Long Tech Network Limited’s Last Shelter: Survival has been going strong since its launch three years ago and remains as one of the top-grossing mobile games in several countries where it is available. Despite a plethora of base-building strategy games in the mobile gaming market, and a number set on a zombie apocalyptic setting, Last Shelter: Survival still manages to provide its players a vast number of content and features unique within the genre.
Whether you have just discovered Last Shelter: Survival and still struggling to get a good grasp of its basic mechanics and features, or a returning player who needs to be updated with new skills and strategies to survive the zombie apocalypse and its other survivors, our Last Shelter Survival Guide (2022 Update) aims to provide you with useful tips and strategies to jumpstart your adventure. We have already covered the game back in 2018 and, for the most part, the tips and strategies we laid out in that guide still applies to the game.
Although Last Shelter: Survival is set in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies of all sorts, the undead are actually not the problems you need to worry about. Just like in most modern day zombie-themed movies and shows, what you ought to prepare for are the other survivors who “need” to have what is yours to survive. After all, Last Shelter: Survival is a base-building strategy game and, like all other games within the genre, centers on massive PvP and guild-wide battles.
Last Shelter: Survival can still cater to players who cannot, at all times, be online to defend their bases, and even casual players to some degree. It is just that there are requisites you need to fulfill in order for you to be ready for war. Likewise, continuous and efficient acquisition and management of resources and structures within your base comes as a persistent necessity.
Initially, a lot of time needs to be invested as you race towards quick level ups and upgrades here and there. As you make further progress, though, scheduled regular visits will suffice, especially since latter upgrades and researches take longer to complete.
1. Initially Follow The Main Tasks
The usual scenario for new players, most especially total beginners in the base-building MMO strategy genre, is that they get intimidated or overwhelmed by the initial salvo of features that greet them as soon as they dive into the game. Last Shelter: Survival certainly does not shy away from taking players through a rollercoaster ride of features and activities to showcase what is in store for them as they progress further in their post-apocalyptic adventure.
Although not a conventional feature in most MMO strategy games, Last Shelter: Survival provides a brief, but sensible story that you can follow for the “whats” and “whys” surrounding the game’s world. The initial chapters actually serve as the game’s tutorial and hints at what you need to do to progress in the game. Although there is much room for deviation especially as you make progress, following the main tasks should be your priority as it provides the best path to follow towards rapid progression.
In addition to main task completions serving as a key towards unlocking more features, each task you complete also earns you basic necessities you will need to ensure steady progression. You can see the recommended task or objective in the lower left side of the screen but tapping on the menu icon beside it, reveals the full list of tasks for the chapter.
You should consider strictly adhering to the tasks as far as practicable, but given that there are upgrades or constructions dependent on other buildings or building levels, you can stray a bit when necessary. It can happen that deviating from the given objectives will cause you to complete some objectives that have yet to appear in the list of main tasks. In such cases, the objectives will already appear as completed when they finally appear.
Following the main tasks will ensure a busy time for you especially at the start of your journey. As you continue to complete one task after another and progress enough to unlock more expansions for your continuously growing base camp, you will begin to see just how much more you can do outside of what is listed under the main task. The pace of growth in Last Shelter: Survival is tremendous at the start, and while it can truly be an overwhelming endeavor you will surely get the hang of it within a matter of hours.
2. Always Multitask
Like all other base-building MMO strategy games, you constantly need to be efficient in Last Shelter: Survival. This goes beyond simply always doing something productive in the game and involves ensuring that every facility and tool for production is running seamlessly.
For starters, it can be very confusing to keep track of all the production facilities as well as activities you constantly need to be mindful of. Fortunately enough, Last Shelter: Survival provides avenues that make it a lot more convenient for you to identify buildings or activities that require attention.
The most important task you constantly need to prioritize is building constructions and upgrades. Note that upgrades and construction have dependencies most especially your base. You will initially only have 1 construction queue but a second one will soon be available. Priority should be set on buildings you need to construct or upgrade in line with completing main tasks, although you will naturally have to deviate from it as a result of the dependencies we mentioned.
One of the small details you might miss relates to the small structures that generate the most basic resources you will never run out of a need for. These are the farms, lumber mills, refineries, water filters, and oil wells within your camp. These can be upgraded and will hardly form part of the main tasks. At certain points as well, you will naturally be able to construct multiple structures of the same type and while you only need to continue upgrading one to fulfill tasks, doing the same for all resource production facilities is actually a basic necessity.
Each of the basic resources you continue to produce and gather go into separate storage units that can only hold a limited amount of resource. These are the granary, oil storage tank, power storage facility, water tank, lumber warehouse, and iron warehouse.
As construction, upgrades, training, research, and even the basic sustenance of your base camp continue to grow as you make progress, you will also need to steadily upgrade these storage facilities to be able to hold and keep more resources. Note that resources earned in excess of what can be kept are wasted, unless they come in packages that wind up in your inventory.
The ration trucks and power plants also require attention from time to time. Ration trucks ensure that the population is well fed while power plants consistently need fuel to generate energy. Filling both these structures up may sometimes require more than what you have in store but keep in mind that it is okay to not transport the full amount so long as you can keep a close eye as to when each will run out of the resources they need to function.
As Last Shelter: Survival is a continuous attempt at survival, and not just against the mobs of zombies that litter about, amassing an army and improving your camp’s overall performance comes as a natural need. There are various training facilities you can build that can train various units and you can also improve various aspects of your performance through research.
One positive feature in Last Shelter: Survival that is not always present in similar games within the genre, is that you can continue to train and research as you are upgrading the buildings tasked to do so at the same time. There are notification icons at the upper left side of your screen to tell you if any of these structures are idle, along with your construction queues.
3. Take Time To Explore The Outside World
Beyond the activities you need to constantly manage within your base camp, you also need to venture out in the world for numerous activities and missions. Relative to multitasking and shuffling across the multitude of tasks relative to upgrading your base and forces, you can and should consistently deploy armies outside of camp for various reasons.
To start off, there are different zombies scattered across the huge map that you can attack for resources and XP. These zombies come with varying levels and as you grow your army, you should continue to eliminate higher level ones so long as you continue earning victories. These zombies are quick and easy tasks that you should engage in whenever you can afford to but once you are ready to leave the game for quite some time, it is better to gather resources.
There are various resource spots around your base camp and you can practically farm for any resource you lack, except cash. Despite continuously generating resources within your camp, and consistently receiving resource packages from in-game events and quest rewards, you will continuously be needing each and every resource in the game. Your base camp’s needs for resources also increase over time, considering the rate at which it grows. As such, it is only natural for you to keep finding more sources of each one.
Higher levels of resource spots contain more amounts of each resource. It is important to consider gathering resources close to home and also keep track of the amount of time it takes for your army to make it back. Keep in mind that even with the peace shields up at the start of your journey until it expires, you decide to attack another player, or reach base camp level 8, your troops are vulnerable to attacks whenever they step outside the base camp.
Your numerous businesses within your base camp, as well as your adventures in the outside world, will certainly keep you busy for hours and leave little room for idle moments. Despite that, it is still important to scout the immediate vicinity to check for how things are going with your immediate neighbors. Again, there is hardly anything to worry about when it comes to the mobs of zombies, but players like yourself pose a much bigger danger than any NPC threats.
As you venture in the world map, be sure to take note of players or bases who seem to be stuck at a particular level, especially those lower than you. These are the potential targets later on that you can plunder for extra resources. On the other hand, be wary of bigger players especially guild members who are lodged too close to one another. Although you will have the option to teleport later on, most likely close to where your guild mates are, it can happen that forces you deploy outside of your camp can be attacked by some of your neighbors early on.
4. Learn To Modify Your Camp’s Layout
One of the tips we mentioned in our beginner’s guide relates to keeping your buildings organized. It mostly relates to laying things out more neatly and ensuring that sufficient roads are around for faster truck movements that ultimately lead to faster construction and transport. You will always have more than enough space to work with in Last Shelter: Survival but the manner by which new buildings and structures become available can add an extra layer of challenge to keeping everything neat and organized.
Within the first hour of playing Last Shelter: Survival, chances are that you will unlock new areas that expand your territory. Even if you are still far from filling all the empty spaces within your original territory, the added space should be welcomed and utilized to ensure a more efficient operation within the camp.
To start off, newly unlocked areas come with packages that contain various resources. You can opt to have your trucks approach and open these resource packages, not just to obtain the contents but also to clear more space. Idle spaces typically attract zombies at night. You do not need to worry about them as they cannot cause the base or the residents any harm. On the contrary, tapping on these zombies instantly kill them and earn you resources as well.
Keeping your base camp neat and tidy, however, does not necessarily mean that it is at maximum efficiency. Beyond simply having a clean layout of your camp that appeases your eyes, it is best to keep loosely similar structures together. All buildings and structures, save for resource spots like the rich soil, logging site, and so on, can be relocated. Roads can be built and demolished just as easily as well through the build menu.
One example of this strategy is keeping the training structures together as well as keeping the institute close to them as well. Doing so will enable you to tend to their continuous production with much ease and efficiency. You will have multiple houses, banks, garages, and bunks as well. For starters, chances are that they will be scattered around your camp since unlocking the extra buildings come at different times. You can also lump them together to easily keep track of each one’s respective levels.
The same goes for storage facilities that house your resources. As you cannot always keep track of each one’s levels, more so distinguish them quickly enough from other structures, lumping them together and taking not of their location can help you tend to them faster.
There are numerous other structures in Last Shelter: Survival that are unlike any other. As some may have unique functions that are difficult to associate with others, it should be your discretion on how to arrange them.
Keep in mind that some structures only need to be built while others require upgrades on continuous visits. It is highly possible for you to change and adjust your base camp’s layout multiple times as you see fit, especially given that more expansions will be unlocked as you progress further in the game.
5. Stay As Active As Possible Within Your Alliance
Guilds, alliances, clans, factions and other similarly named player associations have always been an important aspect of most online games. While it extends the social features of some games, alliances play a vital role in more cooperative and competitive virtual worlds.
To be honest, even MMORPGs provide players ample opportunities to progress even entirely on their own. In MMO strategy games like Last Shelter: Survival, however, being a member of an alliance is a basic and an indispensable necessity.
Last Shelter: Survival lets players join a guild early on and each player should be able to create or join one before their peace shields expire. For players who have just started diving into the game, finding an active guild is crucial to his or her survival. While you will typically exercise scrutiny in gauging whether a guild is active enough and worth your effort in other games, you can be certain that the fewer than usual guilds within Last Shelter: Survival is as active as can be.
Once the alliance feature becomes available, you can access it through its icon at the right side of the screen. There is a quick apply button that you can tap on to instantly apply to alliances with vacancies. It may not always work as most alliances would want approval on any application.
You can manually apply to each guild on the list, though, and chances are that you will be accepted by a guild. The challenge, moving forward, is staying as active as possible to ensure that your chosen guild will keep you.
You can immediately reap benefits as soon as you join an alliance. To start off, construction and research timers can be reduced by 10 seconds for every alliance member that sends you aid and you can cut down a total of a minute and 10 seconds per instance. There are numerous chest rewards you can claim via the salary feature of the alliance.
Salary can be earned from your activity while in the alliance, contributions, as well as the attendance of each member. As two of these sources are well within your control, you should always make an effort to take advantage of these perks.
As far as activity is concerned, the objectives or targets laid out within the alliance activity are the same as the daily tasks and each one relates to general activities you will need to engage in normally through each day. Every bit of accomplishment relative to the accomplishment of daily tasks earns you points for the alliance. Alliance contributions are very much common across games with an alliance feature.
In Last Shelter: Survival, you can contribute resources 25 times per day as needed by the alliance technology being upgraded. Keep in mind that the resources you contribute serve as an investment for each guild member, including yourself to enjoy more advantages as members of the alliance.
As expected, the war feature within alliances lets you and other alliance members join forces in taking down an enemy camp. It almost always ensures victory provided that the initiator has already scouted the target and is likely to claim victory even without support.
For beginners, it is best to save these activities for when your peace shields have dropped and after all preparations have been done to ensure that you are ready for every possible aftermath that comes with attacking or joining a rally.
6. Manage The Heroes You Acquire
Last Shelter: Survival adds more excitement to the gameplay with a host of unique heroes that you can collect and upgrade. Naturally, some of these heroes can lead your troops in combat and provide additional buffs on attacking units while all of them can provide boosts when stationed in specific structures. Make it a habit to look into each hero’s skills as you unlock them and assign as many as you can to their relevant stations.
Make it a point to visit the Heroes Hall regularly as there are numerous free ways to obtain new heroes. You can earn various recruitment tickets from quests and events as well and if you can hold off until you can do a 10x recruitment pull, do so. Otherwise, there is no point in holding on to those tickets as recruiting more heroes sooner is the best way to go.
Heroes you take into battle earn experience points to level them up while some heroes stationed can earn XP as well. You can further boost a hero’s experience and level by using experience items on them. Be very selective, though, as there is a limit to the number of heroes you can utilize at a time until after you are able to upgrade the Management Station and progressed through the APC researches enough.
Each hero comes with various skills that you can level up as well. You need Wisdom Medals to be able to upgrade a hero’s skill and on top of obtaining them from hero recruitment, duplicate heroes, which are converted into hero medals, can be exchanged at the military academy for more wisdom medals.
Even if you still have plenty of wisdom medals to spare, make it a habit to take full advantage of the exchange. It will cost heaps of cash as well so be ready for it each day.
7. Prepare Well Before Launching An Attack
Preparation in Last Shelter: Survival is a continuous process. For starters, you need to be ready for war and grow your base camp as well as your forces as fast and as efficiently as possible right from the get-go.
In line with this, making sure that your efforts on building, upgrading, training, researching, producing, and gathering resources are at maximum while you still have your peace shield on. Once it expires, you can still continue to exert best efforts to maintain status quo, although you will have to spend more time watching out for attacks as well.
There is no better time to utilize the speedups you amass from mission rewards and events than at the early part of the game. This does not necessarily mean for you to expend all those speedups carelessly. You should also strategize in using these very limited resources and time your usage based on how much longer you will play online. The important part is that your construction queues are always full. If you are close to a breakthrough, then rushing all the way is justified.
An example is when the next upgrade for a training facility will unlock the next level unit. You should rather consume speedups than train lower level troops that you would have to promote later. Lodging queues that take a long while to complete should be done towards the end of your run as they will continue to count down even while you are away from the game.
As much as possible, you should already be with an alliance before the peace shield runs out. If not, it will be very difficult for you to survive most especially if you are situated near an alliance. Players outside of any alliance are technically attack magnets. Regardless of how powerful you are within the immediate vicinity, no amount of power will keep you from harm if multiple players rally for an attack on your base. Another important thing to consider is to relocate close to where your allies are. There is an alliance teleport item in your bag that you can use. Hopefully, you will stay with the alliance for good and not need to use the item a second time.
Every motive to attack another base camp should be paired with a scout beforehand. There may be multiple viable targets for you to attack and plunder but what you see upfront can be far from what actually is. To start off, a lower level base camp does not necessarily mean it has less military power than yours.
Likewise, not every base camp you see may not have enough resources to make all the effort worth it. Scouting costs some cash but the information you get from it will help you decide better on whether or not to push through with the attack. If you upgrade the tower in your base, you can actually obtain more info from scouting.
Most especially if you lack experience in the MMO strategy game genre, you should initially consider to attack only base camps not aligned with any alliance. Your alliance may be allied with another one, in which case you should know players of which alliance should not be attacked. In any case, taking on any camp within any alliance will almost always spark war.
As such, it is best to only engage in attacking them as part of a rally with your teammates. As long as you do not have a peace shield, it can happen as well that you and your entire alliance will be attacked by opposing guilds. Constantly participate in devising defensive stands with your alliance.
8. Take Advantage Of Time-Limited Events
Last Shelter: Survival provides a ton of opportunities for players to earn the resources they need, relative to effort and dedication. While you can generate and gather resources, as well as obtain additional ones through the accomplishment of various quests, more can be earned form special events.
You can access various events via their respective icons at the upper right side of the screen. Most especially within the first few days of your dive into Last Shelter: Survival, you should consider looking into each of the objectives laid out in the limited events, especially the Survivor Festival under the Benefits icon. There are valuable rewards to be earned from completing each objective, and more can be earned based on your overall performance.
There are tons of other nitty-gritty details you should discover on your own as you venture into the vast world within Last Shelter: Survival. Although there are advantages to obtain for players who want to spend real money, you can keep up with the demands of the game without spending so long as you have enough effort and dedication paired with the simple tips and strategies we shared.
That wraps up all the beginner tips and strategies we have for Last Shelter: Survival. Hopefully, by the time you are reading these lines you managed to pick up new tips and strategies that you can apply to your gameplays moving forward. If you are an experienced or veteran survivor of the game and happen to know some neat tricks and strategies other than what we have uncovered, do not hesitate to drop us a line!