%20(19).png)
.svg){kind=small}
Last War Troop Guide (march size, load capacity & training strategy)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
For Last War: Survival players who want to understand the troop mechanics that determine march output, resource extraction, and training efficiency at a competitive spending level.
Last War troop mechanics that actually move the needle...
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 at the same tier level are the ones almost no guide covers in detail: march size, load capacity, Waterfall Training, unit morale, and the specific unlock levers that serious accounts use to push each one.
This guide covers every lever that increases march size in Last War: Survival, what load capacity does and how to raise it, how Waterfall Training works and why it is the most efficient troop recovery method in the game, T9 and T10 troop requirements, unit morale and how it affects combat, 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 in Last War: Survival. It determines how many troops each hero brings into battle, which directly controls your damage output ceiling in rallies, PvP, Capital Duels, and Desert Storm Battlefield. A march size advantage means more troops per engagement, which means more damage regardless of formation or hero skill investment.
There is no direct research node for march size in Last War: Survival. Every increase comes through one of four levers:
Hero level: the primary driver. Each hero contributes troops to the march based on their level. Higher hero levels bring more troops. This is the single largest lever available and the reason hero experience packs during event windows compound march size gains faster than almost any other spend.
Shirley (VIP 8 survivor): Shirley is unlocked at VIP 8 and provides a passive march size increase that applies to your entire squad, not just one hero. She is the only survivor in Last War: Survival that directly increases march size at scale. Reaching VIP 8 and keeping Shirley slotted is non-negotiable for any competitive account focused on rally output. Her contribution stacks on top of hero level gains and scales with her own survivor level.
VIP level progression: beyond Shirley's unlock at VIP 8, VIP progression delivers passive bonuses to combat effectiveness that amplify march output. VIP 6 in Last War is the permanent second builder threshold. VIP 8 delivers Shirley. VIP 11 delivers the construction speed spike. The march size benefit from VIP is indirect (better building speed accelerates HQ, which accelerates hero level caps) but real over a season.
Troop tier upgrades: higher troop tiers contribute more power per unit to the march. The march size number itself does not change by tier, but the combat output per march slot increases substantially. The T8 to T9 jump and the T9 to T10 jump are both material.
The fastest path to higher march size in practice: level heroes consistently, reach VIP 8 to unlock Shirley, keep Shirley slotted at all times, and push hero experience packs during Hero Advancement Arms Race phases where the spend double-dips into event scoring.
Load capacity in Last War: Survival
Load capacity determines how many resources your troops carry home from raids and resource gathering points. A higher load means bigger hauls per march, which matters most during resource-intensive progression phases like HQ upgrades, large tech research pushes, and pre-event stockpiling.
The three levers for increasing load capacity:
Troop tier upgrades: the biggest jumps in load capacity come from unlocking higher troop tiers. Each tier carries meaningfully more than the previous. T9 carries substantially more than T8. T10 carries more than T9. If resource extraction is a bottleneck, troop tier progression is the primary fix.
Tech research: specific nodes in the Development and Economy research trees increase load capacity passively. These are the badge-free nodes that should run continuously in Queue 1 of your second Tech Center. Development tree construction and gathering nodes are the relevant ones.
Hero gear: certain gear pieces on your gathering-designated heroes increase load capacity for their march specifically. This is relevant for accounts that run dedicated gathering marches separate from combat marches.
Practical application: players who scout inactive or unshielded bases and maximize load per march extract far more resources per cycle than players who raid randomly. Load capacity determines the ceiling of each raid. The number of marches and targeting discipline determines how much of that ceiling is reached consistently.
Waterfall Training (the most efficient troop method in Last War)
Waterfall Training is the highest-efficiency troop recovery and event scoring method in Last War: Survival. Most accounts either do not know about it or do not maintain it consistently. At competitive levels, it is a structural decision that should be set up once and maintained permanently.
How it works: keep your Barracks at staggered levels rather than upgrading all of them to the same tier simultaneously. A typical competitive waterfall setup at T10 unlocked: one Barracks at T10, one at T9, one at T8, one at T7. Train troops in the lower-level Barracks (which complete faster), then promote them upward through the tiers in waves rather than training from scratch at T10.
Why it produces more output: lower-tier training completes faster per unit than high-tier training. The promotion chain converts those lower-tier troops into higher-tier at a fraction of the time it would take to train T10 directly. The net result is a continuous stream of troop promotions that produces more combat-ready troops per hour than any other training approach.
Why it matters for event scoring: Waterfall Training generates continuous training and promotion completions that score simultaneously against VS Day Unit Progression themes and Arms Race Unit Progression phases. A Waterfall sequence running during a VS Total Mobilization Day inside an Arms Race Unit Progression phase produces triple-scoring from the same training actions.
Setup rule: once T10 is unlocked, do not upgrade all Barracks to T10 at the same time. Maintain the staggered ladder permanently. This is a one-time setup decision that pays training and event scoring dividends across every subsequent season.
T9 troop requirements in Last War: Survival
T9 troops represent the first major power spike beyond mid-game and are the most important troop unlock for competitive accounts before T10 is reachable.
T9 unlock requirements:
- HQ level sufficient to allow Barracks upgrade to the T9-enabling level (typically HQ 25 range)
- Barracks upgraded to the T9-unlock threshold for your primary troop type
- Relevant tech research nodes in the Special Forces tree completed to gate-pass T9 training
- Valor Badges invested in the Special Forces research path
The stat jump from T8 to T9 is substantial across attack, defense, and survivability. T9 should be pushed when your HQ progression path naturally reaches the required 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 active tier, the Waterfall setup becomes T9/T8/T7 until T10 unlocks. Maintain the stagger even during the T9 phase.
For heavy spenders who already know the commitment, Whale+ gives you verified status on the Play Smarter Community Discord and access to a VIP channel exclusively for high-spending alliance leaders. This is where leaders compare troop tier timing, Barracks waterfall setups, and march size optimization across accounts at similar spend levels.
T10 troop requirements in Last War: Survival
T10 troops are the endgame troop tier and the structural goal of the Special Forces research path. Unlocking them requires completing four gatekeeper research nodes in the Special Forces tree: HP Boost III, Attack Boost III, Defense Boost III, and Unit X research. These four nodes cost over 500 million coins combined in research investment.
Hard prerequisites before any of these nodes are reachable:
- HQ Level 30
- Tech Center Level 30 (the final research nodes do not unlock at Tech Center 29)
- Barracks Level 30 for your primary troop type
The investment is significant but the return is permanent. T10 troops change every march, every rally, every VS Kill Day. Their stat increases in attack, defense, and survivability make every engagement stronger and they become the foundation of any endgame lineup.
Unit morale in Last War: Survival
Unit morale is a combat modifier in Last War: Survival that affects how troops perform in engagements. Morale applies at the individual troop level and creates meaningful damage differences in sustained combat, rallies, and PvP when morale levels diverge between the two sides.
How morale works: troops at high morale deal increased damage and take reduced damage relative to their base stats. Troops at low morale perform below their base stat ceiling. The gap between a high-morale march and a low-morale march against the same opponent produces visible combat outcome differences at T9 and above.
What affects morale:
- Active battle participation: troops that have recently been in combat will have different morale than fresh troops
- Hospital recovery: troops that have been healed from hospital recover at standard morale
- Alliance buffs: certain alliance tech research nodes apply passive morale bonuses to all members
- War Fever event activation: server-wide combat events can apply temporary morale buffs that amplify existing advantages during peak windows
Practical morale management: at competitive alliance levels, morale monitoring matters most before VS Kill Day and Desert Storm Battlefield. Sending troops that have been through heavy recent combat into a high-stakes engagement without a recovery window is a morale disadvantage that compounds into worse-than-expected combat outcomes. Top alliances build recovery windows before major event fights specifically to normalize morale across the roster.
Morale and troop type matchups: the counter system (Aircraft beats Tank, Tank beats Missile, Missile beats Aircraft) is applied first, then morale creates a secondary modifier on top. A counter-type engagement at high morale versus low morale amplifies the already-existing damage differential. When both morale and counter-type disadvantage stack, the combat outcome is severely lopsided regardless of raw troop count.
Your budget should be working harder than it is...
Here is the multiplier most serious players never think to optimize.
The troop decisions above determine how efficiently your army converts into march output. There is a second variable most accounts leave unexamined: how efficiently your spend converts into Diamonds.
Most players buy through the App Store or Google Play at full retail price. For a single player, the difference is manageable. For an alliance where 15 or more members are all paying full retail independently, that gap compounds into a meaningful amount of lost efficiency across a season. The same monthly budget, routed more efficiently, produces more hero copies, more speed-ups, and more combat power without anyone changing how they play.
Packsify routes purchases through official channels in a more efficient way than buying solo. Same packs, same in-game delivery, same official payment rails. The difference is at the system level. Your monthly investment produces more actual in-game value without touching your account, your alliance, or how you spend inside the game.
Last War troop guide: FAQs
How do I increase march size in Last War: Survival?
March size increases through hero levels (the primary driver), unlocking Shirley at VIP 8 (the only survivor with a direct march size buff), and VIP progression. There is no direct research node for march size. The fastest path is leveling heroes consistently during Hero Advancement Arms Race phases and reaching VIP 8 as early as the budget allows.
What does Shirley do in Last War: Survival?
Shirley is a survivor unlocked at VIP 8 who provides a passive march size increase that applies to your entire squad. She is the single most impactful march size lever outside of hero leveling and the primary reason serious accounts prioritize reaching VIP 8. Keep her slotted at all times once unlocked.
What is load capacity in Last War: Survival?
Load capacity determines how many resources your troops carry home from raids and gathering points per march. It increases through troop tier upgrades (the biggest jumps), Development and Economy research nodes, and specific hero gear pieces. Higher troop tiers carry substantially more than lower tiers, making T9 and T10 progression the primary fix for load capacity bottlenecks.
What is Waterfall Training in Last War: Survival?
Waterfall Training means keeping Barracks at staggered levels (for example T10/T9/T8/T7) rather than all at the same tier, so you train lower-tier troops faster in the lower Barracks and promote them upward in waves. This produces more troops per hour than training T10 directly, and generates continuous completions that double-score against VS Day and Arms Race Unit Progression phases simultaneously.
What are T9 troop requirements in Last War: Survival?
T9 troops require Barracks at the T9-enabling level (typically unlocked around the HQ 25 range), relevant Special Forces research nodes completed, and Valor Badge investment in the Special Forces path. The stat jump from T8 to T9 is substantial. Push T9 when your HQ progression path naturally reaches the required Barracks level rather than forcing it ahead of your build order.
What are T10 troop requirements in Last War: Survival?
T10 troops require HQ Level 30, Tech Center Level 30, and Barracks Level 30 for your primary troop type. The research path requires completing four gatekeeper nodes in Special Forces: HP Boost III, Attack Boost III, Defense Boost III, and Unit X research. Combined research cost exceeds 500 million coins. These nodes are not reachable at Tech Center Level 29 regardless of other prerequisites.
What is unit morale in Last War: Survival?
Unit morale is a combat modifier that affects how much damage troops deal and absorb in engagements. High-morale troops perform above their base stats; low-morale troops perform below them. Morale is affected by recent combat history, hospital recovery, alliance tech buffs, and War Fever event windows. Competitive accounts manage morale by building recovery windows before major VS Kill Day and Desert Storm Battlefield engagements.
What is the Last War morale boost and how do I get it?
Morale boosts in Last War: Survival come from alliance tech research nodes that apply passive morale bonuses to all members, from War Fever server-wide buffs during active competitive events, and from sending fresh troops that have not recently been in heavy combat. Keeping hospital capacity high and recovering troops between engagements normalizes morale before high-stakes fights.
Packsify helps high-spending mobile strategy players turn the same monthly budget into more in-game power. Official channels. Real humans. No bots, no hacks, no drama. 5+ years operating. Zero bans.
