Getting Started

This section introduces users to the most important first steps: setting up their identity and appearance as a player. Here’s the full explanation for this section:

👤 Create Your Profile

When you first log in, you’ll set up your profile:

• Username: This is your public name shown on leaderboards and county maps.
• Profile Image: You can choose a photo from your device’s gallery to personalize your account.
  • The app supports image rotation and cropping to ensure it looks right.
• Leader Color: Select your unique color using the color picker. This color will be displayed on any county you lead.

📝 Tip: You can update your profile anytime by tapping your profile picture in the top-left corner.

---

🎨 Select a Texture

After setting your color, you’ll have the option to choose a texture to represent counties you lead. Here’s how it works:

• Tap Select Texture in the profile panel.
• Choose from available textures (some are free; others are purchased in the store).
• Your chosen texture will appear on all counties you lead, giving them a unique visual.

🛍️ Unlock more textures from the Store to stand out as a leader.

---

🔐 Saving Your Setup

Your profile image, color, and texture selections are saved automatically to Firebase. Once completed:

• These choices will appear on the map.
• They’ll be visible to other players who view your county.

🗺️ Location and County System

This section explains how your real-world location connects to the in-game world and how it influences your gameplay.

---

📍 How Location Works

• The game uses your GPS location to automatically detect your state and county.
• Once detected, the name of your current location will appear at the top of the main screen (e.g., “Wake County, North Carolina”).

🌐 This detection happens each time you open the app or after converting session points.

---

🗺️ Why Counties and States Matter

Your current location determines:

• Where your points are earned — all Invasion Points go to your current county and state.
• Which county you are competing in — you’re ranked against others in the same location.
• What rewards you’re eligible for — such as daily pool earnings in the county you’re standing in.

🏆 To lead a county, you must have more points than anyone else in that specific location.

---

🏘️ County Ownership

Each county on the map is:

• Colored by the current leader’s color
• Textured based on the leader’s selected texture
• Labeled with the leader’s username

💡 If you take over a county, its appearance updates instantly to reflect your color and texture.

---

🧭 GPS Tips

• If you see “Unknown” or incorrect county/state, check your device’s location permissions.

💸 Earning Gems

Points are the foundation of your progress in Battle for Borders. Here’s how they work and how to maximize them.

---

⏱️ Session Gems (Invasion Points)

• You automatically earn gemss while standing in a county.
• Gems accumulate based on time — you earn continuously while the app is open and your location is active.
• Your progress is shown under Mined Gems at the top of the screen.

⚠️ You can only hold up to 10 gems at a time — once you hit the cap, you must watch an ad to convert them and continue earning.

---

🎬 Watch Ads to Convert

• When you reach 1 or more mined gems, the Watch Ad button becomes active.
• After watching the ad:
  • Your mined gems are saved to your account.
  • The progress bar resets, and gem accumulation starts again.

💡 Gems are only saved after watching an ad. If you leave without converting, you’ll lose any unclaimed gems.

---

🧮 Where Gems Go

When you convert your session points, they are distributed to three categories:

1. County Points – used for county leaderboards and ownership.
2. State Points – count toward state leadership.
3. Grand Total Points – your overall lifetime earnings.

These values are displayed in your profile panel and bonus panels.

---

💥 Point Conversion Rate

• 1 gem = $0.0001 (for display purposes only)
• Gems you see (like 134) reflect this conversion for easier readability.

---

🧠 Earning Strategy

• Stay in one county longer to compete for leadership.
• Convert your points frequently to stay under the cap.
• Take advantage of bonuses from faction activity and county leadership to boost earnings (explained in the next section).

🏛️ County and State Leadership

Leadership is competitive — and powerful. Becoming a county or state leader gives you visibility, bonuses, and control over the region’s appearance.

---

🏘️ County Leadership

• Every county has one leader: the player with the most points in that specific county.
• Your goal is to accumulate more points in your current county than anyone else.

🔸 What You Get as County Leader:

• Your username is displayed on the county.
• Your leader color becomes the background color of that county.
• Your selected texture is applied to the map.
• You appear on the leaderboards.

🥇 A notification will trigger if someone overtakes your lead.

---

🗺️ State Leadership

• The state leader is the player with the highest total points in that state (across all counties).
• State leadership earns you major recognition and is shown at the top of the leaderboard.

🔹 What You Get as State Leader:

• Your name appears in the State Leader text.
• You may receive special rewards, such as daily state pool payouts (if implemented).
• You gain a leadership bonus that contributes to faster session earnings.

---

🧮 Becoming a Leader

• To become the leader, you must have more total points than the current leader.
• The app tells you exactly how many points you need to pass the current leader.

Example:

• Current county leader has 6,540 points.
• You have 6,000.
• You need 541 points to take the lead — and the UI will show this value.

---

🖼️ Leadership Appearance

• When you become a county leader:
  • The map updates in real time to show your color and texture.
  • Other players will see your style as they browse the map.

💰 County Pools & Rewards

Every county has its own reward pool, funded by purchases made by players. If you own houses in a county, you’re eligible to claim part of the pool.

---

🏦 What is the County Pool?

• The county pool is a shared stash of points for each county.
• Every time someone turns session points into earning by watching an ad, 5 points is added to the pool of their current county.

🛒 All purchases help grow the state pool — even yours!

---

🏡 How to Earn from the Pool

To claim rewards from the county pool, you must own houses in that county.

• Houses have different rarities, each with a different weight.
• Your ownership percentage is calculated by comparing your total house weight to the total weight owned by all users in the county.

🧮 Example:

• You own 2 Rare and 1 Epic house → total weight = 20.
• The county’s total weight = 100.
• Your ownership = 20% → you’ll earn 20% of the reward pool when it’s distributed.

---

⏰ When Are Rewards Distributed?

• Rewards are distributed once per day.
• The app automatically calculates rewards and adds them to your:
  • County Points
  • State Points
  • Grand Total
• The daily distribution runs the first time someone logs in each day — so be sure to check back daily.

---

📊 Check Your Ownership

• Tap the Bonus Panel button to view:
  • How many houses of each rarity you own in your current county.
  • Your ownership percentage.
  • The current value of the county pool.

📌 You must have at least 1% ownership to receive a reward from the daily pool.

---

🪙 How Much Is It Worth?

• The value of the pool is displayed in dollars (e.g., $0.0423).
• Rewards scale with activity — the more purchases made in your county, the more you can earn.

🏠 House Ownership

Houses are collectible items that determine how much you own in a county — and how much you earn from its daily pool.

---

🏡 What Are Houses?

• Houses are reward-based assets you can obtain from the Store.
• Each house belongs to a rarity tier:
  • Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, and Legendary
• Every house type has a weight used to calculate ownership share in a county.

🏷️ Example Weights:

• Common = 1
• Uncommon = 2
• Rare = 5
• Epic = 10
• Legendary = 25

---

🎁 How to Get Houses

• Buy a “House Crate” from the Store.
• The crate opens to reveal a random house based on rarity chances.
• Each house is saved under your current state and county.

💡 You can own multiple houses across many counties, but rewards are based only on the county you’re standing in.

---

📊 Tracking Your Houses

Use the Bonus Panel to:

• See how many houses you own by rarity.
• View your total ownership weight.
• Check your ownership percentage compared to others in the same county.

---

🧠 Ownership Strategy

• The more houses you own, the higher your ownership percentage.
• Focus your house purchases in counties where you want to:
  • Earn the most daily rewards.
  • Take or maintain county leadership.

🎯 Aim to own a majority share in your favorite counties to maximize pool earnings.

---

⚠️ Note

House ownership is not transferrable between counties. If you move to a new county, your ownership there may be lower or zero until you buy more houses in that location.

🎯 Bonuses

Bonuses are powerful multipliers that boost your session point earnings. The more you lead and participate, the faster you earn.

---

🔺 How Bonuses Work

Your session earnings are multiplied by your total bonus percentage, which is made up of:

1. Leadership Bonus
2. Faction Member Bonus
3. Joined Faction Bonus

Each is calculated separately and then combined for a total multiplier.

---

🏆 Leadership Bonus

You earn a bonus based on the number of counties you currently lead.

Counties Led	Bonus %
1	5%
2	10%
3	15%
4	20%
5	25%
6+	33.3%

📍 These bonuses are updated in real time as you gain or lose leadership in counties.

---

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Faction Member Bonus

If you lead a faction, you gain a bonus based on how many active members are currently earning points (within the last 4 hours).

✅ Members must be actively playing to count toward this bonus.

---

🔁 Joined Faction Bonus

If you’ve joined other factions, you gain another bonus based on how many active faction leaders are online and earning points.

🎁 The more factions you join, the more potential for stacked bonuses — if their leaders are active.

---

📈 Total Bonus Example

If you:

• Lead 3 counties (15%)
• Have 8 active faction members (5.0%)
• Have 6 active faction leaders (2.83%)

You’ll get a total bonus of 22.83%, and your session earnings will increase by that amount while active.

---

📊 View Your Bonuses

Open the Factions Panel to see:

• Member Bonus
• Faction Bonus
• Leadership Bonus
• Total Bonus Percentage

🧠 Use your bonus strategy to earn faster, reach the point cap sooner, and climb the leaderboards.

🛡️ Factions

Factions are groups of players working together. Joining or leading a faction unlocks bonuses, collaboration, and new strategies to dominate counties and states.

---

🧑‍✈️ Faction Leaders

• If you create a faction, you become its leader.
• As a leader, you can:
  • See how many members are in your faction.
  • Earn the Faction Member Bonus if your members are actively playing.

✅ Only faction leaders get the Faction Member Bonus, so recruit and motivate your team!

---

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Joining Other Factions

• You can join other factions as a member.
• For each faction you join, you gain a Joined Faction Bonus if the leader of that faction is active.

⚠️ You only get a bonus if the leader is currently earning points.

---

📊 Faction Panel Overview

The Factions Panel displays:

• 👥 Members in your faction
• 🔄 Factions You’ve Joined
• 🔢 Active Members and Leaders
• 🧮 All Bonus Percentages

This is where you track your faction-based progress and benefits.

---

🎯 Activity Matters

Faction bonuses are based on real-time activity:

• A member is active if they earned points in the last 4 hours.
• A leader is active under the same condition.

The more active players you’re connected with, the higher your potential earnings.

---

⚙️ Strategy Tips

• If you’re a leader, stay active to keep bonuses flowing to your members.
• Join factions with high-performing, active leaders for easy bonus gains.
• Coordinate with friends to form a mutually beneficial network of leaders and members.

🏅 Leaderboards

The leaderboards showcase the top competitors in your county and state. Climb the ranks by earning more points — and take over territories by becoming a leader.

---

📍 County Leaderboard

• Displays the top player in your current county.
• The player with the most county points becomes the County Leader.
• As County Leader:
  • Your username, color, and texture appear on the county.
  • Other players will see your identity when visiting the county.

💡 You can see how many points you need to become the leader — the app tells you exactly how much more you need.

---

🗺️ State Leaderboard

• Displays the player with the most total points in your current state.
• State leadership is based on the sum of points earned in all counties within that state.

📈 State leaders earn recognition and may receive exclusive rewards, such as full state pool payouts.

---

🥇 Leadership Benefits

• Both county and state leaders gain:
  • Visual control over their regions (colors and textures).
  • Bonus earnings based on leadership.
  • A reputation for dominance on the map.

---

🔄 Live Updates

• Leaderboards update automatically as players earn or convert points.
• Rankings reflect real-time competition — your position can change at any moment.

🛎️ If someone overtakes your score, the game can send a notification (if enabled) so you can respond quickly.

---

🔍 Tracking Progress

From the main UI, you’ll see:

• Current County Leader
• State Leader
• Points needed to overtake them

Tap the Leaderboards Button to view more details or switch between views.

🛒 Store

The Store is where you can purchase rewards, unlock textures, and gain ownership in counties — all while growing the reward pools for yourself and others.

---

🏠 Buy House Crates

• The main item in the store is the House Crate, which contains one random house.
• Houses vary in rarity:
  • Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary
• Rarer houses have a higher weight, which increases your county ownership percentage.

🎁 After purchase, the house is automatically saved to your current county and state.

---

🎨 Unlock Texture Packs

• You can also buy Texture Packs to customize counties you lead.
• Once purchased, textures become permanently available in your selection panel.
• When you become a county leader, your selected texture is applied to the map.

🧩 Textures are purely cosmetic but give you a visual identity as a leader.

---

📦 Preview Before You Buy

• The Store includes a preview panel:
  • See possible outcomes before opening a House Crate.
  • View drop percentages for each rarity.
  • Preview texture packs before buying.

---

🔁 Where Do Purchases Go?

• Every purchase:
  • Grants the item to your inventory.
  • Adds 10% of the value to the county pool where the purchase was made.
  • Potentially changes the county leaderboard if the item boosts your points or ownership.

---

⚠️ Important Notes

• Houses are saved per county and state — purchases made in one location do not transfer elsewhere.
• Your store button may be temporarily locked during other tutorials or events.

---

💡 Earning Strategy

• Buy crates in counties you want to control or earn from.
• Own the most weighted houses to earn the largest share of the daily county pool.
• Equip standout textures to assert visual dominance when leading.

📅 Daily Tasks

Daily Tasks are a great way to earn extra points just by playing the game. Complete simple goals and claim bonus rewards — refreshed every 24 hours.

---

✅ What Are Daily Tasks?

• These are repeatable objectives that reset every day.
• Completing them grants you bonus points, which are added directly to your:
  • County Points
  • State Points
  • Grand Total

🕛 The task list resets every midnight PST.

---

📋 Types of Tasks

Here are some examples of daily tasks you may see:

• Earn from Session Points 5, 10, or 20 times
• Play Invasion Mode 2, 5, or 10 times
• Spin the Prize Wheel
• View Leaderboards

Each task has a goal and a progress tracker (e.g., 3/5).

---

💰 Claiming Rewards

• When a task is complete, the Claim button becomes active.
• Tap Claim to receive the reward — shown in gems (e.g., 50).
• Each task can only be claimed once per day.

⚠️ If you don’t claim it, the progress will reset the next day and you’ll lose the reward.

---

🔍 Tracking Progress

To view your daily tasks:

• Tap the Task Panel button on the main screen.
• You’ll see:
  • All current tasks
  • Your progress
  • Reward values
  • Claim status (“Claim” or “Claimed”)

🧠 Claimed tasks turn into Claimed buttons to avoid double collection.

---

🛠️ How Progress Is Tracked

• Actions like watching an ad to convert points will update relevant task progress (e.g., “Earn from Session Points”).
• Progress is stored in Firebase and persists across sessions.

---

🔁 Daily Reset

• The app checks for the new day every time it opens.
• Tasks are reset if:
  • A new date is detected
  • No task data exists for the current day

🎮 Game Modes

Game modes offer exciting ways to earn points, compete with others, and show off your skills. New modes will be added over time — each with unique mechanics and rewards.

---

🧱 Invasion Mode

This is the primary game mode where you defend your territory from incoming enemies.

🎯 Objective:

• Defend your wall against waves of migrants.
• Use a slingshot to launch rocks and deal damage before they break through.

⚔️ Core Mechanics:

• Migrants spawn in waves, with tougher enemies introduced in later waves.
• The wall has multiple sections that can take damage independently.
• You can earn points based on kills, damage dealt, and proximity bonuses.

🪨 Weapons:

• Use the default rock, or unlock special variants (e.g., Spiked Rock) through the store.
• Each rock can deal area-of-effect damage depending on where it lands.

💡 Use strategy to aim at clusters of enemies for maximum efficiency.

---

📊 Earning in Game Modes

• Points earned during gameplay are added to your session points.
• You must still watch an ad after the game ends to convert those points.
• If you lose early (e.g., your wall is destroyed), you’ll need to wait for other players to finish before the final score is shown (in multiplayer).

---

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Multiplayer Support

• Up to 4 players can join a game session from the War Table.
• The host selects the game mode and starts the session.
• You can view other players’ scores and determine a winner based on total points.

---

🏁 Final Score & Bonus Points

• At the end of a run, you’ll see a Final Score Panel.
• Bonus points are awarded based on:
  • The wave reached
  • Whether you had the highest score in multiplayer
• Points are only added after watching an ad.

---

🚧 More Modes Coming Soon

• New game modes will be added with fresh mechanics and unique challenges.
• Stay tuned for future updates via the Store or Help Page.

🎬 Ads & Session Points

Watching ads is essential for converting your hard-earned session points into real progress. This system balances passive earning with active engagement.

---

⏳ What Are Session Points?

• Session Points (also known as Invasion Points) are earned automatically over time while the app is open and you’re in a valid county.
• Points increase faster when you have a bonus multiplier from leadership and faction activity.
• Your earnings are displayed as Session Earnings at the top of the screen.

---

🛑 Session Cap

• You can earn up to 10 session points before hitting the cap.
• Once you hit 10, earning pauses until you convert your points by watching an ad.

⚠️ You’ll see “Session points capped” in the logs or UI. You won’t earn more until you convert them.

---

🎥 Why Watch an Ad?

• Watching an ad unlocks your session points, saving them permanently to:
  • County Points
  • State Points
  • Grand Total Points
• Once saved, your session earnings reset and you can start earning again immediately.

---

🔁 Convert and Repeat

1. Accumulate session points.
2. Watch a rewarded ad.
3. Points are saved to your account.
4. You begin earning again until the next cap.

💡 Ads also trigger task progress for goals like “Earn from Session Points.”

---

🧠 Strategic Tips

• Always convert before leaving the app — unconverted session points may be lost!
• Convert frequently to maximize progress, especially during high-bonus times.
• Keep an eye on the Watch Ad button — it becomes active once you reach 1 or more points.

---

🧩 Additional Behavior

• If your session is capped and you try to change scenes, the app will prompt you to watch an ad first.
• This ensures you don’t accidentally leave points behind.

⚙️ Settings & Confirmations

Your app includes several helpful settings to improve your experience, avoid repetitive prompts, and manage preferences like notifications and confirmations.

---

🛑 Confirmation Panels

When switching between major scenes (like Store, War Table, or Leaderboards), a confirmation panel appears.

• This prevents you from accidentally leaving the current screen.
• It gives you the chance to confirm or cancel the action.

Example: “Are you sure you want to leave and go to the Store?”

---

✅ Skip Confirmation Toggle

If you don’t want to see these panels every time:

• Open your profile panel.
• Enable the “Skip Confirmations” toggle.

Once enabled:

• All scene transitions will happen instantly with no prompt.
• You can re-enable confirmations anytime by turning the toggle off.

---

🔔 Notification Permissions (Android)

On Android devices, the app may ask for notification permission the first time you access the Leaderboards.

This is used to notify you if:

• You lose leadership of a county.
• Important events or rewards become available.

✅ The app will only ask once and remember your choice.

---

🧠 Settings Strategy

• Use confirmations when you’re new to the app and want to avoid mistakes.
• Turn off confirmations later for faster navigation.
• Enable notifications if you want to stay informed about changes in your counties.

🆘 Help & Support

If you ever get stuck, have questions, or want to report an issue, there are built-in ways to get help and reach out to the developers.

---

📖 In-App Help Page

Tap the Help button (📘) in the profile panel to open the official guide:

• Visit simulearngames.com/battle-for-borders
• Contains up-to-date information, strategy tips, and known issues.

🧭 This opens in your device’s web browser.

---

🛠️ Report an Issue

Tap the Report Issue button (✉️) in the profile panel to send feedback or a bug report:

• You’ll be directed to a contact form at simulearngames.com/contact
• Provide details like:
  • What you were doing
  • What went wrong
  • Your device model and OS version (optional but helpful)

---

💬 Common Scenarios to Ask For Help

• “My points didn’t convert after an ad”
• “I lost county leadership and didn’t know why”
• “The app isn’t detecting my location”
• “Something is visually bugged or missing”

---

🔐 Privacy & Permissions

For full functionality, make sure:

• Location permission is granted
• Notification permission (Android) is allowed (optional, but useful)
• You are signed into Firebase to save all your data

---

🧠 Final Tip

Your data is tied to your Firebase login. Always sign in to the same account to restore your profile, points, and ownership.

---

You’re now ready to navigate, earn, compete, and lead!