Survivors Guide — HQ Survivors and Building Assignments

What Are Survivors?

Survivors are NPC characters you recruit and assign to buildings or roles in your base. They come in two distinct categories with different mechanics:

1. HQ Survivors — special unique survivors (Adventurer Taylor, Agent Shirley, etc.) that provide permanent account-wide buffs once unlocked
2. Building Survivors — generic survivors recruited into specific buildings to boost their output (training capacity, resource production, etc.)

HQ Survivors

HQ Survivors are unique named characters that grant permanent buffs to your account. They are unlocked at specific VIP levels or through events, and once earned, they stay forever.

Adventurer Taylor (VIP 1)

The first HQ Survivor every player gets. Unlocked the moment you hit VIP 1 (which most players reach in their first week of play).

• Role: Radar treasure bonus
• Effect: Increases the rewards you get from completing radar missions
• Why it matters: Radar missions are a daily activity from HQ 5+. Taylor stacks small bonuses across hundreds of radar runs over your account's life
• Unlock cost: Free at VIP 1 — accessible to every player in their first 1-2 weeks

Taylor Star Levels

Taylor levels via shards in the Talent Hall (unlocked once your Tavern reaches level 3). Each star raises your daily cap of radar chests, and the chest type upgrades at 4★ — that's where the real ROI lives.

Agent Shirley (VIP 8)

The most-cited HQ Survivor unlock and a major mid-game power spike.

• Role: March size + attack bonus
• Effect: Permanent increase to your maximum march size and squad attack stat
• Why it matters: March size affects every rally, every PvE attack, every gathering trip. The attack bonus stacks with all other multipliers
• Unlock cost: VIP 8 (50,000 cumulative VIP points). Roughly 250 days at the F2P 200/day baseline; faster with VIP packs

Shirley Star Levels

Shirley levels in the Talent Hall the same way as Taylor. Unlike Taylor, every star is a flat power gain — there is no single breakpoint. Each tier adds permanent march size and squad attack on top of the previous.

• The unlock alone (0★) gives the bulk of Shirley's strategic value — the march size jump is the headline benefit
• 1★-5★ progression is a steady linear ramp on march size and hero attack
• For most accounts the VIP 8 unlock is the milestone; further stars are a whale-tier optimisation that requires VIP 9-14 packs

How HQ Star Upgrades Work (Shared Mechanics)

Both Taylor and Shirley level the same way — through survivor shards consumed in the Talent Hall. The shard ladder is identical for both:

HQ Survivor Levelling Priority

For accounts spending on VIP packs, the order of operations matters because Taylor's 4★ breakpoint is the highest-ROI step in the system:

1. Push Taylor to 4★ before investing in Shirley stars. The Rare → Deluxe Adventurer chest upgrade at 4★ is the single biggest payoff in the HQ survivor system. VIP 1-7 packs are also cheaper per shard than VIP 8-14
2. Hit VIP 8 to unlock Shirley — march size and attack are account-wide multipliers, the unlock alone is worth the milestone push regardless of star investment
3. Take Taylor to 5★ if you've reached VIP 7 — the daily cap creep is small but it's effectively free at that point
4. Climb Shirley stars only if you're past VIP 8 and continuing to buy packs through VIP 9-14. Each star is a linear flat gain — stop where your spending stops

For F2P accounts: aim for VIP 1 to unlock Taylor and (eventually) VIP 8 to unlock Shirley. Stars beyond the initial unlock aren't realistically achievable without buying packs. The unlock itself does the heavy lifting on both — don't feel pressured to "complete" them.

Other HQ Survivors

The game introduces additional HQ Survivors through season events and higher VIP tiers. Each typically provides a different niche bonus:

The exact roster varies by game version. Check the in-game Survivor menu for your account's current options.

Building Survivors

The other type — generic NPCs you recruit and assign to specific buildings to boost their output.

How Recruitment Works

• Recruit through the Recruit Centre (or equivalent building)
• Each recruitment cycle takes time and produces 1+ survivors
• Survivors come in different rarities — higher rarity provides bigger bonuses
• You can have multiple survivors waiting in your survivor pool, ready to be assigned

Where to Assign Building Survivors

Different buildings benefit from survivor assignments differently. Priority order:

Why Barracks Survivors Win

The Barracks survivor assignment is consistently the highest-value placement because:

• Training capacity directly multiplies your waterfall training output — see the Waterfall Training Guide
• VS Day 5 (Mobilisation) scoring is proportional to troops trained that day
• Army recovery between SvS and Marshal's Guard events depends on training throughput
• Higher tier troops require longer training — capacity matters more, not less, as you progress

Managing the Survivor Pool

• Don't hoard survivors in the pool — assigned survivors produce bonuses; pooled ones don't
• Reassign when buildings change purpose — if a barracks goes idle for a while, move its survivor elsewhere
• Recruit consistently — survivor recruitment is slow; daily progress matters
• Higher rarity > more survivors — one S-tier survivor often outvalues two B-tier ones

Survivor Recruitment Strategy

Recruiting survivors costs in-game currency and time. The economics:

Common Survivor Mistakes

1. Forgetting to assign survivors to buildings — sitting in the pool is wasted bonus
2. Keeping low-rarity survivors assigned when better ones are available — replace constantly
3. Spreading assignments across many buildings instead of focusing the active ones — one fully-buffed barracks beats three half-buffed
4. Ignoring the Recruit Centre upgrade path — slower recruitment means fewer survivors over your account's life
5. Conflating HQ Survivors with Building Survivors — different systems, don't waste recruitment effort trying to summon Adventurer Taylor (she's a VIP 1 unlock)
6. Skipping VIP 8 push for Agent Shirley — major march size bonus
7. Not checking the Survivor menu for unannounced new survivors — seasonal events sometimes add survivors quietly
8. Hoarding survivors during VS Day 5 prep — survivors should be assigned to busy barracks before Friday, not after
9. Stopping Taylor at 1-2★ "to save shards" — the chest type upgrade at 4★ is the entire point of investing; partial progress leaves the biggest ROI step on the table
10. Trying to farm Taylor or Shirley shards from the Tavern — they are not in the recruitment pool. Shards come only from VIP Exclusive packs at the matching tier

Related Guides

• VIP Guide — full VIP system, the unlock path for HQ Survivors
• Waterfall Training Guide — why barracks survivor assignment matters
• Daily Routine — fitting daily survivor recruitment into your routine
• HQ Progression Guide — Recruit Centre prerequisites at each HQ level
• Resource Management — survivor-boosted resource production in context
• Alliance Duel VS Guide — survivors on Day 5 (training) and Day 1 (radar via Adventurer Taylor)