State 677 — Research Progression for F2P and Spenders

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Purpose: Choose the most efficient Last Z research progression based on badge availability and spending level. F2P players should maximize combat return per badge, while spenders can invest in reward trees and accelerate expensive late-game branches.

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Core Strategy

F2P / Non-Spender

• Prioritize combat value per badge.
• Complete badge-free development trees whenever possible.
• Stop expensive trees at their strongest checkpoints.
• Specialize in one primary troop type.
• Save badge research for Alliance Duel research day.

Spender / High-Spender

• Unlock and use the second laboratory.
• Complete high-value reward research.
• Accelerate the Field and troop-specialization branches.
• Invest earlier in PvP research such as Annihilation.
• Build toward Army Building, Unit Special Training, and Tactical Master.

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Recommended F2P Progression

Order	Research Tree	Recommended Target	Reason
1	Shelter Building	100%	Construction and research-speed improvements benefit every future upgrade.
2	HQ Management	100%	Required to unlock Rapid Growth and does not consume research badges.
3	Rapid Growth	100%	Improves long-term account development without draining badges.
4	Elite Troops	Complete gradually	Improves troop development and is required for Military Strategies.
5	Alliance Recognition	Premium Rewards, Event Expert, and Super Rewards / nine-chest checkpoint	Take the valuable Alliance Duel rewards, then pause before the expensive late levels.
6	Hero Training	Reach Cockpit, then pause	The early hero-stat upgrades provide good value; later levels are less badge-efficient.
7	Military Strategies	40%, then 45%, eventually 100%	40% unlocks Siege to Seize (with Elite Troops 100%); 45% unlocks Peace Shield (with Shelter 50%). The full tree is relatively inexpensive.
8	Peace Shield — first pass	Urgent Rescue Lv.10 first	One of the strongest survival upgrades for PvP and a counter to troop-death effects.
9	Peace Shield — second pass	Recharge Shield and key defensive nodes	Prioritize troop HP and survival instead of completing every branch equally.
10	Siege to Seize	100%	Provides useful combat improvements and is required to unlock Field.
11	Field	100% over time	Expensive, but required to unlock troop-specific training trees.
12	Primary Troop Training Tree	Focus only on the main formation	Do not divide scarce badges across Rider, Assaulter, and Shooter research.
13	Army Building	Late game (unlocked by Peace Shield 100%)	Strong long-term value (~750k badges), but too expensive to prioritize before the main formation.
14	Fully Armed Alliance	Late luxury research	Annihilation is useful, but the branch is expensive for F2P players.
15	Unit Special Training	Final major project	Its very high badge cost should not delay core combat research.

Simplified F2P Route

flowchart TD
    A["Shelter Building 100%"] --> B["HQ Management 100%"]
    B --> C["Rapid Growth 100%"]
    C --> D["Elite Troops"]
    D --> E["Alliance Recognition<br>Nine-chest checkpoint"]
    E --> F["Hero Training<br>Stop near Cockpit"]
    F --> G["Military Strategies<br>40% → 45% → 100%"]
    G --> H["Peace Shield<br>Urgent Rescue Lv.10"]
    H --> I["Siege to Seize 100%"]
    I --> J["Field 100%"]
    J --> K["Primary Troop Training"]
    K --> L["Army Building / Fully Armed Alliance / Unit Special Training"]

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Best F2P stopping points: Alliance Recognition at the nine-chest reward checkpoint, Hero Training around Cockpit, and Peace Shield after Urgent Rescue Lv.10 before committing to less efficient branches.

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Recommended Spender Progression

Order	Research Tree	Recommended Target	Reason
1	Second Laboratory	Unlock immediately	Run badge-free research in one queue and event-timed badge research in the other.
2	Shelter Building	100%	Permanent construction and research acceleration.
3	HQ Management	100%	Required for Rapid Growth.
4	Rapid Growth	100%	Maximizes long-term account-development speed.
5	Elite Troops	100%	Improves universal troop development and unlocks Military Strategies.
6	Alliance Recognition	One More!, preferably 100%	Spenders can consistently benefit from additional Duel rewards and scoring bonuses.
7	Hero Training	100%	The complete tree is inexpensive relative to later badge trees.
8	Military Strategies	100%	Low total cost and unlocks both Siege to Seize and Peace Shield.
9	Peace Shield	Urgent Rescue Lv.10 immediately	Protects troops against aggressive PvP and Annihilation effects.
10	Siege to Seize	100%	Opens Field and provides offensive combat bonuses.
11	Field	100%	Unlocks the troop-specific research trees.
12	Primary Troop Training Tree	100% or as high as possible	Concentrates power in the main formation before secondary marches.
13	Fully Armed Alliance	Reach Annihilation, then complete	Highly valuable for Enemy Buster, Capital Clash, and aggressive PvP.
14	Peace Shield	100%	Improves troop survival and unlocks Army Building.
15	Army Building	100%	Strong endgame combat tree and prerequisite for Tactical Master.
16	Unit Special Training	100%	Major endgame combat investment for players with strong badge income.
17	Secondary Troop Trees	After the main formation	Strengthens second and third marches without delaying the primary march.
18	Tactical Master	Endgame	Requires HQ31, Laboratory 31, and Army Building at 100%. ≈6M badges total (community data).
19	Leader’s Will 🆕	After Tactical Master 80%	New endgame team/rally tree (≈6M badges, early estimate): Team ATK / DEF / Health / Damage / Damage Reduction + Urgent Rally (−60s minimum rally launch). For whales and rally leads first.

Two-Laboratory Spender Strategy

Laboratory 1 — Continuous Development

1. Shelter Building
2. HQ Management
3. Rapid Growth
4. Elite Troops
5. Remaining badge-free research

Laboratory 2 — Badge and Combat Research

1. Alliance Recognition
2. Hero Training
3. Military Strategies
4. Peace Shield: Urgent Rescue
5. Siege to Seize
6. Field
7. Primary troop tree
8. Fully Armed Alliance
9. Army Building
10. Unit Special Training

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Aggressive PvP Spender Variation

For players focused on State Ruler, Capital Clash, Enemy Buster, and heavy troop-killing, use this variation:

flowchart LR
    A["Alliance Recognition"] --> B["Hero Training"]
    B --> C["Military Strategies"]
    C --> D["Urgent Rescue"]
    D --> E["Siege to Seize"]
    E --> F["Fully Armed Alliance<br>Reach Annihilation"]
    F --> G["Field"]
    G --> H["Primary Troop Training"]
    H --> I["Finish Fully Armed Alliance"]
    I --> J["Army Building"]
    J --> K["Unit Special Training"]

⚔️

Why this works: Urgent Rescue reduces permanent troop losses, while Annihilation increases enemy troop deaths. Survival should normally be secured before maximizing troop-killing effects.

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Universal Badge-Spending Rules

1. Spend badges during Alliance Duel research day whenever possible so the same investment generates permanent research and event points.
2. Never leave a laboratory idle. Run badge-free research between badge-spending events.
3. Specialize before diversifying. Build one primary troop formation before investing heavily in all three troop trees.
4. Urgent Rescue generally comes before Annihilation. Staying alive benefits every battle and protects long-term troop reserves.
5. Do not chase displayed power alone. HP, damage, troop survival, and formation-specific bonuses usually matter more than low-value research power.
6. Match the route to badge income. A spender path is inefficient for a player who cannot sustain the badge costs.
7. Ignore Tactical Master and Leader’s Will until everything else is finished. Their combined 12.1M badges are a multi-year background sink for completed accounts, not a goal to save toward — see the dedicated section below.
8. Don’t rush T10 (Unit Special Training) ahead of the multiplier trees. Everything through Field costs ~1.25M badges combined — less than UST alone (1.49M) — and grants roughly +80–100% unit ATK/DEF plus Urgent Rescue. T10 raises your troops’ base stats; the cheap trees multiply them — a T10 army without the multipliers underperforms a buffed T9 army of the same badge spend. The T10-unlock node itself is only 54,900 badges of UST’s 1.49M, so beelining it also skips UST’s own stat bonuses.

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Key Badge-Cost Context

Research Tree	Approximate Total Badges	Planning Note
Hero Training	39,590	Cheap enough for spenders to complete; F2P can stop around Cockpit.
Military Strategies	79,816	Excellent value because it unlocks two major branches.
Alliance Recognition	356,770	F2P should stop at reward checkpoints; spenders may complete it.
Fully Armed Alliance	492,920	PvP-focused investment; contains Annihilation.
Field	594,430	Expensive but mandatory for troop-specific training trees.
Unit Special Training	Approximately 1.49 million	Late-game project after core combat progression.
Troop Training Trees (each)	≈1.44 million (community data)	Three parallel trees behind 100% Field — specialize in one before touching the others.
Tactical Master	≈6.0 million (community data)	Endgame; requires Army Building 100%. Its faction-hero ATK/DEF grows as the tree progresses — the single biggest badge sink until Leader’s Will.
Leader’s Will 🆕	≈6 million (early estimate)	Unlocks at Tactical Master 80%. New team/rally bonus family (Team ATK / DEF / Health / Damage / Damage Reduction) plus Urgent Rally (minimum rally launch time −60s). Strictly an endgame project.

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Tactical Master & Leader’s Will — Don’t Let 12 Million Badges Scare You

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The short version: these two trees are not part of your plan — they are what the game gives finished accounts to chew on for years. Together they cost 12,089,760 badges — roughly half as much again as every other badge tree in the game combined. Nobody “saves up” for them, nobody falls behind by ignoring them, and no alliance should expect them from you. Research everything else first; these two then research themselves in the background over years.

Every number below is from the full datasets and the live-verified Stat Overviews — this is not community guesswork.

1. The value per badge is the worst in the game. A crude but honest signal — what one percentage point on the core Troop ATK + DEF pair costs in each tree (ignoring each tree’s other stats):

Tree	Total badges	Troop ATK / DEF at MAX	Badges per +1% (ATK+DEF pair)	Also included at MAX
Military Strategies	79,816	40% / 40%	≈1,000	Troop HP 5%, unit HP 15%, situational 20% lines
Army Building	≈750,000	30% / 30%	≈12,500	Troop HP 15%, situational 15–25% lines, unit 20% lines
Unit Special Training	≈1,490,000	40% / 40%	≈18,600	Troop HP 50%, unit ATK/DEF 60% lines, T10 unlock
Tactical Master	6,000,590	15% / 15%	≈200,000	Troop HP 40%, six situational 40% lines, Troop DMG ±10%, faction heroes +1,500, Destruction/March 15%
Leader’s Will	6,089,170	—	—	Team DMG/Reduction/Health 10%, Team-Up ATK/DEF 20%, unit ATK/DEF 20% lines, faction heroes +1,000, Urgent Rally −60s, Training 20%

Tactical Master’s endgame lines (Troop HP 40%, the six 40% situational lines, DMG ±10%) are real power — but Military Strategies sells the same class of multiplier 200× cheaper. Every tree in the routes above outranks these two on value per badge, which is exactly why they sit last.

2. Time is a wall even if badges weren’t. Raw research time is 13,561 days for Tactical Master and 19,577 for Leader’s Will — at a fully-maxed 365% research speed that is still ≈8 and ≈11.5 years of pure queue time. And at a realistic badge income, Tactical Master alone is a ≈12-year project and both together ≈23 years — the game designed them as permanent background sinks, not milestones. Full per-node math: Tactical Master & Leader’s Will — Full Cost Data

3. They’re gated behind a finished account anyway. Tactical Master needs Army Building 100% (itself late-game); Leader’s Will needs HQ 35 + Tactical Master 80%. By the time you can even start them, every route above is long complete — you don’t choose these trees, you graduate into them.

4. Leader’s Will is a rally-leader tree. Its marquee lines — Team-Up ATK/DEF 20% and Urgent Rally −60s (the priciest node in the game at 507,660 badges) — only shine when you lead rallies and garrisons. If that’s not your role, it is the last research in the game for you, in every sense.

5. When you do research them, do it on Duel research day. At 174 points per badge on Day 3 (Age of Science), completing Tactical Master scores ≈1.04 BILLION Alliance Duel points over its lifetime — the tree pays event value the whole way, which is the correct way to think about it: a slow drip that wins you research days, not a mountain to climb.

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F2P players: this is why the F2P route table above doesn’t even list them — Unit Special Training is the final F2P project, and that’s fine. Spenders: they’re steps 18–19 for a reason. If a fellow player is stressing about “needing” 12M badges — show them this section.

Final Recommendation

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Best overall F2P route: Development trees → Alliance Recognition reward checkpoint → Hero Training to Cockpit → Military Strategies → Urgent Rescue → Siege to Seize → Field → one primary troop tree.

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Best overall spender route: Two laboratories → complete development trees → Alliance Recognition → Hero Training → Military Strategies → Urgent Rescue → Siege to Seize → Field → primary troop tree → Annihilation → Army Building → Unit Special Training → Tactical Master → Leader’s Will.

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New in Season 3

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Army Expansion arrives on day 50 of Season 3 (also needs HQ 33 + Rapid Growth 50%) and is paid in Electricity and Zents, not badges — so it never competes with the badge routes above. It is enormous (19.06B Electricity + 17.16B Zents for +2,500 Troop Capacity and per-unit ATK/DEF/training bonuses) and heavily front-loaded: the first Troop Expansion node is the best value in the tree. Full per-level costs: Army Expansion Research — Full Data (Season 3)

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Reference Sources

• Last Z research planner
• Z Tools research data
• Last Z Guides technology guide
• Research prioritization guide

ℹ️

Research costs and unlock requirements may change after game updates. Verify individual node costs in-game before committing a large badge reserve.