Chip Lab Guide (Pre-Season 1)
What Is the Chip Lab?
The Chip Lab is the building where you craft, dismantle, and reset Drone Skill Chips — specialised enhancements that boost your drone's performance in battle. It unlocks at HQ level 15 and can be upgraded to level 35, but all chip recipes are available by level 20. After level 20, the Chip Lab offers diminishing returns — prioritise other buildings like the Drill Ground, Tech Centre, or Barracks instead.
Stop upgrading the Chip Lab at level 20. All legendary chip recipes are unlocked by then. Levels 21-35 provide minimal benefit and the resources are better spent elsewhere. Levels 31-35 require the Age of Oil event (post-Season 2) and are not available in pre-season.
The Four Chip Slots
Every drone has four chip slots. Each slot serves a different role in combat:
Only activate chips that match your squad's troop type. A Tank chip on an Aircraft hero provides zero benefit. Always check that your Interference chip (Memory Ultra Fission) matches your main squad — Tank, Aircraft, or Missile Vehicle.
Chip Rarity
Crafting Priority Order
Craft your legendary chips in this order. Each one costs 800 Premium Chip Materials, so focus on the highest-impact chip first:
How Chip Ascension Works
Chip ascension (star upgrades) works the same way as hero class upgrades — you feed duplicate chips of the same type to increase the star level. Each star level requires more duplicates:
To ascend a chip, go to the Chip Lab, select the equipped chip, and tap Ascend. The game will consume the required number of duplicate chips of the same type. You must craft or obtain duplicates through the same farming sources used to get the original chip.
A full 5-star legendary chip requires 31 total copies (1 equipped + 30 duplicates fed in). Since each legendary chip costs 800 Premium Materials to craft, reaching 5 stars on a single chip costs 24,800 Premium Materials in duplicates alone. This is a long-term goal — prioritise getting all four chips to 2 stars first.
What Ascension Unlocks
Each star level increases the chip's base stats and can unlock additional abilities:
- 2 Stars — biggest relative power jump. Energy Shield Generator unlocks additional drone targets at this level
- 3 Stars — continued stat growth
- 4 Stars — significant power spike
- 5 Stars — maximum power. Energy Shield Generator unlocks a second additional drone target at this level
Star Upgrade Priority
Once you have chips crafted, upgrade their star level. The jump from 1-star to 2-star is the biggest power gain:
- Get all four chips to 2-star first — the 1-to-2 jump is the largest relative power increase
- Start with Memory Ultra Fission (Interference) to 2-star
- Then Gravitational Resonance Armor (Defence) to 2-star
- Then Energy Shield Generator (Attack) to 2-star — prioritise this over Initial Move because it unlocks additional drone targets at star levels 2 and 5
- Then Absolute Quantum Field (Initial Move) to 2-star
- After all four are at 2-star, push them evenly toward 5-star in the same priority order
Keep chip star levels relatively even across your set rather than dumping everything into one chip. Four 2-star chips outperform one 5-star chip and three 1-stars. Spread your upgrades.
Combat Boost
The Combat Boost system is a unified progression layer that benefits all active drone skill chips. Feed lower-rarity chips (green, blue, and eventually purple) into Combat Boost as upgrade material.
Key milestones to target:
Material Farming
There are two separate material types — they cannot be converted between each other:
- Basic Chip Material — used for Epic (SSR) chips. Despite the name, this is actually harder to obtain
- Premium Chip Material — used for Legendary (UR) chips
Where to Farm
Pre-Season Chip Lab Strategy
In pre-season, your Chip Lab resources are limited. Follow this plan:
- Unlock the Chip Lab at HQ 15 — do not delay this
- Upgrade to level 20 and then stop — all recipes are available
- Craft Epic (SSR) chips first for immediate use while you farm Premium Materials for Legendary chips
- Start farming Premium Materials daily — it takes 6-8 months F2P to craft a full legendary set, so start early
- Craft your first Legendary chip (Memory Ultra Fission) as soon as you have 800 Premium Materials — match it to your Tank squad since that is your primary pre-season squad
- Feed all green and blue chips into Combat Boost — never equip them
- Save drone component chests for Wednesday VS Day — they only count toward Alliance Duel points on that day
Aim for roughly 60% of materials toward your next legendary chip, 25% toward Combat Boost, and 15% as reserve. This keeps you progressing on both fronts without stalling either one.
Common Chip Lab Mistakes
- Upgrading the Chip Lab past level 20 — waste of resources. All recipes unlock by 20
- Equipping the wrong troop type chip — zero benefit if chip type does not match your heroes
- Dumping all upgrades into one chip — keep star levels even across all four slots
- Spending drone component chests on the wrong day — save them for Wednesday VS Day
- Ignoring Combat Boost — feeding low-rarity chips into Combat Boost benefits all your active chips
- Not farming materials daily — legendary chips take months to craft. Start collecting now
- Converting or discarding Basic Chip Material — it cannot be converted to Premium and is actually harder to obtain
Related Guides
- Gear Guide — gold gear craft order and upgrade path
- Hero Guide — hero investment priorities
- Alliance Duel VS Guide — Wednesday is chip component chest day
- Daily Routine — incorporating chip farming into your daily checklist