Quick answers for pilots. New to the game? Flight School on the main menu teaches the basics in a few minutes, and Settings › Field Guide explains every star, world and event. Still stuck? Email us at the bottom of the page.
Put your left thumb anywhere on the left half of the screen and drag: up for thrust, left or right to turn. Hold anywhere on the right half to fire. The missile button launches a homing missile, and BOOST gives you a burst of speed. Your ship has one engine at the back: point where you want to go, then push. Nothing slows you down unless you push the other way.
Yes, on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV. Keyboard: W or ↑ to thrust, A/D or ←/→ to turn, Space (or the mouse button) to fire, F (or right-click) for a missile, Shift to boost, Tab for your Empire, R for Research, H for the Hangar, C to bring the camera back to your ship, and Esc to pause. Controller: left stick to fly, right trigger to fire, B for a missile, A to boost, Y to recenter the camera, and Menu to pause.
Land tail-first (nose pointing away from the planet) and slowly. While you descend, a ring where your path ends tells you what will happen: green means a safe landing, amber means a hard landing that damages your hull, and red means you'll crash. A slow touchdown at a tilt scrapes down with some damage, but coming in nose-first, or fast and sideways, is a crash. The SPD bar's green tick marks the safe landing speed.
You're falling toward a star, a gas giant or the black hole. Amber means you can still escape: turn away and burn full thrust right now. Red means it's too late. Skim past them fast instead and you'll slingshot: free speed, a full Boost and a little alloy.
Tap anywhere on the radar (top right) to look there, then tap the blue ship button to come back to your ship.
Land on a free world: it's yours. Your escort freighter then builds a base there, and more freighters bring its defenses, so protect them on the way. To take a rival's world, shoot down its base first, then land. A rival fighter sitting on a world stops you claiming it until you shoot it down or it leaves.
Tap the WORLDS tally under the radar (or Pause › Empire) to see every world you hold. From there you can upgrade any of them, from anywhere: Outpost to Colony (pick its role: Mining, Shipyard, Fortress or Research Lab) to Stronghold, which arms its moons with laser batteries. Repairs are different: you have to land on the world to fix it.
Research spends research data (from labs, your capital, comets and destroyed enemy bases) on technologies. The Fighter techs are blueprints: they unlock parts you then build in the Hangar with alloy. Parts are fitted when you're at a Shipyard or your capital, and you keep them when your ship is rebuilt.
Research Wingman (Fleet branch) and an AI fighter flies with you; Wing Commander adds a second. Tap their box next to your escort's to give orders: follow and assist, regroup, guard your escort, focus on an enemy fighter, claim free worlds near you or anywhere, or defend your worlds wherever they're attacked. You can also hire a squad of mercenaries from the Empire screen.
Events that cross the galaxy now and then. Shoot a comet apart for exotic ice (research data), salvage a derelict fleet for alloy, data and sometimes a free technology, and watch out for meteor showers: they batter ships and bases. You'll get a warning when one is heading for your worlds.
Knock out every rival empire: take all their worlds and destroy their fighters. When a rival has no worlds left, Final Chase points you to its last fighters. You lose if your ship is destroyed with no worlds left to rebuild it. In Peaceful mode (no rivals) there's nothing to beat: claim the whole galaxy at your own pace.
The same galaxy and rivals for everyone, new each day at midnight UTC. Win it as fast as you can to climb the Daily Galaxy leaderboard. A Daily Galaxy left unfinished ends when the day does.
Sign in to Game Center in your device's Settings, and a Game Center button appears on the main menu. Victories you win while offline count toward the leaderboards the next time you're signed in (the Daily Galaxy's board only takes scores on the day itself).
Yes, two ways. On one screen: on an iPad, a Mac or an Apple TV, connect a second game controller, then pick Co-op (player 2 flies for your empire) or Versus (player 2 runs an empire of their own) on the New Game screen. The screen splits in two while you fly. Online: pick Online and Find Players to invite up to three friends (or anyone looking for a game) through Game Center. Whoever sends the invite hosts the match. In the lobby, the host puts each player on their side (Co-op, Versus, or a mix), chooses how many AI rivals join, and starts; each player picks their own empire's race and color.
Tap PING (X on a controller, Return on a keyboard). It means what the moment calls for: Help! with enemies on you, Attack here where you've moved the camera to look, Defend a world of yours under attack, or Over here. Your teammates see it on their radar and their screen. On a controller, the D-pad's up and down step through your wingmen's orders while you fly.
If a player leaves the app or steps out to the menu, the AI flies their fighter until they're back ("away" shows over it meanwhile), and everyone hears they've gone and when they're back. If their connection drops, it comes back on its own in a two-player match; with more players, Game Center invites them back, and accepting puts them in their own fighter again. A player who quits the match is gone for good (no invite). The host's device runs the match, so if the host leaves the app everyone waits for them, and if the host quits, the match ends for everyone. When your empire falls, you can watch the others finish it. At the end, the host can start a rematch with everyone still there. Everyone needs the same version of the game to play together.
Yes: Pause › News lists everything that came and went this match, newest first, with the match clock: alerts about your worlds, events, pings, and players coming and going. The button shows how many are new.
Yes. The game saves as you play, so Continue on the main menu picks up where you left off, even if the app was closed. Saves stay on the device you're playing on. (Online matches aren't saved: the host's device runs them live.)
Yes: New Game lets you choose how many rivals you face (or none, for Peaceful mode), your race and color, and each rival's race and difficulty (Easy, Normal, Hard or Nightmare).
Sound, music, haptics, health bars, zooming in when you land, a zoom slider, color-blind friendly faction colors, an FPS counter (online, it also shows your connection), and the Field Guide. Screen shake turns off when Reduce Motion is on in your device's Accessibility settings.
Tips are optional and support development. Any tip unlocks the Rainbow color as a thank-you; it changes nothing in gameplay. On a new device, open Settings › Tip Jar and tap Restore.
Take a screenshot while playing and tap "Share Beta Feedback", or open the TestFlight app and choose Send Beta Feedback. Every report is read.
Found a bug or have an idea? Email support@gravitywellgame.com and include your device model and its software version if it's a bug.