Playing on Your Phone

Guide · Last updated 3 November 2026

Duskvale runs on your phone in the browser – iPhone, iPad and Android, no app store, no download. Same world, same players as on PC. This guide explains how to set it up, how the touch controls work, and what to do when your phone starts getting warm.

Open it, then install it as an app

Open play.duskvale.net in Safari (iOS) or Chrome (Android). The game loads straight away. If you play regularly, it is worth adding it to your home screen: it then launches full-screen without the address bar.

• iPhone/iPad (Safari): tap Share at the bottom (the square with the arrow), then "Add to Home Screen".
• Android (Chrome): the game menu shows an "Install as app" button once Chrome offers it; alternatively use "Install app" or "Add to Home screen" in the browser menu.

The installed app is the same game in the same browser, just without the chrome around it. Your progress is tied to your account (name and PIN), not to the device. Don't play as a guest on your phone for long: guest characters are deleted 24 hours after they were last saved.

Landscape only

Duskvale is a landscape game. As soon as you tap "Into the valley", the game tries to lock the screen to landscape. Android allows that; iOS does not – there you simply turn the phone sideways and make sure the iPhone's own rotation lock is off so the picture follows. Once installed as an app, the game opens in landscape on both systems.

Touch controls

The layout is built for two thumbs:

• Left thumb: the movement stick. It floats – it appears wherever your thumb lands. Push all the way out to sprint.
• Right thumb: swipe on any free area to look around.
• Buttons on the right: fire, aim, use (E), inventory, crouch. Tap crouch to toggle crouching; hold it for half a second or more to go prone.
• Second fire button on the left next to the stick, enabled by default. Your left thumb fires while your right thumb steers the view. A second aim button on the left can be switched on as well.

Aiming and aim assist

Three settings make aiming on a phone workable:

• Aim by holding: a short tap fires, holding (0.25 s or longer) aims, releasing fires. Off by default.
• Gyro fine aiming: while aiming, tilt the phone slightly to nudge your view. Sensitivity is adjustable, and you can enable it outside of aiming too. iOS asks for permission to use motion sensors when you switch it on.
• Aim assist: when aiming a ranged weapon, your view snaps gently onto enemies within 3° of the screen centre. On by default, and there is no auto-fire – you still pull the trigger yourself.

Adjusting the buttons

Under "Controls (buttons)" in the menu you can set button size (80–120 %), spacing and opacity. Left-handed players can swap sides: buttons on the left, stick on the right. All of this is stored on the device. "Show controls" brings up a short overview of the gestures.

Driving on a phone

When you take the wheel, the interface switches to a dedicated driving layout: the stick steers and accelerates, and buttons for horn, lights, camera (inside/outside) and getting out appear on the right. Repairing and driving are covered in the guide Cars, building and solar power.

Graphics levels

There are three levels: Low, Medium and High. If you don't choose one, the game starts on High on PC and Medium on phones, then adjusts to the frame rate it measures. If you pick a level in the menu yourself, that choice wins and is remembered. "Low" noticeably reduces view distance, tree density, grass and terrain detail – on older phones that is the difference between stuttering and playable.

Battery, heat and data

• Phone getting hot or battery draining fast: switch graphics to Low. That is by far the biggest lever. Lowering screen brightness helps too.
• Data usage: the first launch downloads 3D models, textures and sounds – several megabytes. After that most of it sits in the browser cache and only small game messages flow continuously. Use Wi-Fi for the first start.
• Connection: mobile data with fluctuating latency shows up when you aim. Stable Wi-Fi beats strong LTE with dropouts.
• Notifications: there are none. The game stays quiet when it is not open.

If you leave the game or the browser kills the page in the background, your account character stays in the world for 5 minutes and is then saved. Move somewhere quiet before you quit – not the middle of the village.