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Two Stars

Fighters

Queenie

Troop Skill

Food Output: increase

Fighter DEF: increase

Fighter ATK: increase

Use her early to do campaign mode, upgrading her to 31. She can be used until you get a better fighter to replace her.

You should reset her back to 1, and just enhance her to +5 to increase Food Output +10%.

She can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern

Riders

Shooters

Amber

Troop Skill

Wood Output: increase

Shooter DEF: increase

Shooter ATK: increase

Use her early to do campaign mode, upgrading her to 31. She can be used until you get a better shooter to replace her.

You should reset her back to 1, and just enhance her to +5 to increase Wood Output +10%.

She can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern

Economy

Kento

Troop Skill

Hunt March: speed increase

Research Food: cost reduction

Research Wood: cost reduction

Use him early to do campaign mode, upgrading him to 31. Because Kento is an economy hero, his skills are passive. Because of this do not reset him once he reaches level 31, but upgrade him no further.

He should be enhanced to +5, which give a +10% bonus to Hunt March Speed, Reduce overall research food cost by -100,000, and reduce overall research wood cost by -100,000.

He can be obtained at Noah’s Tavern

Xavis

Troop Skill

Gas Output: increase

Build Food: cost reduction

Build Wood: cost reduction

Use him early to do campaign mode, upgrading him to 31. Because Xavis is an economy hero, his skills are passive. Because of this do not reset him once he reaches level 31, but upgrade him no further.

He should be enhanced to +5, which give a +10% bonus to Gas Output, Reduce overall build food cost by -100,000, and reduce overall build wood cost by -100,000.

He can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern

Queenie

Troop Skill

Food Output: increase

Fighter DEF: increase

Fighter ATK: increase

Use her early to do campaign mode, upgrading her to 31. She can be used until you get a better fighter to replace her.

You should reset her back to 1, and just enhance her to +5 to increase Food Output +10%.

She can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern

Fighters

Articles

Queenie

Troop Skill

Food Output: increase

Fighter DEF: increase

Fighter ATK: increase

Use her early to do campaign mode, upgrading her to 31. She can be used until you get a better fighter to replace her.

You should reset her back to 1, and just enhance her to +5 to increase Food Output +10%.

She can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern

Miscellaneous Information

Articles

Discord

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Troop Formation

Fighters

This may be the easiest, best, Fighter Formation in the game at present.

Ulrik, Sanguine, Zephyr, Barbie, and Seo-Yun.

These Heroes are fairly easy to get, and do not require to place high in events, or win one of the lottery type games.

Both Noct and Hanyu Ichiro is a good alternative to using Barbie since they both boost Fighters, although Noct is easier to get, while Hanyu is much harder to get, and requires winning one of the lottery games.

Because Hanyu is a 5 star hero, he can be evolved to a red star, meaning ultimately he can be much stronger than Noct. However, Noct is a very good replacement until you are capable of getting Hanyu, and can be maxxed at level 130 +5.

Importance of Hunt Formation

When you take your troops out hunting either Zombies or Zombie lairs having a good formation with Heroes that match your strongest troops, and the troops that you are dedicating your gear bonuses to, is an important step in maximizing your damage overall.

It is also effective in the Pit, and raids on player sanctuaries. You should always upgrade your troops to the maximum tier that is available based on your HQ level. This will allow you to use your might to its maximum potential.

Click here for a more expert formation for your fighters.

Expert Fighter Formation

Once you have done well with your formations setup you should notice an increase in both might and damage. However, you will notice that if you use five fighter heroes and all fighters in your troop formation, that the highest level fighter hero has his or her tactical skill disabled during a battle.

There doesn’t seem to be a really good answer for why this happens, either its a bug that has never been corrected, or intentional and the developers don’t intend on explaining why this is the case.

Let me clear, you do not need to have all your heroes tactical skills available to be effective in a battle. The original formation I have detailed under Fighters will work just fine. Troop skills will work no matter the situation, however to get all of your heroes using their tactical skills you actually have to do something special, and contradictory to building a specific type like fighters.

Here you can see above that I have a troop size of 245,700 which allows me to, if I want include all fighters, and fighter heroes. Unfortunately, if I do this then my strongest hero, usually Ulrick has his tactical skill disabled. But I do not want that so instead, I have included Requiem in my lineup as a replacement for Seo-Yun.

In truth Seo-Yun’s Troop skill grants a higher Fighter ATK bonus at +5 of 50% You can see this in the image on the left. But Seo-Yun is only a four star hero so she cannot enhanced further than +5, nor red-starred.

However, Requiem whose Troop skill is lower at only 40% at +5 red-starred, has the advantage of her being enhanced further than Seo-Yun, which at red-starred +6 her Troop skill grants 51.2% Troop ATK bonus which exceeds that of Seo-Yun.

However, getting the addition 500% Troop ATK tactical skill activated during a battle more than makes up for the 11.2% you lose swapping heroes at these levels.

This is not a limitation that requires you choose a Troop based Troop skills hero like Requiem, you can use any other type of hero other than fighter and it will work, however there will be a larger reduction in might depending on which hero you choose.

For example when you use Requiem (Shooter) or Mars (Rider) these heroes grant their troop skill bonuses to all troop types, thus fighters are included, as well as riders, shooter and even vehicles.

If you were to include a hero whose Troop skill only benefited a specific type like Ephraim whose skills only grant stats to Shooters, then your fighters would get zero stat bonuses from him being in the lineup, so the advantage of using a hero that grants all troops a bonus—albeit less than a normal type hero—is that any number is higher than zero, so even if Requiem only granted a 20% troop bonus, that means your fighters would get 20%, as opposed to Ephraim being included and giving your fighters 0% bonus.

That is why this works best if you use a hero whose troop skills benefit everyone as opposed to a specific type.

However, there is another caveat.

You must include a number of troops of the same type as the hero type you are using for this purpose. In this case I am using Requiem, so I need to include some Shooters in my troop lineup for her to activate her tactical skill.

To be safe I recommend including 1000 of the troop type of that hero, in this case Shooters. If the number is too small, they may get killed before she has a chance to activate her tactical skill. If all the troops of a specific type die, then that hero can no longer activate their tactical skill, which is why I choose 1000.

It’s big enough to allow her to activate her skills without worrying the shooters will just be wiped out, but its small enough that the primary might is coming from your fighters, and fighter type heroes.

(For this to work properly my recommendation for this lineup includes your four strongest fighter type heroes and someone like Requiem, Mars, or Marlowe. However, do not use Meyers or Tomoyo as these two are fighters and therefore will not activate their tactical skills.)

Riders

This may be the easiest, best, Rider Formation in the game at present.

Fox, Obsidian, Reyn, Dom, and Doc Gray

These Heroes are fairly easy to get—with the exception of Obsidian—and do not require to place high in events, or win one of the lottery type games.

Some might make an argument that both Mars and Marlowe are easier to get than Obsidian, however both of those Heroes provide Troop bonuses, not Rider bonuses, and do better in defending your wall and sanctuary.

Angelo is actually better than Obsidian in terms of bonuses at +5 however, Angelo is very difficult to get, and can really only be won in one of the lottery games.

Importance of Hunt Formation

When you take your troops out hunting either Zombies or Zombie lairs having a good formation with Heroes that match your strongest troops, and the troops that you are dedicating your gear bonuses to, is an important step in maximizing your damage overall.

It is also effective in the Pit, and raids on player sanctuaries. You should always upgrade your troops to the maximum tier that is available based on your HQ level. This will allow you to use your might to its maximum potential.

Shooters

This may be the easiest, best, Shooter Formation in the game at present.

Requiem, Hartwell, Ephraim, Phoenix, and Griffin

These Heroes are fairly easy to get—with the exception of Phoenix—and do not require to place high in events, or win one of the lottery type games.

Requiem here is a Shooter, however her bonuses apply to Troops in general. Unfortunately, there are no shooters that match up in a way that would be beneficial to only shooters outside of the ones above.

Although there are other five star Shooters like Dara, and Nam Hayul these also provide Troop bonuses, and therefore there is no difference between them outside of both these Heroes, opposed to Requiem are far more difficult to get, requiring placing in events to earn the frags.

Importance of Hunt Formation

When you take your troops out hunting either Zombies or Zombie lairs having a good formation with Heroes that match your strongest troops, and the troops that you are dedicating your gear bonuses to, is an important step in maximizing your damage overall.

It is also effective in the Pit, and raids on player sanctuaries. You should always upgrade your troops to the maximum tier that is available based on your HQ level. This will allow you to use your might to its maximum potential.

Sanctuary

This may be the easiest, best, Sanctuary Formation in the game at present.

Atropos, Marlowe, Mars, Devana, and Tomoyo

These Heroes are fairly easy to get—with the exception of Atropos, and maybe Tomoyo—and do not require to place high in events, or win one of the lottery type games.

These Heroes all give bonuses to all Troops, including vehicles. These Heroes with a million Taxis can be a formidable force on your wall.

Atropos is difficult to get as she is only available through certain events, Tomoyo may also be difficult, as she can be found in the lottery events, however she can also be purchased from time to time with offers.

Atropos is an amazing Hero because she is the only one that give boosts to sanctuary based troops.

Importance of Hunt Formation

When you take your troops out hunting either Zombies or Zombie lairs having a good formation with Heroes that match your strongest troops, and the troops that you are dedicating your gear bonuses to, is an important step in maximizing your damage overall.

It is also effective in the Pit, and raids on player sanctuaries. You should always upgrade your troops to the maximum tier that is available based on your HQ level. This will allow you to use your might to its maximum potential.

Fighters

This may be the easiest, best, Fighter Formation in the game at present.

Ulrik, Sanguine, Zephyr, Barbie, and Seo-Yun.

These Heroes are fairly easy to get, and do not require to place high in events, or win one of the lottery type games.

Both Noct and Hanyu Ichiro is a good alternative to using Barbie since they both boost Fighters, although Noct is easier to get, while Hanyu is much harder to get, and requires winning one of the lottery games.

Because Hanyu is a 5 star hero, he can be evolved to a red star, meaning ultimately he can be much stronger than Noct. However, Noct is a very good replacement until you are capable of getting Hanyu, and can be maxxed at level 130 +5.

Importance of Hunt Formation

When you take your troops out hunting either Zombies or Zombie lairs having a good formation with Heroes that match your strongest troops, and the troops that you are dedicating your gear bonuses to, is an important step in maximizing your damage overall.

It is also effective in the Pit, and raids on player sanctuaries. You should always upgrade your troops to the maximum tier that is available based on your HQ level. This will allow you to use your might to its maximum potential.

Click here for a more expert formation for your fighters.

Expert Fighter Formation

Once you have done well with your formations setup you should notice an increase in both might and damage. However, you will notice that if you use five fighter heroes and all fighters in your troop formation, that the highest level fighter hero has his or her tactical skill disabled during a battle.

There doesn’t seem to be a really good answer for why this happens, either its a bug that has never been corrected, or intentional and the developers don’t intend on explaining why this is the case.

Let me clear, you do not need to have all your heroes tactical skills available to be effective in a battle. The original formation I have detailed under Fighters will work just fine. Troop skills will work no matter the situation, however to get all of your heroes using their tactical skills you actually have to do something special, and contradictory to building a specific type like fighters.

Here you can see above that I have a troop size of 245,700 which allows me to, if I want include all fighters, and fighter heroes. Unfortunately, if I do this then my strongest hero, usually Ulrick has his tactical skill disabled. But I do not want that so instead, I have included Requiem in my lineup as a replacement for Seo-Yun.

In truth Seo-Yun’s Troop skill grants a higher Fighter ATK bonus at +5 of 50% You can see this in the image on the left. But Seo-Yun is only a four star hero so she cannot enhanced further than +5, nor red-starred.

However, Requiem whose Troop skill is lower at only 40% at +5 red-starred, has the advantage of her being enhanced further than Seo-Yun, which at red-starred +6 her Troop skill grants 51.2% Troop ATK bonus which exceeds that of Seo-Yun.

However, getting the addition 500% Troop ATK tactical skill activated during a battle more than makes up for the 11.2% you lose swapping heroes at these levels.

This is not a limitation that requires you choose a Troop based Troop skills hero like Requiem, you can use any other type of hero other than fighter and it will work, however there will be a larger reduction in might depending on which hero you choose.

For example when you use Requiem (Shooter) or Mars (Rider) these heroes grant their troop skill bonuses to all troop types, thus fighters are included, as well as riders, shooter and even vehicles.

If you were to include a hero whose Troop skill only benefited a specific type like Ephraim whose skills only grant stats to Shooters, then your fighters would get zero stat bonuses from him being in the lineup, so the advantage of using a hero that grants all troops a bonus—albeit less than a normal type hero—is that any number is higher than zero, so even if Requiem only granted a 20% troop bonus, that means your fighters would get 20%, as opposed to Ephraim being included and giving your fighters 0% bonus.

That is why this works best if you use a hero whose troop skills benefit everyone as opposed to a specific type.

However, there is another caveat.

You must include a number of troops of the same type as the hero type you are using for this purpose. In this case I am using Requiem, so I need to include some Shooters in my troop lineup for her to activate her tactical skill.

To be safe I recommend including 1000 of the troop type of that hero, in this case Shooters. If the number is too small, they may get killed before she has a chance to activate her tactical skill. If all the troops of a specific type die, then that hero can no longer activate their tactical skill, which is why I choose 1000.

It’s big enough to allow her to activate her skills without worrying the shooters will just be wiped out, but its small enough that the primary might is coming from your fighters, and fighter type heroes.

(For this to work properly my recommendation for this lineup includes your four strongest fighter type heroes and someone like Requiem, Mars, or Marlowe. However, do not use Meyers or Tomoyo as these two are fighters and therefore will not activate their tactical skills.)

Three Stars

Fighters

Barbie

Troop Skill

Food Gathering: speed increase

Fighter DEF: increase

Fighter ATK: increase

Use her early to do campaign mode, upgrading her to 71. Her skills and the fact that early game she is the most powerful fighter, use her in a fighter troop formation maxed at level 71, +5. Doing this will add +25% Fighter ATK and +25% Fighter DEF to your formation.

Once you have Noct unlocked to level 131, +5 he becomes a better hero to use because his troop skills add a +25% HP bonus, in addition to the +25% ATK, and +25% DEF bonus, to your fighter formation that both heroes give.

You should reset her back to 1, and just enhance her to +5 to increase Food Gathering speed +30%.

She can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern

Noct

Troop Skill

Fighter HP: increase

Fighter DEF: increase

Fighter ATK: increase

Noct is an unusual hero at three stars because he lacks a passive, this means early on he is as powerful as a hero like Barbie who is also a fighter, however Barbie possesses a passive skill making her a better choice early game.

However, once Noct can be enhanced to +5, it is more advantageous to reset Barbie to 1, and just use her for her passive economy skill.

Noct can then be used in a Fighter troop formation, and is a better choice over Barbie, as all three of his troop skills apply to improving fighters, as well as being evolved to a maximum level of 131 which increases overall troop might.

His skills add a +25% HP bonus, in addition to the +25% ATK, and +25% DEF bonus.

He can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern.

Riders

Doc Gray

Troop Skill

Steel Gathering: speed increase

Rider DEF: increase

Rider ATK: increase

Use him early to do campaign mode, upgrading him to 71. His skills and the fact that early game he is one of the most powerful riders, use him in a rider troop formation maxed at level 71, +5. Doing this will add +25% Rider ATK and +25% Rider DEF to your formation.

You will use him in your Rider Formation for a long time, until you can get Angelo. Although Angelo does not provide a DEF bonus to your riders the way Doc Gray does, the ATK bonus at just +2 on Angelo is +40% which is better than Doc Gray at +5. It is therefore recommended when you have Angelo at +2 he should replace Doc Gray in your Riders Troop formation.

You should reset him back to 1, and just enhance him to +5 to increase Steel Gathering speed +30%.

He can be obtained Noah’s Tavern

Percival

Troop Skill

Rider HP: increase

Rider DEF: increase

Rider ATK: increase

Use him early to do campaign mode, upgrading him to 71. He can be used until you get a better rider to replace him.

You should reset him back to 1. Unfortunately, he isn’t a useful hero, provides no passive skills, and there are better riders to use in a troop formation.

He can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern

Shooters

Bard

Troop Skill

Wood Gathering: speed increase

Shooter DEF: increase

Shooter ATK: increase

Use him early to do campaign mode, upgrading him to 71. He can be used until you get a better shooter to replace him.

You should reset him back to 1, and just enhance him to +5 to increase Wood Gathering speed +30%.

He can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern

Malcolm

Troop Skill

Shooter HP: increase

Shooter DEF: increase

Shooter ATK: increase

Use him early to do campaign mode, upgrading him to 71. He can be used until you get a better shooter to replace him.

You should reset him back to 1. Unfortunately, he isn’t a useful hero, provides no passive skills, and there are better shooters to use in a troop formation.

He can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern.

Economy

Anahita

Troop Skill

Free Speedup:Ā  increase time

Build Steel: cost reduction

Build Gas: cost reduction

Use her early to do campaign mode, upgrading her to 71. Because Anahita is an economy hero, her skills are passive. Because of this do not reset her once he reaches level 71, but upgrade her no further.

She should be enhanced to +5, which give you a free speedup within 10 minutes, reduces build Steel cost -100,000, and reduces build gas cost -50,000.

She can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern

Chester

Troop Skill

Training Cap: increase

Research Steel: cost reduction

Research Gas: cost reduction

Use him early to do campaign mode, upgrading him to 71. Because Chester is an economy hero, his skills are passive. Because of this do not reset him once he reaches level 71, but upgrade him no further.

He should be enhanced to +5, which add +500 to the training cap, reduce research steel cost -100,000, and reduce research gas cost -50,000.

He can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern.

He can be obtained by Hunting Zombies level 1-9 or Zombie Lairs level 8-9Ā 

Flint

Troop Skill

Gathering March: speed increase

Gathering: speed increase

Troop Load: increase

Use him early to do campaign mode, upgrading him to 71. Because Flint is an economy hero, his skills are passive. Because of this do not reset him once he reaches level 71, but upgrade him no further.

He should be enhanced to +5, which give a +30% bonus to Gathering March speed, +10% bonus to Gathering speed, and +30% to Troop Load.

Troop Load is especially important because its the stat that specifically deals with how much your troops can carry from resource tile or warehouse to base in a single trip.

The way to think of this is to think of Troop Load as a backpack each troop carries, which can be upgraded to store more.

Thus if there are 100 food items, 10 troops and each can carry 1, it will take 10 trips to carry 100 food back to your base. However, if you upgrade their pack to carry 10 food instead of 1, each troop can carry 10 and can carry all 100 food back in a single trip.

That is why Flint should be one of the the first heroes you evolve and enhance, along with others that increase troop and rally size.

Increase Troop Size → Rally Size → Troop Load, in that order. This should be the priority for how you build your early economy heroes.Ā 

He can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern, by opening Arena chests earned in the Arena, or by purchasing his frags in the Hero Survival Shop.

Marshall

Troop Skill

Gas Gathering: speed increase

Hunt March: speed increase

Hunt ATK Up: Hunt ATK increase

Use him early to do campaign mode, upgrading him to 71. Because Marshall is an economy hero, his skills are passive. Because of this do not reset him once he reaches level 71, but upgrade him no further.

He should be enhanced to +5, which give you a +30% to Gas Gathering speed, +30% to Hunt March speed, and +30% to Hunt ATK.

He can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern

The Hunt

Zombies

Attacks against Zombies and Zombie Lairs are referred to as a Hunt.

The map is littered with Zombies and Zombie Lairs.

Zombies can be found from level 1 and up. The higher the level zombie the harder it will be to defeat it. By clicking on a zombie in the world you can see just what the recommended troop size is to defeat it.

Generally hunts against Zombies use less stamina than a hunt against a lair, the rewards are also different. Against zombies you get frags based on the level of the zombie defeated.

There is no stamina penalty for losses against Zombies or Lairs, the only being the loss of troops which can be healed. So as long as you have infirmaries its worth risking a higher level hunt to gain better rewards.

The only requirement to hunting zombies is the troop size. By this I mean how many troops you attack with at a sufficient level to be able to defeat the zombie.

Generally lower level players tend to attack more zombies than lairs, especially if they are trying to gain frags.Ā 

Zombie Lairs

Attacks against Zombies and Zombie Lairs are referred to as a Hunt.

The map is littered with Zombies and Zombie Lairs.

Zombie Lairs can be found from level 1 and up. The higher the level zombie lair the harder it will be to defeat it. By clicking on a zombie lair in the world you can see just how much might the zombie lair has.

Unlike Zombies determining the strength required to defeat a zombie lair isn’t as easy to figure out.

Attacking Zombie Lairs at or below same level as your Headquarters is usually a good practice, however more goes into determining whether or not you will be defeated than just the level of your HQ.

A person who upgrades their HQ, then also upgrades their troop training camps (Fighter camp, Shooter camp, and Rider camp) are more likely to have the requisite troops necessary to defeat the lair of that level.

However a person who upgrades their HQ but does not upgrade their camps may have lower level troops that are insufficient to defeat the lair.

It also the reason why a Zombie Lair has a Rally requirement, which means that no single player can attack a Zombie Lair, even if they could defeat the lair by themselves.

When a player attacks a Zombie Lair, a Rally is created based on the maximum Rally Size in the Hall of War + any other bonuses through heroes, research, Nova and talents.Ā 

An attack against a zombie lair will grant you rewards that are different than what you would get when attacking a zombie by yourself. First you will get far more Antiserum, an important component in upgrading heroes. Second, you will get a supply box that contains lots of rewards including frags, resources, and promoters, etc.

There is no stamina penalty for losses against Zombies or Lairs, the only being the loss of troops which can be healed. So as long as you have infirmaries its worth risking a higher level hunt to gain better rewards.

Generally higher level players tend to attack more zombies lairs than zombies, since the rewards are more lucrative.

What do I need to defeat a Zombie Lair?

By having a mix of troops from various players, it increases your chances of defeating the lair. But basically your combined forces must deal 50% or more damage to the lair in order to successfully defeat it.

Best practices

Generally its a better practice to let a higher level player initiate an attack against a zombie lair.

This is because higher level players can successfully defeat higher level lairs granting the rally more lucrative rewards.

A lower level player can also join a rally against a higher level lair, however the risk of losing troops is increased significantly based on the level of that lair. It means that a player with a level 10 HQ can join a rally against a level 25 Lair, however their troops will take damage as if they are much higher level troops.

For this reason when a hunt is initiated against a Zombie Lair it is good practice for the player initiating the hunt to let players in alliance chat know that they either want full troop support or 1.

For new players this can be confusing to understand but basically, the rewards for sending a single troop are the same as if they sent the full troop size they could send. Therefore when joining a rally where you could potentially lose a large amount of troops its best to only risk one.

A higher level player who is experienced in this will know this and indicate whether to send 1 or more.

Generally once a higher level player can defeat a zombie lair almost by themselves, they will only ask that any player joining the rally only risk one troop.

This saves all extra players entering the rally troop loss of any kind. Most people will not even lose a single troop since the damage will be primarily assigned to the initiator first.

Some players are still testing the waters, and are not sure if they are able to yet defeat a zombie lair, so they will ask for full in alliance chat.

When this happens its not required by good practice to send full troops so that the player can determine in the logs how much damage is needed.

A player may similarly think that they can almost beat a zombie lair by themselves and may ask to do a test where they request a single troop from those joining the rally. This is primarily designed to see what percentage the player damaged the lair, based on the log.

As your might increases, as your troop and rally size increases, you should be trying to risk higher level zombie lairs because the rewards are higher with each increase in level.

Riders

Expert Fighter Formation

Once you have done well with your formations setup you should notice an increase in both might and damage. However, you will notice that if you use five fighter heroes and all fighters in your troop formation, that the highest level fighter hero has his or her tactical skill disabled during a battle.

There doesn’t seem to be a really good answer for why this happens, either its a bug that has never been corrected, or intentional and the developers don’t intend on explaining why this is the case.

Let me clear, you do not need to have all your heroes tactical skills available to be effective in a battle. The original formation I have detailed under Fighters will work just fine. Troop skills will work no matter the situation, however to get all of your heroes using their tactical skills you actually have to do something special, and contradictory to building a specific type like fighters.

Here you can see above that I have a troop size of 245,700 which allows me to, if I want include all fighters, and fighter heroes. Unfortunately, if I do this then my strongest hero, usually Ulrick has his tactical skill disabled. But I do not want that so instead, I have included Requiem in my lineup as a replacement for Seo-Yun.

In truth Seo-Yun’s Troop skill grants a higher Fighter ATK bonus at +5 of 50% You can see this in the image on the left. But Seo-Yun is only a four star hero so she cannot enhanced further than +5, nor red-starred.

However, Requiem whose Troop skill is lower at only 40% at +5 red-starred, has the advantage of her being enhanced further than Seo-Yun, which at red-starred +6 her Troop skill grants 51.2% Troop ATK bonus which exceeds that of Seo-Yun.

However, getting the addition 500% Troop ATK tactical skill activated during a battle more than makes up for the 11.2% you lose swapping heroes at these levels.

This is not a limitation that requires you choose a Troop based Troop skills hero like Requiem, you can use any other type of hero other than fighter and it will work, however there will be a larger reduction in might depending on which hero you choose.

For example when you use Requiem (Shooter) or Mars (Rider) these heroes grant their troop skill bonuses to all troop types, thus fighters are included, as well as riders, shooter and even vehicles.

If you were to include a hero whose Troop skill only benefited a specific type like Ephraim whose skills only grant stats to Shooters, then your fighters would get zero stat bonuses from him being in the lineup, so the advantage of using a hero that grants all troops a bonus—albeit less than a normal type hero—is that any number is higher than zero, so even if Requiem only granted a 20% troop bonus, that means your fighters would get 20%, as opposed to Ephraim being included and giving your fighters 0% bonus.

That is why this works best if you use a hero whose troop skills benefit everyone as opposed to a specific type.

However, there is another caveat.

You must include a number of troops of the same type as the hero type you are using for this purpose. In this case I am using Requiem, so I need to include some Shooters in my troop lineup for her to activate her tactical skill.

To be safe I recommend including 1000 of the troop type of that hero, in this case Shooters. If the number is too small, they may get killed before she has a chance to activate her tactical skill. If all the troops of a specific type die, then that hero can no longer activate their tactical skill, which is why I choose 1000.

It’s big enough to allow her to activate her skills without worrying the shooters will just be wiped out, but its small enough that the primary might is coming from your fighters, and fighter type heroes.

(For this to work properly my recommendation for this lineup includes your four strongest fighter type heroes and someone like Requiem, Mars, or Marlowe. However, do not use Meyers or Tomoyo as these two are fighters and therefore will not activate their tactical skills.)

Riders

This may be the easiest, best, Rider Formation in the game at present.

Fox, Obsidian, Reyn, Dom, and Doc Gray

These Heroes are fairly easy to get—with the exception of Obsidian—and do not require to place high in events, or win one of the lottery type games.

Some might make an argument that both Mars and Marlowe are easier to get than Obsidian, however both of those Heroes provide Troop bonuses, not Rider bonuses, and do better in defending your wall and sanctuary.

Angelo is actually better than Obsidian in terms of bonuses at +5 however, Angelo is very difficult to get, and can really only be won in one of the lottery games.

Importance of Hunt Formation

When you take your troops out hunting either Zombies or Zombie lairs having a good formation with Heroes that match your strongest troops, and the troops that you are dedicating your gear bonuses to, is an important step in maximizing your damage overall.

It is also effective in the Pit, and raids on player sanctuaries. You should always upgrade your troops to the maximum tier that is available based on your HQ level. This will allow you to use your might to its maximum potential.

Four Stars

Fighters

Chae Seoyun

Troop Skill

Troop HP: increase

Troop DEF: increase

Troop ATK: increase

Use her early to do campaign mode, upgrading her as necessary.

You should reset her back to 1. Unfortunately, she isn’t a useful hero, and as a fighter her troop skills give bonuses to troops, not fighters. She could be used to boost the effect of vehicles, or defend the wall of your sanctuary, but there are better heroes for this purpose.

For this reason use her until she outlives her usefulness, resetting her to get back resources and use it to upgrade a better hero.

She can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern.

Devana

Troop Skill

Troop HP: increase

Troop DEF: increase

Troop ATK: increase

Use her early to do campaign mode, upgrading her as necessary.

Devana is a class of hero that is a specific type but applies troop bonuses. She is similar to Chae Seoyun, except that her tactical skill is more powerful at +5 than Chae Seoyun, which makes her a better choice for wall defense than Chae Seoyun. In every other regard the two heroes are identical.

For this reason you should max her to 210 and stick her in your sanctuary troop formation. She is the only four star hero you should use in that formation.

At +5 she adds a Troop HP bonus, Troop DEF bonus, and Troop ATK bonus of +16%.

She can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern, or the Hero Survival Shop.

Sanguine

Troop Skill

Food Output: increase

Fighter DEF: increase

Fighter ATK: increase

Sanguine is another four star hero that finds herself in the unique position of having a passive skill. Because of this enhancing her to +5 even if you do not use Fighters increases Food output +100%.

However, its as a Fighter that she is most beneficial as she provides two bonuses to Fighters in your Fighter troop formation and that makes her one of the stronger heroes you can use in that formation.

At +5 Sanguine provides a +50% Fighter DEF bonus, and +50% Fighter ATK bonus to your fighters.

It’s for this reason she should be included in your Fighter troop formation, and leveled to a max of 210. If you intend to use either Shooters or Riders, instead leave her at level 1 and enhance her to +5 for the passive skill bonus.

She can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern

Seo-yun

Troop Skill

Fighter HP: increase

Fighter DEF: increase

Fighter ATK: increase

Seo-Yun is a must get for those using fighters as their primary troops. All of her troop skills benefit fighters, so she should be upgraded to 131.

Her level 71 Hero skill Swift Steps is amazing. It increases dodge by 20% making her one of the harder heroes to hit in duels and campaign modes, for that alone she is a top-tier hero and could easily be upgraded to max. Her single target damage is nothing to sneeze at either, hitting for 300% damage.

Riders

Dom

Troop Skill

Steel Output: increase

Rider DEF: increase

Rider ATK: increase

Dom isn’t a particularly strong hero, however he is a four star hero that possesses a passive.

Dom and Reyn find themselves in the awkward position of being two of the strongest riders that provide bonuses to riders. Unlike fighters for example, most five star Riders provide bonuses to troops rather than Riders specifically making them terrible candidates for a rider troop formation. This then leaves you in the position of using—along with three star, Doc Gray—inferior heroes to form your troop formation. Unfortunately, the developers have left us with really very few options.

This is likely an oversight that will be corrected with further heroes later, or by design to counteract the advantage Riders have in speed.

At +5 Dom provides a Steel output bonus of 100%, +50% to Rider DEF, and +50% to Rider ATK. For this and the increase in overall troop might, evolve him to 210 and use him in your Rider formation.

He can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern

Reyn

Troop Skill

Rider HP: increase

Rider DEF: increase

Rider ATK: increase

Dom and Reyn find themselves in the awkward position of being two of the strongest riders that provide bonuses to riders. Unlike fighters for example, most five star Riders provide bonuses to troops rather than Riders specifically making them terrible candidates for a rider troop formation. This then leaves you in the position of using—along with three star, Doc Gray—inferior heroes to form your troop formation. Unfortunately, the developers have left us with really very few options.

This is likely an oversight that will be corrected with further heroes later, or by design to counteract the advantage Riders have in speed.

At +5 Reyn provides a +50% bonus to Rider HP, +50% bonus to Rider DEF and +50% bonus to Rider ATK. Reyn should be evolved to 210 and used in your Rider formation.

Shooters

Griffin

Troop Skill

Wood Output: increase

Shooter DEF: increase

Shooter ATK: increase

Griffin isn’t a particularly strong hero, however he is a four star hero that possesses a passive.

Griffin and Hartwell find themselves in the awkward position of being two of the strongest shooters that provide bonuses to shooters. Unlike fighters for example, most five star Shooters provide bonuses to either troops generally, or bonuses to all three types: Fighters, Shooters, and Riders, rather than Shooters specifically making them terrible candidates for a Shooter troop formation, with some exceptions.

This then leaves you in the position of using five star hero Requiem whose skills benefit general troop formation because of lack of alternatives.

Unfortunately, either another blunder by the developers in design, or a choice, except unlike Riders which give you the benefit of speed, there is no benefit over Fighters in terms of stronger heroes. For this reason I believe this will be corrected eventually. Its possible that when designing heroes they did not anticipate the direction and benefit of formation to overall effectiveness and might.

At +5 Griffin provides a Wood output bonus of 100%, +50% to Shooter DEF, and +50% to Shooter ATK. For this and the increase in overall troop might, evolve him to 210 and use him in your Shooter formation.

He can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern

Hartwell

Troop Skill

Shooter HP: increase

Shooter DEF: increase

Shooter ATK: increase

Hartwell is a Healer and can be swapped out in Arena if other healers are banned.

Griffin and Hartwell find themselves in the awkward position of being two of the strongest shooters that provide bonuses to shooters. Unlike fighters for example, most five star Shooters provide bonuses to either troops generally, or bonuses to all three types: Fighters, Shooters, and Riders, rather than Shooters specifically making them terrible candidates for a Shooter troop formation, with some exceptions.

This then leaves you in the position of using five star hero Requiem whose skills benefit general troop formation because of lack of alternatives.

Unfortunately, either another blunder by the developers in design, or a choice, except unlike Riders which give you the benefit of speed, there is no benefit over Fighters in terms of stronger heroes. For this reason I believe this will be corrected eventually. Its possible that when designing heroes they did not anticipate the direction and benefit of formation to overall effectiveness and might.

At +5 Hartwell provides a +50% Shooter HP bonus, +50% Shooter DEF bonus, and +50% Shooter ATK bonus. She should be evolved to 210, and use in your Shooter Troop formation.Ā 

She can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern.

Economy

Dr. J

Troop Skill

Build: speed increase

Gas Output: increase

Rally Size: increase

Dr. J is considered an essential hero as one of his troop skills provides a bonus to Rally Size, which at +5 adds +100,000. He also provides a +15% bonus to Build speed, and a +100% bonus to Gas Output.

As an economy hero he does not need to be evolved past level 131.

He can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern

Otto

Troop Skill

Cmdr EXP: increase

Infirmary Healing: speed increase

Troop Size: increase

Otto is considered an essential hero as one of his troop skills provides a bonus to Troop Size, which at +5 adds +10,000.

His other troop skills are nothing to sneeze at either, at +5 providing a Cmdr EXP bonus of +30%, and a bonus to Infirmary Healing speed of +20%.

Otto is an economy hero which means he doesn’t need to be evolved higher than level 131.Ā 

He can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern.

He can be obtained by Hunting Zombies level 10-14 or Zombie Lairs level 8-9

Varvara

Troop Skill

Research: speed increase

Antiserum Output: increase

Troop Size: increase

Varvara can be formidable at higher levels. She deals significant damage to a single target. while adding the benefit of making heals and crits better. Her Troop skills are basic utility skills with her increasing Troop Size at 131.

Amber

Troop Skill

Wood Output: increase

Shooter DEF: increase

Shooter ATK: increase

Use her early to do campaign mode, upgrading her to 31. She can be used until you get a better shooter to replace her.

You should reset her back to 1, and just enhance her to +5 to increase Wood Output +10%.

She can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern

Shooters

Articles

Amber

Troop Skill

Wood Output: increase

Shooter DEF: increase

Shooter ATK: increase

Use her early to do campaign mode, upgrading her to 31. She can be used until you get a better shooter to replace her.

You should reset her back to 1, and just enhance her to +5 to increase Wood Output +10%.

She can be obtained in Noah’s Tavern

Gear Factory

Gear

In the above images you can see two examples of the Gear interface. On the left you will find the Commander Info page which can be reached by clicking on your Commander portrait in the upper left hand corner of the screen.

On the right side is an example of what you see when you access the Gear tab in the Gear Factory.

They are both the same thing with the exception of the Commander info which is missing from the Gear Factory.

What is Gear?

Gear is the first thing that unlocks in your Gear Factory. There are three sets of Gear, with six Gear pieces per set.

The three sets of Gear that can be added are War Set, Builder Set and Tech Set.

You may purchase all six beginner two star war set items in the Alliance Shop for 50,000 alliance coins each. You may also purchase three, four, and five star battle gear (War Set) from the Mall under the Battle Gear tab.

The Builder, and Tech Sets were once purchasable from the Mall in three star, four star, and five star, however it now appears these are no longer available to purchase. (It also appears that the promoters used to promote these gear sets are also no longer available for purchase)

Enhancement and Promotion

Once you have a set of Gear, now its time to enhance and promote it. Gear enhancement is pretty easy. You will find level 1 gear enhancers in the Alliance Shop, but you can also find level 2-4 gear enhancement material in various places throughout the game.

You can find them in Enhancement boxes you can win as a reward for certain events. You can find them by defeating Zombie Lairs and opening the Supply Boxes you will find in your bag’s Gadget tab. Enhancing your War set gear is really easy.

Promotion on the other hand is much harder. Gear promoters can be found in many of the same ways: Rewards, Promoter Boxes, and Defeating Zombies, and Zombie Lairs. However, the drop rate has been greatly reduced, and the time it takes to promote a single piece of gear has increased dramatically.

This is of course because you can always purchase the promoters from the in-game Mall for real money.

(You can no longer find Builder and Tech set gear promoters in the mall.)Ā 

But now that you know how to get this stuff, what is its purpose? How do we best enhance and promote our gear?

Ā 

Ā 

GunShieldVestHelmetRingBoots
Fighter ATK
Fighter DEF
Fighter HP
Rider ATK
Rider DEF
Rider HP
Shooter ATK
Shooter DEF
Shooter HP

In the table above you can see what each piece of gear does. The Gun gives a bonus to your Rider ATK, your Fighter DEF, and your Fighter HP.

Each piece of gear gives its own bonuses. And Each piece of gear adds a certain amount of Might to your overall Might. Enhancing the gear with gear enhancement materials will increase the Might of the gear, but also increase the bonus each piece of gear gives to your Troops.Ā 

You can see when you hit the Enhance button for any piece of Gear, that it shows you what kind of bonus enhancing the gear will grant, but it also shows you what going up a level does to the enhancement. In the example above:

Rider ATK 119% ⇒ 134%

Fighter DEF 119% ⇒ 134%

Fighter HP 119% ⇒ 134%

When enhancing levels the gear from +16 to +17 the bonus is increased by 15% to each stat.

These cumulative stat bonuses stack together, and are collectively applied to your Troop Boosts.

These numbers as you can see define how much damage your troops do, how much damage they absorb, and how much health they have before they end up in the infirmary.

These bonuses are essential to being effective in events, hunting zombies, lairs, and sanctuary hits. Enhancing your gear is essential.

However, enhancing your gear is only one part of the equation. A piece of gear can only be enhanced so far before it reaches a limit and requires that you promote it, in order to continue enhancing it further.

Promoting your gear adds additional stars to it. If you have a two star gun and you promote it, it will become a three star gun.

Promoting gear requires gear promoters and getting them is more difficult than getting enhancers. But it is essential to promote your gear. The stronger it is the more effective the boosts are. If you never promote your gear you will never enhance it more than 100%. With promotion the bonus stats you can add to your Troops will exceed 100%.

How do I know what to enhance and promote?

Well stick to the basics first. If you are using Fighters, enhance the gear items that give bonus stats to your fighters, first. That would be: Gun, Vest, Helmet, and Boots. Each of these gives bonuses to Fighters. You would do the same thing for Riders: Gun, Shield, Helmet and Ring. And for Shooters: Shield, Vest, Ring, Boots. (Don’t ask me why the gun doesn’t give bonus stats to shooters, you might as well be asking me what a singularity is?) 

Once you have enhanced and promoted each piece of gear that corresponds with your chosen troop type, that is choose to enhance the gear first, that benefits what you have chosen to make for troops: Fighters, Riders, or Shooters.

But once you have done this and you do not have enough promoters or enhancers to go further in this moment, its ok to enhance and promote your other gear. In fact, I like to keep all my gear around the same level, but it takes a lot of materials to do this, and you should prioritize those gear pieces that will benefit you the most. When you are a high enough level all of your gear should be at least five star, before working on a sixth star (red star) I made sure all of my gear was at the same level.

Even if you only intend to use Fighters as your main, there is no reason not to build a march of Riders and Shooters, because events like Sonic Decoy require many different marches, and having a contingent of each troop type helps. When someone is rallying a Zombie Lair with Fighters, but you are a Fighter main, you do not want to send Fighters to compete with theirs in the rally, so sending Riders or Shooters will help save casualties for everyone. 

By enhancing and promoting other gear pieces, you ensure even your second and third troop contingent maximizes its damage.

Chip

In the above images you can see two examples of the Chip interface. On the left you will find the Commander Info page which can be reached by clicking on your Commander portrait in the upper left hand corner of the screen and clicking the Chip tab.

On the right side is an example of what you see when you access the Chip tab in the Gear Factory.

They are both the same thing with the exception of the Commander info which is missing from the Gear Factory.

What are Chips?

Chips are the second thing that open up in the Gear Factory at level 8.

There are six pieces of gear we remember from the Gear tab: The Gun, The Shield, The Ring, The Helmet(Mask), The Vest, and the Boots, and each piece of gear has three chip slots, one for each of the Troop types: Fighters, Riders, and Shooters, and a fourth slot designed for Troop Chips.

Chips are essentially an additional way to augment your gear and add additional stats that stack on each Troop type.

You can find Fighter, Rider, and Shooter Chips in the Ruins Shop. As soon as it unlocks, it may be a slow process at first but begin purchasing the 3 star chips you find in the Ruins Shop. You will need 6 sets of Fighter Chips, Rider Chips, and Shooter chips for a total of 18.

Even if you only intend to main one troop type, just like with Gear you should prioritize the Chips that benefit you the most in the moment, and build up the others when you have maximized your main chips.

You will also notice that on each chip tab corresponding to a piece of gear there is a fourth slot that appears empty.

This spot is reserved for Troop chips. Troop chips are different than the other chips in that they give bonuses to all troops when you add them to a piece of gear. Troop chips, unlike the normal chips you can get through the ruins shop, can only be gotten in the Hero Dual-Glory exchange, its also the only place you can find the enhancement and promotion material for these troop chips as well. (Its also possible to earn these in Wasteland Conquest however, this event is extremely difficult and the cost to benefit is simply not worth it unless you are extremely high in might. It’s also possible random holiday events grant you access to these as well.)

(You can only access the Hero Dual-Glory Arena by placing in the top 1000 in Hero-Dual Survival before reset on the last day of the week before a new week starts. In either week A or B, you must achieve this feat before reset on the 7th day. If you are unable to do this, you will not be able to access Hero Dual-Glory for another week.)

Unfortunately, the older your state gets, the harder it is to place, and the harder it is to get Troop Chips. However, unless you have them enhanced and promoted Uber high, they provide almost no additional value to your stats. If you have them but can no longer enhance and promote them, you may see an additional bonus of a few percent. (You can skip getting these)

Enhancement and Promotion

Just like with gear, your chips can be enhanced and promoted.

Just like the chips themselves you can find the enhancers and promoter material in the Ruins shop. You can also get it in event boxes as well, or in the Mall.

And like with Gear you need to simply click on the Chip you want to enhance, click Enhance and select the material to increase its level. Doing this as you can see above increases the overall stats of whichever chip you are enhancing. However, unlike with Gear. Fighter Chips only enhance Fighter stats, Rider Chips only enhance Rider stats, and Shooter Chips only enhance Shooter stats.

And like Gear once a chip has reached its maximum enhancement level, to continue it must be promoted.

Promoting the chip will allow its star level to be raised, and allow it to be further enhanced.

While Gear promotion is a more difficult task, Chip promotion is a more time consuming task, not necessarily a difficult one. If you play the game and achieve new levels in the Ruins, you will earn points, which can then be used to enhance and promote your Chips. The higher the level you reach in The Ruins, the more you earn on that day of the week. Eventually, you will be able to buy out all the promoters at a time, or a lot of enhancers, thus allowing you to increase your Chip stats.

There is no reason to not enhance and promote all your chips if you are able to get the materials to do so. Increasing the damage of your main troop choice is always a priority, however increasing the stats of your second and third choices of troops has no disadvantage.

With gear you must choose wisely as the cost to upgrade can be both time consuming, and financially consuming for you. However, you don’t need to spend money to get the Chips to enhance your gear, because of this there is no disadvantage to enhancing and promoting all your Chips. It both increases the damage of your secondary and tertiary marches, as well as increases your overall Might.

Module

In the above images you can see two examples of the Module interface. On the left you will find the Commander Info page which can be reached by clicking on your Commander portrait in the upper left hand corner of the screen and clicking the Module tab.

On the right side is an example of what you see when you access the Module tab in the Gear Factory.

They are both the same thing with the exception of the Commander info which is missing from the Gear Factory.

What are modules?

Modules are the third thing that open up in the Gear Factory at level 16.

The module part of the factory allows up to three modules per five specific levels for a total of 15 modules. Five Fighter, five Shooter, and five Rider modules. Modules are another augmentation you are able to make to your Troops like Chips.

Because each set of modules only open up as you level your Gear Factory to a specific point, you can enhance and promote all of the three modules of the level you currently have open without much effort, and it adds to overall Might.Ā 

You will need to look in the Rare Earth shop to find the three star Modules, they are each 100,000 Rare Earth in the exchange. You will find all the materials you need in there as well. Although you can buy these in boxes in the mall, there is zero reason to do that.

The Rare Earth shop is full of really good stuff, and although getting these modules should be a priority to add the additional augment to your troops, you can also find McCarty frags in there as well. I recommend that you continue to hold on to your Rare Earth until there is a break loose or other event where you are rewarded for getting module materials and frags and then use the Rare Earth to purchase them then. You can also find Marks of Glory in the shop as well.

As you upgrade your factory to new levels that unlock more module space, use your Rare Earth and grab the three modules to add to the Module spots in the Gear Factory.

Enhancement and Promotion

Just like with gear and chips, modules can enhanced and promoted.

And like with Gear and Chips, Modules you want to enhance, click Enhance and select the material to increase its level. Doing this as you can see above increases the overall stats of whichever Module you are enhancing. However, unlike with Gear. Fighter Modules only enhance Fighter stats, Rider Modules only enhance Rider stats, and Shooter Modules only enhance Shooter stats.

And like Gear, and Chips once a module has reached its maximum enhancement level, to continue it must be promoted.

Promoting a Module will allow its star level to be raised, and allow it to be further enhanced.

It’s important to continue to enhance and promote your modules as they raise your overall Might level much like Gear and Chips do. Promoting a Module adds far more Might and value to the Module than merely Enhancing it alone. And because its very easy to get both the enhancers and promoters maximizing these modules should also be very easy.

It’s important not to forget that at levels 16, 20, 22, 30, and 33 you can add a new set of three modules to your Gear Factory.

Nanoweapon

The Weapons Depot is located within the Gear Factory and is a repository of the nanoweapons you have already created.

Here you Enhance, Promote, Share, or Dismantle any weapon.

Here in this example you can see a Common Terrestrial Radar, its Troop and Hero Stats.Ā (Note because the Terrestrial Radar is a generic hero weapon, it gives no Exclusive stats, which would be listed below the Hero Stats.)

Enhancement and Promotion of Weapons

When you click on Enhance you can see that much like other things in game that can be enhanced, weapons are no different and take both Weapon Enhance Material and other weapons in the Depot as material that can be used to enhance it. By pressing Auto Select the game will select the most efficient way to enhance the weapon, (however it may not always select the desired materials, and you should always check before pressing Confirm.)

The same is true of Promotion. In this example the 4 star Terrestrial Radar can be promoted to a 5 star, however it requires promotion material that can be obtained while playing the game or by purchasing it directly from the Mall.

Dismantling of Weapons

Since materials are an important part in the production of weapons, dismantling unnecessary or redundant weapons allows the user to recover some of those materials, which can then be used in the production of new weapons.

(It should be noted that this is not the most efficient way to get materials for production, and should only be used when the weapons you are dismantling are redundant.)

Ā 

List of Nanoweapons

Unlocking Nanoweapons

At level 20 you can begin to make nanoweapons. You must meet all the requirements to get your Gear Factory to level 20, but once it is upgraded, making these weapons is easy.

Once you make this happen, you should always be doing two things:

  • Producing nanoweapon parts (materials)
  • Using nanoweapon parts to make nanoweapons

Once you have opened up this feature, you should never not be doing these two things. They cost you nothing but a few clicks, and the benefits are enormous.

Once a five star hero has been evolved to level 211, an option will be unlocked on that hero that allows you to equip one of these nanoweapons.

Some weapons are good for everyone in a general sense, however many of these weapons have bonuses when equipped on a specific hero.

(It is important to remember that these nanoweapons are produced randomly)

Because of the random nature of nanoweapons, you are unlikely to get a specific one until you have made of a few others. Most often the weapon you will produce is a general one, the terrestrial radar seems to be the default, and likely you will produce one of these  

RarityNormal CraftExclusive Craft
Common (Green)63.9%49%
Uncommon (Blue)25%30%
Rare (Purple)10%15%
Epic (Yellow)1%4.5%
Apex (Rare)0.1%1.5%

While we know the percentage of crafting rarities, I am unable to find documentation around how often one weapon will be produced against another. But my experience is that terrestrial radar is produced at least 75% of the time.

Binding Chains

The Binding Chains is a weapon that when equipped by Ulrik, it activates Troop and Fighter bonuses.

  • Troop DEF increased
  • Troop HP increased
  • Troop ATK increased
  • Fighter DMG taken from riders is reduced

Ā 

Deathclaw

The Deathclaw is a weapon that when equipped by Ironclaw, it activates Troop bonuses.

  • Troop DEF increased
  • Troop HP increased
  • Troop Size increased
  • Troop Size increased

Desert Magnum

The Desert Magnum is a weapon that when equipped by McCarty, it activates Build, Infirmary, Research and Training bonuses.

  • Build Speed increased
  • Infirmary Healing Speed increased
  • Research Speed increased
  • Training Speed increased

Dual Tachis

The Dual Tachis is a weapon that when equipped by Tomoyo, it activates Troop and Fighter DMG bonuses.

  • Troop DEF increased
  • Troop HP increased
  • Troop ATK increased
  • Fighter DMG against shooters increased

Ice Katana

The Ice Katana is a weapon that when equipped by Requiem, it activates Troop and Rally bonuses.

  • Troop DEF increased
  • Troop HP increased
  • Troop ATK increased
  • Rally Troop DMG increased

Incinerator

The Incinerator is a weapon that when equipped by Phoenix, it activates Shooter bonuses.

  • Shooter HP increased
  • Shooter DEF increased
  • Shooter ATK increased
  • Shooter DMG increased

Infrared Rifle

The Infrared Rifle is a weapon that when equipped by Ephraim, it activates Troop and Shooter DMG reduction bonuses.

  • Troop DEF increased
  • Troop HP increased
  • Troop ATK increased
  • Shooter DMG taken from Fighters is reduced

Inoculator

The Inoculator is a weapon that when equipped by Fox, it activates Troop and DMG reduction to riders bonuses.

  • Troop DEF increased
  • Troop HP increased
  • Troop ATK increased
  • Rider DMG taken from shooters is reduced

Lightning Whip

The Lightning Whip is a weapon that when equipped by Levina, it activates Troop bonuses.

  • Troop DEF increased
  • Troop HP increased
  • Troop ATK increased
  • Scramble Troop ATK increased

Mace of Terror

The Mace of Terror is a weapon that when equipped by Meyers, it activates Troop bonuses.

  • Troop DEF increased
  • Troop HP increased
  • Troop ATK increased
  • Troop Dmg Up

Mutated Arm

The Mutated Arm is a weapon that when equipped by Marlowe, it activates Troop and Rider DMG bonuses.

  • Troop DEF increased
  • Troop HP increased
  • Troop ATK increased
  • Rider DMG against Fighters increased

Ocular Drone

The Ocular Drone is a weapon that when equipped by Leah, it activates Troop bonuses.

  • Troop DEF increased
  • Troop HP increased
  • Troop Size increased
  • Troop Size increased

Phoenix Helm

The Phoenix Helm is a weapon that when equipped by Mars, it activates Troop and Troop DMG reduction bonuses.

  • Troop DEF increased
  • Troop HP increased
  • Troop ATK increased
  • Troop DMG taken is reduced

Plasma Scanner

The Plasma Scanner is a weapon that when equipped by Eve, it activates Rally bonuses.

  • Rally Troop HP increased
  • Rally Troop DEF increased
  • Rally ATK increased
  • Rally Size increased

Power Fist

The Power Fist is a weapon that when equipped by Obsidian, it activates Rider bonuses.

  • Rider HP increased
  • Rider DEF increased
  • Rider ATK increased
  • Rider DMG increased

Recurve Bow

The Recurve Bow is a weapon that when equipped by Nam Hayul, it activates Troop and Shooter DMG bonuses.

  • Troop DEF increased
  • Troop HP increased
  • Troop ATK increased
  • Shooter DMG against Riders increased

Remote Detonator

The Remote Detonator is a weapon that when equipped by Agent-X, it activates Rally bonuses.

  • Rally Size increased
  • Rally Troop HP increased
  • Rally Troop DEF increased
  • Rally ATK increased

Terrestrial Radar

The Terrestrial Radar is a weapon that can be equip by any hero, but provides no extra bonuses based on the hero its equipped to. Therefore it is considered a general weapon, and is the most likely weapon to be created by the Gear Factory.

Tesla Cannon

The Tesla Cannon is a weapon that when equipped by Scarlett, it activates Troop bonuses.

  • Troop DEF increased
  • Troop HP increased
  • Troop Size increased
  • Troop Size increased

Thunder Hammer

The Thunder Hammer is a weapon that when equipped by Zephyr, it activates Fighter bonuses.

  • Fighter HP increased
  • Fighter DEF increased
  • Fighter ATK increased
  • Fighter DMG increased

Cube

In the above images you can see two examples of the Cube interface. On the left you will find the Commander Info page which can be reached by clicking on your Commander portrait in the upper left hand corner of the screen and clicking the Cube tab.

On the right side is an example of what you see when you access the Cube tab in the Gear Factory.

They are both the same thing with the exception of the Commander info which is missing from the Gear Factory.

What are Cubes?

Cubes are more like Gear than like Chips or Modules in that Cubes add multiple stats per Cube. The Cubes are divided into three categories: Time Cubes, Space Cubes, and Energy Cubes.

Stat BonusTime CubeSpace CubeEnergy Cube
Fighter ATK
Fighter DEF
Fighter HP
Shooter ATK
Shooter DEF
Shooter HP
Rider ATK
Rider DEF
Rider HP
Troop ATK
Troop DEF
Troop HP

But like Modules, Cubes are unlocked at specific levels of Gear Factory Promotion.

Cubes are unlocked at Gear Factory level 25. By the time your Factory reaches level 25, you will likely have quite a bit of cube enhancement and promotion materials in your bag, however the cubes themselves you will not have.

In fact, you will actually find them in Cube Random boxes that only become available as a reward in the last two daily Quest Point boxes claimed once your Gear Factory is level 25.

This is a good reason to do all your daily Quests because it is here that those boxes are found. Once you have at least one Time, Space, and Energy Cube you can add them to the open slots and begin enhancing and promoting them.

Enhancement and Promotion

And like with Gear, Chips, and Modules, Cubes you want to enhance, click Enhance and select the material to increase its level. Doing this as you can see above increases the overall stats of whichever the Cube you are enhancing. Cubes are like Gear in they actually enhance multiple stats. Time Cubes enhance ATK stats, while also enhancing Troop DEF, and HP. Space Cubes enhance DEF stats, while also enhancing Troop ATK and DEF. Energy Cubes enhance HP stats, while also enhancing Troop HP and ATK.

And like Gear, Chips, and Modules once a Cube has reached its maximum enhancement level, to continue it must be promoted.

Promoting a Cube will allow its star level to be raised, and allow it to be further enhanced.

It’s important to continue to enhance and promote your Cubes as they raise your overall Might level.

(Unlike Troop Chips which provide very little enhancement to overall Troops stats, Cubes provide a ton of enhancement to the overall Troops stats, and they are integral to your bonus stats as a whole. It is incredibly important once you have unlocked this that you enhance and promote it regularly.)

Do not forget to add Cubes at Gear Factory levels 25, 27, 29, and 31. You may forget these are here since they are not required to give points in the daily quests, however you will continue to amass the materials as you will continue to get the Cube Random boxes each time you complete your dailies. So try and have a look to see what you can enhance and promote regularly.

You will also regularly get Cube enhancers and promoters as part of event rewards.

Binding Chains

The Binding Chains is a weapon that when equipped by Ulrik, it activates Troop and Fighter bonuses.

  • Troop DEF increased
  • Troop HP increased
  • Troop ATK increased
  • Fighter DMG taken from riders is reduced

Ā 

Shooters

This may be the easiest, best, Shooter Formation in the game at present.

Requiem, Hartwell, Ephraim, Phoenix, and Griffin

These Heroes are fairly easy to get—with the exception of Phoenix—and do not require to place high in events, or win one of the lottery type games.

Requiem here is a Shooter, however her bonuses apply to Troops in general. Unfortunately, there are no shooters that match up in a way that would be beneficial to only shooters outside of the ones above.

Although there are other five star Shooters like Dara, and Nam Hayul these also provide Troop bonuses, and therefore there is no difference between them outside of both these Heroes, opposed to Requiem are far more difficult to get, requiring placing in events to earn the frags.

Importance of Hunt Formation

When you take your troops out hunting either Zombies or Zombie lairs having a good formation with Heroes that match your strongest troops, and the troops that you are dedicating your gear bonuses to, is an important step in maximizing your damage overall.

It is also effective in the Pit, and raids on player sanctuaries. You should always upgrade your troops to the maximum tier that is available based on your HQ level. This will allow you to use your might to its maximum potential.

Beginner Stuff

Quick Tips

AFK Food Trick

When you log on after being offline for a while, typically more than a few hours. (8 hours or more is a good amount of time, basically the time you spend sleeping.) The very first thing you will likely see when you start the app, and login is a game advertisement for something, perhaps a sale on a hero, or cubes or gear. If you see this, simply click out of it, but do nothing more than that.

  1. You then want to locate a Farm in the bottom left hand corner where you are allowed to place your sanctuary tiles (farms, steel mills, lumber mills, bootcamp, etc).
  2. Once you have located that farm tile, click on it.Ā 
  3. If you have more food than can be stored in your warehouse, all the food that your troops have consumed during the time you were away should be returned to you.

This is a bug and may be fixed at some point, but take advantage of it while it lasts.

Essentially, the game takes food each hour in a specific amount and that is used as upkeep for your troops. The more troops you have the larger the upkeep is.

If you click on The Parade Grounds building in your sanctuary, you will see at the top there is a list of your total troops, and how much those troops consume in food each hour. You can see in this example that my troops consume over a million food an hour. That means each hour of everyday my troops are always eating.

The thing is the game does not penalize you if you run out of food to feed your troops. In fact, the game doesn’t even force you to use food that is protected in your warehouse—food that is under the cap. And that is why this trick works.

If your warehouse has a food cap of 1,000,000, and you have 2,000,000 food in total that remains outside of your bag, then 1,000,000 of that food is protected, but 1,000,000 of that food is not. In that case any food over that cap the game will use to feed troops based on the amount set in the Parade Grounds, which is based on the tier and amount of troops you have in total.

So when you logon after being away long enough, you will notice that your food should have been consumed to the point where it reaches the cap set in the warehouse.

Now if the first thing you do when you login is to activate that farm, then all of the food that your troops have been consuming—while you were away—over that warehouse cap should be returned to you.

It’s a glitch, and you will know if it works because when you normally click on a farm, you will see that it activates the stored produced food in the farm, highlights it in green, and then sends it up to the top to add to your total. If the glitch was successful, you will simply see that the food is added back to your total.

Because you are technically glitching the game, its possible this won’t work every single time you do it, but once I knew why and how it actually worked, I have been able to use it effectively almost every time I login if I remember that I must do nothing but click that farm first. (Clicking anything other than getting that first ad out of the way, will usually result in this trick not working.)

Understanding how Heroes' Active and Passive skills work

What are Troop Hero skills?

Troop Hero skills are the bonuses that your heroes provide to your troops, and they can be found on the Troop Skill tab when selecting a Hero from the Hero button on the menu at the bottom of your screen.

How do they work?

As I’ve said, each hero has a Troop Skill tab with bonuses that apply to your troops. However, while some skills are active skills, others are passive.

The definition of an Active skill would be a skill that only applies to your troops if that hero is in your troop formation. Meyers is an example of a Hero that has an Active skill bonus. If he is in your formation, your Troops get a bonus to their HP, DEF, and ATK.

You are allowed to put up to five heroes in your troop formation, and each one has a different affect on your troops.

You can see in the above example on the left that when Zephyr is in my troop formation my Fighters skill bonuses are at 96% ATK, 96% DEF, and 96% HP. That is because right now Zephyr is adding an additional 32% to each of those skill bonuses as an Active skill.

So in the above example on the right I have switched out Zephyr for Phoenix and you will notice that my Fighters ATK, DEF, and HP all go down, however my Shooter ATK, DEF, and HP all go up. This is because at my current Phoenix enhancement level she adds an additional 32% ATK, 32% DEF, and 32% HP as anĀ Active skill to my troops. This is why people will often tell ask you what your main troop type is: Fighters, Shooters, or Riders. DifferentĀ  formations apply different skill bonuses and its best to optimize your troops for one, over say two or three.

(Mixing them is an inefficient method of doing damage, and you should choose one and stick to that.)

If we go back and look at Levina, she is an example of a Hero whose Troop skills are Passive. That means that whether Levina is in your Troop formation or not, her skill bonuses always apply to your Troops. That is why it is important to get her to at least level 131 so that her skills apply to all troops passively. You can see in my example, I have not yet evolved her to level 131 so for the time being she is not adding her Shooter ATK passive skill bonus to my troops.

Heroes can have a Troop type just like your Troops, a Hero can be a Fighter like Meyers, or a Shooter like Phoenix, or a Rider like Levina. However, there is also another type of Hero and they are of the type Economy. Economy Heroes are not meant to be used in your Troop formation at all, this is because they provide zero ActiveĀ skill bonuses to your Troops. Instead, Heroes of the Economy type are always considered PassiveĀ which means that they always provide their Troop skill bonuses to your Troops, in the same way Levina does as a Rider type Hero.

Eve is a good example of an Economy type hero, when she is evolved to level 131 her Troop skill bonuses add Gathering Speed bonuses, Infirmary Healing Speed bonuses, and Troop Size bonuses. All Economy type heroes are passive so their is no disadvantage in leveling them, and enhancing them to their maximum.

Some Heroes are even more special than even the Five Star heroes we tend to add to our Troop formations. And these Heroes tend to be Two and Three Star heroes. Yes, you read that right, some lower Star heroes are of a Special type. They are both one of the three Troop type heroes: Fighter, Shooter, or Rider, but they are also an Economy type hero, and just like a normal Economy type hero their Economy Troop skill has a Passive skill bonus.

In the above example on the left I have chosen to showcase Barbie. Barbie is a Three Star Hero who is a Fighter, but if you look at her Troop skills only two of them are of the Active type bonus, her first skill is in fact of the Economy type. You can verify this by clicking on the skill. In the above example on the right you can see that under the various enhancement level information, you can see that it says, “Own the hero to activate this effect.” That means that just owning the hero, is enough to activate it, making it entirely aĀ PassiveĀ skill bonus.

For this reason alone, it is important to Enhance her to her maximum. You should do this with all heroes that have an Economy type skill that is activated just by owning the hero. While she may not be strong in a battle, the bonus that she provides will help you in gathering food.

Understanding Nova and The Research Lab

Nova is a really important part of the game, and although it takes quite sometime to unlock her through playing tutorial. The investment will pay off.

Why is Nova so special?

For one thing you can interact with her a specific number of times per day, determined by the level of your Research Lab.

Interacting with Nova, i.e. clicking on one of the three buttons gets you:

  • Affinity (Left button) – Rewards Nova Intellect points
  • Praise (Center button) – Rewards Nova Skill Points
  • Gift (Right button) – Rewards random resources or skill points

Another thing Nova does is add all kinds of bonuses that you can boost using skill points.

What are her skills?

There are two tabs available to the player, and each provides a different set of skills you can boost using Nova.

The first tab is the Military tab, and it uses Military skill points to add bonuses.

The second tab is the Economy tab, and it uses Economy skill points to add bonuses.

The two tabs couldn’t be more different. The Military deals solely in things like ATK, DEF, HP, and Troop DMG. The Economy however deals with Resource Gathering, Troop Load, Build and Research Speed bonuses as well as a few others.

What makes Nova really special is that every time you upgrade the Research Lab, the cost of Upgrading boosts with Military and Economy Points is reduced.Ā Ā 

Buying these Modifying Kits from the Alliance Store will allow you to reset any Nova skill to Lvl. 1.

Using these correctly is important though as they cost 100,000 Alliance coins to use.

What you want to do is to make sure you have upgraded your Research Lab more than a few times, I recommend at least 3 but 5 or more levels makes the savings worth the cost.

Simply reset a skill, getting back all the points you put into it, and now retrain it for less points.

Where to start

The tutorial

You will start the game with a bit of a story. Just click through it until you find yourself faced with a puzzle.Ā (These images may look different than what you will see, as the game events and updates are reflected sometimes in the tutorial, but its basically the same.)

Solve the puzzles to progress through the tutorial.

At some point you will be attacked by zombies. Solve this puzzle to continue.

Now you will face your first real puzzle, however it is still the tutorial so it will show you how to play it.

After the puzzle finishes Nova will be attacked and bitten. You will be presented with a choice. Shoot her, or Save her.Ā (It does not matter what you choose here, both result in the same outcome.)

After Nova is saved, you will then be presented with another puzzle. This time there will be a boss fight.

Just keep following the instructions, and continue your progress in the tutorial.

Another Hero (Scarlett) will join the fight now against this snake boss. Defeat the boss.

You will now be taken to your base. Click through the story prompts until you are able to click on the Research Lab.

There is more story here to click through, but you can now see that Nova who was bitten before is now in a tank. Click through this dialogue to move through this part of the story.Ā 

Now it is time to start fixing Nova. You will need to click on the button to start Chapter 1.

Clicking the button now will take you to Noah’s tavern. There you will recruit your first heroes.

Click Recruit 10x to begin. You will be rewarded with Might and some hero frags. Once you have done this, click the back button at the top left to exit out of Noah’s Tavern.

This will return you to the previous screen.

There will be more story here, click through it until you see the button you can click to continue, and click it.

Click Claim to claim your reward. Once you have done this, click the next button on the list that says Go.

From this point on the tutorial remains the same: click a button, get some story, and do puzzles.

Just continue to progress through the story campaign. Occasionally it will ask you to build something.

Once you have defeated Chapter 2 of the campaign. You will be asked to upgrade your HQ to level 2. Doing this will give you a bunch of rewards and allow you to claim your first step in the (1/4) Nova Antivirusine Collection Plan.

(This part of the tutorial teaches you about speedups.)

Click to claim your rewards.

This is where you do your first antivirusine surgery to heal Nova.

Everything here on out is the same. Continue to progress through the tutorial until you have finished.


Good Luck and Happy hunting!

Important beginning tips

Join an alliance

You are here at Black Sheep’s Alliance knowledge site so I hope you have already joined our alliance, but if you have not, come join us or any alliance for that matter.

Joining an alliance is crucial, do it as soon as you can.

Being a member of a really good alliance doesn’t mean you need to be in the number one alliance, it just means that the alliance you join should be active and helpful. It also helps if the alliance has begun building out its tech tree.Ā 

Those bonuses add up and its important that the alliance you are a part of does its part to make sure its members are being the best they can be.

So get into an alliance and start contributing early.

Ā 

Change your name

Everyone begins with a random UUID. This is that set of letters and numbers you see there in the image. That is how the game identifies you.

The first four characters are Sxxx 

(The S denotes you are a member of a state. The xxx or three number series after the S denotes which state you are in.)

In the example above the user is in state 561. All the characters that follow are randomly generated and simply identify you to the server.

But no one likes having a random UUID for a name, which is why the game allows you to change it two times for free.

Click the pencil on the right side of the UUID. A box will come up and you can press theĀ UseĀ button.

Then simply type the name you would like to be referred to in game and press the Confirm button.Ā 

(If its not unique enough, the game will require you to change it. It just means someone else has that name already.)

There you go, now you have successfully changed your name.Ā 

Save your diamonds

The game is going to give you rewards all the time. Sometimes those rewards include diamonds. Diamonds can be purchased in the Mall but they will also be given to you throughout the game as a reward.Ā 

You may be tempted to just use them to speed things up or get something faster, after all that is why they are in the game to begin with.

However, saving them for when you really need them is far more important. Especially in the beginning when things progress rather quickly. In the early game things like training, building and researching take very little time to do.Ā 

But in later levels—the further you upgrade your HQ, and move down tech and research trees—more time is required to finish them.

Saving your diamonds in early game means you will have them later when you want to speed something up that takes a few hours to complete instead of a few minutes.Ā 

Diamonds are also necessary if you want to purchase things in the Diamond Shop which is attached to your bag.

There are also events later in the game that ask you to spend diamonds.

(If you are going to purchase diamonds, I recommend waiting until you get a pop-up for something with a lot of diamonds and something else. The shop is full of things that you can buy that also give you diamonds.Ā 

In fact many purchases give you the same amount of diamonds if you just purchased them, with additional things like resources, or speedups. Almost everything you purchase gives you some diamonds, which give you far more value for your money than just purchasing the diamonds alone.)

Ā 

Invest in epic heroes

The game does a pretty good job of giving you a lot of heroes to play with, but early on all of these heroes are going to be weak.Ā 

Two, and three star heroes are not going to win you battles. They are good early just to have something, but if you are going to spend money, investing in some of the epic five star heroes is worth it.Ā 

(You do not actually have to spend money to get most heroes, you can earn them in game, however it will take much more time.)

The difference between the lower tier heroes and the higher God tier epic heroes is like day and night. You will notice for example in campaigns that even a +0 five star hero at level 1 does far more damage than the lower tier heroes.

You need ten frags of any hero in order to recruit it to your roster. When you look in the Mall you can see that purchasing a hero will give you ten frags.

However, if you do not want to spend money, Noah’s Tavern allows you to recruit the frags.

You can earn them just by playing through events, the campaign, fighting zombies, and zombie lairs, but you will also earn free tokens at set intervals. Those tokens can be traded in Noah’s tavern for a chance at getting a frag.

The probability for getting one of the five star heroes when using an adv. token is 30%.

Build, upgrade, increase might, attack!

Getting strong early helps to prevent others from attacking you for being weak.

Upgrading your sanctuary’s buildings early will give you tons of resources, increase your might, and make you more of a threat, which is good. Weakness in this game leaves you open to getting attacked early when its harder to defend yourself.

(This is why getting into an alliance is crucial. Many alliances have non-aggression pacts with other alliances that ensure that they will not just come and hit you just because they can.)

Many people will often just hit lower players that have not changed their names and are not in alliances. Make sure to do both of these things to help prevent that from happening.

Increasing your might in this game is crucial as well because it allows you to take part in events, and get rewards from hunting zombies and zombie lairs. Increasing your might—the bigger your troop size, the bigger your rally size, and access to those higher level troops you can only get by upgrading—allows you to progress in this game ever further for bigger and bigger rewards.

That is basically the game loop: build, upgrade, increase might, attack.

You do not have to attack other players in this game to progress, but many aspects of this game are PVP based, and not to mention a lot of fun.

If you do not participate in the events, you will never be able to get some of the epic heroes that you can only get when you play those events.

Things you should know

PnS Terminology

So you have started playing and someone sends you a message in-game that reads: “Hey, untagged why don’t you come join our alliance [WTF], we are in NAP with two other alliances. We don’t do tile hits , but we love to share rss with newcomers. We take anyone with HQ13+”

So you might be wondering what the heck does that mean?

So I’m going to try and give you a quick primer on the terminology we use in the game and hopefully it will help you try to understand what people are saying.

Three things you should do

1. Bind your account

Binding your account will allow you to play Puzzles & Survival on any device you want while using the same account to play it on.

In the lower right corner of the screen click the button that saysĀ More. Then click the button markedĀ Settings.

A box will appear with lots of options available. Click the button at the top labeled Account.Ā A new box labeled account settings will appear. Click on the button labeledĀ User Center.

A browser window will open inside the game window that will take you to 37Games. There are several buttons, but you just need to press the button labeled Bind Account.Ā  One last box will appear and you can choose one of four options here to bind to.

In this example I have chosen to bind to my Facebook account.

Once you have successfully bound your account you can close the windows and go back to the game.

2. Purchase the second permanent build slot

You will get these golden hammers that you can use to create a second build slot that lasts for a couple days, however if you are prompted or see it in the Mall, you should purchase the second permanent build slot.

There are a lot of overpriced useless things in the game that you can skip, or get for free and this isn’t one of those things. Purchase it, you will not regret it.

3. Keep yourself shielded

You will find these in your bag, under the military tab. You will get them as rewards and they can also be purchased.

Activating a shield before you go to bed is a good idea, it will prevent other players from attacking your sanctuary while you sleep.

However, if you do not frequently participate in pvp, activating a shield will keep you protected so you do not need to worry about random attackers while playing. (Attacking or scouting a player will deactivate your shield and activate War Frenzy for a period of time. You cannot activate your shield, for the duration of the War Frenzy status.)

Ā 

Three things you should not do

1. Do not open every resource in your bag.

There is a tendency for people to want to open packages, its an opportunity to gain shiny new things. But do not do this. While resources are packed away in your bag of holding they are protected against someone attacking your sanctuary and taking them.Ā 

When you look in the resource shop you can see which resources are protected and which are not.

Your warehouse will protect a specify amount of resources based on your level. This however, is ultimately capped by your level. This means anything over that amount is unprotected.

When you are over your resource cap, and you open those shiny resource packages you are making yourself a ripe target for someone to hit you.

If they scout you and see that you have a lot of resources unprotected it you could gain the attention of a resource hungry player.

So although you may be tempted to open all those pretty packages of food, wood, steel, and gas, its best to leave them where they are until you actually need them. The game will prompt you to auto use the resource when you need it.

2. Do not resource grab a tile that is occupied

The world is full of these resource tiles: food, wood, steel, and gas. Most people observe the right of first in. If you have secured the tile and your troop line is connected to it, then its your tile.Ā  Obviously the same is true of other players.

There are plenty of tiles on the map at all different levels, however normally people will grab the higher level tiles immediately preventing others from grabbing them. In some states I’m sure people fight over them, but I expect most people play by the first in rule. So if you do not want someone else kicking you off a tile you have occupied, you probably shouldn’t go about taking others occupied tiles.

3. Do not leave a tile with resources remaining on it.

You see here someone has left a tile on the map with resources left on it. Each hour tiles regenerate on the map, but only if they have first been cleared off. When you take resources from a tile but leave some left over you are basically making it so that the tile will stay there until someone else takes the scraps you left.

This is a big faux pas, do not do this. Take all the resources or if you lack the troops, try a lower level tile to gather from instead. Anyone who is searching for a level 6 or 7 tile is going to be angry if they find an unoccupied one that only has a few thousand resources on it. And either they will have to clear that taking time and effort to do it, or they will leave it for some other person to do it in which case it may not clear for a long time.

Where and when to spend your money

VIP

VIP is essential to advancing in this game. Although you could play without buying it, it would take a long time to earn enough VIP points to get to VIP 7 and VIP 10 respectively.

Although VIP 5 allows you to Auto battle in campaigns, VIP 7 and later VIP 10 are far more important to get.

Ā 

VIP 7 allows you to Auto Occupy the Pit. The Pit is a PVP ground where players can search for a pit full of rare earth metals and occupy it to dig them up.

Unfortunately, the pit has a limited amount of spots on each level and its nearly impossible to occupy one higher up.

Without Auto Occupy searching for an open spot is like looking for an open toilet at a sporting event. If you look hard enough and spend enough time you might manage to find one, or you could also shit your pants in the process.

Although that’s unlikely to happen here, so is finding an open pit without Auto Occupy. If you do not have at least VIP 7, trying to use the Pit is extremely futile.

The great thing about VIP is that each new level only adds additional bonuses, so going up to VIP 10 gives you access to all the great stuff you earned before it like Auto Occupy.

At VIP 10 you gain the ability to save your talents into three different lists, which you can set to correspond with the three available talent trees.

This will allow you to swap your talents on the fly to match whatever you intend to do in that moment.

Planning to attack? Load up a set of military talents to improve your attack.

Want to do some gathering? Just load up all the talents that give bonuses to gathering.

You can create three talents sets to be whatever you want them to be. Perhaps you would like a hybrid of the available three? There are a lot of possibilities.

One of the best ways to spend your money in this game for sure.

Subscription

The subscription is also a good way to spend actual money in this game because it gives you rewards daily during reset. But first it gives you four active bonuses that remain on so long as you are subscribed.

Ā 

stamina_replenish

Stamina Replenish
Speed +10%

rareearth-gathering
Rare Earth Gathering

Speed +20%

gathering
Resource Gathering

Speed +50%

maxtroopsize
Max Troop

Size +3000

  • 300x Diamonds

  • 1x Epic Hero Card

  • 1x Adv. Recruit Token

  • 30x 1000 Antiserum

  • 10x Gear Promoter

  • 10x Chip Promoter

  • 10x Module Promoter

  • 10x Cube Promoter

  • 10x Mark of Glory

  • 5x 60-min Speedup

  • 5x 60-min Research Speedup

  • 5x 60-min Training Speedup

Permanent Build Queue

Building in this game is essential, and having the ability to build more than one structure at a time is likewise essential. Now the game does give you access to these temporary hammers, some can be earned throughout the game and others need to be purchased with diamonds.

However, having access to a second build queue is so essential to gameplay, I’m adding this to the things you should purchase with money if you intend to play this game. It’s $4.99 USD and its easily the best money you will ever spend in this game.

Being able to build two things simultaneously will make you so happy that you will wish you could spend even more money to open additional build spots. (Unfortunately, you can’t. It’s a maximum of one build spot + one golden permanent hammer.)

If you are going to play this game everyday, buy the additional hammer, period.

Important first steps

The proper method of attack

Line-Formation 1

It would seem that attacking anything in this game should be an easy task that needs little explanation, however there is a complex set of rules that if you follow will maximize your damage, and reduce casualties.

Ā 

The different troop types

There are four main types of troops (Fighters, Riders, Shooters, and Vehicles) and depending on what you choose when you attack, it can impact the way the game applies damage.

FIGHTERS

Fighters are the first line of defense. They have the highest defense and health of the three major types, but the lowest attack.

Fighters counter Shooters

RIDERS

Riders are considered to the most balanced of the three giving them average attack, defense, and health. They also have the highest marching speed of all troop types.

Riders counter Fighters

SHOOTERS

Shooters have the highest attack of all three major troop types, however they have the lowest defense and health.Ā 

Shooters counter Riders

VEHICLES

Vehicles are not considered one of the three major types as their are no vehicle specializations in the game. Vehicles are the weakest of any type in terms of damage, the slowest in terms of march speed, however the highest in terms of defense and troop load.

For this reason vehicles are great for gathering, albeit slower than any of the three major types. They are also great as cannon fodder, just having vehicles in a rally can reduce overall casualties because they absorb a lot of the damage intended for the three major types.

Ā 

It is important to remember that you are only as fast as your slowest unit. If you attack with only Riders, your march will always attack at its fastest, however if you add even one additional vehicle the entire march will slow to the speed of vehicles, which is not that fast at all. Ostensibly, fighters and shooters will slow down a march as well, however the increase in march time is negligible if compared to vehicles. Thus, any of the troop types combined have a faster march than if you included vehicles.

Understanding Line Formations

Understanding how line formation works will help you to know what troop types to use when rallying. It’s important because the game follows a set of rules on how it assigns offense, defense and damage.

The basic rules are that Fighters line up in the front. They run into battle and absorb the enemy’s front line. They keep your enemy’s fighters busy.

Your Riders then come in behind your Fighters to attack the enemy front line fighters.

Shooters stand in the back and attack the enemy’s Fighters and Riders that are trying to penetrate your front line’s defense.

And any vehicles sit furthest back attacking with projectiles, and absorbing damage intended for your Fighters, Riders and Shooters.

If this sounds familiar it’s because Fighters are infantry, Riders are cavalry, and Shooters are artillery.

These were considered the standard for combat arms since the 14th century when artillery was invented, and are the combat inspiration for the Hasbro© board game RISK™

Ā 

Rallying attacks

There are two parts to any rally, The Leader, and Followers.

When you rally an attack you are allowing others to join your formation and attack together to maximize your damage on the target, whether this is a Zombie Lair, Building or Sanctuary.

You must think of the Line formation when you create your rally, because as the Leader your choice in troop type impacts damage, health and overall casualties for the group.

Therefore it is important to follow this simple guide in terms of how one should rally.

FIGHTERS ⇒ RIDERS ⇒ SHOOTERS ⇒ VEHICLES

This shows the order in which troops line up in a rally. You can see that if you are the leader and you are using Fighters, then all other types can be added to your rally with varying degrees of impact. Riders, Shooters, and Vehicles will reduce the damage you take, while maximizing the damage your rally will do.

It is however, not recommended that those who join your rally do so with troops of the same type as this can negatively impact the rally. Instead stick to the line formation. If you are the leader whatever of the three troop types you choose, those that join should only join with a troop type that lines up behind or below the leader’s troop type.

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The chart above details what troops are safe to join a rally with, based on the Leader of the rally, as well as noting what impact joining with one troop as opposed to a full set of troops, will have on the rally.

Basically if you lead with fighters, join with riders, shooters, and vehicles.

If you lead with riders, join with shooters and vehicles.

And if you lead with shooters, join with vehicles.

When you join a rally with troops of the same type as the leader, the troops are combined, and the damage, attack, and health are averaged among the troops. This can greatly impact the strength of higher tier troops used to lead, when lower tier troops join. This can have an effect on how strong your rally will be against a Zombie Lair.

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The impact is similar on Buildings and Sanctuaries, however because Super Rally is an option not available during a rally on Zombie Lairs, you cannot take advantage of it. Super Rallying allows the Leader of the Rally to apply their stats across all rally members, which can be extremely beneficial if you have a strong rally leader, but weaker rally followers.

Improving Troop and Rally Size

What is Troop Size?

Your troop size is the number of troops combined that you can send out on attacks. Troop size can be increased by upgrading your HQ. Based on your HQ level, there is a base Troop Size number. For example at level 1 your base Troop Size is 2,000. At level 26, your base Troop Size is 79,500.

Might: 24,698,372

Troop Size: 144,000

March Time 00:00:43

Rally Size: 850,000

March Speed: 648%

If we look at the example you can see that the Troop Size is 144,400. With a level 27 HQ the base Troop Size is 84,000 + hero passives, the Research Lab, Nova, and Talents.

In the example there is an additional 60,400 Troops that have been added because of bonuses.

What is Rally Size?

Your Rally Size is the number of troops other players can bring to your rallied attacks. Rally Size can be increased by upgrading your Hall of War.

Based on your Hall of War level, there is a base Troop Size number. For example at level 1 your Rally Size is 40,000. At level 26, your base Rally Size is 810,000.

Looking back at the example above you can see that the Rally Size is 850,000. That is because the Hall of War is level 26 (810,000 + any bonuses provided by Nova, heroes, etc.)

When you look at the Hall of War you will always be given a number that is considered your applicable rally size. To determine your maximum rally size you take that number and combine it with your troop size and that becomes the maximum rally size you can use.

When attacking anything important, events like Zenith Hub or Reservoir Wars, etc. you always want to have the person with the largest Rally Size create the rally.

Then other players can join with their troops adding to the overall number up to its maximum size.

Heroes also provide bonuses to Troop and Rally Size

Heroes like Varvara and Dr. J when evolved increase Troop and Rally sizes respectively. In fact, Troop and Rally Size is so important that getting these two heroes along with Otto evolved should be a major priority for you right from the beginning.

Although there are other heroes that also add to Troop and Rally Size, Varvara, Dr. J, and Otto are three of the easiest. Getting all three of these heroes to +5 level 131 will add a Troop Size Bonus of +20,000 and a Rally Size Bonus of +100,000.

These three 4 star heroes are easy to get, and add tremendous benefits to your army just in their passive bonuses. Adding Eve which is a 5 star hero you can also get for free and getting her enhanced to +5 will add another 20,000 troops to your maximum Troop Size.

There are of course other Epic Heroes you can either purchase or get through special events that add even more bonuses, but as soon as you have access to The Ruins, you should be using your tokens to get Varvara frags which you can then turn in to hire the hero herself.

From that point on using the tokens you can earn everyday in Ruins you can buy the maximum per day of Varvara and enhance her to +5. Be sure to attack zombies and zombie lairs or rally in other players lairs to earn the antiserum you need to upgrade her. Evolving her will require that you spend time in the campaign earning manuals.

Both Otto and Dr. J can be hired through earning their frags at Noah’s Tavern. Use those additional earned frags and be sure to enhance them as quickly as possible.

Ultimately, having very powerful troops is essential, however increasing the number of troops you can attack and rally with is also essential, these two things go hand in hand.​

Available Troop and Rally Size Heroes

HeroTroop SizeRally Size+5+8
Eve+37,500+50,000
Ironclaw+20,000+55,000
Scarlett+10,000+30,000
Lady M+8,000+25,000
Leah+20,000+55,000
Varvara+10,000
Otto+10,000
Agent X+200,000+500,000
Dr. J+100,000

Five Stars

Fighters

Atropos

Troop Skill

Raid HP(passive): increase in sanctuary battle

Raid DEF(passive): increase in sanctuary battle

Raid ATK(passive): increase in sanctuary battle

Atropos is definitely one of the stronger heroes, and not easy to get only available through events.

Reserved for later…

Hanyu Ichiro

Troop Skill

Fighter ATK: increase

Rider ATK: increase

Troop DEF: increase

Hanyu Ichiro is definitely one of the stronger heroes, and not easy to get only available through events.

Reserved for later…

Meyers

Troop Skill

Troop HP: increase

Troop DEF: increase

Troop ATK: increase

Meyers is a solid five star hero and always part of my line up. Because all three of his troop skills boost troop bonus stats you should get him to 211.

When you read his hero skills he is kind of a bewilderment, however while Trapped Potential can make your heroes miss quite often, the increased ATK of 80% does, make up for it. At higher levels he is quite tanky as well, and easily deserves a spot in any person’s lineup.

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Nataly

Troop Skill

Fighter ATK: increase

Shooter ATK: increase

Troop DEF: increase

Nataly is definitely one of the stronger heroes, and not easy to get only available through events.

Reserved for later…

Tomoyo

Troop Skill

Troop HP: increase

Troop DEF: increase

Troop ATK: increase

Tomoyo looks meek but don’t let her appearance fool you. She deals a lot of damage to all foes simultaneously. Bloody Charge-up allows her to heal herself as well. In those campaign and special events where you are only allowed to use a specific color hero, her Avid Rampage can be of some benefit as for 6 rounds it restores 5% Rage per round for all purple heroes.

But more importantly, she is another hero whose troop skills increase all troop bonuses. So she should definitely be upgraded to 131.

Ulrik

Troop Skill

Fighter HP: increase

Fighter DEF: increase

Fighter ATK: increase

OMG, seriously. This guy is a beast. Not only does his troop skills boost all fighter stats, in campaign and duel modes he is just a super tank.

Although his main Troop skill Destiny Bond is slow, it can be forgiven based on his other three skills. If his main skill was fast or even normal Ulrik would be the most broken hero. StrangleĀ Reduces all foes’ DEF by almost half. MightĀ gives Ulrik and inconceivable 20% dodge, and and Towering BodyĀ increases all allies’ DEF by 63%.

If you put him in the front he will most certainly soak up a lot of damage. A top-tier hero, there is excuse not to use him, especially since he is so easy to get.

Zephyr

Troop Skill

Fighter HP: increase

Fighter DEF: increase

Fighter ATK: increase

Zephyr is definitely one of the more interesting heroes as his hero skill Counter MirrorĀ causes counterattacks for 4 rounds whenever he or adjacent allies are hit. It’s quite frustrating in arena when its used against you, and can mean the difference between life and death.

He also has a heal over time like some of the other healers like Eve. He definitely feels like more of a defensive hero than an offensive one, even though he is a fighter himself.

He should be leveled to 131 to get all three troop skills unlocked.

Riders

Angelo

Troop Skill

Rider ATK: increase

Shooter ATK: increase

Troop DEF: increase

Angelo is definitely one of the stronger heroes, and not easy to get only available through events.

Reserved for later…

Fox

Troop Skill

Rider HP: increase

Rider DEF: increase

Rider ATK: increase

Fox is a top-tier hero for a few reasons. She heals all allies for 44% and although with Eve’s other skills she easily outshines Fox, using them together can prove a difficult lineup for an enemy to beat.

Fox can both dispel debuffs and increase defense which means that even though she is a Rider, she acts like a utility type hero in many ways.

Upgrading her to 211 is a must especially if your primary troops are riders, but even if they are not, the fact that she is a five star healer is reason enough to get her evolved.

Levina

Troop Skill

Fighter ATK(passive): increase

Rider ATK(passive): increase

Shooter ATK(passive): increase

Levina is definitely one of the stronger heroes, and not easy to get only available through events.

Reserved for later…

Marlowe

Troop Skill

Troop HP: increase

Troop DEF: increase

Troop ATK: increase

Marlowe is one of the stronger five star heroes. He starts a battle with 30% Rage, which is a good thing because his Tentacle is very slow. Marlowe should be leveled to 131 because his troop skills all increase troop bonuses.

Mars

Troop Skill

Troop HP: increase

Troop DEF: increase

Troop ATK: increase

Mars is one of the top heroes for sure. At higher enhancements his damage is insane. Chaotic SurgeĀ depletes 25% of a target’s Rage and his other two skills are designed to enhance your allies during attack. Tactical Drift at +0 hits for 440 damage by itself.

If that doesn’t pique your interest he is another hero whose troop skills all increase overall troop bonuses. He should definitely be upgraded to 131.

Obsidian

Troop Skill

Rider HP: increase

Rider DEF: increase

Rider ATK: increase

Obsidian is definitely one of the stronger heroes, and not easy to get only available through events.

Reserved for later…

Wali

Troop Skill

Rider ATK: increase

Fighter ATK: increase

Troop DEF: increase

Wali is definitely one of the stronger heroes, and not easy to get only available through events.

Reserved for later…

Shooters

Dara

Troop Skill

Shooter ATK: increase

Fighter ATK: Increase

Troop DEF: increase

Dara is definitely one of the stronger heroes, and not easy to get only available through events.

Reserved for later…

Ephraim

Troop Skill

Shooter HP: increase

Shooter DEF: increase

Shooter ATK: increase

You see Ephraim played a lot in arena, and its not surprising. He can reduce all foes ATK and DEF for 4 rounds, and also has an attack that damages all foes when it hits. When backed up by a good healer like Eve, Ephraim becomes quite impressive.

His troop skills boost shooters, and that’s why he should be upgraded to 131, especially if your primary troops are shooters.

Lora & Jessie

Troop Skill

Shooter ATK: increase

Rider ATK: increase

Troop DEF: increase

Lora & Jessie areĀ definitely one of the stronger heroes, and not easy to get only available through events.

Reserved for later…

Nam Hayul

Troop Skill

Troop HP: increase

Troop DEF: increase

Troop ATK: increase

Nam Hayul is definitely one of the stronger heroes, and not easy to get only available through events.

Reserved for later…

Phoenix

Troop Skill

Shooter HP: increase

Shooter DEF: increase

Shooter ATK: increase

Phoenix should be an addition to anyone’s lineup, whether you are a shooter or not. In Arena very few heroes can compete with her damage.

She begins by increasing her ATK immediately, and again at 5% per round, simultaneously buffing her Rage Regen Rate. This means that without her even attacking she begins regenerating her Rage allowing her to use her Flamethrower skill even before anything happens, as well as increasing the damage she does.

Her Enhance Active Skill applies a debuff that begins dealing massive damage the moment it starts to wear off. Combine this with the fact that when she uses the Flamethrower she deals 205% damage to all foes, and renders them Ignited for 5 seconds. All damage they take during this time is increased.

She is an absolutely brutal Hero to take into Arena. Combine her with FOX and Eve for heals to keep her alive and she can almost single-handedly wipe out a team.

Phoenix is a force to be reckoned with.

Requiem

Troop Skill

Troop HP: increase

Troop DEF: increase

Troop ATK: increase

Unlock Requiem as soon as possible. Her Troop skills all increase Troop stats meaning you want to get her to 211, but she can easily be a hero in your lineup.
Her Inner ForceĀ skill paralyzes enemies, while her other two skills punish those paralyzed.

At higher levels she can stand toe to toe with others and dish out some massive damage at the same time.

Requiem is top-tier and a must grab as soon as you can get her.

Economy

Agent X

Troop Skill

Gathering March: speed increase

Heal: steel cost reduction

Rally Size: increase

Agent X is definitely one of the stronger heroes, and not easy to get only available through events.

Reserved for later…

Chia-hao

Troop Skill

Infirmary Cap: increase

Heal: steel cost reduction

Troop DEF(passive): increase

Chia-hao is definitely one of the stronger heroes, and not easy to get only available through events.

Reserved for later…

Eve

Troop Skill

Gathering: speed increase

Infirmary healing: speed increase

Troop Size: increase

Eve is the best healer in the game hands down. You should get her as soon as possible and upgrade her to 211. She not only out-heals everyone else at 44% but her skills add bonus healing in the form of expediting Rage regen rates, and slow heals over 6 rounds.

But wait there is more. Substitute says “has a chance to revive upon death” which implies that it can be any number from 1 to 100, however in my experience she always revives when taking lethal damage. If I had to guess the chance is extremely likely, and for that reason alone she is the best hero you can get. Not only does she heal all the time, but she resists a death blow which can be the difference between losing and full team heal.

If we move on to her Troop skills she increases gathering speed, infirmary healing speed and troop size.

In duels just seeing her in an opponents lineup can be a scary proposition. If she manages to heal and get her Rage regens off consistently, she can heal a team of all its damage faster than you can dish it out.

Mixed with a second healer a team using Eve can be almost unstoppable under the right conditions.

The day the fairies showed up to sprinkle dust on the heroes someone sneezed and Eve became a Goddess.

Ironclaw

Troop Skill

Research: speed increase

Training: speed increase

Troop Size: increase

Ironclaw is definitely one you should level to 131.  All three of his troop skills are useful to anyone.

I often see this guy in Arena. He hits for quite a bit of damage targeting a foe, and that foe’s adjacent allies. He reduces the target’s Heal rate for 50% and it cannot be dispelled.

Combined with a hero like Eve that can increase the Rage regeneration of allies, Ironclaw’s Metal Ripper becomes insane.

Lady M

Troop Skill

Gathering: speed increase

Rally ATK: increase

Troop Size: increase

Lady M is definitely one of the stronger heroes, and not easy to get only available through events.

Reserved for later…

Leah

Troop Skill

Infirmary Healing: speed increase

Heal: gas cost reduction

Troop Size: increase

Leah is definitely one of the stronger heroes, and not easy to get only available through events.

Reserved for later…

Lee

Troop Skill

Protected Resources: increase

Reinforcement March: speed increase

Troop ATK(passive): increase

Lee is definitely one of the stronger heroes, and not easy to get only available through events.

Reserved for later…

Mantis

Troop Skill