Upgrade Costs & Scaling

How to read this page: a green "stable" tag means multiple independent sources agree closely. An amber "range" tag means the figure shifts with updates, research bonuses, or server age — treat it as a ballpark, not a locked-in number. Table costs are base values before research/VIP/hero discounts are applied, so your actual cost will usually be somewhat lower.

Headquarters Scaling

Stable

Full Upgrade Cost Table (Level 1–35)

Cross-checked across two independent sources, agreeing on every level. Coins join Iron and Food as a required resource from level 9 onward; Oil joins from level 31 onward. Figures shown are base costs before research/VIP/hero discounts, and before speedups are applied to build time.

Level	Iron	Food	Coins	Oil	Build Time	Hero Cap
2	68	68	—	—	4s	10
3	1,000	1,000	—	—	47s	15
4	2,500	2,500	—	—	1m 57s	20
5	20,000	20,000	—	—	11m 42s	25
6	91,000	91,000	—	—	35m 6s	30
7	240,000	240,000	—	—	1h 33m 36s	35
8	390,000	390,000	—	—	3h 7m 2s	40
9	620,000	620,000	200,000	—	4h 22m 5s	45
10	750,000	750,000	240,000	—	5h 40m 43s	50
11	1,900,000	1,900,000	600,000	—	6h 33m 43s	55
12	3,200,000	3,200,000	1,000,000	—	9h 21m 46s	60
13	3,500,000	3,500,000	1,100,000	—	11h 52m 54s	65
14	4,900,000	4,900,000	1,600,000	—	1d 15h 26m	70
15	6,800,000	6,800,000	2,200,000	—	1d 22h 9m	75
16	12,000,000	12,000,000	3,900,000	—	2d 6h 16m	80
17	16,000,000	16,000,000	5,100,000	—	2d 18h 23m	85
18	28,000,000	28,000,000	8,900,000	—	3d 9h 57m	90
19	33,000,000	33,000,000	11,000,000	—	4d 9h 8m	95
20	60,000,000	60,000,000	19,000,000	—	5d 15h	100
21	84,000,000	84,000,000	27,000,000	—	6d 19m	105
22	110,000,000	110,000,000	35,000,000	—	6d 15h 20m	110
23	140,000,000	140,000,000	44,000,000	—	7d 7h 56m	115
24	170,000,000	170,000,000	54,000,000	—	10d 11h 14m	120
25	290,000,000	290,000,000	93,000,000	—	14d 21h 52m	125
26	400,000,000	400,000,000	130,000,000	—	18d 18h 46m	130
27	530,000,000	530,000,000	170,000,000	—	25d 16h 20m	135
28	740,000,000	740,000,000	240,000,000	—	34d 8h 31m	140
29	1,000,000,000	1,000,000,000	330,000,000	—	44d 47m	145
30	1,400,000,000	1,400,000,000	460,000,000	—	57d 14h 30m	150
31	1,600,000,000	1,600,000,000	510,000,000	1,440,000	Not documented	155
32	1,700,000,000	1,700,000,000	560,000,000	2,304,000	Not documented	160
33	1,900,000,000	1,900,000,000	620,000,000	3,916,800	Not documented	165
34	2,000,000,000	2,000,000,000	650,000,000	7,050,240	Not documented	170
35	2,100,000,000	2,100,000,000	680,000,000	14,100,480	Not documented	175

Both sources agreed exactly on every resource figure above. Build time wasn't documented for levels 31–35 by either source — likely because Oil production rate, not the base timer, becomes the real bottleneck at that stage; calculate your timeline from your Oil income rate rather than a fixed build timer once Oil enters the picture. Try the Next HQ Level Calculator to look up any single level's cost instantly.

Stable

Hero Level Cap Formula

Every Headquarters level raises the maximum hero level by exactly 5, topping out at a hero level cap of 175 once HQ reaches level 35. This is one of the more precisely confirmed figures across sources — useful for calculating exactly how much headroom your next HQ level actually unlocks for hero investment. In short: Hero Level Cap = HQ Level × 5.

HQ Level	Hero Level Cap	Why It Matters
20	100	—
24	120	Many players begin building strong end-game squads around here
27	135	Also the HQ level required to start working toward T11 troops — though far more research and a higher Barracks level are still needed before you can actually train them
30	150	—
31–35	155–175	Only unlocked after entering Age of Oil (Season 2 content) — requires HQ Expansion research and Oil alongside the usual resources

When planning progression, the approach that tends to give the biggest combat-power increase per HQ level is:

Upgrade your Headquarters.
Immediately level your main squad's heroes up to the new cap.
Only then continue pushing toward the next HQ level, rather than spending Hero EXP on secondary squads too early.

Stable

Milestone Unlocks

HQ Level	Unlocks
10	T5 Troops
15	Ultimate Skill (hero skill tier)
20	Special Forces research becomes available (path to T10)
27+	HQ Expansion tech becomes available, once Tech Center reaches level 30 and Special Forces research is far enough along
30	HQ Expansion tech must be completed before upgrading further

Clarifying an earlier apparent discrepancy: Age of Oil is a season-tied global unlock that becomes available after Season 2 ends on your server — separate from the account-specific gate that lets you push HQ past level 30. That gate requires Tech Center level 30, Special Forces research complete to a threshold that was reduced from 80% to 40% in an update (so older guides citing 80% are outdated), and then completing the "HQ Expansion" research item itself. See Prerequisites & Unlock Requirements for the full breakdown.

Hero Awakening Shard Costs

Precise through Star 3

Unlock & Star Costs

Unlocking Hero Awakening for the first time costs 50 Named Awakening Shards specific to that hero. The full path from unlock through Star 5 is commonly cited at roughly 1,580 shards total per hero. Star 4 and Star 5 individual costs aren't broken out separately yet — they're folded into that overall total figure.

Gear Costs

Stable

Crafting & Leveling — Full Cost Table

Sourced from a detailed community-made infographic (Aethernis, ko-fi.com/aethernis), covering a single UR gear piece from level 0 all the way to 5-star. Their own stated rules: only invest in UR-rarity gear, always level in 10-level increments, and always buy Blueprints whenever they're available.

Upgrade Step	Gold	Ore	Other
Lvl 0 → 10	3.2M	20.8K	—
Lvl 10 → 20	5.9M	38.8K	—
Lvl 20 → 30	8.8M	58.8K	—
Lvl 30 → 40	11.2M	76.2K	—
Lvl 40 → 1★	93.6M	62.5K	750 Ceramic + 5 Blueprints
1★ → 2★	121.6M	81.6K	975 Ceramic + 10 Blueprints
2★ → 3★	150M	100K	1,200 Ceramic + 15 Blueprints
3★ → 4★	178M	118.5K	1,425 Ceramic + 20 Blueprints
4★ → 5★	206M	138K	1,650 Ceramic + 10 Mythic Blueprints

Ceramic here refers to the Dielectric Ceramic crafting material. Gear Blueprints (the regular kind, not Mythic) are needed at every star promotion from 1★ onward; Mythic Blueprints only enter the picture at the very last step, 4★ to 5★. Costs shown are for a single gear piece — a full 4-slot loadout on one hero multiplies all of this by four.

Drone Parts Checkpoint Scaling

Stable

Full Cost Table to Level 250

Levels 1-150: Parts are needed only every 5 levels. Levels 151-250: needed at every single level. A level cap of 250 exists — going beyond it requires additional Tech Research to unlock further levels.

Level	Parts Needed	Cumulative Total
5	5	5
10	10	15
15	20	35
20	30	65
25	40	105
30	50	155
35	60	215
40	80	295
45	100	395
50	120	515
55	140	655
60	160	815
65	180	995
70	200	1,195
75	250	1,445
80	300	1,745
85	350	2,095
90	400	2,495
95	450	2,945
100	500	3,445
105	600	4,045
110	700	4,745
115	800	5,545
120	1,000	6,545
125	1,500	8,045
130	2,000	10,045
135	3,000	13,045
140	4,000	17,045
145	5,000	22,045
150	6,000	28,045
151-160	5,000/level	33,045 (at 160)
161-170	6,000/level	39,045 (at 170)
171-180	7,000/level	46,045 (at 180)
181-190	8,000/level	54,045 (at 190)
191-200	9,000/level	63,045 (at 200)
201-210	10,000/level	73,045 (at 210)
211-220	11,000/level	84,045 (at 220)
221-230	12,000/level	96,045 (at 230)
231-240	13,000/level	109,045 (at 240)
241-250	14,000/level	123,045 (at 250)

Maxing the drone to level 250 costs 123,045 Parts total. Skill unlocks happen at levels 31, 51, 71, 91, and 111 (no Parts cost for the unlock itself, just reaching the level). Skin unlocks at levels 50, 100, 150, 191, and 241. See Drone Upgrade Path for the full leveling strategy this feeds into.