Last War Troop Guide: March Size, Load Capacity and Training

For Last War: Survival players who want to understand the troop mechanics behind march output, resource hauls and training speed at a competitive level.

Troop tier gets most of the attention in Last War: Survival. T9, T10, the stat jump at each unlock. That part is real.

But the troop mechanics that create the biggest gaps between accounts on the same tier are the ones few guides cover in detail: march size, load capacity, Waterfall Training, unit morale, and the levers big accounts use to push each one.

This guide covers every lever that raises march size, what load capacity does and how to raise it, how Waterfall Training works and why it is the most efficient troop method in the game, T9 and T10 requirements, unit morale, and Shirley's role as a march size multiplier.

How to increase march size in Last War: Survival

March size is the most important troop stat for competitive play. It sets how many troops each hero brings into battle, which directly caps your damage in rallies, PvP, Capital Duels and Desert Storm Battlefield. A march size edge means more troops per fight, and more damage whatever your formation or hero skills.

There is no direct research node for march size. Every increase comes from one of four levers:

• Hero level: the main driver. Each hero adds troops to the march based on their level. Higher levels bring more troops. This is the biggest lever you have, and the reason hero experience packs during event windows raise march size faster than almost any other spend.
• Shirley (VIP 8 survivor): Shirley unlocks at VIP 8 and gives a passive march size increase to your whole squad, not just one hero. She is the only survivor in Last War: Survival that directly raises march size at scale. For any competitive account focused on rally output, reaching VIP 8 and keeping Shirley slotted is a must. Her bonus stacks on top of hero level gains and grows with her own survivor level.
• VIP level: beyond Shirley at VIP 8, VIP progress gives passive combat bonuses that lift march output. VIP 8 gives Shirley, and higher VIP levels raise construction and research speed while VIP is active (more in which Last War VIP levels matter). The second builder is not a VIP perk: it is a 200 Gold Brick buy. The march size benefit from VIP is indirect (faster building speeds up HQ, which raises hero level caps) but real over a season.
• Troop tier: higher tiers add more power per unit. The march size number does not change by tier, but the combat output per march slot goes up a lot. The T8 to T9 jump and the T9 to T10 jump are both big.

The fastest path to more march size in practice: level heroes steadily, reach VIP 8 to unlock Shirley, keep Shirley slotted at all times, and buy hero experience packs during Hero Advancement Arms Race phases, where the same spend also scores event points.

Load capacity in Last War: Survival

Load capacity sets how many resources your troops carry home from raids and gathering points. Higher load means bigger hauls per march, which matters most during resource-heavy phases like HQ upgrades, big research pushes and stockpiling before events.

Three levers raise load capacity:

• Troop tier: the biggest load jumps come from higher troop tiers. Each tier carries clearly more than the last: a level 1 troop carries 400 and a level 10 troop 2,200 (Last War Guide). If resource hauls are your bottleneck, troop tier is the main fix.
• Tech research: specific nodes in the Development and Economy research trees raise load capacity passively. These are badge-free nodes that should run nonstop in Queue 1 of your second Tech Center. The Development tree construction and gathering nodes are the ones that matter.
• Hero gear: some gear pieces on your gathering heroes raise load capacity for their march. This matters for accounts that run separate gathering marches and combat marches.

In practice: players who scout inactive or unshielded bases and max load per march pull far more resources per cycle than players who raid at random. Load capacity sets the ceiling of each raid. The number of marches and good targeting decide how often you reach it.

Waterfall Training: the most efficient troop method

Waterfall Training is the most efficient troop recovery and event scoring method in Last War: Survival. Most accounts either do not know it or do not keep it up. At competitive levels it is a setup you do once and keep for good.

How it works: keep your Barracks at staggered levels instead of upgrading them all to the same tier. A typical competitive setup with T10 unlocked: one Barracks at T10, one at T9, one at T8, one at T7. Train troops in the lower Barracks (which finish faster), then promote them up through the tiers in waves instead of training T10 from scratch.

Why it gives more output: lower-tier training finishes faster per unit than high-tier training. The promotion chain turns those troops into higher tiers in a fraction of the time it would take to train T10 directly. The result is a steady stream of promotions that gives more combat-ready troops per hour than any other approach.

Why it matters for event scoring: Waterfall Training creates a steady flow of training and promotion completions that score at the same time in VS Day Unit Progression themes and Arms Race Unit Progression phases. A Waterfall sequence running on a VS Total Mobilization Day inside an Arms Race Unit Progression phase scores twice from the same training actions.

Setup rule: once T10 is unlocked, do not upgrade all Barracks to T10 at once. Keep the staggered ladder permanently. It is a one-time decision that pays off in training and event scoring every season after.

T9 troop requirements

T9 troops are the first big power spike past mid-game and the most important troop unlock for competitive accounts before T10 is in reach.

T9 unlock requirements:

• An HQ level high enough to upgrade the Barracks to the T9 level
• Barracks upgraded to the T9 unlock level for your main troop type
• The relevant Special Forces research nodes completed to allow T9 training
• Valor Badges invested in the Special Forces research path

The stat jump from T8 to T9 is big across attack, defense and survivability. Push T9 when your HQ path naturally reaches the needed Barracks level. Do not force it ahead of your build order by rushing Barracks upgrades that leave other required buildings behind.

T9 and the Waterfall: once T9 is your highest tier, the Waterfall becomes T9, T8, T7 until T10 unlocks. Keep the stagger during the T9 phase too.

T10 troop requirements

T10 troops are the endgame tier and the goal of the Special Forces research path. Unlocking them takes four gatekeeper research nodes in the Special Forces tree, each to level 10 (Advanced Protection, HP Boost III, Attack Boost III and Defense Boost III), then Unit X research. Unit X alone costs about 560 million gold, and the whole path about 10.6 billion gold and 76,480 Valor Badges in research. For the full cost breakdown, see the T10 troops cost guide.

Hard prerequisites before any of these nodes open:

• HQ Level 30
• Tech Center Level 30 (the final research nodes do not unlock at Tech Center 29)
• Barracks Level 30 for your main troop type

The cost is big, but the return is permanent. T10 troops change every march, every rally and every VS Kill Day. Their attack, defense and survivability gains make every fight stronger, and they become the base of any endgame lineup.

Unit morale in Last War: Survival

Unit morale is a combat modifier that changes how troops perform in fights. It applies per troop and creates real damage differences in long fights, rallies and PvP when the two sides have different morale.

How morale works: for every 1% your morale is above the enemy's, your troops deal 1% more damage. Equal morale gives no bonus, and the gap can grow into a very large attack boost. The lower-morale side also takes more damage. Last War Guide says it matters most in PvP and also counts in PvE, though battle reports do not show it.

What affects morale:

• Troop level: higher-tier troops raise it
• Tech Center research
• Squad size effects, like War Leader skills and VIP survivors such as Shirley
• Troop losses, which can lower it

Managing morale in practice: before VS Kill Day and Desert Storm Battlefield, send your highest-tier, fullest squads into the fights that matter, and do not throw half-dead marches at a fresh enemy. Leaders who check march size and troop tier before a rally avoid giving the other side a free morale edge.

Morale and troop type matchups: the counter system (Aircraft beats Tank, Tank beats Missile, Missile beats Aircraft) applies first, then morale adds a second modifier on top. A counter matchup at high morale versus low morale widens the damage gap that already exists. When morale and a counter disadvantage stack, the fight is badly one-sided no matter the raw troop count.

Where Packsify fits

Hero EXP, speed-ups and VIP points behind march size come from packs. Packsify buys the exact Last War pack you pick through the official Apple App Store or Google Play, with more pack value for the same money. New to Packsify? Start with the Last War top up guide and how we keep accounts safe.

Last War also runs an official web store, store.lastwar.com, which adds a 5% Gold Brick bonus to every recharge and gives an avatar frame. If you use it, that is fine. Packsify is for players who want the exact App Store or Google Play pack bought for them.

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More Last War guides: T10 troops cost, is Agent Shirley worth it, best squad lineup.

Sources: Last War Guide troop stats, Last War Guide Unit X page, cpt-hedge best buys. Checked October 30, 2026.

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