Introduction

Following the Growth Strategy Guide I wrote earlier (check it out if you haven't read it!) it should be relatively easy to grow till Headquarters 19. This guide contains additional tips, especially useful to get you from lvl 19 to 22. Headquarters 22 is another milestone level because it unlocks Chief Gear and Tier 8 Troops.

Resources Are Still Key

The higher you get the faster the resource requirements seem to grow. The building and research timers also grow (and are likely a bigger factor), but getting enough resources is still important in growth.

For resources keep following the tip from the earlier Growth Strategy. Make sure you have enough troops to gather with all your marches, make sure your hive is located near high level tiles, and keep your Mega Gathering Boost (from the Settlement Buffs) active whenever it is safe to gather.

Before You Work on Headquarters 20

It might be tempting to quickly start working on HQ 20 once you finished HQ 19, but I suggest to take a step back and consider the following.

The construction speed is a major limiting factor, so you want to make sure to make this as fact as possible. This will help you get the timers down for your HQ and Hero Precinct updates, which consumed most time.

One way to get extra Construction Speed is to get VIP 4 and keep it active. If you have purchased some packs, you probably got some VIP points, but even without purchasing you should still be able to get there from the combined login points and spending Biocaps. Going from VIP 3 to 4 (12,500 points) costs 25,000 Biocaps. Not a small amount, but worth it in the long run. Of course higher VIP is even better, but for construction speed the next jump is at VIP 9 (from 10% to 20%) and that is too far out of reach. 10,000 Biocaps for 30 day VIP might seem high, but in my eyes worth it.

Another way is via Chief talent points. You have enough Talent points to unlock the important Rapid Development talent when you have reached Chief EXP level 27. This talent gives a temporary 20% Construction and Research Speed boost, activate it for the big upgrades. The main way to get Chief EXP is via the Growth Missions, but you can also get some as rewards via events, Intel missions, etc. The Growth Missions are rewards for building upgrades. If you have upgrades all your buildings (only one needed of buildings for which you have multiple) to level 18 you probably have accumulated enough EXP to get to Chief level 27. If not, see which one is next and continue until you can.

Level up your Research Lab to the highest level and make sure you max all Tool Improvement and Tech Improvement projects.

Hero Precinct and Headquarters

Once above is done ideally you want to dedicate one of your two building queues to doing just Hero Precinct and Headquarters upgrades and use the other one to do the necessary to keep unlocking the prerequisites for HQ upgrades and upgrade other key buildings.

Everytime you do a Hero Precinct or Headquarters upgrade, consider whether using a Settlement Buff COnstruction Speed will be efficient. It depends on the timer and your construction speed boost. I have implement a calculator in the Tools menu that helps you determine whether it is better to use Biocaps for the extra construction speed Buff or to run down your timer.

Metal and Gas vs Food and Wood

As you grow further you will start to find that Metal and Gas requirements increase faster, while it is easier to get Food and Wood items. If you see a problem, you might focus your gathering more on Metal and Gas, and use more Food and Wood from your inventory.

Keep Resources Safe

Try to keep your Warehouse maxed as much as possible to keep many resources safe. The last 24 hour before your HQ upgrade you might want to invest in putting up a peace flare, so that you can safely collect resources, collect rewards from all mails, missions, etc and work towards meeting your requirements.

Conclusion

I hope this guide will offer some help with growing your Headquarters from level 19 to 22. If you have questions or you want to share tips for others, please leave your remarks in the comment section.