Back to the front line.

Each side starts with a commander, a construction vehicle, a refinery and a harvester. Harvesters gather crystals and earn credits when they deliver them to a refinery. Spend those credits on barracks, factories, defenses, research and units, then send your army to destroy the enemy commander. If your commander falls, you lose.

New to Ashfall? Start with the tutorial on the main menu, which walks you through the basics with the Iron Vanguard.

Solo battles offer Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert computer opponents, plus Jev. Jev is the toughest: during a battle it asks an online AI service, TypeSafe, to help choose its next attack, about every ten seconds while it can see your forces. Jev needs an internet connection for this. When it can’t reach the service, the battle carries on and Jev uses its own built-in tactics; its status on screen tells you which it is doing.

Ghost Jev learns your play style from your battles, on your device, and plays like you. You can clear what it has learned with Forget my style where you choose your opponent. You can also watch two Jevs battle each other in Jev vs Jev. The privacy policy explains exactly what Jev sends.

Choose MULTIPLAYER, then LOCAL NETWORK. One player opens an arena and picks the battlefield and rules, and the other joins it. Both devices need to be on the same Wi‑Fi network and running the same version of Ashfall. Local network battles need no account or internet connection.

Ashfall needs Local Network permission to find nearby players. If you declined it, turn it on in Settings › Privacy & Security › Local Network.

Online play uses your Game Center account, so sign in to Game Center in the Settings app first. Then choose MULTIPLAYER to use Quick Match, browse public lobbies, create a public or private lobby, join a lobby with its code, or invite Game Center friends.

Quick Match pairs you with players who are searching at the same time, so a search can take a little while. In the meantime, you can open a lobby, invite a friend or play solo. If the online page says it can’t sign you in, check that you are signed in to Game Center and connected to the internet, then tap RETRY.

Lobbies and battles have text chat and voice chat in the COMMS panel. To speak, press and hold HOLD TO TALK; your voice is sent only while you hold it. You can switch to OPEN MIC in the same panel. The first time you talk, iOS asks for microphone access. If you declined it, turn it on in Settings › Privacy & Security › Microphone. You can still hear other players without it.

Tap the speaker button in the COMMS panel to turn voice chat off or back on. The language filter, which masks offensive words in chat, is on by default. Tap FILTER ON or FILTER OFF to change it.

Tap the actions button next to a player’s name in a lobby or in a battle’s comms list. Mute hides that player’s chat and silences their voice on your device; mutes are saved on your device until you unmute the player. Report asks you for a reason and sends us the report together with the player’s most recent chat line, if they sent one, and mutes the player. The owner of an online lobby can also choose Remove from lobby while the lobby is open; a removed player can’t rejoin that lobby.

You can also report a player through our contact form; include their display name, the lobby code if you have it, and what happened. If anyone is in immediate danger, contact local emergency services.

Choose MULTIPLAYER, tap the account badge at the top right, choose Delete Online Account…, and confirm. This removes your online account from our server. If you open the Multiplayer screen again while signed in to Game Center, a new account is created. If you can no longer sign in to Game Center, send a privacy request instead. The privacy policy explains exactly what is deleted and what is kept.

No. Ashfall has no advertising, no in-app purchases, and no analytics or tracking tools.

Include your device model, your iOS or iPadOS version, the mode you were playing (Solo, Local Network or Online), what you expected to happen, and what happened instead. Never send passwords, payment details or authentication codes.