So after an excessively long painful period of testing I figured it out. I could not be more frustrated with the answer either. I simply had to restart UE4 after changing target hardware settings.
If I don’t restart UE4 after changing “Target Hardware” settings, the app exported to android will be wonky to say the least.
I have replicated this many times. I change target hardware, export to android and all the materials will render as black or the game will crash before even opening. Saving and rebuilding lighting doesn’t fix it either. I restart UE4, export to android without changing ANY settings and it works.
If the developers read this: PLEASE add a “you may need to restart UE4 for these changes to take effect” warning when target hardware is changed. It would be so simple and would hopefully save someone else from this nightmare.
As thrilled as I am that my game is fixed, I am also unhappy that I spent pretty much the entirety of yesterday night changing lighting settings, changing target hardware, rebuilding lighting, saving, exporting and keyboard smashing countless times. The only thing I took away from the ordeal was “turn it off and on again”.
I’m going to mark this as the correct answer in hopes that it may save someone else hours of their life.