Introduction

This article should function as a Combat 101 for people new to doing Combat in State of Survival: Zombie War. It gives a very basic explanation about several things you should be aware about before you start solo attacking enemy cities.

Troop Types and Tiers

There are three troop types in this game, Infantry, Hunters and Riders. Each of them have 10 possible tiers (availability depends on the level of your Barracks, Range and Garage buildings), with each their own specific statistics. All stats of higher level tier troops are at least as good as lower level tier troops. Although the game is not clear in explaining the exact role of each troop in the battle, experience points out it is important to have a significant amount of infantry in your army. Infantry takes most casualties, but if you do not have enough, your other troop types will take a lot more casualties. In general I get good results in using a balanced army using the highest tier of each troopsubtype.

Boosts

There are a number of different ways to get boosts: chief talent points, research, chief gear, medals, heroes, hero gear. You should consider all of these (although quite some or not available at lower levels), there are quite some easy to score boosts that can make a difference.

By far the most significant boosts you get from your Heroes. The top hero of each type (Infantry, Hunter, Rider) will be automatically added to your march. Make sure these are developed (rank, xp level, and unlock and upgrade skills) well. If you can make Hero gear, make sure to make some for your top heroes.

Chief Talent Points can provide extra combat boosts. I am in favor during peace time to assign points to the Economy tree. Before you do battle you should temporarily switch to the War tree.

The Battle research tree gives you valuable boosts as well. Individually they are not high, but they provide boosts that are always active for each of your troops. Keep researching those. Note that there is also alliance research that provides combat boosts. Encourage your alliance to work on alliance research and make sure you contribute plenty yourself (although any ambitious alliance should first max out all Alliance Membership projects before researching anything else).

Chief gear and Medals falls outside of the scope of this guide, as these are only unlocked at HQ 22 and 25. If you have reached those levels already, benefit from these when you can.

Attack only with one march at a time to make sure your best heroes are in your attack march.

March Capacity

The amount of troops you can attack with is very important, this means of course you have to make sure you have trained enough troops of each type you plan to use, but also that your March Capacity is as large as you can get it. There are two main ways to increase this, upgrading your Headquarters and your Heroes. In addition you can get extra boosts by researching the March Capacity project in the Battle category and by assigning points to the March Capacity projects in the War talent tree.

Selecting Opponents

Always important to check with your alliance who you can attack and when. It can typically range anywhere from always attacking anyone except for allies to no attacking at all unless approved by a r4.

Biocaps and Alliance credits are quite hard to come by and before deciding to relocate to suitable targets I would make very sure it is worth it. Better if possible to fight near your hive, even if this means you make some nearby enemies and/or have to march for 10-20 minutes.

Based on the nationality/language of an alliance, you might try to find targets who are inactive based on the time of day, this prevents them from reinforcing each other or using peace flares.

Scout first before attacking, to make sure the attack is worth it (are there troops to kill, resources to plunder?), but preferably do this when you are close to actually attacking, to minimize the time your target and his alliance members have to prepare.

If you can find some targets that are not in a hive, that is preferred, as they cannot easily be reinforced.

Only select targets you are confident you can quite easily win (significant less troops and weaker troops than you have in a single march), in case of doubt, ask your alliance mates to rally.

Conclusion

This should give you some pointers to start having fun solo attacking in State of Survival. If you have any questions or want to share other tips, let us know in the comments.