The settings you should change first in any mobile game

Most people skip straight past the settings menu, and most games are happy to let them, because the defaults usually favour spectacle over comfort. That's a mistake. Five minutes of fiddling before you start playing pays off for the whole life of the game.

First stop is always the frame rate. A lot of games ship at the highest possible frame rate by default, which looks lovely and cooks your phone. Capping it to 30 or 60 depending on the game can dramatically cut heat and battery drain with almost no impact on how it feels.

Next, hunt for the notification toggle. Few things are more annoying than a management sim reminding you to come back every three hours. If there's an option to silence it, use it. You decide when to play.

Finally, look at the control and interface options. Many games let you resize or move on-screen buttons, and some hide alternative control schemes entirely. Tilt steering, auto-aim, button layouts, these are personal, and the defaults are rarely right for your hands.

None of this is glamorous, but it's the difference between a game you tolerate and one you actually enjoy.