Your saves are always safe — but here's the key thing to understand: the Experimental and default branches keep their save files in separate locations, so a save made on one branch won't be visible on the other. Nothing is deleted; each branch simply only shows its own saves.
Here's how it works in each direction:
* On the Experimental branch: When you switch over, your existing default saves won't appear — they haven't been lost, they're just preserved separately on disk and tied to the default branch. Any new save you create while playing on Experimental will live on the Experimental branch.
* On the Default branch: As soon as you switch back, your original default saves reappear exactly as you left them. However, any saves you made while on Experimental won't be visible here — they stay on the Experimental branch.
A few things to keep in mind:
* Back up first: Always make a copy of your save files before switching between branches — the Experimental branch is a work-in-progress version, so a backup is the best way to keep your worlds safe.
* Same behavior on PC and Xbox: Saves are kept separately per build on both platforms. On Xbox, where the Experimental build is installed as a separate app alongside the stable version, each app shows only its own saves — so you'll see your default saves in the stable app and your Experimental saves in the Experimental app.
* Import/export isn't supported between versions: You won't be able to carry saves across branches that way, so a manual backup remains the reliable method.