The first thing you'll need to know is where your Dark Souls III game files are even located on your two devices. And this is a bit tricky because rather than have them in a logical place, FromSoftware decided to put them in a roaming folder... because "reasons" of course!

If you're not sure where they are, don't worry. I have guides within this guide of where and how to find them in both Steam Deck and Windows PC. So click on that if you need it, but I'm sure some of you are a lot smarter than I was when I first tried this.

The second thing you're going to need is a way to move the files. The sister programs "Winpinator" and "Wanpinator" are easy to use tools that I prefer, but you can also use a mini SD card.

I also recommend using a blue tooth keyboard connected to your Steam Deck.

You'll also need to know the Steam ID for Dark Souls III, which you can find here:

https://steamdb.info/search/?a=app&q=Dark+Souls+III&type=-1&category=0

This will all make sense in a minute

DISCLAIMER: I understand there are other "better" ways to do it and of course you're about to write that "better" way in the comments section instead of making your own guide. But before you write, "lUdUsAvi iS eAsIer." let me ask you this: are you volunteering to write up a very detailed guide that does not assume the person you're talking to has the remote idea what Dolphin or file manager is? If you are, cool! I'll give you admin rights to edit this page. If not, then trust me, I already know about your suggestion and already determined that with my current knowledge of Linux, I'm not confident enough to write up a good, detailed guide.

The first thing you're going to want to do is open your file explorer and then click the tab that says "View". Once you've done that, click on the check mark on the right of the screen that says, "Hidden Items."

The pathway to finding them is Local Disk (:C)\users\ your user name \AppData\ roaming\ DarkoulsIII\ and whatever your user ID number.

For those who need that in plain English.

1. Open file explorer

2. Open the Local Disk (usually marked as the C: drive, but not always.) You can find it by clicking on "This PC" on the left hand side.

3. Click next on the folder labeled "users".

4. Then the one with whatever your username was when you sold your soul to Microsoft and downloaded Windows.

5. If you followed my instructions above and made your Hidden folders visible, then you should see an AppData folder to click on. If you haven't here are the instructions again:
a) Go to the top of the window and click "view."
b) On the left hand side, there's a check list and one of those items should be "Hidden items."

6. Now click Roaming

7. And finally, DarkSoulsIII

8. You should see a weirdly numbered folder and then your GraphicsConfig file. Inside that weirdly labeled folder is your save file.

I highly recommend making a back up of it now, because we will be messing with it later!

For Steam Deck, we're going to have to get into the OS system. Don't worry, it's been designed for you to do this.

1. Press the "Steam" button on your deck. It's the one that says "Steam" :P.
2. Go to "Power" on the menu.
3. Go to "Switch to Desktop."

You are now on the Steam Deck's desktop. If you're experienced with Linux, this format should look familiar. If you're not, don't worry, I've got you covered! Now, let's find that folder.

For experienced Linux Users, go ahead and show the hidden files and you'll want to go the following path:
home/ .local/ share/ Steam/ SteamApps/ compatdata/ 374320/ pfx/ drive_c/ users/ steamuser/ AppData/ Roaming/ DarkSoulsIII/

Now, in this folder you'll see a file with a big ass long number and a file GraphicsConfig.xml. Open the folder and your Dark Souls III data will be there.

For those not so experienced, let's break those steps down:

1. Open the Dolphin. Just like Windows, Linux has a file manager known as "Dolphin". It appears with a blue folder icon. Go ahead and open that.

2. Show Hidden Files. There should be three horizontal lines on the top right hand corner of the screen. Click on that and go ahead and find the "Show Hidden Files" tab.

3. Now, you should see some additional folders. If you're familiar with Windows, this works about the same way by following a folder path here: home/ .local/ share/ Steam/ SteamApps/ compatdata/ 374320/ pfx/ drive_c/ users/ steamuser/ AppData/ Roaming/ DarkSoulsIII/

Now, in this folder you'll see a file with a big ass long number and a file GraphicsConfig.xml. Open the folder and your Dark Souls III data will be there.

If you are struggling to read that, here's the break down.

a. Click ".local"
b. Click "share"
c. Click Steam.
d. Click SteamApps
e. Click compatdata.
f. Now you see this folder with all these numbers. These are a method that Steam uses to distinguish one game from another. If we got this website, we can enter the game we want and see which one is Dark Souls III https://steamdb.info/search/?a=app&q=Dark+Souls+III&type=-1&category=0
g. Click pfx.
h. Click drive_c
i. Click Users
j. Click steamuser
k. Click AppData
l. Click Roaming.
m. Click Dark Souls III

Whoa! Lot of clicks! In this folder you'll see a folder with a big long number and a file called GraphicsConfig.xml. Ignore the file and click on the folder with the big long number. What's inside? Well, its your Dark Souls III save file! Yay!

Now, you maybe thinking, "Well that's cute, but how do I return to Steam's home screen?" Don't worry. There's an icon on that desktop that says to return to the homepage.

Depending on what technique you use will depend on where you go next with my guide. If you're using the SD card method, click on that. If you're using the Warpinator method, click there.

This is where hooking up a keyboard of some sort to your steam deck will finally come in handy.

First, you'll want to insert the SD card in the device where you have your save file. (See the file location guides for Windows and Steam Deck if you need help).

I recommend opening two separate file managers windows on your device, but that's just me.

Insert your SD card into the device that you wish to pull the file from and open File manager in Windows and Dolphin in Linux.

Both Steam Deck and Windows have a list of accessible files on the left hand side of their file manager. Scroll down until you find you find your SD card or "removable device" as its referred to.

Drop your Dark Souls Save file in there and then safely remove your device.

Insert it into the other machine and then follow the steps previously of where your save files are located. Again, if you're not sure where the save files are, go ahead and look back on previous chapters of this guide.

Warpinator is a file sharing service that allows you to share files between computers on the same network both quickly and effectively. I find it less cumbersome than using an SD card, but it's up to you.

Remember how I said that you might want a blutooth keyboard? This is why.

Like Windows, Linux you can hook your blutooth keyboard onto Steam Deck by clicking the Blutooth symbol in the lower right corner.

Once you got that connected, make sure that both your Steam Deck and Windows machine are on the same network. This won't work otherwise.