How to Play Rockimals: Meet Your First Space Visitor

To play Rockimals, start on Radar, tap one of the visitors circling Earth, read its information card, then continue to its available story. That short path introduces the central idea of the app: real near-Earth object data becomes a friendly animal encounter, while the character and story remain imaginative fiction.

1. Start on Radar

Radar is the home of Rockimals. When you open the app, visitors appear around Earth. Drag to look around, pinch to zoom, and tap a visitor that catches your attention.

The rings help turn a very large space distance into something easier to compare: the visitor’s approach can be shown in relation to the distance between Earth and the Moon. A closer pass in astronomical terms can still be a very long way from Earth, so the screen is for calm exploration rather than an impact warning.

Each hero’s first chapter and downloaded chapters can be read offline when you have access. New chapter and narration downloads, live sky data and purchases need a connection. Offline sample visitors are not today’s live sky.

2. Tap a visitor and read the card

Meet an animal, compare its asteroid’s size with a familiar object and read a gentle space fact. Official asteroid details remain in the grown-up area behind the parent gate.

A grown-up can use the parent-gated facts area to see the official designation and follow the source link. It is deliberately separate from the child-friendly summary.

Here is the important boundary: the object and selected measurements come from real space data. The animal, its friendly name and its adventure are Rockimals fiction. Niko may look like a mouse riding a space rock, but Niko is not a NASA photograph or an official name for the asteroid.

Try asking one simple question before moving on: “Is this visitor smaller, larger, closer or faster than I expected?” There is no need to memorise every number. The first goal is to notice what each measurement means.

3. Continue to the story

When a new chapter is available, continue from the visitor into its picture-book story. Rockimals has eight recurring heroes, and each hero has a five-chapter adventure. A chapter you unlock stays in your Story library, so you can read it again without having to find the same screen immediately.

Choose 10 free story chapters in total, with up to 3 new chapters per day. These free chapters stay yours to replay. Every plan, including Plus, discovers at most one new chapter per animal per day: finish the current chapter, then meet that friend on Radar on a later day.

While active, Rockimals Plus includes the published story library and available English/Turkish narration, unlimited Earth Shield, all 12 discovery missions, four more games and journal decorations. Daily chapter progression still applies.

Hear the adventures in English or Turkish. Each fresh installation can choose one narrated chapter free; this is separate from the 10 free reading chapters. Download narration while connected, then listen to downloaded audio when your access allows it.

If you meet the same hero again, check the Story library to see what you have already opened. That is the simplest way for a grown-up and child to pick up where they left off.

4. Choose one small next step

Keep the first session short: try Earth Shield, which includes 3 free minutes per day, or return to Radar and compare two visitors. Unlimited Earth Shield is included with active Plus.

A useful comparison is:

1. Pick two visitors on Radar.
2. Look at their animal size comparisons.
3. Compare their Moon-distance and speed values.
4. Ask which detail was most surprising.

This keeps the science question connected to something visible in the app.

A note for grown-ups

Rockimals is free to download on the verified UK App Store listing, with optional Plus access offered behind a parent gate. The listing says there are no ads or child accounts. The app still processes limited technical data needed to provide and protect the service, so “no account” should not be read as “no data is ever processed.” The current Rockimals privacy policy explains those categories.

The App Store rates Rockimals 4+. This guide is written primarily for adults exploring with children aged 3–10; that editorial audience is not a replacement for the store rating or a promise that every child will use the app in the same way. Younger children can explore with a parent.

Rockimals uses NASA/JPL near-Earth object data, but it is an independent app and is not affiliated with or endorsed by NASA.

If your screen looks different

Reviewed on 17 October 2026 against the public iOS 1.5.0 listing and release sources. Android may have a different version; check its store listing. Follow the labels in your installed app.

Sources

• Rockimals on the UK App Store — Product and version checked 17 October 2026.
• NASA/JPL Center for Near-Earth Object Studies: close approaches — object designations and close-approach measurements; reviewed 22 September 2026.
• Rockimals privacy policy — Product and version checked 17 October 2026.