Dino Keeper Support

Yilgro Games

Something not working, or your dinosaur behaving in a way that seems wrong? Write to szukuro@gmail.com and include your device and its iOS or Android version. Dino Keeper is free, has nothing to buy and asks for no account, so if something looks broken it probably is — and we would like to know.

Common questions

My dinosaur fossilised. Have I lost everything?

Not quite. EXCAVATE A NEW EGG starts you again with a fresh egg, and carries over half of your amber coins plus five. Anything permanent you bought from the shop, like the Comfy Nest or Golden Genes, belonged to that dinosaur and does not come across.

Can my dinosaur fossilise while the app is closed?

No. The clock only runs while the game is open and in front of you. Close it, switch apps or lock the phone and everything freezes exactly where you left it — hunger, happiness, energy and cleanliness all stop where they were. Your dinosaur is never in danger while you are away.

How quickly does time pass?

A day in the game is about a minute and twenty seconds of real time, so a hatchling grows into a juvenile after roughly that long and into an adult after about four minutes. Stats drift down the whole time it is awake: a full hunger bar empties in a little under four minutes if you never feed it, and happiness, energy and cleanliness follow more slowly. The moment any one of the four hits zero, the dinosaur fossilises — there is no grace period, so watch whichever bar is lowest.

How do I turn the music off?

Two pills in the header above the habitat: ♪ for music and SFX for sound effects. Amber means on, grey means off, and the setting sticks between sessions. On iPhone and iPad the silent switch mutes both as well, because the audio is treated as background sound. On both platforms the music never plays over your own — if you already have music, a podcast or an audiobook going, Dino Keeper stays quiet and leaves it alone.

How do I start over completely?

There is no reset button. Deleting the app and installing it again clears everything, including your coins. Short of that, letting the dinosaur fossilise and excavating a new egg is the in-game way to begin again.

Where do amber coins come from?

Three places: Snap the dragonfly pays a fifth of your score, a playdate pays an eighth of the fun you managed to keep going, and your dinosaur earns three each time it grows into a new life stage. Everything in the Fossil & Fern Shop is bought with those coins. There is nothing in the game to buy with real money.

A shop button is greyed out, or says OWNED

A faded button means you cannot afford that item yet. OWNED means it is one of the two permanent upgrades — Comfy Nest and Golden Genes — and you already have it. Those can only be bought once each.

How do I get a pal, and how do I change one?

+ INVITE A PAL in the top right of the habitat opens the picker; up to three pals can stay at once. Once a pal is there, tap its name to rename it, tap the ♂ or ♀ badge to switch, and tap ✕ to send it home.

There is no playdate on the play menu

A playdate needs at least one pal. Invite one from the habitat and the card appears.

Does my progress sync between devices?

On iOS, no: your dinosaur lives on that one device. On Android it rides along with Android's own backup, so a new phone set up from your Google account should find it already there.

Can I play offline?

Yes, always. Dino Keeper makes no network requests at all — there is nothing in it that needs a connection, at any point.

What languages does it speak?

English only, for now.

Which devices does it run on?

iPhone and iPad running iOS 15.6 or later, and Android phones and tablets running Android 8.0 or later. The game is played in portrait on both.

Reporting a problem

The more of this you can tell us, the faster it is to fix: