# First setup

Open your first phone, activate a SIM, and check everything works.

## Open your phone

Give yourself a phone using your inventory admin tools, or use:

```text
/giveitem <id> nova_phone_ocean 1
```

Replace `<id>` with your in-game player ID. Use the phone from your inventory or press **M**. If you carry several phones, the key shows a menu to choose one, with each phone's battery.

Keep the phone in your inventory while using it. While it is open, **Left Alt** switches between using the phone and walking or looking around with it still in hand. The phone's side button turns it off; a phone turned off by hand stays off until the player turns it on again from its off screen.

## Complete the setup

A new phone walks you through a short setup. Closing the phone halfway resumes it on the next open.

1. **Nova Account.** Sign in, create an account or skip. The account manages the phone: Locate, cloud backups and transfers all need it. Creating one also creates its Nova Mail address, such as `sam@nova.mail`.
2. **Restore.** With an account that has backups, choose one to restore or set up as a new phone.
3. **Appearance.** Light, dark or system.
4. **Accent colour.** The colour of buttons, switches and highlights. **Match Phone** follows the phone's finish. This step is skipped when your server offers no accent colours.
5. **Wallpaper.**
6. **Voice in videos.** Whether nearby phones may record your voice in their videos, and which microphone to use. It stays off unless the player turns it on.
7. **PIN.** Optional, four or six digits.

Wolfden Phone Secure is different: it never takes a Nova Account, so its setup asks only for voice in videos and a PIN.

Once a PIN is set, players can add **Face Unlock** in Settings → Security, and choose their language in Settings → General → Language. Wolfden Phone Secure has no Face Unlock.

## Get a phone number

A new phone starts with **No SIM**. This is expected: it gets a phone number when you activate a SIM.

1. Visit a carrier shop. Nova Mobile and Apex Wireless have map blips by default.
2. Buy a blank SIM and activate it with an available plan, or buy an eSIM.
3. Open **SIM Manager** and install the physical SIM, or enter the eSIM activation code.
4. Enable the line and check that your number and carrier appear.

eSIM codes are single-use and expire after 15 minutes by default. Wolfden Phone Pro supports two enabled lines; Wolfden Phone supports one. Wolfden Phone Secure takes only Ghost Mobile eSIMs. See [SIMs & carriers](#/docs/wd_phone/sims) to configure shops and plans.

## Test calls and messages

Use two players with activated phones. Save each other's numbers in the Phone app's **Contacts** tab (the Contacts icon opens it too), send a message, then place a call. A copied number can be pasted on the **Keypad** with **Ctrl+V** or the **Paste** bubble.

- Confirm both players can hear the call. Call audio needs `pma-voice`.
- Close the recipient's phone and call again. A phone that is carried still rings while it is closed.
- If a phone shows **No Service**, move to an area with coverage and check airplane mode. Coverage comes from cell towers, which admins can edit in game with `phoneadmin towers`.
- Messages, Mail and online apps use **mobile data** from the plan. Check that Mobile Data is on in Control Center.

## Find your apps

Wolfden Phone and Wolfden Phone Pro come with the everyday apps, Music, News, Assist and **Nova Store**. Players download Nova Wallet, Echo, Snapgram, Ember, [Clips](#/docs/wd_phone/clips), [Rides, Bites, Garage, Homes](#/docs/wd_phone/city-apps), Radio, Arcade, Marketplace, Business, City and Routers from the store.

Two apps come from items. **[Shade](#/docs/wd_phone/shade)** is not in the store: it installs only from a Shade SD card, sold by "Stranger", a hidden black-market dealer. By default **[Racing](#/docs/wd_phone/racing)** stays hidden until the player carries a Racing USB, sold by the same dealer; the phone then offers to install it.

Wolfden Phone Secure has a fixed set of apps, including Shade, and no Nova Store. A missing app on that model is expected.

## Before players join

- Check the console for the boot self-check, missing database tables or resource errors.
- Run `phoneadmin selftest report` in the server console and fix anything it reports. Then run `phoneadmin selftest`, which must finish with `0 failed`. See [Check your installation](#/docs/wd_phone/admin?section=check-your-installation).
- Try buying and activating a SIM as a regular player.
- Test calls and messages with two players.
- Take a photo and a short video, then open them in Gallery after reconnecting. This needs a [media host](#/docs/wd_phone/media).
- Install Nova Wallet and send a small payment to a second player if you plan to use it.
- Move the phone stores, carrier shops and the dealer's spots to fit your map if needed.
- Restart the resource on your test server and confirm that data remains available.

As an admin, run `phoneadmin` in game to open the admin menu: players and their phones, battery and power, PIN resets, Nova Accounts, cell towers and placed speakers. See [Admin tools](#/docs/wd_phone/admin). If something fails, start with [Troubleshooting](#/docs/wd_phone/troubleshooting).