Protected mode for younger players

Same fights, same rules, fewer connections to other people. Protected mode is how The Rookie looks after younger players.

What protected mode is

On first launch, before anything else, the game asks for your year of birth on a neutral screen with no suggested answer. Your phone works out an age class and forgets the year: the year itself is not stored or sent. Players who are, or may be, under 16, and players who have not answered yet, play in protected mode.

What stays the same

Protected mode does not change the game's rules. Fights, recruiting, levelling, the shop and seasons work the same, and so do account recovery, "Download my data" and account deletion in Settings.

What is switched off

• Ads. No ads are ever started.
• Usage statistics and error reports. They are not collected.
• Public names. Your name is not shown to other players on boards or podiums.
• Social features. Clans, master codes and pupils, ranking boards with names and the Hall of Champions, shared replays, friend challenges and ghost rivals are hidden or refused.

See clans and pupils and friend challenges for what those features do.

Good to know

• The answer cannot be changed from the app. The phone remembers it even if you delete your account, and a protected account stays protected when it is recovered on another phone.
• The game only ever tightens this setting: a protected player never becomes an adult from inside the app.
• The game does not collect names, email addresses or other direct contact details.

The full legal text is the privacy policy.