Chip & Gear Priority

Slot Priority by Combat Role

Before looking at any specific hero, the role-based pattern almost every source agrees on:

The reasoning holds up mechanically: a defender's whole purpose is staying alive long enough for the squad's damage dealers to work, so Armor and Radar extend that window directly. An attacker's purpose is damage, so Gun (which multiplies their attack stat directly) comes first — but exactly which slot comes second varies hero by hero based on their specific kit.

Notable Call-Outs

• Kimberly — Gun first, then Chip, Radar, Armor last. Her Barrage Strike scales directly off Gun-boosted attack, and pushing Gun to a high star tier is described as giving a decisive compounding return.
• Murphy / Williams — Armor first, Radar second; Gun is optional and comes last, only once their defensive slots are already at parity with the rest of the march.
• Fiona / Tesla — Gun first, Radar second, Chip third. Both are high-value PvP targets, so Radar's survivability edges out Chip for second place on these two specifically.
• DVA — role-dependentNotable nuance — one source recommends Chip first when DVA runs inside a Tank formation (a common meta choice, sacrificing her own formation bonus for burst damage), but Gun first when she runs in a proper Aircraft formation instead. Which squad you're actually running her in changes her priority.
• Adam / McGregor (Missile frontline) — treated the same as Tank/Aircraft frontliners: Armor and Radar before offensive stats, since their job is absorbing hits for the squad.

A Sequenced Approach

Rather than gearing all five heroes evenly, one well-corroborated sequence for building a fresh squad from scratch:

1. Your primary carry's Gun (e.g., Kimberly)
2. Your primary defender's Radar (e.g., Murphy)
3. Guns for your remaining attackers
4. Radar for your second defender
5. Chips for your attackers
6. Chips for your defenders
7. Armor for your defenders
8. Radar for your attackers (last, since it's the least urgent slot on a damage dealer)

Only expand to a second squad once your first squad is fully geared with starred Legendary pieces — spreading Ore and materials across multiple squads before the first is finished is one of the most commonly cited ways to stall overall progress.

A Concrete Example Order

Beyond the abstract slot-by-slot sequence above, one community-made guide (Aethernis, ko-fi.com/aethernis) gives a specific hero-by-hero gearing order for each squad type — which hero's gear to bring up first, second, third, and so on:

• Tank squad: Kimberly → Murphy → Stetmann → Marshall → Williams
• Aircraft squad: DVA → Lucius → Schuyler → Morrison → Carlie
• Missile squad: Tesla → McGregor → Swift → Fiona → Adam

This lines up with the general pattern described above — primary carry first (Kimberly, DVA, Tesla), a key defender early (Murphy, Lucius, McGregor) — but gives a concrete, opinionated full order rather than just the first two steps. Treat it as one experienced player's specific approach rather than the only correct order.

Survivability Before Damage, Even Here

Once you're deciding which piece to push to Mythic first, the same defense-first logic applies at the very top of the gear ladder: Radar is widely cited as the single most valuable Mythic upgrade in the game, since at Mythic tier it reduces critical hit damage taken by a large margin — directly countering the burst damage that kills frontline heroes before a fight even gets going. Armor follows next, since its Mythic effect reduces the chance of being critically hit in the first place, a related but distinct mechanic from Radar's damage reduction. Offensive Mythic upgrades (Gun, Chip) are generally recommended only after your core defensive pieces are optimized — a team that survives longer deals more total damage than one that hits harder but dies faster.

Crafting & Star Order

Consistent with what's covered in more depth on Drone Upgrade Path: craft Memory Ultra Fission first (matched to your main squad's troop type), then Gravitational Resonance Armor, then use the Attack Chip over Initial Move up through star 5 — past that point, Initial Move overtakes it in priority. Keep all four chips roughly level with each other rather than maxing one before starting the next.

• Investing Ore or Blueprints into Common or Rare gear — these are temporary filler, not worth permanent investment.
• Spreading Ore evenly across all five heroes instead of finishing your primary damage dealer first.
• Upgrading gear on heroes who aren't actually in your active squad.
• Buying gear crafting materials with Diamonds when they're farmable for free elsewhere.
• Not saving Blueprints from the Honor Store — they're consistently cited as the biggest late-game bottleneck, more than raw Gold or Ore.