shared the save path and the maxDiffUnlock variable specifically to help a player unlock difficulties, but did not describe save editing as an officially supported feature. There's no dev statement confirming that other edits (item states, currency, run-in-progress data) are safe to hand-modify. If you edit save.json, back up the original file first and expect that unsupported edits could produce unexpected results the dev hasn't tested for.

Where the save lives (inside your Steam install folder):

Wireworks/
└── Wireworks_Data/
    └── UserData/
        └── {your SteamID}/
            └── save.json      ← unlock state, incl. maxDiffUnlock

is there mod or workshop support that touches save data

Not planned. JJJ has said Steam Workshop / mod support would require a major refactor of the game's code structure and isn't currently planned, though he's floated the idea of possibly open-sourcing the game at some point in the future with no firm promises. Since there's no mod support, there's also no documented mod-related save format beyond the base save.json structure described above.

is there ai-generated content in wireworks, and does that affect saves

No — this is unrelated to save files, but it comes up in the same technical-FAQ context. JJJ has stated directly on Discord that Wireworks does not and will not use AI-generated content, and there is no Claude or other AI integration in the game. Nothing in save.json involves AI-generated state.

what languages does wireworks support, and does language choice affect saves

As of the Localization Update on July 27, 2026, Wireworks supports English plus Simplified Chinese, Korean, and Brazilian Portuguese. JJJ has said more major Steam languages may follow post-launch, though Russian and further translations were still under consideration as of the dev's March 2026 comments. Language selection is a display setting, not something that alters the save.json structure — your maxDiffUnlock value and other save data carry across language changes.

quick reference: technical facts at a glance

Unofficial, community-compiled. Balance numbers drift between patches — trust in-game tooltips. Sources: developer answers on the JJJ Games Discord, Steam patch notes.