Free to download. One $9.99 unlock. Nothing that renews.

Every item in the shop

Seven products exist. This is all of them, with the App Store's own names and descriptions. Prices are the US dollar prices; your App Store shows your local price on Apple's ladder.

Icons are bought from the character menu on any device. The Fortune background is bought from the card customizer, which lives on iPhone, iPad, and Vision Pro. Everything else on your card is free or earned: the default icon and background, five more backgrounds that unlock at milestones in play, and a few icons granted for things you did, never sold.

What is not for sale

A price list that only lists what you can buy is an advertisement. These are the things that do not exist in Tideward, and cannot be bought at any price.

• No premium currency. There is no currency to buy, so there are no bundles in awkward denominations that leave you holding a remainder.
• Nothing random. No loot boxes, no gacha, no paid surprise mechanics. Every purchase tells you exactly what you are getting before you pay. The game's item drops come from play only; there is no real-money input to any randomized reward.
• Nothing consumable. Nothing is used up, so nothing can be sold to you a second time.
• No subscription, no battle pass, no auto-renewal. Nothing in the game recurs.
• No ads. No banners, no interstitials, no "watch a video to claim your reward."
• No paid offline time. The 24-hour away window is everyone's, at full speed, with no throttle and no tier that doubles it.
• No advantage of any kind. Nothing sold in Tideward, cosmetic or otherwise, makes your character stronger, faster, or luckier, or grants any advantage in gameplay or on the leaderboards. There is no way to buy progress.

How the money part works

• Apple is the merchant of record. You buy through the App Store, Apple charges you, and Apple handles refunds through reportaproblem.apple.com. Tideward never sees your payment details.
• Local prices are Apple's. The figures on this page are the US dollar prices. Your storefront shows the price for your country on Apple's equalized price ladder, and it is the price you see before you confirm.
• Pre-ordering costs nothing. The download is free, so a pre-order is a free reservation: the game installs itself on launch day and nothing is charged. The unlock is a separate purchase inside the app, whenever you want it.
• Restore Purchases is a button, not a support ticket. It re-reads your entitlements from Apple. If you bought the unlock or a cosmetic with the same Apple ID, it comes back at no charge.
• It is written down. The Terms of Use carry all of this in the language a court would read: one non-consumable unlock, a small fixed set of decorative non-consumables, Family Sharing on for the first and off for the rest, refunds through Apple.

Why sell cosmetics at all

Because I would rather be paid for decoration than for advantage. A lot of games on this store make their money by finding the few players who will spend hundreds, then building everything around keeping those players spending. That is not a business I want to be in, and I do not think it is good for anyone.

So the line is simple, and it does not move: you can buy things that change how your character looks. You can never buy anything that changes how your character performs. If a cosmetic ever carried a bonus, however small, it would have stopped being a cosmetic. Everything about that line is on the no ads, no tracking page too, because it is the same stance from the other side.

Questions people ask about the price

Is the $9.99 a subscription, a season, or a year of something?

No. It is one payment, once, for the game. Nothing renews, nothing expires, and there is no second tier above it. In App Store terms it is a non-consumable, which is Apple's word for "you own this now."

I bought it on my iPhone. Do I pay again on my Mac, Apple TV, or Apple Watch?

No. One purchase covers iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro, and Apple Watch. Sign in with the same Apple ID and the unlock follows you; if a device does not pick it up on its own, the Restore Purchases button in Settings re-reads it from Apple at no charge.

Does Family Sharing cover it?

The Full Version Unlock, yes: one purchase covers your household as Apple's Family Sharing rules permit. The cosmetics, no. A profile icon or card background belongs to the Apple ID that bought it and does not travel to other members of the family. That difference is deliberate, and it is written into the Terms of Use so it cannot quietly change.

Can I pay the $9.99 now, before launch?

No, and there is nothing to pay for yet. Pre-ordering a free app costs nothing, and nothing is charged on release day either. The unlock is bought inside the game, after it installs, whenever you decide you want the rest of it. If you want to help before then, the free alpha and the Discord are where that happens.

What do I get for free, exactly?

The game, on every Apple device, with a good way in before you decide. The full 24-hour offline window runs at full speed for everyone; there is no throttle and no premium tier that doubles it. Anything that belongs to the unlock is marked as such inside the app before you tap it, so you are never charged by surprise and never left guessing where the line is.

Why does a card background cost $100?

Because it is a gilded, coins-everywhere flourish for people who want exactly that on their card, and nothing more. It changes nothing in the game, nobody needs it, and it is the only item in the shop at that price. The other card backgrounds, and the default icon, are free or earned by playing.

Do cosmetics change anything in play?

Nothing. You can buy things that change how your character looks; you can never buy anything that changes how your character performs. Nothing sold in Tideward, cosmetic or otherwise, makes your character stronger, faster, or luckier, or grants any advantage on the leaderboards. If a cosmetic ever carried a bonus, however small, it would have stopped being a cosmetic.

What about the alpha?

The TestFlight alpha is free for testers, capped at the first 1,000, because you are helping me ship. When Tideward launches on February 11, 2027, the download stays free and the full game is the single $9.99 unlock described here. Alpha testers will get a fair deal, details closer to launch.