You’re right that ‘open level’ trashes anything that came before.
There are two ways around the problem
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Use the game instance to store the character setup. After open level, read the setup from the GI, and change the player.
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Use the save game in the same way.
Using the GI will only keep the player consistent between levels. If you want to stop playing the game, and have the player be as you left them next time you start playing, then you need the save game.