If the 7-Day Roadmap is “what and when,” this page is “what it actually is.” If a word trips you up, check the Glossary; for common mistakes, see Don’t Do This.
About 80% of the questions new members ask in our alliance chat come back to something on this page. Last War’s systems interlock — the HQ unlocks every ceiling, troop counters decide fights, heroes grow in six layers — so once you’ve got this backbone down, every other guide reads faster. Written as of Season 6.
1. Resources — the bottleneck shifts over time
Which resource “blocks” you changes by phase: basic resources early, speedups mid-game, shards late.
Basic resources (food, iron, coins) are the daily fuel for buildings, troops, and research — gathered from the world map and production buildings. They’re a bottleneck early, but you’ll drown in them later. Hero shards unlock specific heroes and raise stars; universal legendary shards work on any UR and are worth hoarding, while named shards apply to a single hero only (50 needed to unlock). Not spilling my universal shards early is one of the few things I got right in my first month. Drone parts are for drone upgrades only — after the Drone Center (unlocks HQ15), the drone is your biggest power source, so collect parts daily.
Diamonds (gems) are the premium currency, and not spending them on small time-skips is the #1 rule for free/light players. Resist the instant-finish button. Speedups cut build/research/training/healing time; don’t sprinkle them the way I did on tiny training jobs — stack them on HQ pushes and event themes for several times the impact. Skill medals are the currency for hero skills, mainly from the weekly Arms Race. And Exclusive Weapon shards / awakening shards are the key late-game growth currency — again, the universal ones are well worth saving.
2. HQ and the base — the key to every ceiling
The HQ level unlocks every ceiling. Max building level, troop tier, feature unlocks, and hero level caps are all tied to the HQ. No other building can exceed your HQ level, so when in doubt, “Does this help raise my HQ?” is almost always the right call.
Early buildings aren’t deep strategy — build whatever unlocks. There are few choices and you’ll need them all anyway. One concept that confuses everyone at first: the personal clock vs the server clock. The HQ is your progress (fill it to unlock features), while server age is shared (it opens seasons, Alliance Duel, SvS). Server-clock events can’t be rushed no matter how high your HQ — this is the answer to almost every “why isn’t that event open for me?” in chat. And don’t over-invest in decorations or mines beyond HQ requirements; raise them only to the required level.
Key milestones (verified)
| Milestone | Condition | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Drone Center | HQ15 | Unlocks the drone (your biggest power source at this point) + T7 troops |
| Capital eligibility | HQ32 | Lets you join the seasonal capital war; huge bonuses if held |
| Oil bottleneck | HQ31 | From here, Oil is required by every upgrade — open Oil Wells early via Special Forces research |
| T11 troops | HQ 27+ & Barracks 35 & Armament Institute (4 researches) | The current top troop tier. The “35” is the Barracks level, not HQ |
| Awakening | Not HQ-gated | Opens with 5★ + Exclusive Weapon Lv20 + 50 awakening shards (see the 6 layers below) |
Common misconception: people say “T11/Awakening needs HQ 35,” but precisely, T11’s key gate is Barracks 35 (HQ only needs to be 27+ to start), and Awakening isn’t tied to HQ level — it opens through hero growth conditions.
3. Troops and counters (rock-paper-scissors)
Heroes and troops split into 3 types. Holding the counter advantage reduces damage taken by 20% — even at equal power, matching the counter is a big edge.
- Tank (armor) → strong vs Missile / weak vs Air
- Missile (missile vehicles) → strong vs Air / weak vs Tank
- Air (aircraft) → strong vs Tank / weak vs Missile
Example: if the enemy’s core is a tank mono squad, bring Air, which is strong against tanks. Conversely, if you run tank mono and get hit by Air, losses spike — I run tank mono myself, so an air lineup always gets a second look from me before I engage. Scout first.
4. Heroes — rarity, role, and growth
Rarity
UR (gold) > SSR (purple) > SR (blue). Only URs can hold Exclusive Weapons and have the highest stat/skill ceilings. Don’t spend rare resources on SR heroes — they fall off fast. Some SSRs (Mason, Violet, Scarlett, Sarah, Venom) can be promoted to UR during the season, so they’re the exception worth raising.
Roles
- Defense (tank): absorbs damage, anchors the front line. Murphy, Williams, etc. — my own front line was Kimberly + Murphy for ages until I got Williams.
- Attack (dealer): main damage, placed in the back line.
- Support: team buffs and sustain. The only UR support is effectively Marshall.
The 6 growth layers — this is your strength
Heroes get strong through six stacked layers. When you’re not sure where to put resources, use this order as your reference.
- Level — raised with EXP. Capped by your HQ level. The early standard is your first main (Murphy) at 80, the rest around 50.
- Stars (★) — up to 5★. They perform from 3★, and 4★ Super Sensory (+20% stats, +10% skill speed) is a big breakpoint. A full 5★ costs about 975 shards.
- Skills — 4 types (auto-attack, tactical, passive, super sensory), each to level 30, using skill medals (mainly from Arms Race). Tanks raise tactical/passive first; dealers raise their attacking skill first.
- Gear — crafted and fused at the gear factory. Four slots per hero; prioritize legendary gear.
- Exclusive Weapon (EW) — unlocked with 5★ + 50 named shards. 30 levels, with skills/appearance/team buffs changing at Lv 1/10/20/30. Lv20 is the breakpoint (+7.5% to the same troop type; prerequisite for awakening). Each season adds one per troop type, in weeks 1/3/6 — 15 total across seasons 1–5.
- Awakening — new in Season 6. Prerequisites: 5★ + EW Lv20 + 50 awakening shards (not tied to HQ level). It swaps in a specialized skill, gives a large stat boost, and changes appearance. Season 6’s first targets: Kimberly (W1), DVA (W3), Tesla (W5). I awakened Kimberly in week 1, and the AoE damage difference is genuinely noticeable.
Formations
A mono squad (5 heroes of the same troop type) is the strongest. It fully benefits from same-type buffs and gains extra stat bonuses after capital occupation. 2 front (tanks) / 3 back (dealers/support) is the basic skeleton. I’ve run tank mono all the way into Season 6. Mixed lineups only make sense late, once Exclusive Weapons are well developed.
5. Alliance and competitive content
The alliance is the core of build help (time cuts), resource support, and attack protection — joining an active one is top priority, since everything progresses faster than solo. SvS (Server vs Server) is the biweekly mega war, structured as a prep week (Sun–Fri) plus the capital battle (Sat), and the prep week matters as much as Saturday; its Valor Medals trade for orange gear in the Black Market. Alliance Duel is the weekly event where the scoring item (build/research/training, etc.) differs by day — burning resources outside the theme scores zero, so check the calendar. Arms Race is your main source of skill medals; concentrating growth actions to its schedule boosts efficiency a lot. And strong zombies, fortresses, and event bosses are taken with a rally, not solo — I lost a full squad early on charging in alone, and that lesson stuck.
6. VIP & spending efficiency (briefly)
VIP level stacks convenience buffs for gathering, training, help, and more. Even as a free/light player it rises naturally through free VIP points and daily packages, so not skipping your daily routine is VIP growth. A full package and value analysis is covered separately in the spending guide.
Unofficial fan-site content · no partnership or sponsorship with the developer · figures may change with game updates (last updated: 2026-07-20).
By: lastwarhub.com
