In Last War, the biggest time sinks aren’t the things you didn’t do — they’re the things you did wrong. Below are the mistakes new players regret most, and about half of them are mistakes I personally made. Avoiding even one saves you days. (Read alongside the 7-Day Roadmap and Core Systems.)
Every time new players join our alliance I watch them repeat the same handful of mistakes, and as an R4 I got tired of typing the same warnings into chat. So here’s the whole list in one place, still accurate as of Season 6.
Account & server
Leaving the default numeric name. A name like Commander123456 gets read as an abandoned account and rejected by stronger alliances. We do the same filtering in our own applications — in my experience, most numeric-name accounts really do quit within days. Don’t get filtered out unfairly; change it the moment you start.
Eyeing a transfer because you dislike your server. Server transfers only open after Season 1 ends. You can’t move before then, and even after, you’d have to rebuild progress. Lock down an alliance here first.
Hero investment
Spreading hero investment — the worst mistake I’ve made in this game. Early on I fed EXP to six or seven heroes at once. Everything felt like it was progressing, until a month in, when a guildmate who started the same week was massively ahead of me in power. He’d focused on one hero from day one; my roster was uniformly mediocre. I only caught up after funneling everything into Murphy. Take one hero all the way at a time.
Spending rare resources on SR (blue) heroes. They fall off fast. Reserve rare resources for URs and key SSRs.
Hoarding Exclusive Weapon shards on a hero that isn’t 5★. The EW requires 5★, so it can’t even be unlocked before that. There’s nothing sadder than a pile of shards sitting locked.
Dribbling several Exclusive Weapons to Lv10 each. Zero impact. Push one to Lv20, then move on. (Lv20 is the +7.5% breakpoint and the awakening prerequisite.) Even the whales in our alliance work this way — one weapon to 20, then the next. Nobody parks three weapons at 10.
Dumping awakening shards while ignoring the prerequisite. Awakening can’t start without EW Lv20, and it’s not tied to HQ level. I awakened Kimberly in week 1 of Season 6, and honestly, collecting the 50 shards wasn’t the hard part — having the 5★ → EW Lv20 prerequisites already filled was what made it possible. Do them in order.
Burning universal legendary shards on SR heroes. Universal shards work on any UR and are precious. Spilling them on SRs or heroes you won’t raise is something you’ll deeply regret late. Hoarding wins.
Troops & resources
Over-training troops you can’t heal. Training and healing both take a long time. Get stuck behind a pile of wounded and your whole progress stalls. Train only what you can manage.
Over-investing in decorations/mines beyond HQ requirements. The biggest time trap in the marathon. Only up to the required level.
Burning speedups on small things. I dribbled mine away on minor training and healing jobs early on, then sat there for days with nothing left when my HQ push actually needed them. Stack them on the HQ push — the payoff is several times bigger.
Not preparing Oil before HQ31. From HQ31, Oil is required by every upgrade. Without Oil Wells open, your HQ stalls even with surplus Food/Iron. Open Oil Wells early via Special Forces research. The gap between people who knew this in advance and people who didn’t is measured in days.
Neglecting Hospital capacity. Wounded beyond your capacity aren’t treated and simply die. In my first SvS I marched out without thinking about hospital space, the wounded overflowed, and a big chunk of them were just gone. Since that day I check the hospital before every fight. Keep capacity at 70%+ of the wounded to cut losses.
Wasting diamonds (gems). Don’t spend them on small time-skips or instant-finishes. Save them for high-value uses.
Attacking without scouting. Charging in without seeing the enemy lineup means losing the counter matchup and burning troops. I run tank mono, and whenever I’ve gone in blind and hit an air lineup, my hospital fills up for the day. Scout the troop type first before you hit and run.
Events
Burning speedups on a day that doesn’t match the event theme. Events like Alliance Duel score different items by day (build/research, etc.). I once dumped a stack of research speedups without checking the day’s theme and threw away the entire score. Outside the theme it’s zero points. Check the calendar before spending.
Playing events solo. In an early event I couldn’t be bothered to wait for a rally, charged in alone, and lost the whole squad. Lesson learned: always rally. Charging in alone just burns troops.
Neglecting the SvS prep week. The prep week (Sun–Fri) matters more than Saturday’s battle. Neglect it and you lose your invasion footing before it even starts.
Going offline during SvS without a shield. An unshielded base is a troop graveyard. Stock shields in advance.
Spending (if you will)
I’m a light spender, so these lessons cost me real money. Early on I got baited by a “Limited!” banner into a resource package with terrible value, and ever since, I run the gems-per-dollar math before buying anything.
Letting the first-purchase bonus slip by. The first purchase ($0.99 tier) happens only once and has the best gems-per-dollar. If you’ll spend at all, start here.
Missing the new-player package / 7-day login. Top-tier value. Grab them whether or not you spend.
Expecting % buffs without VIP active (time) on. Even at a high VIP level, build/production speed buffs don’t apply while VIP is inactive. Keep it running non-stop (e.g., via the monthly pass) to get your full value.
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By: lastwarhub.com
