HQ Rushing

Original Author: #448 [VPM-R5] VortexRPM

Original Material: Discord Server 449 ##hq-rushing channel

HQ rushing should be the default method of progression. This involves focusing only on the buildings that are directly tied to your upcoming HQ levels. It is best to look at it in chunks (14-17; 18-20; 21-24; 25-27; 28-30), as that is when you get new troop tiers. BUT. Every HQ level is more important than any other upgrade. You NEVER upgrade, for practical benefits, other buildings, unless listed below in “Upgrade Exceptions”. All other buildings become fodder for your Duel Day 2 or 5 gift box stacking. Don't open giftboxes unless you need them to maximize your Duel rewards, or your leadership directs you to so that the alliance can win the day/week. A special note. Unless you have the shake-to-collect all resources, you should always leave 1 of each resource production building not in a giftbox to make collecting simple and easy!

• Better Hero Level Cap. Hero Levels provide the single best power gain aside from new troop levels. Hero level also affects how many troops you can carry which is additional power and Squad Load, reducing the number of attacks it takes to soft cap on plunder.
• Better Plunder Penalty Thresholds. If you have your heroes at their level cap, and are using maximum level troops for your squad capacity, it takes ~6x attacks to reach a 15% penalty, and ~6x more attacks at 15% to hit 5%. This takes significantly more attacks if your heroes are below their cap, or you are not using a full squad of your highest level troops. For reference, a 17 gets around ~13m, a 24 gets ~20-25m, a 27 gets ~30-35m, a 30 gets ~40m+ (with t9).
• Better amounts from level-tied-chests for food, iron, gold, and Hero XP.

• There are no practical demerits.
• You get less frequent joy from upgrades, and OCD may suffer through the uneven leveling.

• Hospital only need 1 leveled. Additional can be leveled if you are afraid of messing up and over-capping on hospital troops. This results in instant deaths. It will typically only happen because of user error or being out-played.
• Drill Grounds can be leveled as needed if you're running out of troops too often. Higher Drill Grounds can also be useful for Desert Storm, as you get the maximum amount, determined by the drill grounds, of your max level troops.
• Barracks assuming you have at least HQ17 and have unlocked the extra barracks in the Development Tech tree, you should have 4. To stagger your barracks correctly for 4-5x Training Day (Day 5) Duel Points, you should have them at these levels (based on your max level) 6/10/14/17/20/24/27/30. For instance a level 17 would have 6/10/14/17, and a level 24 would have 14/17/20/24.
• Gear Factory needs level 10 to craft UR gear, and level 20 to upgrade UR gear beyond level 40.
• Tank/Missile/Aircraft Centers can be upgraded as needed, and level 20 is required to access the Wall of Honor for heroes of the respective types that have reached 5 stars. Most f2p players will primarily use 4-5 tanks and will want to only do the Tank Center. Dolphins/Whales will need to level up Missile/Aircraft Centers as needed based on their current or planned squad compositions.
• 2nd Tech Center Although the gains are extremely small, IF you have extra resources, leveling the 2nd tech center can be extremely beneficial for your general research progress.