State 677 — Research Guide: Combat, Costs and Dependencies

Research Progression for F2P and Spenders

Last verified: September 17, 2026 — badge totals and dependencies cross-checked against the Stats & Data Reference hub. Values marked “community data” are not yet independently verified.

The priority order — one list, early game to endgame

Work down this list in order. Each step shows its full badge cost, because cost is why order matters: every stage costs roughly 2–4× the one before (39.6k → 80k → ~268k → 594k → 1.49M → ~6M). Pushing a deep tree early means paying the most expensive prices for bonuses you could have bought cheaply elsewhere.

Hero Training — to Cockpit first, finish when convenient (whole tree: 39,590). Flat hero ATK/DEF and +20 units led per hero, for pocket change.
Military Strategies → 100% (~80,000). The best value in the game — Troop ATK +40% and DEF +40% — and it opens Siege to Seize (at 40%) and Peace Shield (at 45%).
Peace Shield → Urgent Rescue Lv.10 first (~268,000 for the whole tree, Urgent Rescue comes early). The strongest survival unlock in PvP — a share of perished troops become seriously injured instead. Finish the rest of the tree later.
Siege to Seize → 100% (267,375). +20% unit ATK/DEF, +60% in siege attacks, and the gate to Field.
Field → 100% (594,430). +20% unit ATK/DEF, +60% in the field, and the gate to the troop training trees.
Then choose by goal: Fully Armed Alliance (492,920 — Move Out! is a 125,200 node, Annihilation 64,460) if you fight in Enemy Buster / Capital Clash — or start UST (T10) (1,488,100) and your primary troop training tree (~1.44M) as the long-term projects. Army Building (~750k, after Peace Shield 100%) is the road to Tactical Master.

Best PvP unlock: Urgent Rescue. Note: this page covers combat research — the development trees and full F2P/spender routes are on the Research Progression page linked above. (Small trap: several node names repeat across trees — Recharge Shield, for example, exists separately in Siege to Seize, Field, and UST.)

Don’t rush T10 (UST) before the multiplier trees — the math is unforgiving. Steps 1–5 above cost about 1.25M badges combined — less than UST alone (1.49M) — and together grant roughly +80–100% unit ATK/DEF everywhere, +60% in siege attacks, +60% in the field, and Urgent Rescue. Tier-10 units raise your troops’ base stats; the cheap trees are the multipliers on that base — a T10 army without them loses to a buffed T9 army that spent the same badges. Per percentage point, Military Strategies is ~15× more badge-efficient than UST. And note: the actual T10-unlock node inside UST costs only 54,900 — the other 1.43M of that tree is stat nodes, so “rushing T10” gets you expensive units without even UST’s own +60% bonuses. Unlock T10 after the multipliers, not instead of them.

How Trees Unlock

Each research tree unlocks when you complete or reach a certain percentage in previous trees:

100% Shelter Building → unlocks HQ Management
100% HQ Management → unlocks Rapid Growth
100% Elite Troops → unlocks Military Strategies
50% Shelter + 45% Military Strategies → unlocks Peace Shield
100% Elite Troops + 40% Military Strategies → unlocks Siege to Seize
100% Siege to Seize (+ 100% New Home and Elite Troops) → unlocks Field (594k badges; opens the troop-specific training trees — not required before UST/T10)
100% Army Building → unlocks Tactical Master
80% Tactical Master → unlocks Leader’s Will (new endgame tree)

Alliance Recognition — the badge-income tree

If you only remember one long-term event rule from this guide, make it this: Alliance Recognition is the research that makes future Alliance Duel weeks more valuable. It increases reward value, unlocks more chests, and improves how quickly the event pays back your badge investment. It is important for event economy, but it should still be balanced against core combat research needs.

This research does not give direct fighting power, but it:

Doubles every daily chest (1–9) — a full-clear day goes from 830 → 1,660 badges and 110,000 → 220,000 Enhancement Alloy
Upgrades chests 4–9 — +1 reward tier on chests 4–6 and 7–9, and the +300% points make the 6M-score chest 9 realistically reachable
More Orange Fragments — chests 8 and 9 carry 1 fragment each; doubled, that’s up to 4 per day
Increases score capacity — Easier to hit 6 million points

Badge Requirements

Event King research: 142,700 badges (node total)
Event Expert: additional 18,210 badges (node total)
Important scoring checkpoints: approximately 175,000–200,000 badges depending on the exact nodes selected
Complete Alliance Recognition tree: 356,770 badges

The investment pays off: Once maxed, a full-clear duel week returns roughly 5,800–7,500 badges from chests alone (830/day, 1,660 on x2 days) — the tree pays for itself in well under a year of chests, before counting the doubled Alloy and fragments. Farm badges efficiently with Lucky Discounter (the recurring badge-discount event) and spend them on Alliance Duel research day so the same badges also score event points.

Research Benefits

Event King: +200% global score modifier
Event Expert: +100% points
Combined: 300% extra points when maxed

Badges Required for the Combat Research Trees

Progression	Research tree	Total badges to complete	Laboratory/HQ requirement	Research-tree dependency
1	Hero Training	39,590	HQ Lv. 8 + Laboratory Lv. 8	None
2	Alliance Recognition	356,770	Laboratory Lv. 10	50% New Home
3	Fully Armed Alliance	492,920	Laboratory Lv. 8	100% New Home + Season 1 alliance requirement
4	Military Strategies	79,816	Laboratory Lv. 16	100% Elite Troops
5	Siege to Seize	267,375	Laboratory Lv. 8	100% Elite Troops + 40% Military Strategies
6	Peace Shield	267,613	Laboratory Lv. 18	50% Shelter Building + 45% Military Strategies
7	Field	594,430	Laboratory Lv. 8	100% Siege to Seize + 100% New Home + 100% Elite Troops
8	Army Building	≈750,000 (community data)	Laboratory Lv. 25	100% Peace Shield
9	Shooter Training	≈1,440,000 (community data)	Laboratory Lv. 25	100% Field
10	Unit Special Training	1,488,100	Laboratory Lv. 30 and HQ Lv. 24	No named research-tree prerequisite

Dependency map

New Home
├── 50% → Alliance Recognition
└── 100% (+ Season 1 alliance requirement) → Fully Armed Alliance

Shelter Building — 100%
└── HQ Management — 100%
    └── Rapid Growth

Elite Troops — 100%
└── Military Strategies
    ├── 40% → Siege to Seize
    │          └── 100% → Field
    │                       └── 100% → Rider / Assaulter / Shooter Training
    │
    └── 45% → Peace Shield
               └── 100% → Army Building
                            └── 100% → Tactical Master
                                         └── 80% → Leader's Will (NEW)

Hero Training
└── Laboratory level requirement only

Unit Special Training
└── Laboratory Lv.30 + HQ Lv.24

Development and endgame trees

Research tree	Badge total	Unlock requirement
New Home	NA	Laboratory Lv. 1
Shelter Building	NA	Laboratory Lv. 5
Elite Troops	NA	Laboratory Lv. 8
HQ Management	NA	Laboratory Lv. 14 and 100% Shelter Building
Rapid Growth	NA	Laboratory Lv. 22 and 100% HQ Management
Rider Training	≈1.44M (community data)	Laboratory Lv. 25 and 100% Field
Assaulter Training	≈1.44M (community data)	Laboratory Lv. 25 and 100% Field
Shooter Training	≈1.44M (community data)	Laboratory Lv. 25 and 100% Field
Age of Steel (Steel Age)	≈1.08M (community data)	Laboratory Lv. 30, HQ Lv. 27 and the Season 2 Steel Age event
Tactical Master	≈6.0M (community data)	Laboratory Lv. 31, HQ Lv. 31 and 100% Army Building
Leader’s Will 🆕	≈6M (early community estimate)	Tactical Master 80% — new endgame team/rally tree: Team ATK / DEF / Health / Damage / Damage Reduction, plus Urgent Rally (minimum rally launch time −60s)
Army Expansion 🆕 (Season 3)	No badges — 19.06B Electricity + 17.16B Zents	Season 3 day 50 + HQ 33 + 50% Rapid Growth

Full node-by-node data for the new Season 3 tree: Army Expansion Research — Full Data (Season 3). Leader’s Will costs and stats will be verified live once unlocked.