Spending money in Last War is easy.

Spending it well is a completely different story. 😄

You can spend a lot on random packs and still fall behind someone who spends less but knows exactly what their account needs.

Before buying anything, remember one rule:

Don't buy the biggest VALUE %. Buy what actually moves your account forward.

Not Sure What to Upgrade? Start with our How to Make Your Squad Stronger Guide

Find your weak point first. Then decide if spending is actually the best way to fix it.

1. Permanent Value Comes First

Especially early on, permanent unlocks are usually much better than repeatedly buying resources that disappear after one upgrade.

Good examples include:

• Second Tech Center
• Extra Builder
• Taylor
• Other useful permanent account upgrades

A resource pack helps once.

A permanent unlock keeps helping your account every day.

You also don't necessarily need every Builder available. Later buildings become extremely expensive, and keeping all of them working becomes harder anyway.

TIP: Permanent value first. Consumables later.

2. Taylor Is a Long-Term Investment

Taylor doesn't give you an instant giant Power increase, but that's not really why you buy her.

Her Survivor skill gives additional rewards from Radar Tasks, so she keeps generating extra resources simply by playing normally.

The more you develop her, the better those rewards become.

For someone planning to play Last War long-term, even unlocking Taylor can be more valuable than repeatedly buying basic resource packs.

TIP: Not every good purchase gives Power immediately. Some purchases keep paying you back over time.

3. Find Your Bottleneck Before Buying Anything

This is probably the most important rule in this guide.

Before opening the shop, ask:

"What is actually stopping my main squad from progressing?"

Maybe it's:

• Universal UR Shards
• Skill Medals
• Upgrade Ore
• Blueprints
• Exclusive Weapon resources
• Awakening
• Drone Parts
• Components
• Skill Chips
• Tech
• Armament Materials / Cores for T11

If you're stuck because you need Drone Parts, buying Hero EXP isn't helping.

If your gear is behind, another pile of speedups isn't fixing it.

If you're preparing an Awakening, spending all your EW resources somewhere else makes no sense.

Find the bottleneck first. Spend second.

4. Calculate Before You Buy

One of the easiest ways to waste money is buying resources without knowing how many you actually need.

Let's say you're upgrading an Exclusive Weapon.

You buy a few packs.

Then you realize you're still nowhere near the level you wanted.

Now you're either stuck halfway or tempted to keep spending because you've already started.

Don't do that. 😄

Before spending on a big upgrade:

1. Choose your target
2. Check what you already have
3. Calculate the total cost
4. See exactly what's missing
5. Decide if buying the difference is worth it

LW Agent has calculators for things like:

• Hero EXP & Levels
• Hero Shards
• Hero Skills
• Exclusive Weapons
• Hero Awakening
• Gear
• Drone
• Resource Chests
• T11 Research
• Buildings & HQ
• Seasonal progression

LW Agent Calculators

See Exactly What Your Next Upgrade Will Cost

This is especially useful before expensive upgrades like EW levels, Awakening, Gear, Drone and T11.

TIP: Set the target → Calculate the cost → Save what you can → Buy only what you're missing.

5. Battle Passes: Buy the Ones That Matter

Battle Passes can offer much better progression than random packs because their rewards are usually focused around something specific.

Worth looking at are passes that help with:

• Important heroes
• Exclusive Weapons
• Drone progression
• Gear progression
• Seasonal progression
• Other hard-to-get resources

But don't automatically buy every Battle Pass.

Ask yourself:

"Does this actually help my main squad?"

If you're Tank main and a pass helps Kimberly, that's very different from spending the same money on a hero sitting unused in Squad 3.

And don't buy a Hero Battle Pass simply because it's cheaper than building that hero later.

If you don't plan to use the hero, you still spent money on something you don't need.

A good Battle Pass for the wrong hero is still the wrong purchase.

6. Spend on Heroes With a Plan

Buying every new hero is one of the easiest ways to spend too much.

Your main squad comes first.

Before spending on a hero, ask:

• Is this hero going into my main squad?
• Who are they replacing?
• Is that actually an upgrade?
• Will I have enough shards to develop them?
• Do they have an important Exclusive Weapon?
• Do they have an Awakening worth preparing for?

Unlocking a hero is only the beginning.

A new hero sitting at low Stars with weak skills and bad gear isn't automatically improving your account.

Sometimes continuing to develop the hero you already have is the smarter move.

TIP: Don't pay just to collect heroes. Pay to build heroes you're actually going to use.

7. Exclusive Weapons & Awakening

EW spending can get expensive very quickly.

Don't level every Exclusive Weapon simply because you unlocked it.

For your main squads, the obvious offensive starting points are usually:

• Tank → Kimberly
• Aircraft → DVA
• Missile → Tesla

After that, look at your actual lineup and what each EW improves.

A simple priority is:

Main carry → Important key hero → Secondary priorities

Also plan around Awakening.

If one of your core heroes has an upcoming Awakening, don't dump all your EW resources into something you don't really need today.

Before spending heavily, check:

Main squad? → Useful EW? → Awakening?

Sometimes saving resources for the next major breakpoint is much better than getting a small upgrade right now.

Calculate It First

EW and Awakening are perfect examples of upgrades you should calculate before buying.

Use the LW Agent calculators to see how much you actually need:

See Exactly What Your Next Upgrade For Your Exclusive Weapons & Awakening Will Cost

Don't buy 10 packs and calculate afterward. 😄

8. Drone Is a Strong Long-Term Investment

Drone progression stays relevant for a very long time and isn't tied to only one individual hero.

Depending on your bottleneck, useful Drone investments can include:

• Drone Parts
• Components
• Skill Chips
• Combat Boost materials
• Drone-focused passes

This doesn't mean every Drone pack is automatically good.

But if your Heroes and Gear look strong while your Drone is far behind players around your level, this can be one of the better places to redirect your budget.

The same applies to Components and Skill Chips.

Make sure you're investing in progression that actually benefits your main squad instead of simply chasing whatever gives the biggest Power increase.

TIP: Similar Heroes + similar Gear + very different results? Compare the Drone before buying more Hero packs.

9. Gear & Blueprints: Don't Spread Them Everywhere

Gear spending is useful when it's targeted.

It becomes wasteful when you're buying Upgrade Ore and Blueprints just to upgrade random pieces across multiple squads.

As a simple starting point:

Attack Heroes - Gun - Data Chip

Defense Heroes - Radar - Armor

Your exact priorities can change depending on your formation.

If you're running an Attack hero in the front for PvP, defensive Gear on that hero suddenly becomes much more important too.

As Gear progresses, Blueprints become increasingly valuable and expensive.

Don't spread them across Squad 2 and Squad 3 while your main squad still has obvious weaknesses.

TIP: Buy Gear resources toward a planned upgrade, not just because you ran out of Ore.

Use the Gear Calculator before a big push:

See Exactly What Your Next Upgrade For Your Gear & Blueprints Will Cost

10. T11: Start Planning Early

Once T11 progression becomes available, your resource priorities change again.

T11 progression involves the Armament Institute and resources such as:

• Armament Materials
• Armament Cores
• Oil
• Armament Research
• Level 35 Barracks

It's a long progression path.

That means you should start caring about these resources before the day you expect to unlock T11.

But there's a difference between collecting early and spending heavily early.

If you're still far away and your main squad desperately needs Heroes, Gear, Drone or EW progression, buying piles of Armament resources probably isn't your best move yet.

T11 is strong. It won't fix a badly developed squad.

Armored Troopers or Assault Raiders?

T11 also gives you two troop options.

Armored Troopers - Reduce severely wounded units - Better for troop preservation - Very useful when you're regularly fighting stronger opponents - Safer option for many developing T11 accounts

Assault Raiders - Better suited to aggressive play - Their effect helps reduce the penalty when your march isn't at full capacity - Becomes more attractive when your squad is strong enough to survive the fights you're taking

You can switch between them, so you're not permanently locked into one choice.

Don't automatically choose Assault just because it sounds more offensive.

Saving troops over hundreds of battles can be worth much more than it looks.

Calculate Your T11 Push

T11 is exactly where planning saves resources and money.

Use the T11 Research Calculator:

See Exactly What Your Next Upgrade For Your T11 Will Cost

Check how far you actually are from your target before buying Armament Materials or Cores.

You may discover that:

• You're close enough that spending makes sense
• You're still too far away
• Another requirement is blocking you anyway
• Your budget would currently improve your squad more somewhere else

TIP: Being short on Armament Materials doesn't automatically make an Armament pack a good purchase.

Know how much you're short by first.

11. Events: Know Your Target Before You Start

Limited events can sometimes offer excellent value.

Depending on the current rotation, you may see events such as:

• Bullseye Loot
• Glittering Market
• Bounty Hunter
• Total Mobilization
• Holiday / seasonal events

But event spending has one very common trap:

Starting without knowing where you're stopping.

Don't spend $30 and then discover the reward you actually wanted requires another $100.

Before spending, decide:

1. What reward do I actually want?
2. How far am I from it?
3. What's the realistic total cost?
4. Is that reward important for my account?
5. Would the same budget help more somewhere else?

If you're going for a milestone, calculate the whole push before starting.

TIP: Never let "I've already spent this much" become the reason you keep spending.

That's exactly how a cheap event becomes an expensive one. 😂

Spending by Budget

You don't really need exact dollar amounts to define Low, Medium and High Spenders.

What matters more is how many progression systems your budget can realistically support.

Low Spender

Your goal is:

Maximum long-term value from minimum spending.

Prioritize:

1. Important permanent unlocks
2. Taylor
3. High-value passes for your main squad
4. Your biggest progression bottleneck
5. Drone progression when needed
6. Very selective event spending
7. T11 resources later, when they're actually relevant

Avoid spending heavily on Squad 2 and Squad 3.

Also avoid repeatedly buying basic resources just to finish something a little faster.

As a Low Spender, patience is one of your biggest advantages.

Save resources, calculate your targets and wait for purchases that actually matter.

Spend rarely. Make every purchase count.

Medium Spender

You can support several progression systems at the same time, but you still shouldn't buy everything.

Prioritize:

• Permanent upgrades
• Taylor progression
• Useful Battle Passes
• Main Heroes
• Main-squad EWs
• Awakening preparation
• Drone
• Gear / Blueprints
• T11 progression when relevant
• Selected event milestones

At this level, one of the smartest things you can do is set yourself a monthly budget.

Don't spend all of it during the first shiny event you see.

Leave room for:

• New EW releases
• Awakening
• Seasonal progression
• T11 bottlenecks
• Strong event milestones

You can also start developing Squad 2 more seriously once Squad 1 is in a good place.

But don't weaken your main squad just to make the Power numbers look more balanced.

TIP: Plan your month, not your next pack.

High Spender

A larger budget allows you to progress several systems simultaneously.

It doesn't make bad packs good.

Your goal should be keeping important systems moving together:

• Heroes
• Exclusive Weapons
• Awakening
• Gear / Mythic progression
• Drone
• Components
• Skill Chips
• Tech
• T11 / Armament
• Decorations
• Important event milestones

Once Squad 1 is highly developed, push Squad 2 and eventually Squad 3 much more aggressively.

But even here, bottlenecks matter.

If you already have enough of something for the next few months, buying another pile just because it's available isn't doing much for you.

High spenders can actually waste more money than anyone else by automatically buying everything without checking whether they need it.

TIP: Spend ahead of your next bottleneck, not randomly ahead of everything.

What Should You Usually Skip?

Be careful spending real money directly on:

• Basic Food / Iron
• Hero EXP you already have enough of
• Basic speedups
• Low-tier materials
• Secondary heroes you aren't using
• EWs without a plan
• Resources already sitting in your inventory
• Squad 2 / 3 progression while Squad 1 is still struggling
• T11 resources when you're nowhere near using them

These things aren't useless.

They're simply usually poor reasons to open your wallet.

If something can easily be farmed, earned through events, bought from normal stores or accumulated naturally, think twice before paying for it.

The Smart Spending Rule

Before pressing Buy, ask yourself:

1. Does this help my main squad?
2. Does it solve my current bottleneck?
3. Is this resource difficult to get for free?
4. Does it give permanent or long-term progression?
5. Do I know exactly where I'm going to use it?
6. Did I calculate how much I actually need?

If you're answering no to most of those...

Close the shop. 😂

You probably don't need it.

The easiest way to remember everything in this guide is:

Find the bottleneck → Set the target → Calculate the cost → Use free resources → Buy only what's missing.

LW Agent Calculators

See Exactly What Your Next Upgrade Will Cost

There is no single "best pack" for every Last War player.

A pack can be amazing for one account and completely useless for another.

Low Spender: protect every dollar. Medium Spender: plan your budget. High Spender: target bottlenecks instead of buying everything.

And everyone should remember:

3000% VALUE means nothing if you don't need what's inside.

Figure out what your account actually needs first.

Then calculate what it'll take.

Then decide whether spending money is even necessary.

Not Sure What to Upgrade? Start with our How to Make Your Squad Stronger Guide