Support & FAQ

Pick a location on the Missions tab, read the briefing, choose a difficulty and tap Begin Mission. Each scene gives you a situation and choices. Every choice shows a risk level. Keep your health, water, energy and morale up, keep your detection low, and get your To Recovery meter to the end to be rescued.

• Health, Water, Energy, Morale: if health hits zero you die; very low water or energy drains health; very low morale can end your will to continue.
• Detection: how well hostile forces know where you are. Reach 100 and you are captured.
• To Recovery: your progress toward a pickup. Reach the end and you face the final extraction.

The risk label summarises your chance of success for that choice. It reflects your current stats, your kit, and earlier decisions (for example, being injured or having a signal prepared). “Certain” options have no chance element but may still cost you time or supplies.

Recruit gives extra supplies, slower drain and kinder odds. Standard is the intended challenge. Realism has a minimal kit, faster drain and brutal odds.

Tap the backpack icon at the top of the game screen. Water pouches and rations have Drink and Eat buttons. Scenes also let you treat found water or forage.

You enter a resistance chapter where your decisions are based on the Code of Conduct. You may get a chance to escape and return to the field; if you don’t, you’ll be held in captivity, which counts as an unsuccessful mission.

SERE is meant to be hard. Water, shelter and detection decisions early on matter a lot. Read the Field Note after each choice and the After-action review on the debrief screen, and try again — every mission plays differently.

Search any place on the Missions tab. If it isn’t built in, SERE looks up its coordinates, elevation and a short description online, infers the terrain and climate, and generates a mission. The result is saved to your device under Learned by this device. An internet connection is needed for the search step only.

When several matches exist, the app lets you choose from a list. If the result still isn’t right, forget it (close icon on the card, or Forget this location on its briefing) and search again with a more specific name, such as “Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia”.

Terrain is inferred automatically from coordinates, elevation and a short public description, so it’s an approximation. It’s a fictional game, not a map or travel guide. Email us with the place name and we’ll improve the rules.

Check your connection and try again, or try a more specific place name. If the problem continues, email us with what you searched for.

Yes. A mission in progress is saved automatically after every decision. Use the Resume card on the Missions tab to continue. Leaving a mission mid-way does not lose it.

No account is needed, so progress and learned locations stay on the device and don’t sync between devices. Reinstalling or clearing app data removes them.

Clear the app’s storage in your device settings or uninstall the app. We keep no account or server-side data about you, so there is nothing else to delete. See the Privacy Policy.

SERE is free and supported by ads from Google AdMob: a banner on menus, an occasional ad between missions, and optional rewarded ads.

If a mission ends badly, you can watch a short ad to roll back to the start of your last decision with a small health, water and morale boost. It’s available once per mission and only if an ad is ready.

Ads need an internet connection and sometimes take a moment to load. Make sure you watch the ad to the end. If the reward still fails, email us with your device model and OS version.

Reset or limit your advertising ID in your device settings, or visit adssettings.google.com. See the Privacy Policy for details.

Only internet access (for place searches and ads). SERE does not access your location, contacts, photos, camera or microphone.

No. SERE is a fictional game inspired by public survival concepts. It is not official training, medical advice or affiliated with the U.S. Air Force or the Department of Defense.

Force-close and reopen it, make sure you have the latest version and update your OS. If it keeps happening, email us the device model, OS version and what you were doing.

If a save can’t be restored, SERE clears it and tells you. You can start a new mission. If it happens repeatedly after an update, please report it.

Email support@playsere.com. Include your device model, OS version, app version, and what happened. We usually reply within a couple of business days.