We are a small studio and we read every message. Most answers are in the questions below; if yours is not, write to us.
Yes. You can play the whole game for free. There are optional purchases (Amber, cosmetics, the Queen Pack, the Season Pass and the Colony Club subscription) and optional ads you can watch for a bonus. There are no energy timers and no forced ads.
Lantern Ants launches on iPhone with iOS [[17]] or later. [[iPad: not at launch / runs as an iPhone app.]] An Android version is planned for later.
No. The whole game runs on your phone and you can play fully offline. The internet is only used for weekly leagues, cloud save and the event calendar. Anything you earn offline for the league is sent when you reconnect.
Yes, for up to 8 hours. When you come back, the game shows what your colony gathered and found. The Colony Club raises this to 12 hours and the Queen Pack to 16 hours.
Link your account to Apple or Google in Settings → Account. Your colony is then saved to the cloud, and on a new phone you sign in with the same Apple or Google account to bring it back. A guest account that is not linked lives only on your device; restoring a full iPhone backup also restores it, but linking is the safe way.
If both the device and the cloud have a colony, the game shows both side by side and you choose which one to keep. Choose carefully: the other one is replaced. If you chose the wrong one, contact us quickly with your username; we keep the last 3 cloud versions.
No. The wild colonies you trade with, race, ally with or raid are part of the world and are run by the game. They are marked with a small "wild" badge, and they never attack your nest while you are away. Real players only meet in the leagues.
Every week you join a group of up to 50 real players. You earn Sparkle by playing: lighting new cells, expeditions, live moments, raids, trade and quests (up to 200 a day from normal play). At the end of the week the top of the group moves up a league and the bottom moves down. You need at least 50 Sparkle in a week to take part.
No. Nothing in the store gives Sparkle or changes your rank, and ad or purchase bonuses never apply to Sparkle.
Your first username is picked at random in your language. You can roll a new random one in Settings, and after linking Apple or Google you can choose your own. You can claim a new name once every 24 hours. Custom names are checked automatically; a name that breaks the Game Rules is replaced with a random one.
Open the Store and tap Restore purchases. If a parent has to approve the purchase (Ask to Buy), it arrives after approval. If it still does not arrive, write to support@lanternants.app with your username and the date of purchase. Refunds are handled by Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com.
An optional monthly or yearly subscription: 15 Amber on each day you play, one extra expedition slot, offline earnings for up to 12 hours and a members-only cosmetic every month. It never affects the league. Cancel any time in iOS Settings → [your name] → Subscriptions, at least 24 hours before it renews. Deleting the app or your account does not cancel it.
No. Ads only appear when you tap to watch one for a bonus, at most 10 a day. You can change ad personalisation in Settings → Privacy & data → Ad preferences.
Up to four kinds: expedition back, nest full, event started and league ending. At most 2 a day and none between 22:00 and 08:00. You can turn each one off in Settings.
Settings → Privacy & data → Usage analytics. When it is off, no usage data leaves your device; only crash reports are sent so we can fix bugs. See the Privacy Policy for details.
In the game: Settings → Privacy & data → Delete account, or Download my data. Without the app: lanternants.app/delete-account.
The game is made for players aged 13 and up [[confirm]]. The nest is cozy, but the story has loss and mild fantasy conflict, and the leagues show other players' usernames.
18: English, Türkçe, Deutsch, Español, Français, Português (Brasil), Nederlands, Ελληνικά, हिन्दी, Bahasa Indonesia, Italiano, 日本語, 한국어, Polski, Русский, ไทย, Tiếng Việt and 简体中文. Change it in Settings → Language.
Thank you. In the game go to Settings → Help → Contact support: the email it opens already includes your app version, device and username, which helps a lot. Or write to support@lanternants.app.
Settings → Help → Contact support. The email it opens already includes your app version, device, username and support code, so we can help faster.
Write to support@lanternants.app. Please include your username (Settings → Account), your device and iOS version, and what happened and what you expected, with a screenshot if you can.
Never send us your Apple ID password, Google password or card details. We will never ask for them.
If your Sparkle was removed or you were taken out of a league and you think it was a mistake, write to support@lanternants.app within 30 days with your username. A person will look at it.