diff --git a/tests/_run_inside.sh b/tests/_run_inside.sh
index 69f51e0..e6c1e97 100644
--- a/tests/_run_inside.sh
+++ b/tests/_run_inside.sh
@@ -22,6 +22,15 @@ VERBOSE="$1"; shift
 # complete in seconds, even on a busy phone, so make that failure explicit
 # rather than making the suite look hung. Override for deliberate long runs.
 TEST_TIMEOUT_SECONDS="${TEST_TIMEOUT_SECONDS:-120}"
+# How many times to start a test whose process never came up at all. Under
+# WSL the Godot binary is a Windows executable started across the interop
+# boundary, and with six of them going at once that start occasionally just
+# fails - exit 127, an empty log, no engine banner, nothing run. It looked
+# exactly like a test failure while being a property of the launch, and it
+# moved from test to test between runs. A test that genuinely fails always
+# gets far enough to print the banner, so the two are easy to tell apart and
+# only the launch is worth retrying.
+LAUNCH_ATTEMPTS="${LAUNCH_ATTEMPTS:-3}"
 
 cd "$PROJECT_DIR" || exit 2
 
@@ -56,18 +65,37 @@ run_one() {
   # 3 parallel runs. Pinned, a test simulates the same 60fps whatever else
   # the phone is doing, and its result no longer depends on how busy the
   # machine was.
-  timeout "$TEST_TIMEOUT_SECONDS" "$GODOT_BIN" --headless --fixed-fps 60 \
-    -s "res://tests/$name" >"$log" 2>&1
-  local rc=$?
+  local rc=0
+  local attempt=1
+  while true; do
+    timeout "$TEST_TIMEOUT_SECONDS" "$GODOT_BIN" --headless --fixed-fps 60 \
+      -s "res://tests/$name" >"$log" 2>&1
+    rc=$?
+    # "Never started" is rc != 0 with no banner in the log. Anything that
+    # ran - passed, failed, crashed mid-way - printed the banner first.
+    if (( rc == 0 )) || grep -q "Godot Engine" "$log" \
+        || (( attempt >= LAUNCH_ATTEMPTS )); then
+      break
+    fi
+    attempt=$(( attempt + 1 ))
+    sleep 1
+  done
   end=$(date +%s%N)
   local ms=$(( (end - start) / 1000000 ))
 
+  # Retries are reported, never hidden: a test that needed one is telling
+  # you the machine is struggling, even where it went on to pass.
+  local retried=""
+  if (( attempt > 1 )); then
+    retried=" (started on attempt $attempt)"
+  fi
+
   # Two independent criteria, because either one alone can lie: a test that
   # crashes before reaching its verdict exits non-zero without ever printing
   # FAIL, and a hypothetical `quit(0)` on a failing path would exit clean
   # while the log says otherwise.
   if (( rc == 0 )) && grep -q ": PASS" "$log"; then
-    printf 'PASS %6dms  %s\n' "$ms" "$name" > "$outdir/$name.status"
+    printf 'PASS %6dms  %s%s\n' "$ms" "$name" "$retried" > "$outdir/$name.status"
   elif (( rc == 124 )); then
     printf 'TIMEOUT %4dms  %s (limit %ss)\n' \
       "$ms" "$name" "$TEST_TIMEOUT_SECONDS" > "$outdir/$name.status"
@@ -78,8 +106,11 @@ run_one() {
     # indistinguishable from a hang.
     printf 'KILLED %4dms  %s (signal %d - out of memory? try JOBS=1)\n' \
       "$ms" "$name" "$(( rc - 128 ))" > "$outdir/$name.status"
+  elif (( rc != 0 )) && ! grep -q "Godot Engine" "$log"; then
+    printf 'NOSTART %3dms  %s (exit %d after %d attempts - the process never came up)\n' \
+      "$ms" "$name" "$rc" "$attempt" > "$outdir/$name.status"
   else
-    printf 'FAIL %6dms  %s (exit %d)\n' "$ms" "$name" "$rc" > "$outdir/$name.status"
+    printf 'FAIL %6dms  %s (exit %d)%s\n' "$ms" "$name" "$rc" "$retried" > "$outdir/$name.status"
   fi
   cat "$outdir/$name.status"
 }
diff --git a/tests/run_tests.sh b/tests/run_tests.sh
index 3b949ec..6d61a56 100644
--- a/tests/run_tests.sh
+++ b/tests/run_tests.sh
@@ -13,12 +13,12 @@
 #   Termux    the Godot 4.7 Linux arm64 build installed inside the
 #             proot-distro Ubuntu container, which is the only way to run
 #             a desktop Godot on the phone at all.
-#   WSL       the Windows Godot build, run straight from /mnt/c. A Linux
-#             `godot` on PATH is used first if there is one.
+#   WSL       the Windows Godot build off /mnt/c. A Linux `godot` on PATH
+#             is used first if there is one.
 #
-# The platform decides which Godot runs and whether the project is copied
-# first; the worker count and tests/_run_inside.sh, which does the actual
-# running, are shared.
+# The platform decides which Godot runs and where the project is copied to.
+# Everything else - the copy itself, the worker count, and
+# tests/_run_inside.sh, which does the actual running - is shared.
 #
 # On Termux, three things make this fast, in descending order of how much
 # they matter (measured, not guessed - see tests/_profile_startup.gd):
@@ -29,9 +29,15 @@
 #    alone took 8.5s per test, against ~2s from a native path. Nearly every
 #    test loads Main.tscn, and none of that time is gameplay. The copy is
 #    ~1.4s for the whole suite and its .godot import cache is kept between
-#    runs. WSL skips the copy: a Windows Godot reads C: natively, and the
-#    only thing copying to ext4 would achieve is putting the project behind
-#    the \\wsl$ share instead.
+#    runs. WSL copies too, but to a native NTFS path rather than to ext4:
+#    a Windows Godot reads C: at full speed and would read \\wsl$ slowly, so
+#    the copy is for ISOLATION rather than for speed there. Six Godot
+#    processes churning the project directory is six processes writing
+#    .godot, creating and deleting files under PlanetSetups/, and doing it
+#    in a working tree that git, an open editor and the player are also
+#    using. Under that, single tests failed at random - a delete that did
+#    not take, a scene that would not instantiate - never the same one
+#    twice.
 # 2. Tests run JOBS at a time. Each is its own Godot process - they call
 #    quit() and stamp on the GameState autoload, so they cannot share one -
 #    which makes the suite a pile of independent, single-core-bound jobs on
@@ -103,14 +109,31 @@ _pick_jobs() {
 }
 JOBS="${JOBS:-$(_pick_jobs)}"
 VERBOSE="${VERBOSE:-0}"
-# The copy only buys anything on Termux (see 1. above), so on WSL the project
-# directory IS the run directory whatever IN_PLACE says.
-if [[ "$PLATFORM" == "wsl" ]]; then
-	IN_PLACE=1
-else
-	IN_PLACE="${IN_PLACE:-0}"
-fi
-WORK_DIR="${WORK_DIR:-$HOME/.cache/spaceship-tests}"
+IN_PLACE="${IN_PLACE:-0}"
+
+# Where the copy lives. Termux wants its own native filesystem; WSL wants a
+# WINDOWS one, because the thing reading it is a Windows binary and $HOME is
+# ext4 behind the \\wsl$ share. %LOCALAPPDATA% is the natural home for it;
+# if that cannot be read, fall back to a sibling of the project - still on
+# the same native drive, still outside the repo.
+_default_work_dir() {
+	if [[ "$PLATFORM" != "wsl" ]]; then
+		echo "$HOME/.cache/spaceship-tests"
+		return
+	fi
+	local win_local
+	win_local="$(cmd.exe /c 'echo %LOCALAPPDATA%' 2>/dev/null | tr -d '\r')"
+	if [[ -n "$win_local" && "$win_local" != *'%'* ]]; then
+		local unix_local
+		unix_local="$(wslpath -u "$win_local" 2>/dev/null)"
+		if [[ -n "$unix_local" ]]; then
+			echo "$unix_local/spaceship-tests"
+			return
+		fi
+	fi
+	echo "$(dirname "$PROJECT_DIR")/.spaceship-tests"
+}
+WORK_DIR="${WORK_DIR:-$(_default_work_dir)}"
 
 if [[ -z "${GODOT_BIN:-}" ]]; then
 	if [[ "$PLATFORM" == "wsl" ]]; then