A little help.
Without the spoilers.

Lantern Prime puts you in command of a ship and crew, free to choose your route through a galaxy of unfamiliar worlds. Explore planetary surfaces, navigate encounters in space, and follow a story that unfolds through the people and records you discover. This guide covers the essentials while leaving those discoveries to you.

A public download link and release date are not listed on this site yet. Lantern Prime is in development. When a download is available, use the official link on the homepage to find the correct game.

Lantern Prime is a game for Mac, iPhone, iPad, and iPhone Duo. The current iPhone and iPad build targets iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 or later, with landscape play. Final operating-system requirements will appear with the release information.

Yes. The interface responds to the available screen size, including folded and unfolded iPhone Duo layouts. Narrow layouts arrange station rooms across the top and condense some status readouts; wider layouts make more room for panels. Held steering and firing inputs clear when the view changes size. If a panel looks clipped after folding, tell support which screen and text-size setting you were using.

Choose Survey for your first game, then follow the training card on screen. It guides you through launching, travelling, scanning, a surface survey, and returning to sell your cargo. Take time to read the messages from your crew; they explain the controls as you need them.

Survey keeps automatic restore points so you can return to an earlier saved moment. Ironman keeps one save and ends the expedition if your ship is destroyed or the crew is lost. Starting an Ironman expedition erases all existing saves and restore points on that device. Choose Survey if you want room to learn or experiment.

Yes. Open Settings and choose Relaxed, Standard, or Hard. Relaxed reduces incoming damage and makes early space quieter; Hard increases incoming damage. Difficulty is separate from the Combat speed setting, which gives you more time to react.

This guide covers controls, settings, saves, purchases, and technical problems. It deliberately leaves story discoveries, puzzle solutions, hidden locations, and endings out. For help tied to your own progress, email support@boxcue.com and say that you would like a spoiler-free reply.

Press and drag on the flight view to use the floating steering control. Release your finger to stop giving that steering input. A quick tap selects a destination or target, depending on the scene. Manual steering cancels an automatic travel plan, so let go of the controls when you want the navigator to follow a course.

Open the Starmap, select a star, and use its travel action. You can also open the Log, choose Leads, and tap Travel beside a destination you have already learned about. Check the displayed distance and fuel estimate before leaving. If you are on a planet, return to the lander and launch to orbit before the journey can continue.

Pinch to zoom, or use the zoom buttons. Once zoomed in, drag to move around the map. Center on ship brings your position back into view, and Whole galaxy returns to the overview. Selecting empty space shows a waypoint and its estimated fuel cost; use Set course to commit to that route.

Yes. Press and hold a star or planet in the flight view to inspect it. Selecting a star on the Starmap also shows the information currently known about it before you choose a travel action. For a detailed planet report, reach orbit and use Sensors to scan it.

Orbit is a separate state from travelling around a system. Use Break orbit in the navigation controls to leave it. A travel plan to a different destination can also break orbit for you. If a panel is open, close it before steering.

Open Log and records using the speech-bubble button in the top bar. Leads lists destinations you have learned about, Transmissions contains recent messages, Captain’s log records expedition events, and Records holds material you have discovered. Tap a temporary message while it is visible to open the full log.

Treat the route estimate as a planning aid and leave room for the return journey. Refuel at the station’s Exchange before a long trip. If you need to head back, check the navigator’s Course home command. If you become stranded, inspect the communications options for a Distress call and read the consequences before relying on rescue.

On a touchscreen, press and drag in the flight view to steer, and hold FIRE to use the lasers. On a keyboard, steer with WASD or the arrow keys and hold Space to fire. With a supported gamepad, use the left stick and hold the right trigger or shoulder. Moving and firing are separate controls, so you can keep steering while firing.

Tap or click an enemy ship to select it. The target marker shows which ship your weapons are following. If you have not selected a living target, the game chooses the nearest one. Tap or click open space to move toward that point; manual steering takes over from that movement order.

Each weapon needs to be installed and working. Lasers also need a target within range; holding FIRE does not make them reach across the whole battlefield. Missiles have a short cooldown and travel toward the target’s position when launched, so a moving ship can evade them. Read the engineer’s messages and check Damage report if a weapon has gone offline.

Open the navigator’s station to find Raise shields or Lower shields and Arm weapons or Disarm weapons. These commands require the corresponding equipment to be installed. Check the shield readout and damage report during a fight, and read any crew warning explaining why a system is unavailable. Firing a working weapon also arms it.

EVADE gives the ship a short evasive burst and needs time to recharge. JUMP starts the jump drive’s escape sequence; keep the ship alive while it spools. A damaged drive can prevent or interrupt the jump, so watch the engineer’s warnings. On a keyboard, E uses Evade and J starts Jump. The communications command Break off is available for a non-hostile encounter, not as an instant escape from active combat.

Open Settings or the Log to pause combat while you read or adjust options. In Settings, Combat speed offers Standard, Steady, and Slow, giving you more time to aim and react while keeping damage and ship statistics the same. Difficulty is a separate setting. Returning from an interruption also shows a resume countdown before combat continues.

The crew stations group commands by role. The captain handles the log and cargo; science handles sensors and analysis; navigation handles travel and flight systems; engineering handles damage and repairs; communications handles contact options; medical handles crew examination and treatment. Available commands change with your location and the condition of the ship.

Launch requires a ready crew and enough fuel. Check the Launch Bay readout, fill any vacant crew posts in Personnel, and buy fuel at the Exchange. A disabled control usually means a requirement has not been met; the surrounding readout or crew message should explain what is missing.

Open the engineer’s Damage report to see the ship’s condition, then use Repair to assign work while travelling. At the station, the Shipyard offers repairs and equipment upgrades. Check the price and the condition of each system before spending credits.

Open the medical station and choose Examine crew. Use Treat to assign treatment to an injured living crew member. Keep an eye on crew messages and the health readout during hazardous travel and surface exploration; a working ship still needs a crew able to operate it.

The rover and the ship have separate cargo holds. The rover can fill up even when the ship has space, so return to the lander and use Unload & service. If the ship’s hold is also full, excess cargo remains in the rover. Check Cargo before your next survey and sell cargo at the Exchange when you return.

Sell surplus keeps the selected reserve of common repair metals and sells other eligible survey cargo. Review the reserve setting and the displayed sale value first. During training, the Exchange may show a special Sell all survey cargo action so you can finish that step. Individual item sales can have their own confirmation; read it before accepting.

Reach orbit, scan the planet, then choose Land when it is available. Pick a valid area of solid ground in the landing-site view and confirm the location. Landing needs enough fuel for the trip down and back, and a rover in usable condition. Some planet types cannot be landed on.

Tap open ground to drive there. Tap an object once to identify it, then tap it again or use Drive to to approach it. You can also press and drag to steer manually. The rover plans a route over passable terrain; it cannot cross every surface.

The selected point may be impassable, or there may be no drivable route from your current position. Try a nearby patch of solid ground, then approach from another direction. If you want to survey a separate area, return to the lander, launch, and choose another valid landing site.

Tap the object to bring up its information. Look cycles through nearby visible targets, and the science station’s Scan area command reports nearby resources and life signs. Read the target card before driving closer if you are unsure what you have selected.

Drive onto a mineral deposit to mine it. You do not need a separate mining button. Collection stops when the rover’s hold is full; any remaining material stays in the deposit for a later trip. Return to the lander and unload, then come back if you want the rest.

Use Drive to lander to return. Once the rover is beside the lander, choose Unload & service. This transfers cargo into available ship storage and refuels and repairs the rover. If cargo remains aboard, check whether the ship’s hold or fuel tanks are already full.

The rover must be back at the lander before you can lift off. Use Drive to lander, then open the captain’s controls and choose Launch to orbit. Unload & service is available there if you want to transfer the rover’s haul before leaving.

The game autosaves at safe moments, including important travel transitions and docking. Quit to title also requests a save, and the app requests one when it is suspended. Active combat is not saved mid-fight, so resuming after closing the app can return you to an earlier safe moment. If you see a save warning, resolve it before relying on the latest progress.

In a Survey expedition, choose Restore point from the title screen or Settings. Read the save’s label and stardate, then choose the point you want. Restoring returns you to that saved state; progress made after it does not carry over. Ironman expeditions do not offer earlier restore points.

Continue selects the most recently played expedition and its furthest available saved progress. To choose a particular older moment in Survey mode, use Restore point instead. If a save cannot be opened, try another listed point and contact support if the problem continues.

This is intentional. A saved expedition on the surface resumes in orbit with the rover recovered. Its cargo is transferred into available ship storage, with anything that does not fit remaining in the rover. You can select a landing site again when you are ready to continue surveying.

Sign in to iCloud with the same Apple Account on both devices and enable iCloud sync in the game’s Settings. Save at a calm moment or use Quit to title on the first device, then open the game on the second device and check Continue or Restore point. Sync depends on iCloud availability and may take time; confirm the expected progress has appeared before continuing elsewhere.

No. iCloud is designed to carry the latest expedition save between devices. The rolling history of local restore points stays on the device that created it. A save received from another device can appear as a local point, but iCloud is not a complete archive of every expedition and every earlier save.

The game has found further saved progress for the same expedition on another device. Read the label and stardate before choosing Switch or Keep playing here. In Survey mode, switching first keeps the current state as a local restore point. Ironman has a single-save rule, so switching replaces the current local Ironman progress.

Use Quit to title at a safe moment before leaving an expedition, and pay attention to save warnings. Keep enough free device storage. If you use iCloud, verify the intended save is visible on the other device before changing devices. Avoid deleting the app to solve a problem: local saves and restore points can be removed with it, and cloud recovery should not be assumed.

Open Settings and choose Small, Standard, Large, or Huge under Text size. Larger text changes the layout as well as the lettering, so scroll within panels if more information is below the visible area. If a control becomes difficult to reach, tell support your device and the text-size setting you were using.

The game reads the device’s Reduce Motion accessibility setting to reduce effects such as camera shake, drifting backgrounds, and pulsing highlights. Enable Reduce Motion in your device’s accessibility settings. If a particular effect still causes discomfort, tell support which screen it appears on so it can be reviewed.

The current build includes spoken scene summaries and VoiceOver actions for nearby places and surface targets. Focus the scene and swipe up or down to browse available actions, such as inspect, travel, identify, or drive. This describes implemented support, not a guarantee that every part of the game is fully accessible. Please report any unlabeled or unreachable control to support.

The current build includes keyboard controls: WASD or arrow keys steer, Return activates the main available action, Tab opens the Starmap, and Escape closes a panel. Number keys open crew stations or station rooms. In the relevant scenes, Space fires, L uses Look, F uses Stun, and R returns to the lander or unloads. Controls only act when their corresponding action is available.

The current build includes support for extended gamepad controls. The left stick steers, A uses the first available action, X uses the next available action, Y opens the Starmap, and the right trigger or shoulder fires. B closes a panel or crew station. Some menus may still need touch, a pointer, or keyboard input; controller compatibility has not been verified across every model.

Settings has separate switches for Music, Sound effects, and Vibration. With Music enabled, a slider adjusts its volume. If you cannot hear the game, check those settings and your device’s output volume and audio route. Some travel and survey scenes are intentionally quiet, with music appearing at particular moments.

Battery saver reduces the frame rate during travel and at the station. Combat and surface surveys keep their higher frame rate. You can turn it on or off in Settings. It changes how often the scene is drawn; it does not change your chosen difficulty or the Combat speed setting.

The current development build has a free survey area and one permanent full-game unlock, called an expedition charter. The purchase screen specifies no ads, subscriptions, or energy timers. Final availability and the price will be shown through the App Store; no price is announced on this site.

When the game is available, use Restore purchase in Settings or on the expedition charter screen. Sign in to the App Store with the Apple Account used for the original purchase and make sure you are online. Restoring a purchase checks the full-game entitlement; it is separate from restoring a saved expedition.

Check that the App Store is using the Apple Account that made the original purchase. An iCloud save does not itself prove ownership of the full-game unlock. If the account is correct and the purchase still does not appear, email support with the app version, the exact message, and a receipt screenshot with personal and payment details removed.

The App Store has not completed the purchase yet, so the game is waiting for its result. Do not assume that the unlock is active until the purchase screen confirms it. If the status remains unclear, check the purchase status through your Apple Account and include the exact in-game message when contacting support.

The game has not received the product information needed to display a price. Check your connection and App Store sign-in, then use Try again if that button appears. During development, the product may not be publicly available. This message is not confirmation of a charge, and the website cannot complete a purchase for you.

If the controls still respond, leave through Settings → Quit to title at a safe moment and reopen the expedition. Otherwise close and reopen the app, then check for an available app update. Avoid deleting the app, because that can remove local saves. If the issue returns, note the last action before it happened and contact support.

Bring the game window to the front and close any open panel or confirmation before testing flight controls; menus take priority over movement keys. Use WASD or the arrow keys to steer. You can resize the window, and the interface scales with it. If a control is clipped, try a larger window or a smaller in-game text size, then report your macOS version, window size, and text setting to support.

Free some device storage, then try leaving through Quit to title at a safe moment. The warning means the latest write failed; do not assume the current expedition is safely stored. Earlier saves are intended to remain intact. If the warning continues, stop making changes you need to keep and contact support with the exact message.

Confirm that both devices use the same iCloud account, that iCloud sync is enabled inside the game, and that both have a connection. Return to the title screen on the receiving device and allow time for iCloud to deliver changes. Check Restore point for an incoming save. If it is still missing, keep the original device’s app and saves intact and contact support before reinstalling anything.

The game pauses interrupted combat so you can regain control when you return. Follow the on-screen Resume prompt or countdown. Reopening a fully closed app may load an earlier safe save rather than the interrupted fight. Disconnecting a controller clears held steering and firing inputs; reconnect it before continuing with that control method.

Include your device model, operating-system version, and the Lantern Prime version shown in Settings under About. Mention whether you were using touch, keyboard, or a controller. Add the exact error text and the steps that reproduce the issue. For save problems, mention Survey or Ironman and whether iCloud sync is enabled. Screenshots can help; remove personal information and do not send passwords, payment details, or account credentials.