Last Shelter: Player's Guide
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Last Shelter Guides:
Game Concepts
Your main base will need a source outside itself for resources. Upgrading your base is easy up to level 15 then the cost of upgrades become ridiculously expensive in terms of money and resources. They raise exponentially as you go up into the 20's.
Some players will purchase the extra resources while most will attack other players to gain extra resources in the first month of the state. At first many people will start the game then get bored and leave. This will leave abandoned bases through-out the state in various levels. These accounts will eventually drop off the system for inactivity (2 weeks).
Most alliances will create a farm alliance under their protection and you will need farm accounts or a deep wallet. Look at my post on creating farms. You need to create farms accounts in the first few months while there are other bases available for farming so they are ready when there's few bases available. Most alliances will agree on some sort of Non-Aggression Pact (NAP) but this still leaves a lot of bases for farming.
Alliances
You should watch the rankings of the alliances in the state (Menu > Rankings > Alliance Power Ranking) and what the NAP is. Join a top alliance as soon as possible otherwise your base will probably be farmed by everyone on a daily basis. It's good to develop friendship with other alliance members but it's more important to stay inside NAP so you can grow.
Once in the alliance, you should donate to alliance technology as often as possible. However, don't throw all your diamonds at the donations. If you have some extra then donate up to 10 times on each open alliance technology. This will gain points you can redeem in the alliance store and alliance tech provides various boost.
Commander
The leader of the alliance. They are responsible for mergers and make the final calls on rules and actions taken by the alliance. They are usually the first point of contact for other alliances. The burden of command is a terrible thing. You must appear to always know the answer to problems (whether you do or not) and be fair to your members. Your alliance members are the most important resource and you must demonstrate good leadership skills to gain the loyalty of your members. Showing indecision or ignorance will not inspire leadership leading to your alliance having a quick turn over rate.
Guardian
This will usually be the strongest player in the alliance. Their job is to protect the alliance from other alliances and players. They are in charge of reinforcements and retaliations.
Recruiter
The job is the title. This person should try to recruit new members and work on getting alliance mergers.
Overseer
This person keeps alliance members in line with the rules of the alliance and state. Often they handle all rank changes, announcements, and kicking of people for repeat violations.
Diplomat
This person handles all communications from other alliances.
Aditional R4
The remaining R4s assist the other appointed positions and serve as back up.
Micro Transactions
This game is full of packages you can purchase. Generally, the only packages that are worth buying are the Project Hero and Arms Supply. Limit other purchases to small $5 or $10 packages and try to get them during state events if at all. I recommend buying extra courage medals so you can finish the Zone Commemoration branch because the extra rewards gained will pay dividends during events.
Larger packages provide limited value compared to cost and will go quickly.
You can spend $800 for 100,000 diamonds and push a base from Level 3 up to Level 10 in a day. You can achieve level 14 if you limit diamond use to complete upgrades when you have the resources for the upgrade. Once above level 15, 100,000 diamonds won't be enough to complete one complete level of upgrades. The purchases don't go far and that is why I don't recommend spending a large amount of money in the game unless you recently won the lottery.
Payers(Pay to Win)
This game is a pay to win. Unfortunately, there is no amount of skill or strategy that will beat a player willing to swipe the card often. It is nearly impossible to finish the zone com research or max heros without spending money. It is even worse for the seasonal heros because the last 4 skills all require a duplicate medals.
In every state there are players (or payers) who will spend money to upgrade their base quickly and dominate the state. Typically, these players will try to control the state since few can match their purchased might. These plays spend thousands of dollars from $7,000 to $20,000 USD. These accounts are a poor investment and are sold for less than $1000.
The game's rules and currency conversion is unfair. The prices are based on the US dollar. For example, If a currency is converted $1 to 7 Lira then people in Turkey will pay 40 Lira for something that cost $5 (4.50 UK Pound) in the USA. However, the Yuan conversions are the opposite. If something cost $5 then it will be 0.50 Yuan. The game makes Chinese states (States for Mainline China players) that no one outside China can join or migrate to/from. These become super states due to the artificially low prices and are matched against everyone else in events.
These states also get a head start of at least a minute on declaring in the Doomsday event. This means you will have no choice if you are targeted by one of these super states. These states also get cheats like being able to locate your base anywhere on the map even after using a random transport or dropping your shield. The developers have denied the favoritism. Many players have experienced these cheats and many people from these states have admitted to the abilities.
Building Upgrades
For bases below 10, concentrate on upgrading your base level and select Farmer class at level 7. Keep your Research the first 7 technologies in the "Rapid Production" branch as soon as possible. You can run rapid production on each resource plot each time it's upgraded. This will give you a boost in resources.
Don't build anything you don't need. eg: Architecture building. Buildings you don't need should be moved off grid (disconnected from the road) including the garages. You can move buildings off that you aren't currently using like the training camps. This way they don't consume electricity when you don't need them.
You should try to get to base 25 as soon as possible. The event rewards increase with each base level and are best at level 25.
You must build:
Garrison (for 5 > 6)
Buildings that must match the base level:
3 > 4 - Windmill
5 > 6 - Bank
8 > 9 - Bunk
9 > 10 - Hospital
10 > 11 - Lumbermill
11 > 12 - Farm
12 > 13 - Lumbermill
13 > 14 - Shooting Range
14 > 15 - Bank
15 > 16 - Embassy
16 > 17 - Vehicle Factory/Garrison Hall
17 > 18 - Farm
18 > 19 - Power Plant
18 > 19 - Bank
19 > 21 - Water Filter
Unit Levels
Keep your Shooting Range and Vehicle factory up to your base level as you upgrade your base. At certain levels a new unit is available, at these points you should upgrade all your units, resource structures, banks, and houses to your base level.
- Level 10
- Level 13
- Level 16
- Level 19
- Level 22
Raider and Other Class types
I prefer to change to Raider at level 10 once I have upgrades all my units. You can wait till level 13 if you prefer. Farmer class generate a high level of resources and excel at gathering, but they do not generate a lot of money. You can generally sell off extra resources for money so it's possible to stay as a farmer as long as you wish. The problem is the farmer is not effective at combat due to penalties, but it does have a high resource protection level meaning raider can't take all of your resources.
After the first launch center, you could pick the builder class because it helps base upgrades. It's similar to the trader without the special building.
The other class type is trader that doesn't have a combat penalty and generates a lot of money. They don't generate a large amount of resources, but the trader can exchange money and diamonds for resources in the trading post similar to the commercial hub.
Raiding other bases or your own farm accounts is the only way to consistently have enough resources to upgrade outside of purchasing resources with micro-transaction. Unlike the other classes, you can always find another base or add another farm.
Due to competition for resources, you will need to transport your base away from your alliance hive to raid successfully if you are not using farms. The best place to raid is to be near several low lever alliances. Most bases lower than level 9 are not worth the trip. Always scout the base before you attack to make sure they have at least a full load of resources.
The class APC as a raider is the only thing able to take cash from the target base. The amount of case you can take is about 2.5% of the total capacity of your APC. The amount of cash taken can be boosted by researching the Load Improvement (Class APC), Transport Improvement (Vehicle Training), and Carrying Capacity (Zone Commemoration).
The APC barracks should be kept to your base level to maximize the unit capacity. The more units you can put in an APC the more the capacity of the APC. Other raider important buildings are the trap building and garrison (available at level 15). These buildings should also be kept up to your base level. The raider gets bonus from the trap building that others don't get making them more powerful on the map.
Power
Your power is determined in the following order:
- Technology
- Heros
- APC Parts
- Unit Level
- Buildings
Research
Technology is the most important thing in the game and you should never compromise researching technology for buildings or events. Lower level units can defeat up to 2 tiers above with superior technology. Save as many of your speed ups as possible for use on advancing your research but don't use them until a daily or state event.
Keep your institute building level with your base up until level 15. The building provides a research boost at level 15 (Fast Research 75%). The next boost doesn't come till level 20 so once the institute is at level 15 you won't need to worry about it until your base is at level 20.
Your research should focus on the following trees:
- Base Development
- Class APC
- APC I
- Vehicle Training
- Shooter Training
- Basic Military
- Medical Advancements
- Zone Commemoration - This tree should be researched as much as possible once it becomes available. This will boost your points during State Events.
- Rapid Production - Don't research past Paradigm Shift until you have completed the 7 branches.
- Basic Combat - Don't research past Recycle Resources until after the 7 branches.
- Zone Commemoration
- Shooter Training
- Fighter Training
Heros
Heros are the second most important thing in the game. You should keep the Hero Hall up to your base level because this gives better hero experience bonus. The best heros are in this order:
- Orange
- Purple
- Blue
- Green
Unlock and upgrade skills as needed to complete daily task but keep most of your resources for hourly or state events. Unlock and upgrade the skills for your hero APC as often as possible to increase your offensive and defensive abilities. Additionally, all the purple and orange heros have an "Awakening" skill and your goal should be to unlock this skill as soon as possible. The awakening is the most difficult to unlock because it requires a medal of the same hero.
The military blue and green heros don't provide much value and should be split in order to exchange for wisdom medals. Orange heros are the best and should never be exchanged for medals. You should limit the number of blue and purple hero medals you exchange for wisdom medals because they are required to unlock skills of other hero.
First, concentrate on upgrading the first skill of each hero in your APC. This skill increases the number of units on the row the hero is stationed. This will boost your APC power quickly.
Arranging heros properly in your APC is the most important factor. Pay close attention to the hero skills as some are specific to a type of unit. eg: Shooters, vehicles, and fighters. The second important skill attribute is the range. The range is how farm they can attack which is calculated from their position in the APC forward. A hero on the third row with a range of three will only be able to attack the first row of the enemy APC.
6 of the purple heros have a link ability which means they get additional bonus when in the same APC. The best defensive configuration in your All Shooter APC is the "Gun for Hire: Selina", "Gonzalex: The Veteran", and "Bart the Professional".
There are many factors the heros control in your APC. Keep in mind this is a general outline and not all heros have the same type of skills. You should read each skill when considering configuration. Skills can affect the APC and Row. The skills can be specific as to impact your (Friendly) APC or the enemy APC.
APC parts affect all of the attributes which depends on the part level and the part types being applied.
- Troop Load - The primary skills are the first and sixth skill. (Your barracks level also contributes) This is used to calculate the damage done and a higher count will delay the formation collapsing due to low moral.
- Might - This is the damage done by your APC. The primary skills are 4, 6, and 7. The war rooms impact this for APC with all the same type of units. The trap house (Raider Class only) also affects this.
- Resistance - This is affects the damage taken by your APC. The primary skills: 3, 6, and 7. The war rooms impact this for APC with all the same type of units. The trap house (Raider Class only) also affects this.
- Tactical Might - This is the damage done by the hero skills.
- Tactical Resistance - This is affects the damage taken from the enemy hero skills. The Garrison hall affects this value.
- Hit Point (HP) - This is the amount of damage that can be taken by your APC. Skills: 6 and 7
- Combat Speed - This determines who gets the first attack.
- Marching Speed - This is how fast your APC travels in the world map.
APC Parts
You should produce parts specific for the purpose of the APC. Ranger Parts for an all shooter APC, Phanton parts for an all vehicle APC, and Trail blazer parts for the APC while you are gathering.
Work on upgrading your parts factory to at least level 5 when it's available at base level 16. You need to work on upgrading the factory and research parts technology with the goal to max both as soon as possible.
The quickest way to get orange and eventually gold parts without spending large amounts of money is to produce green "Common" materials (available by the part technology). The method I use is to produce enough materials to make 16 blue parts. This will require 16 green materials for each blue material needed to produce the target part. Save all the materials and make the blue parts on the CoZ build event. Finally, combine the completed parts from Blue to Purple to Orange.
It is quicker to complete 16 blue parts even though the resource cost is about the same for making 16 blue materials or 1 gold material. You will end up spending more diamonds for speed ups to make gold materials.
It takes 256 green materials to make one orange material and each green material cost 960 diamonds for an 8 hour speed up. One blue part will cost 16 green materials and 700 diamonds (Finish Now) and about 800 energy cores.
I always work on getting orange parts for my APC before working toward getting gold. You can use "Any Speed up" hourly events to hurry material production and buy extra materials from the commercial hub and exchange for energy fragments.
APCs
Typically, your class APC should be full of vehicles and APC I should be full of shooters. The reason for this is vehicles are faster and are able to carry more resources. This will increase as you research the Vehicle branch. Use the class APC when gathering or raiding other bases. APC I should stay inside your base at all times unless you are shielded. This is to defend your base against raids.
Vehicles are weakest against shooters and most experienced players will use an APC full of vehicles to raid so an all shooter APC is the most logical choice. APCs with the same type of unit will get bonuses at level 18 with the war rooms.
At base 18 you will get a fourth APC. The exact configuration depends on your situation and your enemies. You can fill the other APCs with a mix or specific types. At this point, you can train enough troops to fill the 4th APC with different configurations so you can respond to different situations.
There is no reason to train vast amounts of troops over the capacity of your APC unless you want multiple configurations. The general rule is have enough extra troops to replace the first row of your largest APC. The more troops you train the more cost you will have to maintain those troops. Don't worry about troop enhancements until you get to T7.
Fill your APCS with T1 vehicles when gathering. The T1 apcs are weak in battle but they can carry more, gather faster, and are cheaper to produce than more advanced vehicles. Remember to swap them for more advanced units when you're done gathering.
If you are going to participate in the battle for the launch center then you should fill one APC will all fighters. Shooters are weakest against fighters and most experienced players will occupy the launch center with shooters.
Gathering Station
In the VIP shop (Level 2), you can get the gathering station. This gives you a 5th APC used solely for gathering. It's capacity is determined by the building level since it doesn't have units or heros. You can equip it with Trail blazer parts which will increase it's capacity and gathering speed.
This APC can't be used in combat and will be recalled if you transport your base.
