Earth Corps: Homefront — FAQ & Support

Train, Defend, or Deploy — which battleground do I choose?

Train — Practice as you fight. Master your IFV, weapons, and tactics before battle.

Defend — The war has come to you. Defend the streets and landmarks around your current location.

Deploy — Answer the call. Join a campaign, deploy to new battlegrounds, and help take back Earth—one city at a time.

How do I enter a Username and get MERIT points?

Open MERIT or LEADERBOARD from the home screen and tap JOIN to choose your commander name (2-16 letters, numbers or underscores). Names don't have to be unique: you also get a permanent 5-character tag, shown everywhere as NAME #TAG, so you're never mistaken for another commander with the same name. You can change your name once every 7 days from the MERIT screen; the tag never changes. From then on, every Deployment victory automatically earns MERIT equal to the difficulty level you won at (1-10), replays included — no extra steps. Training Area matches don't award MERIT. Your MERIT total sets your global leaderboard rank, and every MERIT point also earns you 2 Credits to spend at HQ. You appear on the leaderboard — and can be found with FIND PLAYER — once you've earned your first MERIT point; commanders still at 0 aren't listed. You can view the board without joining — a name is only needed to appear on it.

Can I change my commander name?

Yes. Open MERIT from the home screen and tap the pencil next to your name. A new name is free once every 7 days — if you've renamed recently, the form shows the date you can change it again before you type anything.

• Your tag never changes. NAME #TAG is how the game tells commanders apart, so your MERIT, rank, cities, medals, Credits and Game Center link all stay exactly where they are — only the label changes.
• Names aren't unique. Two commanders can share a name, including a name you used before on an old record; their tags will differ. When a name alone is ambiguous, search by tag in FIND PLAYER.
• The board catches up on its next refresh. Your own row shows the new name at once; everyone else sees it within about 10 minutes.

What weaponry does my IFV start with on Deployment?

Every deployment, your IFV carries ample 25mm cannon rounds (no limit) and 3 VIPER guided missiles. A fresh install also starts you with 3 Airstrikes and 3 Shields — once those are used, they're gone for good, so restock at HQ before you run out.

What weaponry does my IFV start with in Training Area?

Every training exercise gives your IFV a fresh loadout: ample 25mm cannon rounds, 3 VIPER missiles, 3 Airstrikes, and 3 Shields — every single time, regardless of your real Deployment stockpile. Training Area is for practice reps, not for building up supplies.

How does the FIRE DIAL work?

FIRE DIAL is the default control layout: the red FIRE disc sits in the middle of the turret dial, and the ring around it aims. Press and hold the disc and the cannon fires rapidly for as long as you hold it. Keep your thumb down and slide it out onto the ring, and it keeps firing while the turret swings to follow your thumb — you can even slide past the ring's outer edge and it still steers, because your aim follows the direction from the middle of the dial. Lift your thumb to stop. You can also hold FIRE with one thumb and aim with another finger on the ring; the range-finder beam only shows for a finger placed directly on the ring, never for the thumb that's firing. Turn on FLOAT TURRET in the in-game Settings (the gear button during a match) and the dial follows your thumb when it strays, then glides home when you let go. Prefer the older layout with a separate FIRE button? Switch HUD STYLE to CLASSIC in the same Settings.

How does the FIRE button work?

In the CLASSIC layout, press and hold FIRE to fire your 25mm cannon — it fires rapidly for as long as you hold it down, and stops the instant you let go. If a VIPER missile is armed or in flight, FIRE relabels and switches to launching or detonating it instead (see the next question) — press-and-hold rapid fire is specifically the cannon's behavior. In the default FIRE DIAL layout, FIRE is the red disc in the middle of the turret dial instead (see the previous question).

How do VIPER guided missiles work?

Select ARM VIPER to load one — an orange line appears showing exactly where it would fly right now, tracking your turret aim live. Press FIRE to launch: that same turret dial then steers the missile's flight in real time, bending its path as you turn it. While it's airborne, FIRE relabels to DESTRUCT — press it to detonate the missile immediately wherever it currently is, with the same blast as a real hit, so stay clear, since that blast can catch your own IFV too. You get 3 VIPERs a match with no way to restock mid-match, only one can be armed or flying at a time, and the main cannon is off-line for as long as one's in the air.

How do I aim the turret?

Touch or drag anywhere on the turret dial's ring — your aim swings instantly to that direction, and the dial shows where you're aimed. While your finger is on the ring, a range-finder beam traces exactly where a shot fired right now would travel and where a building would stop it — never a rosier preview. In the CLASSIC layout you can also hold the dial's middle disc to check that beam without changing your aim; in the default FIRE DIAL layout that disc is FIRE, and the thumb that's firing can steer too (see the FIRE DIAL question). The same dial steers an armed VIPER's aim line, and the missile itself in flight.

Can I snap the turret to a compass direction?

Yes, once you turn it on — TURRET TAP in the in-game Settings (the gear button during a match) is off by default. With it on, a quick tap on the TURRET dial near its top, bottom, left, or right edge locks your aim exactly North, South, West, or East. A tap between the compass points aims right where you tapped, and dragging the dial still steers freely — the lock only happens on a tap close to one of the four directions. An armed VIPER's aim line follows the same turret heading, so the snap steers that too.

How big is a battleground?

Every battleground is a real square slice of your zip code — actual streets, buildings, and water fill the whole thing, and the fight can range across all of it. Every battleground is a 5 kilometer (about 3.1 mile) square.

Does my battleground include every address in my zip code?

Not always — every battleground is centered on your zip code's population-weighted center, not its plain geographic middle, so the 5 kilometer square covers as many real addresses as possible. A zip code that's unusually large or spread out can still have some outlying addresses outside that square.

Can I drive outside the green boundary?

Yes — navigation past the green line is allowed, though not encouraged. Some battlegrounds have impassable terrain (rivers, lakes, and the like); your IFV can route around it by briefly driving outside the mapped area and back in elsewhere. Just know that shots fired from way out there won't travel far enough to hit anything — the real fight is inside the green.

How do I become victorious in a deployment?

There's only one way: destroy the alien base. It's shielded by rotating rings that regenerate over time — fire through a gap to hit the exposed core underneath and take it out directly.

What does the difficulty dial do?

It controls how many enemies you start a match with, how quickly the enemy base produces reinforcements while it still stands, and how much MERIT you earn on a win — same dial, same effect, in both Training Area and Deployment. In the table below, ALIENS is your starting enemy count, and RATE/MIN is how many more the Spacecraft (the alien base) produces every minute it's still standing.

Level	Starting aliens	Reinforcements/min	MERIT award
1	6	0	1
2	8	1	2
3	10	2	3
4	12	3	4
5	14	4	5
6	16	5	6
7	18	6	7
8	20	12	8
9	22	20	9
10	24	30	10

How do I earn Credits to spend at HQ?

Every MERIT point you earn is worth 2 Credits: win a match, and its difficulty level (1-10) is added to your leaderboard MERIT while 2 Credits per point land in your spendable balance at HQ automatically. You can also earn 20 bonus Credits per video by watching up to 5 videos a day at HQ — the count resets at midnight. Credits buy Airstrikes and Shields at HQ, and the Second Wave and Third Wave packs can each be unlocked for 2,000 Credits, from HQ or straight from the pack's tile on the City to Defend page. Spending Credits never lowers your leaderboard MERIT score — spending only uses up how much is available at HQ, your competitive record stays untouched.

How do I restore my purchases on a new phone?

Home screen → ☰ → SETTINGS → RESTORE PURCHASES. Deployment zone packs and Remove Ads belong to your Apple Account, so on a phone signed in to the same account they come back with one tap, usually without a sign-in prompt. If nothing is found, the App Store asks you to sign in so it can check that account.

Airstrike and Shield packs are consumables: Apple's rules treat them as used once bought, so they aren't restored. Credits and MERIT live with your commander, not your Apple Account — see the Game Center question for how to bring a commander to a new phone.

What are the North Star of Gallantry, Southern Cross of Valor, and Four Seasons Service Medal?

Three medals track your service record separately from MERIT — find them under AWARDS on the MERIT screen. The North Star of Gallantry is earned by destroying 100 or more aliens in a single real deployment at difficulty 7 or higher, and is awarded again for every deployment that qualifies. The Southern Cross of Valor is earned by surviving 10 real deployments in a row at difficulty 7 or higher, and again for every further 10 in a row — a loss at any difficulty breaks the streak, while a win below difficulty 7 neither helps nor hurts it. Repeat awards show on the medal's bar: a star from the second award, and the count beside the star from the fifth. The Four Seasons Service Medal is awarded for every 3 months of service, starting 3 months after you first open the app; each award adds a star, and from the sixth the count shows beside a star. Once you're close to the next one, the medal itself shows a countdown. Training Area matches never count toward any of the three, and reinstalling the app no longer resets the Four Seasons Service Medal's clock — it picks back up from when your account was first created, with any quarters you'd already earned caught up automatically.

What does NEW COMMANDER in Settings do?

NEW COMMANDER starts a fresh record on this phone — a new name, a new tag, 0 MERIT — without touching the one you have:

• Your current record stays exactly as it is. Name, tag, MERIT, cities and medals all remain on the global leaderboard.
• If Game Center is linked, it stays linked to that record, so you can switch back to it any time from the GAME CENTER row in Settings — on this phone or any other.
• If Game Center isn't linked, that record can't be recovered once you start over, so link it first if you ever want to come back to it.
• This phone is cleared. Local match history, combat stats, medal progress and Credits caches start over with the new commander.
• Nothing is deleted. To actually erase a record, use DELETE ACCOUNT instead — see the next question.
• It works even while a deletion is pending. If you've scheduled DELETE ACCOUNT, NEW COMMANDER still starts a fresh record — but the old one is still deleted on its date unless you cancel that first.

You can use the same name again if you like; only the tag will be different.

How do I delete my account?

Settings → DELETE ACCOUNT. Type DELETE to confirm, and your account is scheduled for deletion 7 days later:

• While it's pending, the home screen reads DELETION SCHEDULED with the date, your row leaves the leaderboards straight away, and CANCEL DELETION appears both on the MERIT screen and in Settings.
• You can cancel any time in those 7 days from either of those places; everything, including your board row, comes straight back.
• You can start a NEW COMMANDER in the meantime. That gives you a fresh record on this phone; it does not cancel the deletion of the old one.
• After that, everything goes: your name and tag, MERIT and rank, cities secured, medals, Credits and anything unlocked with them, and the Game Center link. The account can't be restored afterwards.
• App Store purchases are not affected — they belong to your Apple ID and can always be restored from Settings.
• The next time you open the app after the deletion, it tells you, and you can start fresh as a brand-new commander.

Deletion happens entirely in the app — no email, no support request.

What does linking Game Center do?

GAME CENTER in Settings links your Game Center account to your existing commander record.

• Nothing about your current record changes. Your name, tag, MERIT, Credits and medals are exactly the same before and after — nothing resets.
• What it protects against: losing this phone, reinstalling the app, or moving to a new device. Sign in with the same Game Center account afterward and your record comes back automatically, instead of starting over as a brand-new commander.
• One Game Center account, one commander. If your Game Center account is already linked to a different commander (after NEW COMMANDER, say), linking offers a choice: switch this phone to that commander, or move Game Center to the commander on this phone. Either way, the record left behind stays on the leaderboard but can never be signed into again.
• Your MERIT and medals also appear in Game Center — its leaderboard and achievements mirror the ones in the game.

It's optional, and nothing about how you play changes either way. Tap ⓘ on the GAME CENTER row for the full picture, including how to unlink.

Which countries can I play in?

Deployment battlefields are in the United States today. Under CITY TO DEFEND you can already choose Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia or New Zealand and type your area's code — their maps are on the way, and the game will tell you the moment one is ready. Japan and South Korea follow. DEFEND works anywhere in the world right now — see the next answer.

What does DEFEND do?

DEFEND, the middle setting on the home screen's mode switch, is the fight for the real streets where you stand. Instead of typing a zip code, the game asks for your location once, when you select it, and builds a 5 km battleground around where you're standing from OpenStreetMap map data downloaded on the spot — you'll see a strip of your own streets appear before you press PLAY. It's free, it works anywhere in the world, and you can play it as often as you like. Your position is used only to load that map: it's never stored, never shared, and the game never uses location in the background. Every DEFEND match starts with 1 AIRSTRIKE and 3 SHIELDS, on the house — your HQ stockpile is never touched.

Does a DEFEND victory earn MERIT?

No. MERIT, CITIES SECURED and the Game Center leaderboards are earned only in Deployment — the curated campaign battlegrounds — so every score is won on comparable ground. DEFEND is your free proving ground, and it has an honor of its own: the VIGIL OF ARCTURUS badge on the MERIT screen climbs from bronze to gold at 1, 10, 100, 500 and 1,000 DEFEND victories, with Game Center achievements for your first and your thousandth.

Can't find your U.S. zip code?

United States only: not sure which pack (if any) covers your zip? Use Search for my zip on our website's Deployment Zones page — it'll show you the nearest cities and which pack they're in.

Earth Corps: Homefront supports real, populated U.S. zip codes. A small number of official zip codes are assigned to things like PO boxes or single large buildings instead of an actual neighborhood — those don't have real streets or buildings to build a battlefield from, so they're not supported yet. If your zip code doesn't work, this is the most likely reason. We're adding more zip codes over time — if you'd like yours added, email ec-suggest@ard-labs.com and let us know.

What's a ZCTA?

A United States term: ZCTA stands for ZIP Code Tabulation Area — the U.S. Census Bureau's official definition of a zip code's geographic area, assigned only to zip codes with real residents. It's how we determine which U.S. zip codes have an actual neighborhood to build a battlefield from. Other countries use their own postal districts instead.

Why is my hilly neighborhood completely flat in the game?

Battlegrounds use the real streets, buildings, and water from your zip code, but elevation is deliberately left out. Building the map from real-world hills and slopes would make some zip codes much harder to play than others just by chance of geography — flattening every battleground keeps the game fair and fun no matter where you play.

Have a suggestion or found a problem?

We'd like to hear it — new zip codes that don't work well, feature ideas, gameplay feedback, anything. Email ec-suggest@ard-labs.com.