How TerraLoop works

1 Getting started

TerraLoop turns real movement into a territory game. Walk, run, bike, or drive a closed loop and the ground inside it becomes your team's land. Enclose a rival's zone to take it whole, cut across one to carve off a slice, or touch your own land to grow it.

1.1 Install and create an account

1. Download TerraLoop from the App Store (iPhone) or Google Play (Android).
2. Create an account in the app, or ahead of time at terraloop.app/signup. It's the same account either way. If a friend sent you an invite link, their referral code is filled in for you.
3. Open the verification email and tap the link. You can't sign in until your email is verified. If it didn't arrive, tap Resend verification email on the sign-in screen. Links expire after 24 hours.
4. Sign in. New accounts get a short guided setup: pick your main mode (walk, bike, drive, or mixed), set a weekly goal, choose reminders, then swipe through how loops, capturing, teams, and fair play work. The same rules are always at You → How to play.

1.2 Permissions

• Precise location is required. Approximate location isn't accurate enough to draw loops.
• Screen-off recording needs nothing extra. Once you start a recording it keeps going with the screen locked or another app open, using the same "While using the app" permission. Android shows a "TerraLoop is recording your route" notification (iPhone shows a blue location indicator) until you finish. TerraLoop never asks for "Allow all the time".
• Notifications are optional, but they're how you hear that your land was attacked, an event went live, or a teammate called a raid.

TerraLoop only collects location while you're actively recording.

1.3 Pick a side

You need a team to claim territory. The Team tab gives three choices:

• Join a team. Search the list and tap Join. Depending on the team's policy you're in right away, or your request waits for a leader's approval.
• Found a new team. Choose a name, color, fill pattern, and emblem. You become its leader.
• Fly solo. Claim land under your own banner as a "team of one." You still appear on the player leaderboard.

You can record tracks (stats-only activities) without a team. Your first team join is free; after that, switching teams has consequences (see Switching teams).

2 Finding your way around

The floating tab bar at the bottom of the screen has five tabs:

Where to find every feature

Detail screens (Stats, Replay, Quests, Events, Leagues, Route Builder, and others) open on top of the tabs. Use the back arrow or swipe back to return.

3 Recording an activity

3.1 Choose a mode

Every recording is Walk (covers running too), Bike, or Drive. Each mode has its own territory pool, speed limits, and area cap. Land claimed on foot never interacts with land claimed by bike or car, so the same street can belong to three different owners at once.

3.2 Choose a recording type

3.3 Record

1. On the Map, tap Start recording and pick your mode and type.
2. Move. The live panel shows time, distance, pace, and elevation climbed. Pro members also see grade, top speed, and calories.
3. To close a loop, return to within 30 m of any earlier point on your route. It doesn't have to be your start point. Stuck? The controls rail offers a route back to your start.
4. Tap Finish and claim (or Finish track).
5. Name it. A suggested name like "Morning Walk" is filled in; accept it, edit it, or discard the whole recording. A loop's name also names the territory it claims.

The result sheet then shows what happened: area secured, enemy land captured or carved, season points (including landmark and role bonuses), XP, and an animated replay of the capture. New personal records are celebrated here too.

3.4 What counts as a valid recording

• At least 60 seconds long and at least 20 GPS points.
• Within your mode's speed limits (see Fair play).
• A loop must enclose at least 2,000 m² to claim land (about half an acre, or a large city block).
• To earn training XP and streak credit, an activity needs at least 300 m and 60 s.

3.5 When a loop doesn't claim

• It never closed. It's saved as a track automatically, so your distance, pace, and XP still count. The result sheet says "Loop saved as a track."
• It closed but was too small, or bigger than the mode's cap. It's recorded as a completed loop that didn't claim.
• You picked the wrong mode (for example, drove while set to Walk). If your speed clearly fits a faster mode, the app offers a one-tap resubmit under that mode. You don't need to re-record, and it doesn't hurt your trust score.
• There was a GPS gap of more than 3 minutes where you also moved more than 50 m. The land claim is withheld (the gap is a stretch nobody actually covered), and the run is saved as a track.
• You recently switched teams. Claims are locked for 48 hours; the run still records for stats.

3.6 Offline and crash-safe

• No signal? A finished activity is saved on your phone and submitted automatically when you're back online. The Map shows an Activity queue with each item's status (queued, syncing, accepted, rejected). A retry never double-claims.
• App closed or phone died mid-recording? Every GPS fix is saved as it's recorded. Next time you open the app, a sheet shows the unfinished route's distance, duration, and how long ago it stopped, with Resume, Save it, or Discard. Routes interrupted more than 6 hours ago can only be saved or discarded.
• Battery saver (You → Preferences) records at a lower GPS rate for long walks and rides. Leave it off for tight loops.

4 Territory rules

All rules are applied by the TerraLoop server when you submit, never on your phone, so everyone plays by the same rules.

• Figure-eights and wiggles: if your route crosses itself, the largest clean loop wins, so a lap plus a detour still claims the full lap.
• Landmark bonus: enclosing a notable place (a park, a landmark) pays extra season points. Bonus landmarks show as pins on the map, and the Route Builder previews the bonus before you go.
• Verified badge: a claim with zero anti-cheat flags shows a checkmark on its territory card.
• Season points are earned from claims and captures and add to your team's season score. Losing land later doesn't take points back.

5 Sieges, decay & shields

5.1 Sieges: taking big zones

A territory larger than 20,000 m² can't be taken in one loop.

• Fully encircling it starts a siege and deals damage equal to the area of the loop you ran.
• Repeated encirclements, by you or teammates, add up. When total damage reaches the zone's area, it's captured whole.
• A siege lasts 72 hours. If attackers don't finish in time, the siege is repelled and the defender keeps the land.
• Carving off slices still works during a siege, and a zone shrunk below 20,000 m² can then be captured in one loop.
• Both sides are notified when a siege starts, succeeds, or is repelled.

5.2 Decay: use it or lose it

• Land is safe for 10 days after anyone last claimed, captured, merged, or shrank it.
• After that it shrinks by about 8% a day. Below about 1,000 m², it disappears entirely.
• Decaying land keeps its color but gets a dashed outline on the map. Tap it for a warning.
• To stop decay, loop through it again. Any claim over that ground resets the clock. There's no separate "defend" action.
• You're notified when decay starts and if a zone is lost to it.

5.3 Streak shields

• Everyone gets one free shield per week (it refreshes each Monday, ISO week).
• Tap any of your team's territories on the map and apply the shield. That zone won't decay for 14 days (21 days if your role is Defender).
• Shields pause decay only. They don't stop captures or sieges.
• Your shield status is also shown on the Game tab.

6 The Map screen

6.1 Header

• Streak flame: your current day streak. If you haven't been active today, it turns to a warning color and shows the hours left before midnight.
• Bell: opens the notification center; the badge counts unread items.

6.2 Controls rail

A column of buttons on the side of the map:

• Events (flag): live and upcoming team events.
• Leagues: your regional division.
• Quests: daily, weekly, and team quests.
• Discover routes: trails and popular loops near you.
• Ghost route: suggests a loop from where you stand, biased toward the edge of your team's land. Use Try another shape to re-roll it, and Start loop along this route to record it.
• Route back to start: while recording a loop, shows the way back to close it.
• Air quality & pollen (Pro): conditions near you before you head out.
• Recenter: jumps back to your location.

6.3 Layers sheet

• Territory overlay: All, My team, Alliance (your team plus allies), or Off.
• Mode filter: Auto or a single mode (Walk, Bike, Drive), to see each territory pool on its own.
• Landmarks: bonus-landmark pins.
• Boss zones: shared neighborhood goals, shown in red with a flame marker.
• Events: outlines of active event regions.

6.4 Reading the map

• Each team's land is drawn in its color and pattern (solid, stripes, or dots).
• Dashed outline: decaying or under siege.
• Soft halo: allied land, which you can't capture.
• Moving colored dots: nearby players recording right now (only players who've turned on live presence).
• Emblems and special borders on a zone are Pro cosmetics. They're only visual.

6.5 Tapping a territory

The territory card shows its name, owner, team, area, mode ("Claimed via"), verified badge, and any siege or decay status. On land you own you can rename it, apply your shield, or share it as a public card. On someone else's land you can report an offensive name.

6.6 Live route sharing

While recording, tap Share live route to create a link that anyone can open in a browser to follow you live (a walking partner, a parent, a run club). The link shows no username, positions are slightly coarsened, it expires after 4 hours by default (12 hours at most), and it ends automatically when you stop recording. Tap the stop button to end it early.

7 Planning routes

Every route tool is free for everyone, because routes affect what land you can claim.

7.1 Route of the Day

Each day you get one personalized loop (around 2.5 km, adjusted to your usual distance) that passes a nearby landmark. Find it on the Game tab or load it from the Map banner. Complete it by recording a loop or track that follows its path and covers at least 60% of its distance. You earn 100–300 bonus XP (×1.5 for Cartographers).

7.2 Route Builder

• Tap the map to drop waypoints (use Undo or Clear), add objectives (nearby landmarks), or Generate loop for a target distance.
• The preview shows distance, elevation, enclosed area, and landmark bonus points. It warns you if the loop is too small (under about 2,000 m²) or over the mode's cap.
• Save route (optionally Share with my team), or Start recording this loop right away.

7.3 My Routes

Your saved routes plus any your teammates shared. Start recording one, delete it, or switch it between Private and Public. Public routes appear in other players' Discover feeds. Routes are private by default.

7.4 Discover routes

One feed of routes you can start near you, each badged by source:

• Trails: real named trails from OpenStreetMap.
• Popular: loops many different players have completed nearby. No individual player's route is shown.
• Community: routes other players chose to make public.
• Mine / Team: your own and your team's saved routes.

Filter by source, mode, and search radius (2–25 km). Tap a card to start recording along it.

8 Teams

8.1 Team roles

To manage someone, tap them on the roster: Make officer, Make leader, Remove from team, Block, or Report.

8.2 Who can join

• Requests and invites expire after 14 days. You can have up to 5 open requests at once.
• If you've been invited and also ask to join, or vice versa, you're in immediately.
• Joining a team cancels your other outstanding requests and invites.

8.3 Team look

Leaders choose a territory color (8 colors), a fill pattern (solid, stripes, or dots), and an emblem (one of 8, or an uploaded logo). All of the team's land is drawn in that look. Team names can be up to 28 characters.

8.4 Switching teams ("Scorched Earth")

Joining a team for the first time is free. Moving from one team (or solo) to another is a defection:

• Territory you alone own under your old team turns neutral gray and then decays away. It isn't transferred.
• Every season point you earned for your old team is subtracted from its score.
• You can't claim territory for 48 hours. You can still record, and your distance, streak, and XP still count.
• A leader must transfer leadership to a teammate before leaving, unless they're the only member.

9 Challenges, raids & sessions

These are on the Team tab. Challenges and sessions give your team a target or a time to meet. They don't hand out extra rewards: what you earn is whatever the runs themselves earn.

9.1 Goals

Leaders and officers use Set a goal for a shared target with a deadline, for example "cover 50 km combined by Sunday" or "log 25 workouts this week." Distance, time, climb, and workout goals count any activity. Loop-count and area goals only count loops that claim land; the form tells you which is which.

9.2 Raids

Call a raid on a rival zone near you. Progress is the square meters your team takes off it (captures, carved slices, and siege damage). Capturing the zone completes the raid. The board shows who contributed; recording in the raid counts you in automatically, even if you didn't tap Accept.

• Deadlines: presets from Today to 2 weeks (anywhere from 1 hour to 30 days).
• Up to 10 active challenges per team.
• If another team takes the target zone first, the raid ends as expired.

9.3 Team sessions

• Schedule a session (leaders/officers): a name, start time (5 minutes to 60 days ahead), length (15 minutes to 6 hours), optional mode, meeting point, route, Every week repeat, and Allow guests.
• RSVP: Going, Maybe, or Can't make it. Reminders arrive the day before and within the hour.
• Check-in is automatic: record your run as usual. If it overlaps the session time (±30 minutes) and passes within 300 m of the meeting point, you're checked in. Didn't record? Tap I'm here — check in at the meeting point.
• About 90 minutes after it ends, attendees get a recap of who showed up.
• Guests: an invite link lets up to 25 people from other teams (or no team) RSVP to that one session. It doesn't change their team or touch territory.
• The session screen shows a "recording now" dot for attendees who have live presence on. It never shows their location.

10 Alliances

An alliance is a non-aggression pact between teams. Allies can't capture or carve each other's land. Territory and season points stay separate.

• Only leaders can found, invite to, accept, or leave an alliance, from the Team tab.
• A team can be in one alliance at a time. Solo players can't join alliances.
• If fewer than two teams remain, the alliance disbands automatically.
• Allied land has an ally badge and a soft halo on the map. The Alliance overlay shows your whole bloc at once.

11 Compete: ranks, events, leagues

11.1 Ranks (leaderboards)

• Global: season standings for Players or Teams.
• Nearby: who holds the most land around you right now, within 1, 5, 10, or 25 km.
• Your local rank and its recent trend are also shown on the You tab ("Rank near you").

11.2 Seasons

Each season runs for three months, starting January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1 (UTC). Season points build up over the season. When it ends, the final standings are saved and everyone's season points, the season leaderboard and the Season Pass start fresh.

Your territory carries over into the next season. Holding land doesn't earn season points, though: points only come from claiming and capturing, so every team starts the new season level. Land nobody revisits still shrinks and fades away (see Decay). Teams, leadership, XP, badges, and your lifetime stats carry over too.

Halftime and the Final Stretch. Halfway through each season (mid-February, mid-May, mid-August and mid-November) every team gets a halftime report on where it stands. Then the Final Stretch begins: a second race, on its own tab of the leaderboard, counting only the points each team scores from halftime on. A team far behind on the season board can still win it.

Champions. When a season ends, its winners keep something for good:

• Everyone on the #1 team at the moment the season ends gets the Season Champion title and the Victor's Standard claim flag. You need to be on the team when the season ends; players who left before then don't share the win.
• The top 3 players by season points get the Season Ace title and the Champion Wreath profile frame.
• Everyone on the team that scored the most in the Final Stretch gets the Strong Finisher title.

Ties go to whoever holds more land, as on the leaderboard. Past winners are listed in the Hall of Champions under the season leaderboard, and your own honors appear on your profile.

11.3 Live events

Timed contests over a map region: the team holding the most combined area inside it when time runs out wins. Events are listed as Live, Upcoming, or Ended, and standings update live. You're notified when an event starts and about 5 minutes before it ends. Teams that took part get a result when it's over.

11.4 Regional leagues

• Your team is enrolled automatically, in the lowest division covering the area, the first time it holds land inside a league's region.
• Standings rank every team in the division by land held inside the region.
• At the end of each period (usually weekly), the top teams are promoted and the bottom teams relegated (usually two each).
• Some leagues count only certain modes. For example, a walk-only league ignores bike and drive land. Look for the activity tag on the league card.
• Solo players aren't enrolled in leagues.

12 The Game tab

12.1 Role identity

Pick one role. Each gives a small, balanced perk, and you can change it later.

Role mastery (for example "Lv12 Striker · 47 captures") shows your experience in a role. It's a title only: the perk is the same at every mastery level.

12.2 Everything else on the Game tab

• Streak shields: this week's shield status (see shields).
• Route of the Day: today's loop and Walk this route.
• Neighborhood boss zones: shared goals where every player's claims inside the zone add up. When the total area target is reached and enough different players have taken part, every contributor earns the reward XP.
• Territory heatmap: where land has changed hands over the last 30 days.
• Weekly story recap: last week's land gained and lost, longest loop, MVP teammate, and XP. Tap share to get a public card link. The link always shows the same snapshot, and you can revoke it.
• Invite friends: your personal invite code and link, or email an invite directly. When a friend signs up with it and verifies their email, you both get 200 XP.
• Shortcuts to Quests, Stats, Events, Leagues, Discover routes, the Route Builder, and My saved routes.

13 XP, quests, streaks & badges

Land comes from loops. Progression comes from any movement. XP and levels are separate from territory: losing land never costs you XP.

13.1 Quests

• Daily (for example: close 1 or 3 loops, cover 3 km, claim 5,000 m², capture a rival zone, plus workout quests).
• Weekly (for example: 10 loops, 25 km, 50,000 m², 5 captures, plus workout quests).
• Team weekly (for example: 200,000 m² or 40 loops combined). Every member earns 100 XP when it's done.
• Player quests are worth 20–180 XP. The Quests screen shows live progress, your completed history, and your badges.
• Claim-type quests (loops, area, captures) only move with loops that claim land. Workout-type quests (distance, time, climb, workouts) move with any accepted activity.

13.2 Training XP

Every accepted activity of at least 300 m and 60 s earns training XP based on distance and climb: up to 40 XP per activity and 120 XP per day. XP from claims doesn't count toward that daily cap. For the same distance, closing a loop always earns more than not closing one. Training XP never grants territory or season points.

13.3 Levels

There's no level cap. Reaching level n takes 50 × (n − 1)² total XP: level 2 at 50 XP, level 5 at 800, level 10 at 4,050.

13.4 Day streak

Any day with a qualifying activity (a loop or a track) extends your streak. The flame on the Map warns you when today's activity is still missing.

13.5 Badges

• Streak: 7, 30, and 100 days.
• Level: 5, 10, and 25.
• Quest: your first completed quest, plus certain weekly quests.

14 Stats, replays & records

14.1 The Stats screen

Open it from You → Stats & analytics.

• Filter by mode (All, Walk, Bike, Drive).
• This week vs. last: distance, moving time, elevation, calories, and activity count, with percentage changes.
• Weekly goal: set a weekly distance target and track it with a progress ring (Clear goal removes it).
• Trend chart (14, 30, or 90 days; longer with Pro) for distance, area, loops, and more.
• Loops vs. tracks breakdown, Consistency, Calories burned, Steps, trust score, and accept rate.
• Personal records: fastest 1K, 1 mile, 5K, 10K, half marathon, and marathon on foot; fastest 5K, 10K, 20K, and 40K on a bike; longest activity; biggest climb.
• Activity history: every loop and track, filterable, and renameable (up to 60 characters).

14.2 Replays

Tap any activity to replay it as an animated "ghost trail" with its stats: per-km or per-mile splits (the fastest highlighted), moving time vs. elapsed time, elevation gain and loss, average and top speed, and calories.

• Share a replay: the share button creates a public link. Creating a new link turns off the old one, and you can revoke it at any time. Parts of the route inside your privacy zones are hidden from viewers.
• Takeover replays: when someone captures or carves your land, the notification links to a replay of exactly how it happened. These are available for 15 days.
• GPX export (free): download any activity as a .gpx file for other fitness apps, from the web portal.

14.3 Athlete profile

Optionally add your weight, height, birth year, and sex under You → Account → Athlete profile. Weight makes calorie estimates more accurate (otherwise 70 kg is assumed), and height makes step counts more accurate. Every field is optional.

15 Notifications

The bell on the Map opens your notification center: tap an item to jump to it, delete it, or Mark all read. With push enabled, the same alerts reach your lock screen, and tapping one takes you straight to the right screen.

Under You → Push notifications you can mute any category:

• Territory captured or raided
• Sieges
• Territory decay
• Neighborhood activity
• Global leaderboard
• Team activity
• Team challenges
• Alliances
• Quests and badges
• Streak reminders
• Live events
• Regional leagues
• Boss zones
• Route of the Day
• Weekly recap
• Referrals
• Goals & progress
• Tips & personalization
• Team sessions
• Safety reports

Muting a category only stops the push. Everything still shows up in the in-app notification center.

16 Your profile & settings

The You tab shows your photo, level, and stat tiles (area held, territories, loops closed, captures, distance, day streak, badges), your local rank, and your role mastery. Tap your photo to change it. Below that:

• Forgot your password? Tap Forgot password? on the sign-in screen. The reset link expires after 1 hour.
• Changing your password signs you out on every other device. Signed-in devices lets you sign individual devices out.
• Changing your email keeps you signed in but requires verifying the new address.

17 Privacy & safety

• Privacy zones: add up to 10 circles (250 m, 500 m, or 1 km in the app) around places like home or work. Route points inside them are hidden from anything you share publicly, including links you shared earlier. Your own stats and claims still use the full route, and nobody else can see where your zones are.
• Live presence (off by default): when on, nearby players (within about 1.5 km) see a moving dot in your team color while you record. It disappears within a few minutes after you stop.
• Public links (replays, recap and territory cards, live routes) use long random links that can't be guessed or searched for, and you can revoke each one.
• Blocking a player hides you from each other on the live map and prevents team invites and joins between you. It doesn't protect land: blocked players can still capture from each other.
• Reporting: report a player, team, or territory name from its card or the roster, and optionally block them at the same time. Moderators review reports and can reset names or photos or suspend accounts. You'll be told when your report has been reviewed.
• Deleting your account: You → Account → Delete account, in the web portal, or see terraloop.app/delete-account. Deletion is permanent and removes your territory, history, and everything else tied to your account.

Full details are in the Privacy Policy.

18 Fair play & anti-cheat

Every activity is checked by the server. The app also warns you in real time about poor GPS signal (accuracy worse than 50 m), mock locations, and speed spikes.

• Always rejected: teleport-like jumps (faster than 90 m/s between points), repeated over-limit bursts, mock-location apps, and recordings with bad timestamps or under 60 s / 20 points.
• Suspicious but not rejected (for example, perfectly constant GPS accuracy or unnaturally even speed) lowers your trust score and goes to moderators for review.
• Rejected activities are kept for review. The result sheet tells you why an activity was rejected.
• A claim with zero flags earns the Verified badge.

19 Free vs. Pro

Anything that affects who wins land or points is free for everyone. Pro adds comfort, deeper stats, and a personal look.

• Territory look is edited under You → Membership & rewards → Territory look, with Reset to team look to undo. On a real team, your team's color always wins on the shared map; your personal pattern, border, and emblem still show. Solo players get the full custom look.
• If Pro lapses, your saved look is kept but not shown until you renew. You're notified 3 days before a time-limited Pro plan ends, and again when it ends.
• See Pricing for plans. Buy in the app, or with Upgrade to Pro in the web portal. Use Restore purchases after reinstalling.

20 The web portal

At portal.terraloop.app, sign in with the same account to use TerraLoop on a big screen:

• Dashboard: totals per mode, this week vs. last, your weekly goal, and personal records.
• History & replays: filter, rename, replay on a full map, and download any activity as GPX.
• Route builder: draw waypoints or auto-generate a loop, add landmark objectives, preview it, and save it to record later on your phone.
• Notifications and badges.
• Profile & account: username, email, password, photo, notification preferences, athlete profile, membership, and account deletion.
• A metric/imperial toggle in the header.

21 Limits at a glance

22 Troubleshooting