Arms Race Guide

What Is Arms Race?

Arms Race is the daily individual competition event that runs continuously in Last War: Survival. It is the second-most important event after Alliance Duel VS, and it runs every day — meaning what you do in your day-to-day base development directly competes against ~12-15 other players at your level for daily ranking rewards.

Daily Structure

Arms Race resets at 00:00:00 server time every day. The day is split into six 4-hour slots that cycle through five thematic phases (one phase repeats):

The order of phases inside the six slots varies daily and per-server, so check the Arms Race UI at the start of each day to plan.

The Five Phases

Each 4-hour slot is one of these five phase types. Activities scoring during the active phase count for multiplied points:

1. Hero Advancement

Score points by:

• Levelling heroes (XP gains count, including Hero Trial XP)
• Recruiting new heroes via summons
• Star-progressing heroes (each star milestone)
• Upgrading hero skills

Strategy: stockpile hero EXP books and skill medals during off-phase; use them during this phase. Pull on summon banners during this phase if you're going to pull anyway.

2. City Building

Score points by:

• Completing building upgrades (the moment a build finishes counts, not when you start)
• Power gained from new buildings

Strategy: time your large building completions for this phase. Use construction speed-ups to finish during the phase — start the build before it begins, then speed up to land the completion inside the phase. This is the highest-value use of speed-ups in the game.

3. Unit Progression

Score points by:

• Training new troops
• Promoting troops up tiers (this is huge — see Waterfall Training Guide)
• Power from upgraded units

Strategy: this is the phase where waterfall training pays off. Save your upgrade chain for Unit Progression phases. A staggered barracks setup can earn 3-4x more points by promoting up the chain during this phase than by training fresh troops.

4. Tech Research

Score points by:

• Completing research nodes in the Tech Centre
• Power gained from new tech

Strategy: time your big research completions for this phase. Long research nodes (multi-day) should always finish during a Tech Research phase, not before. Use research speed-ups to land the completion inside the window. Critical for the Special Forces T10 unlock chain — see the T10 Troops Guide.

5. Drone Boost

Score points by:

• Using drone combat data (10 points per use)
• Spending stamina in PvE combat (zombies, monsters, sky predator, rampage bosses)

Strategy: hold stamina and drone data for this phase. Never burn stamina outside the Drone Boost window unless you have a specific reason — you are leaving Arms Race points on the table. Boss event timing should align with this phase wherever possible.

How Scoring Works

Each phase has its own Phase Chest progression:

So 6 badges per phase × 6 slots = 36 badges per day if you maximise every chest in every phase. Realistically, hitting all three chests in every phase requires having activities prepared across all five phase types — most players hit fewer than 30/day.

Daily Goal Chests

In addition to per-phase chests, the daily badge total unlocks Daily Goal Chests with bigger rewards:

• Bronze Daily Chest — unlocks at the lower badge threshold
• Silver Daily Chest — middle threshold
• Gold Daily Chest — typically unlocks at 18 badges total per day for the highest rewards

Daily Goal Chests are where the speed-ups, hero fragments, and EW materials come from. Hitting Gold every day is what separates serious Arms Race players from casual ones.

Daily Ranking

Every day at 00:00 server time, 12-15 Commanders of similar Main Base levels are randomly matched for that day's competition. You compete against this group on total daily points.

Ranking rewards are sent via in-game mail at the end of the day. Higher placement = more rewards (extra badges, extra speed-ups, hero fragments, sometimes Awakening shards or EW materials).

This is where the slot-swap matters (see below) — squeezing ranking by scoring slightly higher than your matched opponents has compounding rewards.

The Slot Swap Feature

Once per day, you can swap your current phase slot with a different time block. The mechanics:

• One swap per day — no repeats
• No extra rewards from swapping — the daily total is still 36 badges max
• Blocked when unclaimed rewards exist in the current block, or when less than 5 minutes remain in the active phase

What slot swap is for

The point of the swap is not to score more — it is to complete two different phase types during a single time period. For example:

• You are mid-day in a Hero Advancement phase, but Unit Progression is the next slot. You have just promoted a big batch of troops via waterfall, but Hero Advancement points are easy and you've already burned through your hero levelling stockpile
• Swap the current slot to Unit Progression — now your troop promotions count for the multiplier

Use cases:

• You miss a phase you were prepared for (oversleep the City Building window) — swap a less-prepared slot to it
• A specific phase aligns with an event happening right now (Zombie Invasion landing in a Drone Boost window your server doesn't currently have)
• You want to stack two strong phases back-to-back when you have a big completion ready

Don't burn the swap on optimization. Save it for when you genuinely need to rebalance.

Optimisation Tips

General Pattern

The day's pattern most serious players use:

1. Check the day's slot order at 00:00 server time (or first time you log in)
2. Plan completions to land inside phase windows — not just any time during the day
3. Save speed-ups for completions, not for starting tasks
4. Hold stamina and drone data until Drone Boost windows
5. Hit at least the second Phase Chest in every phase you can — that's 3 badges per phase × 6 = 18 badges, the typical Gold Daily Chest threshold
6. Use slot swap reactively, not proactively — only when something disrupts your plan

Phase-Specific Stockpiles

Maintain a baseline stockpile for each phase type so you always have ammo:

Coordinate with Alliance Duel VS

Arms Race phases align with VS days but aren't identical:

• VS Day 2 (Building Day): Use this for huge construction completions — they score for both VS and Arms Race
• VS Day 3 (Research Day): Land Tech Research completions here for double-dip points
• VS Day 4 (Hero Day): Hero levelling and skill upgrades count for both
• VS Day 5 (Total Mobilization): Waterfall promotions count for both Arms Race Unit Progression and VS Total Mobilization

Doing big tasks during a VS day that aligns with the matching Arms Race phase is the highest-yield play in the game. Land a Tech Centre upgrade during a VS Research Day in a Tech Research Arms Race phase = triple-dip points.

Spending Arms Race Badges

Arms Race Badges are spent in the Arms Race shop on:

• Speed-ups (construction, research, training)
• Hero shards for heroes featured that week
• Decoration upgrade materials — see the Decorations Tier List
• Skill medals
• Resources (Food, Iron, Coins) — generally low-value spending

The shop rotates; check daily.

Common Mistakes

• Burning stamina outside Drone Boost — biggest single Arms Race leak. Save stamina for the phase
• Speeding up construction at random times — speed-ups are most valuable when they cause a completion to land inside the matching phase
• Forgetting to claim Phase Chests — chest rewards don't auto-claim. Open them at the end of each phase or you lose the badges
• Splitting big projects across phases — a building upgrade started 30 minutes before a phase ends finishes during a different phase. Time starts and speed-ups to maximise overlap
• Burning the slot swap proactively — save it for emergencies (missed phase, specific event)
• Hitting only the first Phase Chest — the second and third chests give 5 of the 6 badges per phase. Push harder
• Ignoring matchup ranking — every additional badge over a same-bracket opponent improves your daily ranking, which compounds rewards

Related Guides

• Alliance Duel VS Guide (Pre-Season 1) — coordinate with VS days for double-dip points
• Waterfall Training Guide — Unit Progression phase yields 3-4x more points using waterfall promotion
• T10 Troops Guide — time research completions to Tech Research phases
• Daily Routine — fitting Arms Race into a daily play schedule
• Sky Predator Guide — boss combat that scores during Drone Boost
• Zombie Siege Guide — defence-focused PvE event
• Decorations Tier List — Arms Race Badge spending priority for upgrades