Season 4 Guide

PRE-GAME

• Do not burn your Doom Walker First Blood before season start. You will lose out on 207.3K Stone if you do (massive amount on Day 1).
• War Leaders - Have a plan in place with an Engineer to obtain the Win/Win Cooperation buff (5% resource reduction cost on structure and tech upgrades). If you have built a troop bank built, you can ask also ask for the Medical Aid/Hospital Capacity buff as well.
• Consider turning off Shake to Collect or Click to Collect All Resources (PC) to prevent accidental collection of Quartz from Workshops before they are upgraded.
• Spenders: Have Gold Bars ready for Stone Time-Limited Packs, Season Pass, and Weekly Pass (+250VR). This is just to save yourself some time.
• Another option is to reset your profession skills prior to servers going down. If you do your due diligence and know how many skill points you will spend on the right column season skills, you can dial in the bulk of your skill build and leave the unused points for use after Season 4 is live.

SEASON LFG

RESET PROFESSION SKILLS

Make sure to obtain the green right column season skills that reward EXP for killing monsters and upgrading structures. This ensures you get Profession EXP for all your kills and upgrades. Double Exchange and Professional Insights are also recommended pickups. Top Up EXP is likely good pick up as well, especially for those who want to start banking Alliance Season Contribution points and get some extra Profession EXP from doing so.

The Protector's Oath (Instantly obtain XX highest level Desert Protectors), Indomitable Will (When Desert Protectors die during a march X%, of them regroup back at the base), and Explosive Enhancement (The Desert Protector's Death Shockwave ratio is increased) profession skills have been removed for S4. The Fragile Spell and Shrinking Spell profession skills are the two available Protector-related skills. I consider Shrinking Spell to be in the fun, non-essential category. Fragile Spell could have situational tactical use, but I don't think there will be enough game-changing situations to pick it up for the early game. I plan on skipping both for these for the PvE progression phase.

I intend to fully engage with the Blood Night Hunter PvP events and plan on using 4 points to pick up the 3 Blood Night Hunter skills and Lightfall even though the Blood Night Hunter skills cannot be used in the first week. Ultimately this is up to you on whether you find them useful. Try to avoid using a Profession Skill Reset Book later over these skills by leaving a few points unspent until you decide.

Flare gives you another option to illuminate land, but comes with a 47.5 hour cooldown. The right column skills above Flare are not skillable until later in the season.

Disruption Mine will allow you to break the armor of an Oniwagon in Blood Night Stage 2.

Save a Profession Reset Book for later. Once PvE progression is over and the season shifts to more of a PvP focus, swapping some skills around could make sense to help you and your alliance out for the battles.

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PURCHASE SEASON PASS, TIME-LIMITED STONE PACK(S), AND WEEKLY PASS

If you are only purchasing the Season Pass, same as above. Snag it first so you get credit for the work you are putting in to unlock the pass tiers faster.

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SEASON 4 → WEEK 1 → DONATE TO UNLOCK OPTOELECTRONIC LAB, QUARTZ WORKSHOP, AND ALLIANCE CENTER

Reminder that once the donation threshold has been reached, every player needs to go and collect the chests within the Season 4 → Week 1 interface to unlock the Lab and the Workshop.

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REPAIR LIGHTHOUSE AND UPGRADE THE LIGHTHOUSE & PROTECTOR'S FIELD STRUCTURES TO LEVEL 10

Upgrading the two structures to Level 10 will not consume any Stone/Quartz. The Level 11 upgrade will require a Level 35 Optoelectronic Lab (and season rss). This is a very quick and easy way to get some Season Pass credit. This structure will start to provide HP/ATK/DEF buffs to your Protectors at Level 11.

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BEGIN FARMING FOR SEASON RESOURCES

• Illuminate your marches during your farm once the option is available to discover a Mini-Maneki Neko (50K Quartz, Tactics Card Pack).
• Level 190-250 Doom Walkers First Blood for Stone (207.3K). All provide the same amount of Stone. It is better to kill a 190 Doom Walker to obtain the Stone to upgrade your Quartz Workshops faster than to wait for a 250 Doom Walker to respawn if the Stone will provide an immediate upgrade for one of your Workshops.
• Small Zombies First Blood for Stone. Choose the troop type weakest to your main squad so you can maximize progression. You no longer receive First Blood rewards for killing all three troop types so focus on the the troop type you counter.
• Doom Elites First Blood for Stone/Quartz.

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MANAGING YOUR LIGHTHOUSE

To push Zombie and Doom Elite progression, utilize your Lighthouse to temporarily increase Virus Resistance for yourself and your allies.

• Level 1 Brightness provides 50 Virus Resistance (VR), 3x3 Illumination Range (IR)
• Level 2 Brightness provides 150 VR, 11x11 IR
• Level 3 Brightness provides 250 VR, 17x17 IR
• Level 4 Brightness provides 250 VR 23x23 IR

IF A PLAYER TURNS ON THEIR LIGHTHOUSE, ANY BASES WITHIN THE ILLUMINATION RANGE OF THAT BASE WILL RECEIVE THEIR LIGHTHOUSE BUFF.

There will be tons of moments where playing solo and cranking up your Lighthouse L3 for a quick progression kill makes sense. However, I would recommend building habits early on to change the perspective of all alliance members to the Lighthouse being a shared alliance resource. For example, if everyone goes into the Blood Night Descends events with a solo mentality, you could in theory have entire alliance turn on their Lighthouse at the start of the event and everyone in recharging minutes into the event. The optimal scenario would be communication across the team to stagger members turning on their Lighthouse and using the brightness range so nearby bases can obtain the buffs. Once the initial bases run out of power, another base within each cluster can power theirs on.

Here are some suggestions:

• If your alliance has a clear Virus Resistance leader, it may make the most sense to send electricians to their base so they can continue to accelerate their progression and still have power afterwards to help alliance members progress.
• If you have run out of power and need to continue progressing, look for a base that has their Lighthouse on and teleport within brightness range of it or ask in AC to see if anyone has theirs on or can help you by turning theirs on. Another option would be to request electricians to recharge faster.
• Form groups within the alliance to rotate Lighthouse usage for events (Blood Night Descends, Stronghold pushes).

Illuminate your marches to negate Darkness effects (Monsters are 50% stronger if you don't). You can ask alliance members to send electricians to your base to temporarily increase your power. This can extend the time your Lighthouse can powered on or can help you recharge faster if you are out of power.

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UPGRADE SEASON STRUCTURES & CONTINUE FARMING

Ideally, some of the season structures will be unlocked while farming, which will allow you to push a little further from the increased Virus Resistance and Illuminating Path on your marches to negate Darkness effects.

• Use the Double Exchange profession skill to swap for Quartz or Stone.
• Deploy Optoelectronic Lab (Virus Resistance & Max Brightness) and upgrade it. This will unlock the first Zombie-powered Generator. Farm small zombies and fill the Generator Quota (3), activate the Generator, and then tap on the Lighthouse to connect the Generator. This will reward you with 600 power and an Electrician. The four Zombie-powered Generators unlock at Level 1/5/10/15 Optoelectronic Lab.
• Deploy your Quartz Workshops and optimize your Stone usage to upgrade them. Each Workshop upgrade provides +720 Quartz production so there are no benefits to rushing a Workshop to Level 30 and why you hear so many people recommending to level them evenly. I see at least one person every season who still does that. My suggestion is to look at all 4 (5 with Weekly Pass) Quartz Workshops and ask yourself "What is the cheapest amount of Stone I can use to obtain the 720 Quartz production increase?" The general approach is to level each to Level 15 until all 4 Workshops are unlocked and then upgrade them evenly until cap. If you purchase the Weekly Pass and plan on continuing to keep it active during the season, then I would recommend upgrading the Workshop 1 & Weekly Pass Workshop evenly. The Weekly Pass Workshop can be leveled to 10. Upgrading past that will require your first Workshop to be Level 15.

UPGRADE YOUR QUARTZ WORKSHOPS BEFORE YOU COLLECT YOUR QUARTZ!

This is a very easy to to get some extra Quartz. If you upgrade your Workshop(s) BEFORE collecting your Quartz, you will reap the benefit of the production upgrade immediately.

Turn on your Lighthouse to begin collecting Season 4->Goals progress. You may need to perform some power management until you unlock the second Zombie-powered Generator (Optoelectronic Lab reaches Level 5) and/or your Alliance Center is completed.

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PORT TO THE ALLIANCE CENTER & ASSIST IN REPAIR

The completed Alliance Center will initially provide 600 power to bases within the border.

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ATTEND THE BLOOD NIGHT DESCENDS EVENTS

This event takes place every 8 hours at 8:30AM, 4:30PM, and 12:30AM Eastern Time. Stage 1 of this event provides a second set of more powerful Doom Elites & Zombies that give another set of First Blood Stone/Quartz rewards. You also get a currency (Magatama) which can be used in the Magatama Shop to snag additional Quartz, Legendary Tactics Pack, Purple Overlord Supply Chests, Training Certifcates, Iron/Food/Gold, and Speeds (similar to the S3 shop).

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TURN YOUR LIGHTHOUSE BACK ON AFTER EVERY BLOOD NIGHT DESCENDS EVENT TO CONTINUE S4 GOALS REWARDS PROGRESSION

The event cranks power usage to 18,000/min (even more if you are participating) so anyone who isn't online for the event will notice that their Lighthouse is no longer powered on the next time they login.

OTHER

• You will notice a substantial increase in march times in S4. You can cut down on your march times by reinforcing your Alliance Center with a return march. You can also try spawning a couple of monsters to try and get a better return angle of your march via AC. This also works during Blood Night events.
• Illuminating marches negates Darkness effects and increases chances of obtaining Tactics Card Packs. You can loot 5 Tactics Card Chests per day, which spawn from small zombies (drop rate increases during Blood Night). Be sure to farm max packs every reset.
• Look for the Radar Task & Survivor that Stone and keep that in mind for your upgrade timings.
• Work at completing Target Missions in the Season Pass to unlock tiers quicker.
• Use Profession Books one at a time for Season Pass credit.
• Max your Maneki-neko Light On (5) Attempts per day. Prioritize the Mini Maneki-neko since it gives 50,000 Quartz and a Tactics Card pack. The Mini Maneki-neko will use up one of the attempts. Prioritizing it will make sure you don't lock yourself out of collecting by accidentally sending too many recon planes out for the Large Maneki-neko. You can use Flares or Base Lights to uncover the Large Maneki-neko, which are same 12 chests acquired by Recon Planes that from Greenifying land in S3.
• Doom Elites can spawn Iron, Food, Gold, and Oil resource nodes once per reset. Do not try and farm these this season. There will be an icon showing when one is up so keep an eye out for them.
• Max out your 10 gifts for liking 10 Silverclaw Fighter (Red Firetruck Bases).
• Excess Profession EXP is used to promote Core (Legendary/Gold) Tactics cards.
• Using a Core (Gold/Legendary) Tactics Card Skill will lock that card from being replaced until it is off cooldown. For example, the Core Card Skill that gives 250VR and 10.00% damage reduction from monsters for 180 seconds can be used once every 24 hours. Once you activate the skill and the card is on cooldown, you will not be able to swap it out for another Core card until it is off cooldown.

BEST PRACTICE FOR VIRUS RESISTANCE PROGRESSION

After completing everything you can, check to see how much Quartz your Lab needs to upgrade. Calculate the Quartz per hour from your Workshops and any additional Quartz gain (i.e. Season 4 -> Goals Rewards). Set an alarm for when you will have enough Quartz to upgrade. Login when the alarm goes off, upgrade the Lab, get more Zombie and Doom Elite First Bloods, upgrade anything else you can. Recalculate, set another alarm, and do it all over again.

BLOOD NIGHT DESCENDS STAGE 1

Blood Night is all about maximizing speed, power management, progression during the 30 minute event. Once you turn on your Lighthouse, it will start burning 18,000 power/minute. For Stage 1 Difficulty of the event, you will focus on Small Zombie and Doom Elite First Bloods for Stone/Quartz to upgrade your Lab and Workshops and acquiring the Magatama currency to begin clearing out the Magatama Market.

PRE-GAME

• Enable the in-game "The Lighthouse automatically turns off when Blood Night descends" option. (Lighthouse → Electrician Tab)
• Create base groups that are near each other to stagger Lighthouse usage and solidify rotation. You can also coordinate on how to utilize Electricians within each cluster.

NON-PARTICIPANTS

This event takes place every 8 hours at 8:30AM, 4:30PM, and 12:30AM Eastern Time. If you know you cannot make the event, please help the players that are able to participate by doing the following:

Turn off your Lighthouse and dispatch max Electricians that your power input can handle to the Virus Resistance leaders that will be active during the event. This will allow the alliance as a whole to make more progression during the 30 minute window. As soon as the event goes live, your Lighthouse will start burning 18,000 power/min even if you are not logged in and your Lighthouse will shut off during the event. This gives you a way to help the alliance even if you can't make it.

I am going to break down the event into parts:

Part 1:

Kill as many Zombies and Doom Elites with your Lighthouse OFF (to conserve power). For the first event, you may want to use your first and second squad to get more done until you hit a progression wall. Illuminate the marches to negate the Darkness effects on the monsters.

Part 2:

Obtain the Level 3 Brightness (30,000 power/min, +250 VR) buff either through your Lighthouse or an alliance member. Start a rally (with illuminate ON) then turn your Lighthouse OFF. At this point in time, the game saves your VR after the rally has been launched. Repeat for progression on Zombies and Doom Elites. Time is ticking due to the immense power drain, so try to get as much done as possible during these windows.

If you are being "carried" by a big through Blood Night Doom Elites, send an electrician to the player helping you or the player who is providing the Lighthouse buff for your big. Be sure to illuminate your march/rally.

As mentioned above, reinforce your Alliance Center on return marches to speed up their return.

Part 3:

If you have not looted your 5 Tactics Card Chests, continue to kill small zombies in your VR range with illuminated marches (drop rate is increased during Blood Night). Assist with City Oni Generals if any are still up. Once you have completed progression, dispatch your Electricians to players that are still actively progressing in the event.

Remember to turn your Lighthouse back on after the event is over.

CITY ONI-GENERALS

I would suggest the alliance have a quick chat on how these will be handled (unlocks additional Magatama for the alliance). Nothing wrong with winging the event, but if you do come up with a system, slot it into whatever part below that makes sense. You will get pop-up notifications in the bottom right of the game interface when they are up. You can also go to Alliance->Alliance City to see all spawned Generals. However, by the time these are released, you will have most of the event free to take them down.