Warzone Idle Strategy Guide

Written by Jz

This guide gives an overview of AP, ascending, artifacts, and level strategy.

Warzone Idle Spreadsheet

Updated August 1, 2025

I moved some sections, upgraded some recommendations, and added brief notes on premium, the auto swapper, and ladder Rewards. I included a recommendation for new players to play levels twice during their first run.

AP Guide

The purpose of this part of the guide is to provide recommendations on how to spend Advancement Points (AP) efficiently and move through the Phases more quickly. It’s tailored to the market-based strategy discussed later in the guide. Advancement unlock and upgrade costs are found in the spreadsheet here: Warzone Idle Spreadsheet - AP

Overview of AP and Phases

Each time you beat a level, you gain AP. AP can be used to purchase advancements. Advancements are permanent upgrades. Each time you beat a level, it rewards 30% less AP than it did the previous time you beat it. For a 1000 AP level, you would get 1000 the first time, 700 the second time, 490 the third time, and so on. Once Europe Huge has been completed, you can choose to "Ascend" by paying 100 AP. When you ascend, the AP for all levels returns to the full value. You keep all artifacts, AP, and advancements previously obtained. You start over with Tutorial and have to unlock the levels again.

There are 4 Phases. Each has different advancements that can be purchased. When you spend enough in a phase, the next one is unlocked.

Unlock Phase 2 by spending at least 1,000 AP in Phase 1.

Unlock Phase 3 by spending at least 8,000 AP in Phase 2.

Unlock Phase 4 by spending at least 25,000 AP in Phase 3.

It’s better to spend a lot more than the 1,000 and 8,000 needed for Phases 1 and 2. These early upgrades will speed you up as you work through Phase 3 to unlock Phase 4.

Level Recommendations

Initially, early levels offer more AP per hour of play than later levels do. For new players, it’s best to play levels in order of AP. Playing each regular level twice in a row is a good idea for new players. It will help you remember the levels and will allow for more mercenary camps upgrades, which will make later levels faster. Levels that go quickly can be played a third time. Skip Triskelion and United States, if possible. These are very slow levels, even with a lot of advancements.

If you play all regular levels through Afro Eurasia Gargantuan twice, the first 4 hardened levels once, and Hardened Far Land, Hardened Old Town, and Hardened Scandinavia 3 times, you will be into Phase 3 by the time you get to Europe Huge. This allows you to unlock two level skips and jump the levels mentioned above.

During the first run through the levels, it may be a good idea to play 5 skip levels using the superpowers ability (acquired from beating Hardened Ursa: Luna) once you get to Scandinavia and the Nordic Countries. This will allow you abort the later levels for partial AP if you run out of mercenaries. For example, it may take 1 day to capture 80% of the territories, but 3-4 more days to capture the last 20%. In that case, it would be more efficient to abort the level, provided that you can start the next one immediately. This won't be necessary if you play levels twice. After the first ascension, only play the regular levels once per ascension.

Hardened Levels

Hardened levels are designed to take about 3x as long as regular levels, and offer 3x as much AP. They offer special rewards the first time you beat them. Here’s the list of rewards you can earn:

  • Hardened Ursa:Luna, Superpowers, allows you to use 5 powers at once to double their effect
  • Hardened Peloponnesian War, Seeing Circles, Makes it easier to spot the draft icon
  • Hardened Siege of Feldmere, Couch Potato, Increases the rewards from watching ads from 20% to 30%
  • Hardened Copper Creep Castle, The Legend, Gives a Legendary Triple Strike (v5.14) or Epic Triple Strike (v5.15 and beyond) after beating it the first time
  • Hardened Far Land, Rock Candy, Gives a mine doubler that can be used to double ore from a selected mine
  • Hardened Old Town, Super Armies, Increases armies from the Supercamp by 10%
  • Hardened Scandinavia and the Nordic Countries, 4th Boy, Gives a 4th slot that can only hold an active artifact.
  • Hardened Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, Gladiator, Increases rewards from arenas by 20%
  • Hardened China, Molification, Reduces dig time by 10%
  • Hardened Triskelion, Protection, Reduces damage taken from attacks in battles by 10%
  • Hardened Europe Huge, Updater, Adds an "Update All" button that updates all of your current idle levels


Notable rewards are The Legend, 4th Boy, Rock Candy, and Couch Potato (mobile only). All of the levels that give these rewards will be playable during your first playthrough if you invest wisely in advancements. Except for the first hospital on Hardened Copper Creek Castle, locations of hospitals, markets, and army camps are identical between the regular and hardened versions, so take a screenshot after beating the regular version for future reference.

Early hardened levels should generally be played roughly in AP order with the regular levels. This is true through Hardened Copper Creek Castle. Once you have the Epic Triple Strike, you can play the hardened levels through Scandinavia immediately after beating the regular version, if desired. In order to beat the levels in a reasonable time, follow the AP milestone and strategy recommendations found later in this guide. For Phase 3 players with upgraded mercenaries, the levels Hardened Far Land, Hardened Old Town, and Hardened Scandinavia give the most AP for the time and effort. These levels can be played 2-4 times and still give good AP.

Hardened Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire is difficult to get started, even with a Rare/Epic Supercharge Army Camp artifact. The first market is a superbonus. The second is expensive to capture. There is an expensive early hospital that has 3 very cheap borders. Using an Epic or Legendary Triple Strike on the hospital may allow you to capture a market and get the level started. It is possible to play the first time through with a Legendary Alloy Values, but not recommended.

Hardened China is very short on money. If you have an insane Alloy Values artifact, maxed Alloy Sell Values, maxed Mercenary Discount, +125% Additional Mercenaries, and a decent Army Cache Boost, you can attempt it before Phase 4. Otherwise, expect to need powers.

Don't play Hardened Triskelion. There isn't enough money on it. It is still difficult with an Insane Alloy Values artifact and all Phase 1-4 money, army, and resource advancements maxed. The level can be used to farm powers once you've  unlocked Simultaneous Levels.

Hardened Europe Huge should be delayed until you are well into Phase 4. It's easier than Hardened Triskelion, but still difficult. I recommend a Legendary Alloy Values (or better) artifact before attempting it. I've found that some of the earlier hardened levels offer better AP per hour.

If you do decide to play Hardened Triskelion or Hardened Europe Huge on your first run, complete all other levels first and make sure you have a lot of additional  mercenaries. Save up 5 Inspire Mercenaries powers, enable the Superpower effect, and use them all at once on the largest mercenary camp. This will give you 10x the armies that would have come from the camp if you’d used just one power. The largest camp on Triskelion is one of the ones that’s to the left of the bottom left circle. On Hardened Europe Huge, it’s in Eastern Leningrad (Kirvosky).

Challenge Levels

Challenge Levels are unlocked once you unlock the “Auto-Conquer” achievement. Each one rewards 100 AP the first time you beat it. These levels are very difficult. You will likely beat just 5 of them before reaching Phase 4, unless you invest a lot into Increased Army Camp Production, Auto-Conquer, and Auto-Upgrade Army Camps. When you become able to beat the 5th level, you’ll likely be able to beat at least a dozen more. See the artifacts section for artifact recommendations for challenge levels.

Early Game Advancement Recommendations

Below are some milestones designed to help new players efficiently spend their AP. It covers Phases 1 and 2. Following the recommendations, there is a section called “Phases 1 and 2: Discussion” that discusses various Phase 1 and 2 advancements in more detail. This part of the guide is specifically for players who are playing through for the first time. Players who have super ascended will have much better artifacts, and may be able to skip or delay some of the advancements.

Milestone 1

Here is a reasonable goal for the very beginning of the game, in rough order of importance:

  • Joint Strike (Maxed, 459 AP)
  • Increased Army Camp Production (+100%, 480 AP)
  • Additional Mercenaries (30%, 550 AP)
  • Increased Cache Money (50%, 212 AP)
  • Idle Time (4 Hours, 382 AP, Optional)
  • Auto-Conquer (Phase 2, 5%, 132 AP) (Pays for itself with battle/challenge rewards)

Total AP Spent: 2215 AP

Joint Strike offers the best value for the AP cost. As a general rule, buy whichever advancement on the list is cheapest and unlock Additional Mercenaries the moment you have enough AP to do so. Max out Joint Strike early. After making a few purchases, upgrade Increased Idle Time if needed. I generally skip Idle Time unless I’m planning on working on techs, as 2 hours is long enough for a hospital upgrade. You can optionally unlock Statistics 1 for 50 AP as you get close to unlocking Phase 2. This is inexpensive and won't slow you down very much. Ignore the ore advancements.

Milestone 2

Once Milestone 1 is complete, work on the following:

  • Increased Army Camp Production (+150%, 1080 AP to date, 600 AP more from 100%)
  • Additional Mercenaries (Phase 1, 100%, 7130 AP to date, 6580 AP more from 30%)
  • Increased Alloy Sell Values (Phase 2, Maxed, 1756 AP) (for market raiding)
  • Mercenary Discount (Phase 2, Maxed, 1002 AP)
  • Idle Time (As Needed, excluded from totals)

Additional AP Spent: 9,338 AP

Total AP spent to Date: 12,153 AP

As Increased Alloy Sell Values is upgraded, it becomes possible to earn quite a bit of money by buying alloys and then immediately selling them. This makes it possible to buy a lot of mercenaries. The strategy here is to go straight for a market, raid it for money, buy mercenaries, capture a couple of hospitals and upgrade them, then repeat. It’s a very effective way to quickly complete levels, once you have enough mercenaries and money to pull it off.

Upgrading Additional Mercenaries is recommended when:

  1. At the end of the level, your army camps cost more than 100M to upgrade, your hospitals are upgraded (maxed or close to maxed), and you have leftover money.
  2. You purchase all of your mercenaries and have to wait more than a few hours for the army camps/drafts to produce the remaining armies needed in order to finish the level.

Upgrading “Increased Alloy Sell Values” or “Mercenary Discount” is recommended when you aren’t able to upgrade all of the hospitals and purchase all of the mercenaries.

Milestone 3

As with before, continue working on advancements that provide more mercenaries and more money (whichever is needed most):

  • Increased Ore Sell Values (Phase 1, Maxed, 587 AP, Optional)
  • Increased Cache Money (Phase 1, Maxed, 887 AP to date, 675 more from 50%)
  • Additional Mercenaries (Phase 1, Maxed, 16,630 AP to date, 9,500 more from 100%)
  • Statistics (4, Maxed, 500 AP)
  • Increased Cache Resources (Phase 2, Maxed, 990 AP)
  • Idle Time (As Needed, excluded from totals)

Additional AP Spent: 12,252 AP

Total AP spent to Date: 24,405 AP (plus AP spent on Idle Time)

It costs a lot of AP to max out Additional Mercenaries, but this can cut hours off of the tail end of levels. You can stop around 120%, but I don’t recommend going below that. Most levels should be beatable within 12 hours, without using powers, once the list is complete. The exceptions are Triskelion, Hardened Triskelion, Europe Huge, Hardened Europe Huge, United States, and Hardened China. You will need to max or bring hospitals to at least level 3 on the later levels in order to avoid having to wait for army camps to produce the remaining armies needed. Ore Sell Values can be skipped if you have enough money from other sources.

Phases 1 and 2: Optional Upgrades

As you work on the above section, you can also work on some of the other Phase 1 and 2 advancements at the same time. If you follow the above recommendations, you’ll still need to spend several thousand more in Phase 2 in order to unlock Phase 3. The top choice for Phase 2 is:

  • Increased AP (Phase 2, Costs 7718 AP to Max)

These are some additional upgrades that can be considered in the first two Phases. Those with more *’s are better. Those with 0 to 1 asterisks should be skipped unless your play style clearly benefits from them. Here is the list:

  • **Increased Army Camp Production (As needed, Phase 1)
  • *Discounted Mine Upgrades (Phase 1, Maxed, 273 AP)
  • *Smelters/Crafters Visibility (Phase 2, Maxed, 615 AP)
  • *Increase Crafters Speed (Phase 2, Costs 3282 to Max)
  • *Increase Draft Sizes (Phase 2, Costs 3405 AP to Max)
  • Army Camp Discounts (Phase 2, Maxed, 1374 AP)
  • Recipe Visibility (Phase 2, Maxed, 705 AP)

Unlock the following in Phase 2 to assist with battles and/or challenges:

  • *Auto-Smelt (120 minutes, 314 AP)
  • **Auto-Upgrade Army Camps (5%-25%, 691-1211 AP)

Max out Discounted Mine Upgrades part of the way into your first playthrough if you plan to get the “Unlock All Tech” achievements during your first run. It’s inexpensive to max out and will save a lot on mine upgrade costs. Some players will prefer to work on these achievements much later, after upgrading ore related advancements and unlocking Simultaneous Levels (Phase 4).

Phases 1 and 2: Discussion

Increased Army Camp Production

The optimal value for Army Camps (prior to working on Phase 3) is likely between 150% and 250%. Camps are helpful because they increase draft sizes and help a lot at the beginning of levels. They are also very important for early levels. However, as a percentage of total armies earned, the amount from camps is generally quite small.

Additional Mercenaries

Mercenaries are expensive to upgrade, and at first glance might look like a bad deal. However, they are very important and speed up the levels quite a bit. The number of armies to capture in a level is fixed. The more you can get from mercenary camps, the less you need from army camps. You can watch the trends if you’ve unlocked statistics 1. It’s ok to run out of mercenaries shortly before finishing a level. If you run out and still have a long way to go, you either need to upgrade your hospitals more or upgrade Additional Mercenaries (and possibly both). On most levels in Version 5.14 (and likely 5.15), it’s possible to purchase all mercenaries if you have Increased Alloy Sell Values and Mercenary Discount maxed out. It’s a good idea to max this out before beginning Phase 3.

Increased Alloy Sell Values

Prior to version 5, this was a bad advancement. Now, it’s one of the best advancements in Phase 2. You can buy alloys from the market and immediately sell them for a profit. Combine it with an Alloy Values artifact to make even more money. This combination makes it easy to buy all mercenaries on most levels.

Increased Ore Sell Values

Some alloys require 2 or more different kinds of ore. Caches tend to give you a lot of one kind of ore for those recipes, but not the other. Because of this, that ore can’t be used to make alloys, and can be sold instead. This works well with “Increase Cache Resources” in Phase 2.

Visibility Advancements

The visibility advancements in the first two phases aren’t very beneficial. For levels that require crafting, Smelters/Crafters Visibility is probably the most worthwhile, but even that has minimal value.

Auto-Advancements

Between the first challenge level reward and battle rewards, unlocking Auto-Conquer can pay for itself. The first challenge level is winnable immediately for 100 AP. Unlocking Auto-Upgrade Army Camps opens up the next 4 challenge levels for a 400 AP refund on the purchase. Auto-Smelt is convenient to have and allows you to mostly ignore smelters and crafters at the beginning of levels, but it isn't necessary. Auto-advancements apply every 6 minutes while you are idle. When you open the game, it will calculate the past few hours in 6 minute intervals. Leaving auto-advancements enabled overnight can jumpstart a new level.

Army Camp Discounts

This advancement can be skipped. Most of the money in the game goes toward upgrading hospitals and buying mercenaries. While useful, it doesn’t save enough money to beat out other advancements in Phase 2. As “Additional Mercenaries” is upgraded, more and more money is needed for mercenaries and less and less from camps. I recommend skipping this.

Increase Crafters Speed

This advancement allows you to produce items for techs more quickly. In the very early game, it can also be used to craft items for profit. In the past, this was a top choice in Phase 2. In version 5, however, crafters are no longer the primary source of income. It is ok to skip this advancement.

Increase Smelters Speed

In general, it’s difficult to get enough ore to keep your smelters busy. Because of this, it isn’t worth the cost to upgrade this. This is really only useful for working on tech achievements.

Increased Draft Sizes

This advancement is not as important as others in Phase 2. It is useful for speeding up level start time and for working on super ascension levels. Sliding drafts are the larger component of draft sizes, and are always limited to 15% of total armies earned, no matter how much you increase draft sizes. When sliding drafts are consistently well below 15% of total armies earned at the end of the level, it means that you aren’t able to deplete the sliding draft pool. If you need several drafts to finish, Increasing draft sizes will be beneficial in that case.

Here are the relevant formulas for individual draft sizes:

Fixed Draft Size = 90 x Armies Per Second x (1 + Modifiers)

Maximum Draft Size (Includes Fixed) = 3690 x Armies Per Second x (1 + Modifiers)

Sliding Draft Pool = Total Armies Earned x .15 - Total Sliding Drafts

Sliding Draft Size (if less than the maximum) = Sliding Draft Pool / 2 x (1 + Modifiers)

*When the pool is 0 or negative, the sliding draft size is 0.

The icon appears every 6 minutes. If you can draft every 6 minutes and have Increased Draft Sizes maxed at 300%, your total fixed drafts will be close to the number of armies you get from army camps. This means that it’s an excellent advancement to pair with Auto-Draft (Phase 4). Unlike sliding drafts, total fixed drafts aren’t capped.

Increased AP

I recommend starting Increased AP after maxing out Alloy Sell values, and after getting Additional Mercenaries to 100% or more. When maxed, Increased AP offers 25% more AP for a total cost of 7718 AP. This can be maxed out right before or while working on Phase 3. If you plan to spend coins to increase AP, max this out first to get the most benefit.

Phase 3

Can Skip Levels

This becomes especially useful once you unlock Simultaneous Levels in Phase 4. It also allows you to skip levels that have low hourly AP returns. I highly recommend at least 7.

Start With Tech

It’s suspected that this unlocks the cheapest available tech. Upgrade this to at least 4 in order to start with the draft tech, and to reduce the need to smelt copper bars on levels where they are in the last market (or not available).

Mercenary Camp Visibility

When raiding markets, you’ll often have a lot of money available for mercenaries. However, this isn’t helpful if you can’t find a camp. This advancement is actually quite nice, and only costs 1600 to max out.

Increase Money From Bonuses

This helps you to quickly upgrade your army camps and buy mercenaries in the very early part of the game. Once you get to the first market, it is generally not very helpful.

Increased Item Sell Values

This will increase how much money you can get from raiding a market that only has items. It also helps you sell off items you get from caches, like welding rods. For most players, alloy sales will contribute a lot more to your money supply than item sales will. This is because the Alloy Values artifact gives a bigger boost than Item Values does. In the late game, this advancement isn’t very useful for most levels.

Market Visibility

It is highly recommended that you upgrade this to 7 until you learn where the markets are. This will reveal all of the markets on all maps.

Auto-Advancements

Auto-Sell can be beneficial for challenge levels and battles. Auto-Upgrade Mines should be avoided at all costs. Auto-Upgrade Mines is likely to hurt you in challenge levels and battles.

Here are a few options that will get you the 25,000 AP needed to reach Phase 4:

My Preferred Configuration

Can Skip Levels x 8 (8, 9700 AP)

Auto-Sell x 1 (1, 1189 AP)

Start with Tech x 7 (7, 11789 AP)

Mercenary Camp Visibility x 13 (39, 1130 AP)

Market Visibility x 5 (5, 1200 AP)

Total Cost: 25008 AP

Option 1 (Visibilities and Skip Level Maxed)

Can Skip Levels x 10 (10, 13200 AP)

Start with Tech x 4 (4, 5189 AP)

Mercenary Camp Visibility x 17 (50, 1600 AP)

Increased Money From Bonuses x 6 (35%, 2722 AP)

Market Visibility x 7 (7, 2300 AP)

Total Cost: 25011 AP

Option 2 (Bonus Money Maxed)

Can Skip Levels x 7 (7, 8100 AP)

Auto-Sell x 1 (1, 1189 AP)

Start with Tech x 4 (4, 5189 AP)

Mercenary Camp Visibility x 16 (48, 1475 AP)

Increased Money From Bonuses x 19 (100%, 6752 AP)

Market Visibility x 7 (7, 2300 AP)

Total Cost: 25005 AP

Option 3 (Maxed Visibilities and Bonus Money, but Short on Skip Levels)

Can Skip Levels x 4 (4, 3900 AP)

Auto-Sell x 1 (1, 1189 AP)

Start with Tech x 6 (6, 9289 AP)

Mercenary Camp Visibility x 17 (50, 1600 AP)

Increased Money From Bonuses x 19 (100%, 6752 AP)

Market Visibility x 7 (7, 2300 AP)

Total Cost: 25030 AP

Option 4 (Exact, But Not Recommended)

Can Skip Levels x 1 (1, 600 AP)

Auto-Sell x 1 (1, 1189 AP)

Start with Tech x 4 (4, 5189 AP)

Mercenary Camp Visibility x 15 (45, 1355 AP)

Increased Money From Bonuses x 1 (10%, 1622 AP)

Increased Item Sell Values x 12 (65%, 12745 AP)

Market Visibility x 7 (7, 2300 AP)

Total Cost: 25000 AP

Phase 4

There is some really great stuff in Phase 4. Better Hospitals provides the most value for the AP cost. I consider the following to be the core advancements for Phase 4:

Better Hospitals (50%, Maxed, 5518 AP)

Simultaneous Levels (1 Additional Level, 13,301 AP)

Faster Digging (50%, Maxed, 11810 AP)

Increase Cache Armies (100%, Maxed, 25739 AP)

Auto-Draft (Maxed, 10044 AP)

Here is the Phase 4 configuration I generally use (roughly in order):

Better Hospitals x 10 (50%, 5518 AP)

Faster Digging x 10 (50%, 11,810 AP)

Auto-Dig x 1 (5%, 8000 AP)

Increased Cache Armies x 20 (100%, 25,739 AP)

Cache Visibility x 14 (70, 1530 AP)

Advanced Auto-Conquer x 4 (20%, 17,000 AP)

Simultaneous Levels x 1 (1 Additional Level, 13,301 AP)

Auto-Draft x 17 (0, 10044 AP)

Increased Clan Request Sizes x10 (110%, 4300 AP)

Auto-Market x 1 (120 Minutes, 2767 AP)

Total Cost: 100,009 AP

This is a post-super ascension combination that focuses on Super Ascension levels:

Increased Clan Request Sizes x 29 (300%, 23,000 AP)

Better Hospitals x 10 (50%, 5518 AP)

Auto-Draft x 17 (0, 10044 AP)

Cache Visibility x 18 (90, 2310 AP)

Faster Digging x 10 (50%, 11,810 AP)

Increased Cache Armies x 20 (100%, 25,739 AP)

Auto-Dig x 1 (5%, 8000 AP) (Can be replaced with Advanced Auto-Conquer 10%)

Simultaneous Levels x 1 (1 Additional Level, 13,301 AP)

Total Cost: 100,022 AP

This excludes Auto-Dig and Advanced Auto-Conquer:

Increased Clan Request Sizes x 28 (290%, 21850 AP)

Auto-Purchase Techs x 1 (5%, 2292 AP)

Better Hospitals x 10 (50%, 5518 AP)

Auto-Draft x 17 (0, 10044 AP)

Cache Visibility x 40 (200, 9460 AP)

Faster Digging x 10 (50%, 11810 AP)

Increased Cache Armies x 20 (100%, 25739 AP)

Simultaneous Levels x 1 (1 Additional Level, 13301 AP)

Total Cost: 100014 AP

This combination requires precisely 100k AP:

Auto-Purchase Techs x 2 (10%, 2392 AP)

Better Hospitals x 10 (50%, 5518 AP)

Auto-Draft x 17 (0, 10044 AP)

Cache Visibility x 15 (75, 1710 AP)

Auto-Market x 2 (110, 2967 AP)

Faster Digging x 10 (50%, 11810 AP)

Auto-Upgrade Hospitals x 2 (10%, 2953 AP)

Increased Cache Armies x 20 (100%, 25739 AP)

Auto-Purchase Mercenaries x 3 (110, 3566 AP)

Simultaneous Levels x 2 (2 Additional Levels, 33301 AP)

Total Cost: 100000 AP

Here is a breakdown of of the Phase 4 advancements:

Increased Clan Request Sizes (1600 AP to Unlock)

Increases the amount of money or armies you can request from your clanmates by 20%. Upgradeable to 300% in 10% increments.

This is most useful on the difficult super ascension levels. Pairing it with supercharge army camp helps significantly if you have clanmates with resources to spare.

Auto-Purchase Techs (2292 AP to Unlock)

Automatically purchases any techs that cost less than 5% of the resources you have on hand.  Upgradable to 100% in 5% increments.  Can be enabled or disabled at will.

This may help with later challenge levels. Start With Tech is generally preferred to this.

Better Hospitals (2368 AP to Unlock)

Increases the armies saved by hospitals by 5%.  Upgradeable to 50% in 5% increments.

Hospitals are the biggest contributor on many levels. I recommend maxing this out quickly.

Auto-Draft (2444 AP to Unlock)

Automatically drafts armies once the draft has been available for 8 hours.  Can be upgraded in 30 minute increments.  At max, it will draft immediately.

After playing through the levels a few times, it gets really tiring to try and track down the draft icon. Unfortunately, this needs to be maxed to really be of use. Unlocking it will help with challenge levels. Max Increased Draft Sizes along with this to get the greatest benefit from it.

Cache Visibility (100 AP to Unlock)

Can see the location of the first 5 caches.  Upgradable to 200 in increments of 5.

Unfortunately, 200 caches isn’t very many. It’s not a high priority until the Increased Cache Armies advancement is highly upgraded.

Auto-Mortar (2601 to unlock)

Automatically loads and fires mortars at the best targets.  Runs once every 120 minutes.  Upgradeable to 10 minutes in -10 increments.  Can be enabled or disabled at will.

This may do more harm than good.

Auto-Market (2767 AP to Unlock)

Automatically purchases from a market as long as the items purchased cost less than they would sell for. Runs once every 120 minutes.  Upgradable to 10 minutes in -10 increments. Can be enabled or disabled at will.

This can be paired with auto-sell on challenge levels and battles.

Faster Digging (2810 AP to Unlock)

Decreases time to dig for artifacts by 5%.  Upgradeable to 50% in 5% increments.

This is an extremely good one to max if you’re interested in getting Insane artifacts. It may be a good idea to unlock Simultaneous Levels first to increase the number of available dig sites.

Auto-Upgrade Hospitals (2853 AP to Unlock)

Automatically upgrades hospitals that cost less than 5% of the money you have on hand.  Upgradable to 100% in 5% increments.  Can be enabled or disabled at will.

On regular levels, it’s likely to burn your money on inefficient hospital upgrades. It isn’t necessary for challenge levels, either.

Increased Cache Armies (2939 AP to Unlock)

Increases the armies received from caches by 5%.  Can be upgraded to 100% in 5% increments.

This advancement is really, really good. Being able to get far more from army caches than you spend will do a lot to speed up levels. This is one of the best choices in Phase 4.

Auto-Purchase Mercenaries (3116 AP to Unlock)

Automatically purchases armies from mercenary camps.  Will purchase as many as it can every 120 minutes.  Upgradable to 5 minutes in -5 increments. Can be enabled or disabled at will.

This is so-so for challenge levels and battles. It’s not necessary, but can be nice to enable briefly when you want to buy all available mercenaries. Leaving it on is probably a bad idea.

Advanced Auto-Conquer (5000 AP to Unlock)

To fill in later

This version of auto-conquer will prioritize territories with 2 borders captured, increasing joint strike savings. It works well for cleaning up levels once you are done upgrading hospitals. Well into Phase 4, it can finish many levels without any hospital upgrades at all, provided that you grab the mercenary camps first.

Auto-Dig (8000 AP to Unlock)

To fill in later

This is buggy as of version 5.19. It will only start a dig when the game is open, limiting its use. Once fixed, it should start a dig while you are idle or during a time warp.

Simultaneous Levels (13301 AP to Unlock)

Can play 2 levels simultaneously. Upgradable to 5.

This lets you play 2 - 5 levels at once. Upgrade Can Skip Levels at least once for each upgrade to Simultaneous Levels. This allows you to play all levels for full AP. Unlocking Simultaneous Levels is very useful for finding dig sites and gaining AP. However, it’s difficult to effectively pay attention to more than two levels. There’s no rush to upgrade this further. Maxing out Auto-Draft and its companion, Increased Draft Sizes, is highly recommended before getting the 3rd simultaneous level.

Super Ascension

Here is the link to the blog post describing super ascension:

https://www.warzone.com/blog/index.php/2021/11/update-5-16-super-ascend/

After spending 100K AP in Phase 4, you can Super Ascend. Super ascending is almost like starting over completely. You can pick 2 artifacts to keep (that number can be upgraded), and you keep rewards from previous super ascensions. Everything else is reset, including all AP and advancements.

You then have the option to choose one of the following rewards (which stack):

  • +25% AP from levels
  • +25% the first time, +50% the second time, and so on
  • Can keep one additional artifact when super ascending
  • If chosen on the first ascension, you will be able to keep 3 artifacts during that ascension. That number goes up to 4 if chosen a second time, then 5, and so on.
  • +20% faster artifact digging
  • If this boost stacks the same way other dig speed boosts stack, each boost will be multiplied. For example, dig time will take 80% of the original time after this is chosen once, and 80% x 80%, or 64%, after chosen twice. If it is added (unlikely), then choosing this 5 times will result in instant digs.
  • +100 starting AP after super ascending
  • +100 the first time, + 200 the second time, and so on.

Picking Super Ascension Rewards

The primary reason to super ascend is to make it easier to get Insane and Legendary artifacts.  Each time you super ascend, you can get an Epic Triple Strike from Hardened Copper Creek Castle and a random Epic by taking 1st place in a battle.

The speed super ascension strategy focuses primarily on +25% AP and occasional additional artifact carryovers, until the time between super ascensions becomes small. The fastest way to super ascend (and get those 2 free epics each time) is to get a core set of important artifacts, then to generally choose +25% AP. This is true even if you leave behind 2-3 Epic artifacts on a few of the early super ascensions. During the first super ascension, the AP boost will increase AP by 25%, When picking it the second time, it will increase it by .25/1.25, or just 20%. The 25% AP may be the best choice at the beginning, but eventually the artifact slot will overtake it in value. The fastest way to get AP is to use Superpower Skip Level to unlock Hex Earth, and then play Hex Earth with powers. An experienced player with the right artifacts and advancements can beat Hex Earth with 1-2 Inspire Mercenaries powers (not superpowered), even before unlocking Phase 4.

In a legendary focused super ascension strategy, the goal is to get one new Legendary each super ascension to speed up future runs. With this strategy, a player picks a new artifact slot when needed, until there are 5-6 Legendary artifacts and an Insane can be created. Then, with several free slots, +25% AP is prioritized. The player using this strategy may want an Insane Time Warp to speed up digs.

Planning For Super Ascending

Before super ascending, upgrade as many artifacts as possible. If you have 4 Legendaries (or the ability to make 4 legendaries) and can only keep 3, it’s a good idea to wait until you can get a 5th and one is upgrading to Insane before you super ascend. There may be some down time as you wait for artifacts to upgrade. If you don’t need the artifacts from clan war rewards to create your next legendary, you should be able to wait to claim them until after you super ascend. Or, you can leave them unclaimed until you need them at the end of a run to make a Legendary or Insane artifact.

If your artifacts are ready and you don’t have enough AP spent in Phase 4, but have spent 134K total so far, you can pay 150 coins to reset your AP and spend the minimum needed for each phase.

Restarting After Super Ascension

After super ascending, certain advancements will become less relevant. If you keep a Legendary Army Camp Boost, it’s no longer necessary to spend AP on Increased Army Camp Production in the early game. If you super ascend with a Legendary Alloy Values, Increased Cache Money and Increased Cache Resources can be delayed (or potentially skipped) as you work on upgrading Additional Mercenaries.

What Artifact(s) Should I Bring?

The top priority for Legendary is Alloy Values. I don't recommend anything lower than that unless you have other artifacts to compensate for the loss of money. It also makes a great choice for Insane. Other favorites are Army Cache Boost and Time Warp. I chose Army Camp Boost (Insane), Alloy Values (Legendary), and Time Warp (Legendary) for my first super ascension, and it worked well for me. Most players will prefer Army Cache Boost to Army Camp Boost. A Legendary Inspire Mercenaries is fantastic for super ascension levels, especially when combined with the Time Warp.

Top choices for Insane:

Army Cache Boost

Time Warp

Cache Boost

Army Camp Boost

Alloy Values

Artifacts that are highly effective at Legendary:

Alloy Values (more than sufficient for most levels)

Inspire Mercenaries (Hex Earth is beatable with 1 use of this artifact, if you have enough mercenaries and caches)

Supercharge Army Camp (great for battles)

Mercenary Discount

Hospital Boost is fantastic at Rare, and marginally better with each upgrade.

Other honorary mentions:

Triple/Quadruple Strike (for Super Ascension levels)

Speedy Crafters (in combination with upgrades to hospital upgrade time)

My Preferred Super Ascension Advancements

A lot of this is covered earlier in the guide. Below is what a typical set of advancements looks like for me. I have an Insane Army Camp Boost, which is why I don’t invest in army camps at all.

Phases 1 and 2 (completed together):

  • Joint Strike (Phase 1, Maxed, 459 AP)
  • Additional Mercenaries (Phase 1, Maxed, 16630 AP)
  • Increased Cache Money (Phase 1, Maxed, 887 AP)
  • Auto-Conquer (Phase 2, 5%, 132 AP)
  • Increased Alloy Sell Values (Phase 2, Maxed, 1756 AP)
  • Mercenary Discount (Phase 2, Maxed, 1002 AP)
  • Statistics (Phase 1, Maxed, 500 AP)
  • Increased Cache Resources (Phase 2, Maxed, 990 AP)
  • Increased AP (Phase 2, Maxed, 7718 AP)
  • Phase 1 Total Cost: 18476 AP
  • Phase 2 Total Cost: 11778 AP

Phase 3:

  • Can Skip Levels x 8 (8, 9700 AP)
  • Auto-Sell x 1 (1, 1189 AP)
  • Start with Tech x 7 (7, 11789 AP)
  • Mercenary Camp Visibility x 13 (39, 1130 AP)
  • Market Visibility x 5 (5, 1200 AP)
  • Phase 3 Total Cost: 25008 AP

I switched to x10 Skip Levels and cut 1 Start With Tech in order to play Plateau Assault and jump to Hex Earth without powers.

Phase 4:

  • Better Hospitals x 10 (50%, 5518 AP)
  • Faster Digging x 10 (50%, 11,810 AP)
  • Increased Cache Armies x 20 (100%, 25,739 AP)
  • Cache Visibility x 14 (70, 1530 AP)
  • Advanced Auto-Conquer x 4 (20%, 17,000 AP)
  • Simultaneous Levels x 1 (1 Additional Level, 13,301 AP)
  • Auto-Dig x 1 (5%, 8000 AP)
  • Auto-Draft x 17 (0, 10044 AP)
  • Increased Clan Request Sizes x10 (110%, 4300 AP)
  • Auto-Market x 1 (120 Minutes, 2767 AP)
  • Phase 4 Total Cost: 100,009 AP

Total Spent In All Phases: 155,271 AP

Strategies

Strategy: Supercharge Army Camp

Special thanks to Z for the ideas for this section.

 

Some players use a strategy that’s focused on army camps and the Supercharge Army Camp artifact. A major upside to this strategy is that basically everything about it can be reused for battles. The player begins the level by supercharging their main army camp and capturing territories as quickly as possible (Auto-Conquer can be enabled here). The main focus is on the first camp. This is upgraded as much as possible to maximize the benefit from supercharging it. Having a supercharged army camp increases the size of drafts. This strategy can be enhanced with things that boost drafts further. Because the armies from the free cache power are tied to army income, it may be a good idea to use these when you have the camp supercharged. Here are the artifacts/advancements that are prioritized with this strategy:

Artifacts: Army Camp Boost, Supercharge Army Camp, Army Camp Discount, Draft Boost, and maybe Army Cache

Advancements: Highly upgraded Army Camps, Army Camp Discounts, possibly boosted draft sizes

Power: Free Cache

This is an effective way to get a quick start on a new level. It loses some effectiveness later in the level after more camps have been captured. However, even with 20 camps, the Supercharge Army Camp (at Epic)  doubles your income for 2 hours. The big downside is that you lose a slot for 16 hours due its cooldown. If you are playing multiple levels, you lose the slot for all of them. If you only play once a day and don’t care about the cooldown time, this could be a very appealing strategy.

Strategy: Market Raiding and Crafting

The prices in markets start low and go up as you buy items or alloys from that market. Buying one alloy from a market will raise the price of all items and alloys from that market. When raiding a market, pick the alloy that has the lowest listed % increase in price when you slide the slider all the way to the right. Initially, you can buy resources and immediately sell them for a profit. Usually, this is the best way to use the markets. At other times, it’s much better to buy the resources you need to craft a more expensive item or an item needed for a tech. Market crafting is mostly likely to be used by players who don’t have AP invested in alloy values and item values, and by advanced players on some of the harder levels (like Hardened Triskelion). Eventually, the price of the ingredients may exceed the sell price of the item you’re crafting. When this happens, pick another market and look for the most profitable recipe you can make using ingredients from that market. If you only buy ingredients for crafting, you’re unlikely to run out of profitable recipes.

There is a fairly simple trick that will help you choose what to craft for profit. If a market sells both Thorium (makes Relay) and Neodymium (makes Magnet), you can check your recipe stats to see which (between Relay and Magnet) has a higher profit per second. That will probably be the better item to buy ingredients for.

Strategy: Combine Markets, Mercenaries, and Hospitals

Check the forum thread here: https://www.warzone.com/Forum/572780-514-marketbased-strategy

In essence, with the alloy sell values advancement maxed out, you can get enough money from raiding the markets to buy all of your mercenaries and upgrade all of your hospitals. Once Better Hospitals is maxed in Phase 4, it becomes possible to beat most levels in less than two hours, without powers.

Strategy: Power trick

If you use several powers at once, the effects increase. Free cache rewards are based on current income and mine output. Applying Supercharge Army Camp on several different camps at once, then playing the Free Cache powers while they are in play results in a much larger army cache. Don’t use superpowers on Supercharge Army Camp powers. Do use it on the Free Caches. Playing a couple of Superchange Mine powers on different mines with the most expensive ingredients appears to increase the resource cache reward from a Free Cache.

Strategy: Coin Use

WARNING: Purchasing artifacts may not be beneficial for players who are planning to super ascend. When you purchase a legendary, you may be forced to choose “Can keep one additional artifact when super ascending” in order to keep it, if you can keep it at all. The +25% reward for super ascending will be just as good as many legendary artifacts. If purchasing artifacts allows you to upgrade to a legendary or insane (that you can keep), it may be worth it to make a purchase. Otherwise, save your coins/money.

Coins can be used for powers, a 30% AP bonus for a level, artifact cooldowns, to speed up digs, and for artifact purchases. It’s possible to max out every advancement before you’d be able to dig enough artifacts to get a single Insane. If coins help you max out Faster Digging, it may be worth using them to boost AP on levels. Once Faster Digging is maxed out, the most efficient choice will be to use coins on artifacts.

For artifacts, buying a random Legendary from the store offers the best value per coin, by a wide margin. It’s more efficient to buy a Legendary or Epic than it is to pay to finish digs. The downside is that you could be stuck with a useless Legendary for a very long time before it can be sacrificed. Relevant calculations are found in the sheet here:

Warzone Idle Spreadsheet: Coin Calculations

In order to maximize the AP gains from coins:

  1. Only use coins on high AP levels like Hardened Europe Huge, Hardened Triskelion, and Hardened China
  2. Max out Increased AP before using coins
  3. Apply the 15% AP Bonus from Clan Wars before finishing the level(s)

Strategy: Multi Level

The Multi-Level power is very rare. You can only earn a total of two from levels. It's found on Peloponnesian War and can be obtained the first two times you play the level. After that, it's gone (even if you ascend). Additional ones may be awarded for competitions (like Clan Wars) and other promotions. It's tempting to use it when you pick it up, but resist! Combo difficult levels like Hardened Triskelion and Hardened Europe Huge. Try to finish the levels at the same time. Use all of the powers you obtain on the slower level, and do the digs on the faster level.

Opening one level will not reset the idle time of the other. Ads watched for one level don’t count for the others, either. When you open a level after idling, it appears to calculate the resources accumulated based on the artifacts currently equipped. This means that you can change the artifacts on the first level and then open the second level to have them “count” for the past few hours on the second. Make sure to open both levels before swapping out artifacts if you want your current artifacts to apply to both.

Clan Wars offers an AP Boost as a reward for certain achievements. When playing multiple levels, you can delay finishing the levels that are done until all of your levels are ready to finish. If you activate the boost and then finish the levels, you’ll get the full boost for all of the levels. You can then try to start and finish as many levels as possible over the next 2 weeks.

Strategy: Super Ascension Levels

These levels are very slow and most give very poor AP/hour. They are worth playing once or twice for the challenge and achievements. In order to speed them up, it’s best to wait until you are well into Phase 4. It helps to max out the army camp advancement, join a clan, and max out Increased Clan Request Sizes. Use Supercharge Army Camp on your camps before submitting the clan request. This will give you a huge boost once a day. An Insane Inspire Mercenaries, Triple Strike, and/or Quadruple Strike artifact is also incredibly helpful for generating armies. For the later levels, the general strategy is to aim for inexpensive army caches, then beeline it to the most expensive merc camp you can make it to. Then, use the Inspire Mercenaries artifact on it, and try to make it to the next mercenary camp or army cache. Aim for money caches once you can take the hospitals and use that money on hospitals. On Hex Earth, the best merc camp is in Greenland, and it provides over 1T if you have additional mercenaries upgraded as advised.

Artifacts and Digs

Note: Artifacts periodically change. There’s no guarantee that the best artifacts today will be the best ones in the future.

Artifacts are obtained from Dig Sites. You can sacrifice 4 artifacts of the same rarity to upgrade the artifact to the next rarity. It takes 5 Poors to make one of them into a Common, 5 Commons to make 1 Uncommon, 5 Uncommons to make 1 Rare, 5 Rares to make 1 Epic, 5 Epics to make 1 Legendary, and 5 Legendaries to make 1 Insane. It would take 15,625 Poors to make one of them into an Insane. In most cases, the value of the artifact doubles each time you upgrade it. Speedy Crafters, Speedy Smelters, Fog Buster, and Hospital Boost are the exceptions to that rule, and are nerfed at higher rarities.

The first level with a Dig Site is Floating Rocks.

Dig Efficiency

Eventually, you’ll get to a point where you can only dig a fraction of the sites available on a level. Some digs sites have slightly better odds than others do. Below is the equation used to calculate dig site efficiency.

Dig Site Efficiency Equation (# of Epics/1000 Hours):

1000 * (%Poor/625 + %Common/125 + %Uncommon/25 + %Rare/5 + %Epic) / Unmodified Dig Time (In Hours)

For a 100% Common site, the equation gives exactly 1. Put differently, in 1000 hours, you would obtain 125 Commons, which could be used to create exactly 1 Epic. Ignoring upgrade time, this is an Epic every 5.95 weeks. Without upgrades to speed up digs, it would take 29.75 weeks to obtain 1 Legendary, and close to 3 years to obtain just 1 Insane. Other dig sites appear to be slightly better in terms of odds and some are slightly worse (+/- 2%). For example, the Uncommon/Common sites with 52%, 53%, and 54% Uncommon probability all take exactly the same amount of time to complete. Thus, the 54% site is the best of the three. The most efficient sites are all of the Uncommon/Common variety. There is a table of pre-calculated values in the “Dig” tab of the spreadsheet linked at the beginning of this document.

Top 15 Most Efficient Digs (Uncommon/Common Split)

1. Uncommon 39%        1.024

2. Uncommon 42%        1.02095

3. Uncommon 45%        1.01818

4. Uncommon 64%        1.01714

5. Uncommon 48%        1.01565

6. Uncommon 67%        1.01517

7-10. 32%, 51%, 70%, 89%        1.01333

11. Uncommon 73%        1.01161

12. Uncommon 54%        1.0112

13. Uncommon 35%        1.01053

14. Uncommon 76%        1.01

15. Uncommon 57%        1.00923

Artifacts

There are 25 passive artifacts and 16 activated artifacts. Below is a screenshot that contains all of the artifacts.

In version 5.x, the top artifact for levels is Alloy Values. A legendary will be sufficient for most levels. An insane, with the alloy values advancement in Phase 2 maxed, is recommended if you wish to attempt Hardened China before Phase 4. A high rarity Alloy Values allows you to raid markets for a lot of money, enabling you to buy Mercenaries and upgrade hospitals. Time Warp is also very valuable because it speeds up digs and shortens artifact cooldowns. Army Camp Boost and Bonus Money Boost help you get to the first market faster. Supercharge Army Camp is crucial if you are interested in doing speed runs and setting records on levels. Army Cache Boost is the best cache boost artifact. Hospital Discount is helpful for intermediate and beginning players. For advanced players, hospitals don’t need to be upgraded on most levels, so its use is limited. Mercenary Discount is a great artifact for players who can’t generate enough money from markets to purchase the mercenaries.

Challenge Level Artifacts:

1. Army Camp Boost

2. Bonus Money Boost

3. Territory Money Boost

4. Army Camp Discount

5. Army Cache Boost

6. Draft Boost (if Auto-Draft is maxed)

7. Alloy Values/Item Values (requires Auto-Sell and Auto-Smelt, Auto-Market recommended)

The first three are recommended, but sometimes replacing one or two of the money boosts with another artifact on the list results in a win that you might not otherwise get.

Top Battle Artifacts:

Supercharge Army Camp

Time Warp

Army Camp Boost

Alloy Values (Auto-Sell and Auto-Market are recommended, otherwise the markets have to be raided manually)

Artifact Hunting

In the long run, the best way to get artifacts quickly is to super ascend several times and keep the 1-2 free epics from winning 1st in battle and beating Hardened Copper Creek Castle. When you ascend with two epics, create a legendary on the next run using the two free epics and one more that you dig/upgrade. Claiming the +25% to AP a few times first will shorten the time between super ascensions, allowing you to rack up artifact slots more quickly. Unfortunately, you’ll also need to choose the reward that lets you super ascend with more artifacts several times in order to keep them.

Dig speed boosts from super ascension probably aren't worth it, due to the availability of the Triple Strike and 1st place battle reward. Every three upgrades to dig speed approximately halves the time it takes to dig an artifact. Upgrading it 20 times would turn an 8 hour dig into a 6 minute dig, if you wish to go this route.

There are several other strategies new players can use to get artifacts more quickly.

  1. Keep your dig crew busy. Pick convenient end times and start long digs at the end of a level to give you more time to find a new dig site on the next level you play.
  2. Make it to Phase 4 and max out Faster Digging. Unlock Auto-Dig.
  3. Join a clan that participates in clan wars to get artifact/dig speed rewards.
  4. Upgrade and use a Time Warp artifact to speed up digs.
  5. Look for efficient dig sites. They are listed here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F5ejYV2bYeaP6yTH683A27iTY8ulDFxGXjwh0zXB82s/edit#gid=502188169
    Values greater than 1 are better. The most efficient dig site is the 39% Uncommon / 61% Common split.
  6. Pay attention to where the dig sites are on early levels, how long it takes you to get to the site, and how long it takes for the dig to finish. If you finish a level and still have a few hours left on a dig, you can replay a fast early level for some extra AP without having digging downtime.
  7. Start a 10+ hour dig before using Superpowers on Time Warp.
  8. Keep a few Free Cache powers on hand in case you need money to start a new dig. To get the biggest cache possible, be sure to conquer a few bonuses/territories first, then equip a Bonus Money Boost and Territory Money Boost before using it.
  9. Make sure you will have an internet connection when the dig ends.
  10. Beat Hardened China for a permanent 10% boost to dig speed.
  11. Earn/save coins. This isn’t realistic for most players. If you need fodder for an Insane artifact, Legendary artifacts give the most value for the price. Be aware that you may lose artifacts when super ascending, so don’t purchase anything you aren’t sure you’ll keep.

Warzone Idle Battle (In Progress)

Secret Rewards (obtained once):

1st Place: Epic Artifact

2nd Place: 100 AP

3rd Place: Inspire Mercenaries Power

4th Place: Rare Artifact

5th Place: Free Cache Power

Battle Points (BP) awards for each rank in a battle:

1st Place: 50 BP

2nd Place: 40 BP

3rd Place: 35 BP

4th Place: 30 BP

5th Place: 25 BP

6th-9th Place: 20 BP

10th-19th Place: 15 BP

20th: 10 BP

Cumulative Battle Points Rewards:

50 Battle Points: Poor Artifact

100 Battle Points: Time Warp Power

200 Battle Points: Common Artifact

400 Battle Points: Free Cache Power

800 Battle Points: Uncommon Artifact

1600 Battle Points: 50 AP

3200 Battle Points: Rare Artifact

6400 Battle Points: Inspire Mercenaries Power

12800 Battle Points: 300 AP

25600 Battle Points: Epic Artifact

51200 Battle Points: Multi-Level Power

124000 Battle Points: Legendary Artifact

Idle Premium

Instant Mortars and near instant hospital upgrades increase the importance of money and crafter speed. Most levels don't need crafting, but those that do will no longer have crafting happen in parallel with hospital upgrades. The bonus idle time alloys for tech items to be crafted for overnight on levels like Europe Huge. The other bonuses are less relevant.

Ladder Rewards

Ladders award idle bonuses. Check each ladder to see them.

Artifact Auto-Swapper

I didn’t purchase this because swapping artifacts is a minor inconvenience. Other tasks are much more tedious. From what I have read, it doesn't always swap in the best artifact. It's good, but not optimal. It's probably not worth the $35 USD price, but paying for it supports the game.

Credits and Change Log

Notes on version 5.16

1/6/2022: Added another paragraph to Level Recommendations, which discusses the skip/abort level strategy for later levels.

We now have the option to super ascend. Super ascension is described here:

https://www.warzone.com/blog/index.php/2021/11/update-5-16-super-ascend/

WARNING: Do not super ascend if there is any possibility that you might accidentally open the game in an older version. Before super-ascending, uninstall the app from all devices you use if the update isn’t available yet for them.

There is a new section titled “Super Ascension” following Phase 4.

Note that the reward from beating Hardened Copper Creek Castle is now an Epic Triple Strike. It was a Legendary in version 5.14. I believe it was downgraded in version 5.15.

Forum Discussion

https://www.warzone.com/Forum/589520-update-516-discussion-super-ascend

Notes on version 5.15

If you don’t have the Triple Strike artifact from beating Hardened Copper Creek Castle, now is the time to get it. In addition to giving you a free territory, you now gain 60% of the armies you would have spent on the territory. It is truly worth 160%. Once you obtain the Triple Strike, subsequent levels will get a lot easier.

The Time Warp Artifact was nerfed. It no longer reduces its own cooldown. It’s still one of the most important artifacts, due to the ability to reduce dig times.

The market visibility cost increased, and as such, the Phase 3 section has been updated. I have merged some sections and removed some obsolete sections.

Forum Discussion

https://www.warzone.com/Forum/584452-515-update-discussion

Notes on version 5.14

This update has greatly increased the value of Increased Alloy Sell Values, Increased Item Sell Values, Alloy Values (artifact), and Item Values (artifact). You can buy alloys/items from the market and turn around to immediately sell them for a profit. Increasing Alloy Values is much cheaper than increasing Item Values, and some markets only have alloys. The increased money makes mercenaries more affordable, which raises the value of the Additional Mercenaries advancement. Maxing out Additional Mercenaries is a very good idea. The Market Visibility advancement should now be upgraded to 2 or 3. Mercenary Camp Vilibility is also very useful. Levels can be completed quickly by capturing markets, buying/selling for profit, buying all the mercs, unlocking all techs you can buy ingredients for, and repeating. Once all markets and hospitals are captured, there are two options. You can upgrade your hospitals and wait 2 hours, or you can attempt to finish immediately. Attempting to finish is only recommended for players who have highly upgraded mercs (over 100%) and/or are well into Phase 4. With 100% Additional Armies from Caches, 85% Additional Mercenaries, maxed Auto-Draft, and maxed Better Hospitals, I was able to easily complete the first 20 levels without upgrading hospitals. Speedy Crafters is still valuable but useful on fewer levels now.

Forum Discussion

https://www.warzone.com/Forum/568111-update-514

Visit this link for more details on the market-based strategy:

https://www.warzone.com/Forum/572780-514-marketbased-strategy

Past changes:

8/13/2022: Updated Phase 3 recommendations. Added super ascension level strategy. Minor changes throughout.

4/23/2022: Added Auto-Dig and Advanced Auto-Conquer to the list of Phase 4 Advancements. Updated sections on artifacts and super ascension.

11/7/2021: Major overhaul and additional updates related to versions 5.14 and 5.15. Removed old sections that were out of date and no longer relevant.

10/6/2021: Made some additional updates related to version 5.14. Added Increased Alloy Sell Values to the list of high priority advancements. Altered some Phase 3 recommendations to work better with the market based strategy.

8/28/2021: Updated guide for version 5.14

Contributors and Credits

The following users have contributed ideas and insights to my guide, either through direct discussions with me, or through posts on the forum and elsewhere.

Megaol

Z

Krinid

Functor

Mathematician

Parsifal

Saltar

Ivan0

Countless others who have posted and shared their ideas on the forums

Thank you to everyone who has provided input.