← Back to General Guides

Survivors Guide — HQ Survivors and Building Assignments

Core Mechanics · 2026-04-26

What Are Survivors?

Survivors are NPC characters you recruit and assign to buildings or roles in your base. They come in two distinct categories with different mechanics:

  1. HQ Survivors — special unique survivors (Adventurer Taylor, Agent Shirley, etc.) that provide permanent account-wide buffs once unlocked
  2. Building Survivors — generic survivors recruited into specific buildings to boost their output (training capacity, resource production, etc.)
Two Different Systems with the Same Name

HQ Survivors are unlocks. Building Survivors are assignments. HQ Survivors are permanent character unlocks gated by VIP level or events. Building Survivors are generic NPCs you recruit and assign to specific buildings for boosts. Don't confuse the two — they are independent systems.

HQ Survivors

HQ Survivors are unique named characters that grant permanent buffs to your account. They are unlocked at specific VIP levels or through events, and once earned, they stay forever.

Adventurer Taylor (VIP 1)

The first HQ Survivor every player gets. Unlocked the moment you hit VIP 1 (which most players reach in their first week of play).

  • Role: Radar treasure bonus
  • Effect: Increases the rewards you get from completing radar missions
  • Why it matters: Radar missions are a daily activity from HQ 5+. Taylor stacks small bonuses across hundreds of radar runs over your account's life
  • Unlock cost: Free at VIP 1 — accessible to every player in their first 1-2 weeks

Agent Shirley (VIP 8)

The most-cited HQ Survivor unlock and a major mid-game power spike.

  • Role: March size + attack bonus
  • Effect: Permanent increase to your maximum march size and squad attack stat
  • Why it matters: March size affects every rally, every PvE attack, every gathering trip. The attack bonus stacks with all other multipliers
  • Unlock cost: VIP 8 (50,000 cumulative VIP points). Roughly 250 days at the F2P 200/day baseline; faster with VIP packs
Why Agent Shirley Is a Real Spending Milestone

Agent Shirley at VIP 8 is the second-most-important VIP unlock after the second builder at VIP 6. The march size bonus directly increases your damage output in every rally and PvE event. If you are pushing VIP for power gains, VIP 6 → VIP 8 is the natural progression. Past VIP 8, returns diminish steeply until VIP 11+.

Other HQ Survivors

The game introduces additional HQ Survivors through season events and higher VIP tiers. Each typically provides a different niche bonus:

SurvivorCommon Effect Categories
Combat-focusedMarch size, troop ATK, troop DEF, troop HP
Economy-focusedResource production, gathering speed, build speed
Event-focusedRadar treasure, expedition rewards, event point multipliers
Training-focusedTraining speed, training capacity, troop tier bonuses

The exact roster varies by game version. Check the in-game Survivor menu for your account's current options.

Building Survivors

The other type — generic NPCs you recruit and assign to specific buildings to boost their output.

How Recruitment Works

  • Recruit through the Recruit Centre (or equivalent building)
  • Each recruitment cycle takes time and produces 1+ survivors
  • Survivors come in different rarities — higher rarity provides bigger bonuses
  • You can have multiple survivors waiting in your survivor pool, ready to be assigned

Where to Assign Building Survivors

Different buildings benefit from survivor assignments differently. Priority order:

BuildingSurvivor EffectPriority
Barracks (training buildings)Increases training capacity per cycle. More troops trained per sessionHighest — directly accelerates army size and waterfall training
HospitalIncreases healing capacityHigh during competitive seasons; lower during pre-season
Resource Production buildingsBoosts resource generation rateLow — most resources come from events, not passive production
Tech Centre / Research buildingsOften no direct survivor slot, but can interact with research speed via other survivorsVaries by version
Drone Centre / Special buildingsSpecific bonuses to that building's outputSituational

Why Barracks Survivors Win

The Barracks survivor assignment is consistently the highest-value placement because:

  • Training capacity directly multiplies your waterfall training output — see the Waterfall Training Guide
  • VS Day 5 (Mobilisation) scoring is proportional to troops trained that day
  • Army recovery between SvS and Marshal's Guard events depends on training throughput
  • Higher tier troops require longer training — capacity matters more, not less, as you progress
The Barracks Assignment Rule

Assign your highest-rarity survivors to the barracks running training cycles. If you are running waterfall training across multiple barracks (5-7 barracks staggered), prioritise the busiest ones. A high-rarity survivor on an idle barracks does nothing; the same survivor on an active barracks compounds across every training cycle.

Managing the Survivor Pool

  • Don't hoard survivors in the pool — assigned survivors produce bonuses; pooled ones don't
  • Reassign when buildings change purpose — if a barracks goes idle for a while, move its survivor elsewhere
  • Recruit consistently — survivor recruitment is slow; daily progress matters
  • Higher rarity > more survivors — one S-tier survivor often outvalues two B-tier ones

Survivor Recruitment Strategy

Recruiting survivors costs in-game currency and time. The economics:

AspectNotes
Recruit Centre upgradesHigher levels unlock better survivor recruitment chances. Keep this building competitive with HQ
Daily recruitmentRun recruitment every day. Skipped days are skipped survivors
Premium recruitmentSome events offer higher-rarity survivor recruitment for premium currency. Worth it during major HQ pushes
Survivor experienceSome survivors can be levelled up over time. Don't sleep on this — gradual gains compound

Common Survivor Mistakes

  1. Forgetting to assign survivors to buildings — sitting in the pool is wasted bonus
  2. Keeping low-rarity survivors assigned when better ones are available — replace constantly
  3. Spreading assignments across many buildings instead of focusing the active ones — one fully-buffed barracks beats three half-buffed
  4. Ignoring the Recruit Centre upgrade path — slower recruitment means fewer survivors over your account's life
  5. Conflating HQ Survivors with Building Survivors — different systems, don't waste recruitment effort trying to summon Adventurer Taylor (she's a VIP 1 unlock)
  6. Skipping VIP 8 push for Agent Shirley — major march size bonus
  7. Not checking the Survivor menu for unannounced new survivors — seasonal events sometimes add survivors quietly
  8. Hoarding survivors during VS Day 5 prep — survivors should be assigned to busy barracks before Friday, not after

Related Guides