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Your stars make ships. Drag from one of your stars to another star, and your ships fly there. Ships fight one for one, so send more than the other side has to take a star. Take every rival star to win.

Keep your finger down and sweep it over your other stars on the way. Each one you pass joins in. Let go on the target, and they all send.

Use the selector at the edge of the screen: 25, 50, 75 or 100 % of each star's ships. The game remembers your choice.

Drag out from your star, past its ring, and back onto it, then let go. Its ships go into the star itself and help it grow to the next level, or repair it if it's damaged. Tap one of your stars to see its level and how close it is to the next.

Drag with one finger anywhere except on your own stars to turn the view. Drag with two fingers to move the map, and pinch to zoom. Double-tap a star to fly to it, or double-tap empty space to see the whole map.

Yes. Tap your star, then tap the target. You can turn or move the view between the two taps, and the selection stays.

Yes. Tap the 2× button in the bottom corner to play at double speed, and tap it again to go back.

It shows how many ships will go, such as “50 % · 120”. On a route past a black hole it also shows how many should arrive: “50 % · 120 → ~95”.

• Blue giant: the biggest star. It makes ships fast from the moment it's taken, but can never be upgraded.
• Red dwarf: small and tough. It makes ships at half the speed, but has three times a normal star's health.
• Twin suns: two stars circling each other. Hold both, and both make ships half again as fast.
• Pulsar: nobody's. Every four seconds, each star in its light gets three ships for its owner.
• Black hole: nobody's. Swarms swing round it and speed up near it, but ships that fly too close are torn apart. Some black holes move.

Winning a mission opens the next. The first, First Light, is a short guided opening that shows you how to play. Once you've won it, Play on the title screen offers Continue, for your next mission, and Uncharted.

About every third mission has a goal of its own instead of the usual one: hold your marked stars for a time, take a giant first, be the first to hold a number of stars, or survive until the clock runs out. The goal shows as the mission starts.

A map made just now from a fresh seed, one nobody has played before. Every side starts the same, so it's hard but fair. Each win adds to your run of wins; a defeat ends it, and so does leaving mid-match. Each difficulty keeps its own run.

Find it under Play on the title screen, or at the top of Missions.

On Uncharted maps, each rival plays one of four styles, named as the match opens and on the pause card:

• Raider strikes early and often. Hold firm, then hit the stars it left empty.
• Builder builds up quietly, then strikes once, hard. Out-expand it early.
• Spreader races you for every free star. Strike where it's spread thin.
• Opportunist waits for you to send, then hits the star you emptied. Keep reserves where it can reach.

Beat all four to earn Know Your Rivals in Game Center.

In Settings, choose Relaxed, Standard or Challenging. It sets how sharp the rivals are, in missions and in Uncharted. After three wins in a row, the result card offers sharper rivals, and after three losses gentler ones. Nothing changes unless you tap it.

Try Relaxed in Settings for a gentler hand. On any map: take the cheap stars near you early, upgrade your home when you have ships to spare, and send enough to finish the job, since a send that falls short is lost. The pause card names your goal and, in Uncharted, each rival's style.

Yes, if you're signed in to iCloud with the same Apple Account: the missions you've won, your best times and your runs of wins come along by themselves. There's nothing to sign in to in the game. Without iCloud, your progress stays on that device. Settings, such as the volume, stay with each device.

If you use iCloud, your progress is kept there and comes back when you install the game again. To clear it everywhere, use Reset progress in Settings before you delete the game. Without iCloud, deleting the game deletes your progress.

Tap the trophy in the bottom corner of the title screen to open Game Center. It shows once you're signed in to Game Center, which you can do in the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad. Missions you won before signing in still count.

In the game's Settings, tap Reset progress. Every mission becomes unwon again, on all your devices. Your settings stay, and so do the achievements you've earned in Game Center.

No. Totality plays entirely on your device. When you're online, your progress syncs through iCloud and your achievements reach Game Center.

Yes. In Settings › Language, Automatic follows your device, or pick English, Nederlands, Deutsch, Français, Español, فارسی, العربية or हिन्दी. The game switches at once.

Yes. Turn on Left-handed in Settings to move the share selector, the 2× button and the pause button to the left edge.

In Settings › Soundtrack, pick Warm Pulse, Drift, Tide or Nightfall, or Shuffle for a different one every match. Music and effects each have their own volume.

Yes. Turn off Vibration in Settings, and the game won't vibrate at all.

No. Get Totality once, and it's yours on every iPhone and iPad signed in with the same Apple Account. You can download it again at no cost whenever you like.

No. There are no in-app purchases and no ads: once you have the game, you have all of it.

The App Store handles every purchase, so refunds go through Apple: visit reportaproblem.apple.com.

No. There are no accounts of our own, no ads, no analytics and no tracking. Your progress stays on your devices and in your own iCloud, where we can't see it. The privacy policy has the details.