State of Survival HQ 1–15 Guide: Fastest Growth Strategy

Part of the Getting Started Series:

• Beginner Guide: Dominate Your First 7 Days: Headquarters progression, alliance membership, and daily priorities (Start Here).
• Best F2P Heroes for Early Game: Hero generations, formation ratios, and fragment priorities.
• HQ 1–15 Guide: Fastest Growth Strategy: Building gates, speed-up discipline, and resource management (You Are Here).
• Intel Missions Guide: Max Rewards Every Day: Mission types, radar progression, and stamina management.

Quick Answer

Headquarters level 1–15 progression unlocks core buildings and systems that gate your settlement's capabilities. HQ 10 unlocks the Furnace for metal production and the Enlistment Office for troop backup capacity. HQ 15 provides access to the Gas Tank for gas production. Prioritize HQ upgrades over non-prerequisite buildings, join an alliance immediately for construction help, and reserve speed-ups for HQ and research timers only.

Overview

Early HQ progression creates a strategic tension between breadth and focus. Every building you upgrade consumes resources that could accelerate your HQ level, yet certain buildings are mandatory prerequisites for the next HQ tier. The fastest path requires identifying which buildings directly gate HQ upgrades and ignoring everything else until those gates are cleared.

Based on community reports, players who spread upgrades often stall around HQ 8–12, while focused approaches have reported reaching HQ 15 in under a week (conditions vary by alliance and spending). Alliance membership, research prioritization, and speed-up discipline separate efficient progression from resource waste.

Core Mechanics

HQ as the Primary Gate

Headquarters is the central building that controls access to all other game systems. Clicking your HQ reveals upgrade requirements and building prerequisites. Each HQ level unlocks new buildings, increases troop training capacity, and raises the level cap for existing structures. Your HQ level determines which content you can access and how powerful your settlement can become.

[!IMPORTANT] Your HQ level is the single hardest gate in the game. Every building cap, every troop tier, every event threshold traces back to this one structure. If you're not actively upgrading your HQ or clearing its prerequisites, you're falling behind.

Building Unlock Thresholds

The Workshop (hero gear research and enhancement) unlocks at HQ 16, which falls outside this guide's scope. For context, the game removed manual gear crafting in a previous patch — heroes now auto-equip gear once research is completed. You do not need to plan around Workshop access during HQ 1–15.

Resource System

HQ upgrades require multiple resource types. Food and wood are primary currencies for early construction. Metal becomes available once you build your Furnace at HQ 10, and gas production unlocks at HQ 15 with the Gas Tank. Resources can be generated passively through production buildings, gathered from the world map, or obtained through alliance gifts and events.

[!WARNING] Opening resource crates makes those resources visible to other players and increases raid vulnerability. Hold crates until you have an immediate upgrade queued that requires those resources — open and spend in the same session to minimize exposure.

Training Camp Interaction

The Training Camp scales troop training capacity and speed based on its upgrade level. Higher Training Camp levels allow you to produce more troops simultaneously and reduce training timers. This building often appears as a prerequisite for HQ upgrades.

Alliance Construction Help

Alliance members can provide construction help that reduces building timers. Each alliance member can contribute one help action per building. This mechanic applies to HQ upgrades and can reduce multi-hour timers by several minutes per helper. Playing without an alliance eliminates this acceleration entirely.

Speed-Up Resource Scarcity

Speed-ups are limited consumables that instantly complete or accelerate building and research timers. Early-game supply is constrained.

[!TIP] Reserve speed-ups for HQ upgrades and research timers exceeding 1 hour. Timers under 5 minutes complete quickly on their own and are not worth spending speed-ups on. A single 3-hour speed-up on an HQ 14 upgrade saves more real time than ten 5-minute speed-ups on random buildings.

Mission Stamina System

Missions cost 15 stamina to use. Intel missions rotate on an 8-hour cycle, providing regular opportunities to earn resources and hero fragments. Completing all achievements in a set yields 120 points to unlock a hero.

Hospital and Troop Loss Mechanics

Wounded troops go to hospital capacity first. When your hospital overflows during defensive combat, excess troops follow this split: 70% go to the Enlistment Office for recovery, and 30% are permanently lost. This overflow mechanic only applies when defending — if you are the attacker, troop losses do not go to the Enlistment Office. Enlistment Office capacity is four times your hospital capacity.

[!NOTE] A separate system called Field Triage activates during State Warfare events, allowing recovery of up to 90% of lost troops through alliance vouchers and biocaps. This event-specific mechanic is distinct from the standard Enlistment Office overflow described above.

Research Trees

Research trees provide permanent bonuses to construction speed, resource production, and troop power. Development-focused research reduces building costs and timers. Research upgrades require resources and time but apply across all future construction. Prioritize Development research early for compounding timer reductions.

Priority Order

🔴 Critical Path (Always First)

HQ upgrades — Gates all other progression.

Prerequisite buildings — Required to unlock next HQ level; upgrade to minimum required level only.

Development research — Reduces future construction costs and timers.

Alliance membership — Enables construction help on every build.

🟡 Secondary Priority (After Critical Path)

Training Camp upgrades — Increases troop output for resource gathering.

Resource production buildings — Supports sustained construction.

Hero leveling — Focused investment in a small roster for combat efficiency. See the Best F2P Heroes for Early Game guide for which heroes to prioritize.

Best Strategy

Decision Framework

HQ 1–5 Focus

Upgrade HQ as soon as resources allow. Complete tutorial missions for initial resource supply. Join an alliance before HQ 3. Ignore decorative buildings and non-prerequisite structures.

HQ 6–10 Focus

Identify prerequisite buildings for each HQ tier. Upgrade only those buildings to the minimum required level. Begin Development research for construction speed bonuses. Use alliance help on every HQ upgrade.

At HQ 10, build the Furnace immediately — metal production becomes essential for subsequent upgrades. The Enlistment Office also becomes available, providing backup troop recovery.

HQ 11–15 Focus

Continue prioritizing HQ upgrades over all other buildings. Additional Furnace slots unlock at HQ 11, 12, and 13 — build these as they become available to increase metal production. At HQ 15, the Gas Tank unlocks, adding a fourth resource type.

Focus hero investment on a small roster rather than spreading experience across every hero you own. For detailed hero selection guidance, check the Best F2P Heroes for Early Game guide.

Resource Management

Gather resources from the world map during downtime between upgrades. Participate in alliance events for resource rewards. Open resource crates only when you have an immediate upgrade queued that requires those resources — this prevents raiders from stealing stockpiled materials.

Resource crate timing creates upgrade windows: if you need 60,000 food for an HQ upgrade and have 50,000 in crates, gather the remaining 10,000 from the map first, then open crates and start the upgrade immediately to minimize exposure.

Speed-Up Discipline

Speed-ups under 5 minutes provide minimal value — those timers complete naturally while you gather or run missions. A single 3-hour speed-up on an HQ 14 upgrade saves more real time than ten 5-minute speed-ups on random buildings. Save all speed-ups for HQ or research timers.

F2P vs Spender Tips

F2P players should focus entirely on the critical path: HQ, prerequisites, and Development research. Your speed-ups are scarce, so never waste them on non-HQ buildings. Alliance construction help and resource gathering from the world map are your primary acceleration tools. Reaching HQ 15 in under a week is achievable F2P with disciplined play and an active alliance — the bottleneck is usually resource generation, not content gating.

Light spenders benefit most from packs that include speed-ups and the second builder queue. Two active builders let you upgrade your HQ and a prerequisite building simultaneously, roughly halving the time spent waiting on gates. Beyond that, biocap packs fund additional speed-ups for overnight HQ timers.

[!TIP] The second builder is the single highest-value purchase for HQ progression at any spending level. If you spend nothing else, spend on this.

Common Mistakes

Upgrading every building equally spreads resources thin and delays HQ progression. Each non-prerequisite building you upgrade consumes food and wood that could have completed your next HQ tier.

Delaying HQ upgrades to "max out" current tier buildings locks you out of new content, higher troop tiers, and increased building caps.

Opening resource crates immediately exposes resources to raids before you can spend them. Fix: Hold crates and open only when you have an upgrade queued and ready to start.

Using speed-ups on short timers wastes limited items on negligible time savings. Fix: A 5-minute timer completes naturally while you're gathering or doing missions. Save speed-ups for timers over 1 hour.

FAQ

Which prerequisite buildings tend to be the worst resource traps?

Non-production buildings that appear as prerequisites but offer no immediate combat or resource benefit. Upgrade these to the exact minimum level required for the HQ gate and move on — do not over-level them.

Should I rush past HQ 10 or pause to set up metal production?

Build the Furnace immediately at HQ 10 since metal becomes a requirement for later upgrades, but don't stall HQ progression to max it out. Get the Furnace running and continue pushing HQ while metal accumulates passively.

Does leaving an alliance reset construction help?

Construction help applies when given. Leaving an alliance doesn't remove help already received, but you lose access to future help until you join another alliance.

How does the Enlistment Office actually recover troops?

When your hospital overflows during defense, 70% of excess casualties go to the Enlistment Office and 30% are permanently lost. You recover Enlistment Office troops by spending Duty points, which accrue automatically over time. The office's capacity is four times your hospital capacity. This overflow mechanic only applies when defending — attackers do not benefit from it.

Key Takeaways

[!TIP] ✅ Do This

• Upgrade HQ immediately when resources allow
• Join an alliance before HQ 3
• Hold resource crates until needed for specific upgrades
• Use alliance construction help on every HQ upgrade
• Focus Development research for construction speed bonuses
• Build the Furnace immediately when HQ 10 unlocks it

[!CAUTION] ❌ Avoid This

• Upgrading non-prerequisite buildings before HQ
• Playing without an alliance
• Opening resource crates immediately
• Using speed-ups on timers under 5 minutes
• Over-leveling prerequisite buildings beyond the minimum required