Last War: Survival Guides, Tier Lists & Strategies
The community vault for Last War: Survival players. Hero tier lists, squad builds, alliance tactics, event cards, calculators and in-depth walkthroughs for every season — written by real players, not generic filler.
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Build your best squad from the heroes you actually own
Not another generic tier list — the Squad Builder weighs your stars, exclusive weapon, skills and gear to pick your strongest squad for any objective, auto-places your gear, and explains why each hero sits where it does.
Free tools & calculators
All tools →Research CalculatorEvery Tech Center tree — the exact Iron, Food, Gold, Valor and time you have left.Tech Center PriorityWhat to research for your goal — damage, survivability, growth — ranked by value per resource.Unit X (T10) CalculatorExact resources to finish the Special Forces tree and unlock T10 troops.Weapon Shards CalculatorShards to take your exclusive weapon from where it is now all the way to 30.Upgrade PlannerPlan a building push — total cost and time, and whether your resources and speedups cover it.Pack OptimiserSupporterFind the best-value packs for your spend before you buy.
What's New
Full history →- UpdatedThe Squad Builder now shows you the mixed squad it turned downA supporter wrote in to say the Squad Builder "essentially just puts heroes according to their types rather than proper meta", and they were describing something real. On PvP, PvE, Boss Rally, Zombie Siege and Digging Stronghold every squad it had ever shown you was five of one troop type, so if you run a four-plus-one you had no way to tell whether the tool had considered your line-up and rejected it or had never looked. It had considered it. That working just was not visible anywhere. Every squad on every objective now carries a Mixed option section: the best off-type swap it priced, which hero comes out, which goes in, and what the model makes of the trade. The recommendation itself has not changed for anybody. On the three-and-four-squad setups — Everyday, Arena 3v3, Desert Storm — it works differently, and the difference is worth reading. There the hero you would want is never on your bench, because that hero is already carrying another squad. So it is a trade rather than a promotion, and BOTH squads fall from five-of-a-type to four, which means the formation step is paid twice, not once. That is why those come back negative far more often than the single-squad ones do, and the section says which squad the hero would come out of. On the Wanted and Rampage boss the question runs the other way round, because that objective already fields off-type heroes where they earn it — so there it tells you what the tidy same-type version of your squad would cost you instead. Two things you may find useful even if you never open that section. First, breaking a same-type squad is much cheaper than people assume: going from five of a type to four costs you 4.35%, not the whole 20%, because you keep the 15% rung. So an off-type hero earns that slot whenever they are more than about 4.3% better than the hero they replace, which a hero a full tier higher often is. Second, there are two things working against a splash that are easy to miss. The troop-type counter is per hero, not per squad, so an off-type hero does not borrow the counter the squad was picked for. And drone chips, research and Troop Centers are per troop type as well, so a splashed hero arrives on their own type's investment rather than the squad's — if your Tank line is the one you have built, an Aircraft hero joins it without the chips the others are enjoying. We had been getting that second one wrong in our own maths, and fixing it changed which hero the swap picks. The Squad Building guide has been corrected too: it used to say flatly to always go mono-type, which is the right default but was stated harder than the numbers support. One honest caveat on the new section: the size of the troop-type counter is something the game never publishes, so it cannot be put into that percentage in either direction. Treat it as an option worth testing rather than a verdict. And one note on where to find it — it is a section button under the squad, next to Invest next, so you will need to click it; the builder opens on Everyday Setup by default. Also fixed, and worth knowing if you ever filled in the spreadsheet by hand: a cell reading "Max" in a skill column used to import as zero, silently. It now reads as maxed, anything still unreadable gets named back to you instead of quietly becoming nought, and a near-miss hero name is now answered with "did you mean Morrison?" rather than a bare count of rows skipped. That one cost a player a whole hero to a single transposed letter.24 Oct 2026 · 13:40Open →
- AddedGeneral's Trial — which Sky Predator Station your alliance should pickThe General's Trial now ends in an alliance boss fight, and an officer has to choose a difficulty before anyone can swing at it — once, with no going back. There is a new guide and a new shareable card for it. The first thing worth saying is that there is no alliance power requirement anywhere in it. Nothing asks for a combined total. Each Sky Predator Station needs a headcount of members who have personally cleared a given Solo difficulty, and that requirement stops climbing surprisingly early: twenty members who can clear Advanced 6 on their own unlocks every station in the event, stations VIII, IX and X included. The second thing is the one that decides your rewards. The two progress bars do not scale together at all. Going from station IV up to station X raises your own top target by a fifth — 800M to 960M — while raising the alliance's top target twenty times over, from 40G to 800G. The difficulty an officer picks is setting the alliance bar and almost nothing else, so pick on what the alliance can total in thirty minutes and stop worrying about protecting individual members. There is a wall, and it is at station V. On stations I to IV the top alliance target is exactly fifty times the top personal one, which means fifty members each finishing their own bar clears it — those four are turnout events. From station V that relationship breaks: you would need 119 members at a full personal bar, then 227, then 435, and 833 at the top three. No alliance has 833 members, so past that point the top target is only reached by your heaviest hitters going far beyond their own bar. The guide has every station's damage ladder, the recommended power for all eighteen Solo difficulties, a table of the average damage each member needs at 25, 30, 40 and 50 fighters, and the Warlord Missile timing that a lot of your damage rides on. Two warnings worth repeating here: it cannot be started in the final two hours of the event, and unused Trial Keys are reclaimed when the event ends — open your chests before then, and do not change alliance while you are holding keys. One housekeeping note: the game uses the name Sky Predator for two completely unrelated events, the week-long warzone airship you build and this 30-minute boss you shoot down. Both guides and both cards now say which is which at the top.21 Oct 2026 · 08:05Open →
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New season guides, new tools, and what's shifting in the meta — a short Friday email, only when there's something worth sending.
General Guides
Core mechanics and fundamentals that apply regardless of season.
65 guidesTech Center
What to research in the Tech Center and in what order, phase by phase — from the pre-season foundation through every season's focus.
9 guidesFree 2 Play (F2P)
How to progress and stay competitive without spending — phase by phase. Free currency sources, the daily routine that matters, and what to prioritise. The Pre-Season guide is free; each season guide is supporter content.
7 guidesGuides by Season
Pre-Season through Season 6 — pick a season for its full guide set.
137 guidesEverything you need for Last War: Survival
Last War Vault is the independent community knowledge base for Last War: Survival players. We maintain 218+ free guides covering every core mechanic — from your first day as a new player to end-game alliance warfare. Whether you are looking for the current hero tier list, the best squad builds, a proven daily routine, or fuller detail on each season's meta, you will find it here.
Popular resources
- Hero Tier List & Database — every hero ranked for PvP, PvE, Rally, VS Day and Zombie Siege with searchable stats, skills and synergies.
- Hero Awakening Guide — Season 6's flagship progression system: prerequisites, shard sources, and the Kimberly/DVA/Tesla unlock schedule.
- PVP Squad Setup Guide — Tank/Aircraft/Missile PVP formations, the Murphy rule, offensive rally vs garrison defence, and Enemy Buster strategy.
- Arms Race Guide — the five phase types, six 4-hour slots, badge thresholds for Phase Chests and Daily Goal Chests, and the slot-swap feature.
- Getting Started Guide — the new-player walkthrough: what to do from day one, what to avoid, and how to set yourself up for long-term growth.
- Squad Building Guide — mono-type bonuses, front/back row placement, and the combat triangle explained.
- Alliance Duel VS Guide — day-by-day scoring, Enemy Buster day, and how to carry your alliance.
- Fastest Path to T10 Troops — unlock requirements, the Special Forces fast path, coin farming, and why promotion beats training.
- Exclusive Weapons Guide — the 30-level system, the Level 20 sweet spot (and Hero Awakening prerequisite), and which weapons to invest in first.
- SSR to UR Upgrade Guide — the six promotable heroes (Mason, Violet, Scarlett, Sarah, Venom, Braz), season unlock windows and what gets refunded.
- Decorations Tier List — every UR decoration ranked S to D and which to upgrade first for the 2026 meta.
- Quick-Reference Cards — downloadable cheat sheets for squad formations and VS days you can pull up in-game.
- Calculators — hero EXP, HQ resources, drone parts, skill medals, gear cost, and Hero Awakening shard calculators.
- Training Planner & HQ Build Planner — personalised step-by-step plans for troop training and HQ 1-35 upgrades with Oil tracking.
- Progression Tables — drone components, hero XP, HQ costs, star shards and other data tables.
Guides for every season
Last War: Survival rotates through seasonal maps, each introducing new mechanics, heroes and meta shifts. Our guide library is organised by season so you can jump straight to what applies to your current stage:
- General Guides — core mechanics and fundamentals that apply across every season.
- Pre-Season 1 — strategies, builds and squad guides for the pre-season meta.
- Season 1: The Crimson Plague — Exclusive Weapons, T10 troops and updated squad builds.
- Season 2: Polar World — temperature management, Rare Soil ranking and survival in the polar region.
- Season 3: Golden Realm — Curse Resistance, Desert Protectors, Goldust Conquest and ancient Egypt conquest.
- Season 4: Evernight Isle — Lighthouse mechanics, Tactics Cards, Copper Conquest and the path to T11 troops.
- Season 5: Wild West — Bank Strongholds, CrystalGold economy, Caffeine Institute and Trade Train.
- Season 6: Lost Rainforest — faction warfare (Deepwood vs Wetland), the Altars system, permanent City Destruction, Hero Awakening for Kimberly, DVA and Tesla, and Global Expedition.
Ad-free and community driven
Last War Vault runs with no ads and no AI-generated filler. General guides, calculators, cards and tools are free. Season 1+ guides are unlocked with a supporter pass — paying readers fund new seasons and get the full playbook as each one drops. The site is maintained by active Last War: Survival players. See the FAQ for details, or browse the support options.