Whiteout Survival State vs State (SvS) Guide [2026] — Win Every Season

State of Power — known across the community as State vs State (SvS) — is the largest recurring PvP event in Whiteout Survival. Two states are matched by power, score against each other across a five-day Preparation Phase, then clash in a 12-hour Battle Phase that culminates in a fight for the Sunfire Castle. The winning side claims the Castle, ranking rewards, and — under certain conditions — a Supreme President with cross-state authority over both states for two weeks.

This guide covers the full event lifecycle: pre-event stockpiling, matchmaking, preparation scoring, battlefield mechanics, Castle Battle conditions, Field Triage, presidency outcomes, and the strategic frameworks that separate consistent winners from states that simply show up.

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Quick Reference

Key thresholds

• Furnace 16 required to cross into the enemy state during Battle Phase.
• Kill/wound points only count when both chiefs are within ±3 Furnace levels.
• Castle Battle window: 5 hours (reduced from 6 hours in the October 22, 2025 update).
• Castle instant-win condition: hold the Sunfire Castle 2.5 consecutive hours (reduced from 3 hours in the same update).
• Field Triage revival ceiling: 30% system + 10% Gems + 50% Ally Help = 90% maximum.
• Cross-state teleports: 3 free, additional teleports purchasable.

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Event Identity and Cadence

State of Power runs on a roughly four-week rotation, alternating with the King of Icefield event. In any given cycle, your state will be queued for SvS; if matchmaking cannot find a suitable opponent within the system's tolerance, the state receives King of Icefield instead. This fallback is uncommon but not unheard of.

The event always plays out across four sequential stages:

1. Matchmaking Phase — the system pairs your state with an opponent.
2. Preparation Phase — five themed scoring days.
3. Battle Phase — 12-hour combat window including the Sunfire Castle fight.
4. Field Triage Phase — automated and assisted troop revival.

Each phase has distinct mechanics, distinct point sources, and distinct strategic priorities. Treating SvS as a single "fight on Saturday" event is the most common reason states underperform: roughly half the available rewards and almost all of the buff advantages are decided before the first cross-state teleport is used.

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Eligibility

State eligibility

States generally become eligible for SvS around Day 80 of server age, though release timing can vary by roughly a week or two in either direction depending on server activity and progression. Newer states should not assume their first SvS will land precisely on Day 80; check the in-game event calendar as the date approaches.

Individual eligibility

• Any chief can participate in the Preparation Phase, regardless of Furnace level. Resource consumption, training, research, and beast slaying all count toward state score from the moment the phase begins.
• Furnace 16 is the cutoff for crossing into the enemy state during the Battle Phase. Below this level, chiefs remain in the home state and contribute by reinforcing alliances and defending against incoming attackers.
• For chiefs at Furnace 30 and above, the UI flags enemy castles from which points can be earned, making target selection more transparent during the chaotic Battle Phase.

Roles by Furnace level

A productive SvS state assigns roles by Furnace band rather than treating every chief as a generic combatant. The ±3 Furnace rule means each band has natural targets, natural rivals, and natural defensive duties.

This banding is not rigid — a F22 chief with strong gear and full hero investment may outperform a F25 with neither — but it is the right starting point for alliance role assignment. The deeper point is that a high-Furnace chief rallying a low-Furnace target generates no kill points, so high-band chiefs need targets in their own band to be useful at all during Battle Phase.

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Matchmaking

Matchmaking begins on Saturday and resolves on Sunday — a two-day window during which your state's matchmaking score is calculated. The system evaluates the Troop Power of the top 100 chiefs in your state, alongside state battle records and overall activeness. The pairing favours states with similar matchmaking scores, though no public algorithm describes exact weighting.

State leadership can do little to influence matchmaking once the window opens — but in the lead-up, the activity, recent battle history, and Power distribution of the top 100 all feed into the score. States that stockpile heavily but stay low-activity can occasionally surprise stronger states, since matchmaking weighs more than raw Power alone.

Some communities report attempts to manipulate matchmaking by stripping hero gear or resetting hero levels. There is no reliable evidence this changes outcomes, and it is not a recommended strategy.

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Pre-Event Timeline

The four weeks between SvS cycles are the real preparation window. By the time Preparation Phase Day 1 begins, your stockpiles, hero readiness, and alliance role assignments should be locked in. The cadence below assumes a standard four-week rotation between SvS events.

Weeks T-4 to T-3: stockpile foundation

This is the period that typically overlaps with the previous SvS cycle's Field Triage and the immediate week after. Resource focus shifts from spending to accumulating.

• Stop spending speedups on standard events unless the events themselves clearly out-value SvS daily themes. Most do not.
• Begin building hero EXP, gear materials, and Fire Crystal reserves. These are slow-accumulating and should not be deferred.
• Resolve any pending construction queue blockers. You don't want a Furnace upgrade waiting for resources during SvS Day 1.

Week T-2: Throwdown alignment

Throwdown is the natural high-yield event in this window. The trade is straightforward: Throwdown rewards earned now translate into more SvS-applicable speedups and resources later. The mistake is using Throwdown's own speedup pool to push Throwdown rankings — net those speedups, don't burn them.

Week T-1: King of Icefield

KoI rotates with SvS, so your state will run KoI in the immediate week before SvS. The same logic applies: participate at a level that maximizes rewards without spending speedups that would score better on SvS daily themes.

By the end of this week, your speedup ledger should be fat and your hero gear queue should be near complete.

The pre-Prep day (Sunday)

Once matchmaking resolves on Sunday, you have hours rather than days to finalize:

• Scout the enemy state. Players frequently use farm accounts in the matched state for leaderboard reconnaissance. This is a player convention, not a game-supported feature, but it is widely used and yields the top-100 Power distribution your alliance leadership needs to plan rally bands.
• Confirm role assignments. Who anchors which rallies. Who reinforces whom. Who is the primary Castle commitment if your state is positioned to hold or take the Castle.
• Check shield timers. Players returning from KoI may have shields about to expire as Prep begins. Re-shield deliberately before Prep Day 1 if needed; the 30-minute attack/rally cooldown does not apply if you haven't been attacking.

The state that walks into Day 1 with a full stockpile, a finalized role chart, and no logistical surprises has already won a meaningful share of the Preparation Phase margin.

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Phase 1: Preparation Phase

The Preparation Phase runs from Monday 00:00 UTC through Saturday 10:00 UTC — a total of 5 days + 10 hours — and is divided into five themed daily stages. Both states score independently during this phase. The state with the higher total score at the end wins the Preparation Phase Buff, which applies to that state during the Battle Phase.

Why the Preparation Phase matters more than it looks

Two outcomes are decided here:

1. The Preparation Phase Buff — the winning state receives a global attribute buff covering increased Healing Speed and increased Enlistment Office capacity for the duration of the Battle Phase. Faster healing during combat and a larger enlistment buffer (which recovers a portion of fallen troops automatically) translates directly into more sustained pressure on the battlefield.
2. The location of the Cross-State Castle Battle — the Castle Battle is held in the state that lost the Preparation Phase. Defending the Castle in your own state is significantly easier than attacking it in someone else's, since your alliance buildings, traps, and territory layout work in your favour.

Losing Prep means you fight the Castle Battle on someone else's map, without the buff. Winning it means the opposite. There is no participation prize for second place in this phase.

The five daily stages

Each daily stage rewards a specific category of activity. Resources, speedups, and actions only generate SvS points on the day matching their type — saving Construction speedups for Day 1 (City Construction) is the foundational rotation logic.

Day 5 is extended beyond 24 hours and runs into the Saturday 10:00 UTC handover into Battle Phase. The exact internal hourly boundaries of each daily stage are not fully published in official documentation; what is consistent is that the phase as a whole spans 5 days and 10 hours.

Point sources by category

Approximate point values for the most common contributions follow the pattern below. These values are widely reported but may scale with server age or be adjusted in updates, so use them as a planning baseline rather than precise targets.

Resources (on applicable days)

• Fire Crystal: ~2,000 points each
• Refined Fire Crystal: ~30,000 points each
• Fire Crystal Shard: ~1,000 points each
• Mithril contributes a high per-unit point value on Day 4/5 (exact figure varies between community sources and is not stated here to avoid misleading planning).

Speedups (on applicable days)

• 1 minute of Construction / Research / Training speedup ≈ 30 points.
• Gem-based speedups are excluded from point scoring.

Training (Day 5) Approximate points per troop trained, by tier:

Promotion points are calculated as the difference between the source and target tier — promoting a T9 to T11, for example, contributes roughly 75 − 45 = 30 points per troop.

Day 1 strategy: queueing for City Construction

Day 1 rewards construction speedups and qualifying resource expenditures. The maximum extraction from Day 1 requires queue planning before the day begins:

• Do not let large constructions complete on Day 0 (Sunday). A Furnace upgrade that finishes Sunday afternoon is a missed opportunity to apply construction speedups for SvS points. Time the queue so it actively consumes speedup minutes through Day 1.
• Stage smaller queueable upgrades. Walls, traps, and helper buildings that can be queued in succession let you keep speedup application continuous when a large primary upgrade finishes.
• Reserve Refined Fire Crystals for Day 1's qualifying upgrades if your construction queue is the right tier to consume them. The 30,000-point yield per Refined Fire Crystal is among the highest single-resource yields in the entire Prep Phase.

Day 5 strategy: promotion vs. training trade-off

Day 5 is the longest stage and the one most often decisive. Training and promotion both score, but the trade-off between them depends on what you've stockpiled.

The point math, using the table above:

• Training a T11 from scratch: 75 points per troop.
• Promoting T9 to T11: 75 − 45 = 30 points per troop.
• Promoting T10 to T11: 75 − 60 = 15 points per troop.
• Training a T10 from scratch: 60 points per troop.

Two implications:

1. Per-troop, fresh training scores higher than promotion. A T11 trained from scratch is worth more than promoting a T9.
2. Per-resource, promotion is often cheaper in raw materials and time, since promotion bypasses the bottom of the training cost curve. If you have a large pool of T9 or T10 troops sitting unused, promoting them to T11 generates points without the full T11 training cost.

The right Day 5 mix depends on what you've stockpiled and what your enlistment office capacity supports during the upcoming Battle Phase. As a rough framework: prioritize promotion when training resources are scarce relative to existing low-tier troop pools; prioritize fresh training when training resources are abundant and you need maximum point density.

Reserve troops for combat. Day 5 Power Boost is a means to higher SvS scores, not the goal in itself. Spending every training speedup chasing Prep Phase points leaves your alliance unable to rebuild between Battle Phase waves. A common rule of thumb is to commit roughly two-thirds of stockpiled training resources to Day 5 and reserve the remainder for Battle Phase and Field Triage rebuilding.

Hero Development considerations (Day 4)

Day 4 rewards hero-focused investments — hero EXP consumption, hero gear upgrades, and related materials. The specific point values for hero actions are not as widely standardized as the troop training values, so concrete per-action figures are not provided here.

Strategic considerations that hold regardless:

• Match Day 4 spend to Battle Phase needs. A hero you intend to use as a rally captain during Battle Phase should have skills, gear, and EXP locked in by the end of Day 4. Investing in heroes you don't plan to deploy generates Prep points but compounds nothing.
• Evaluate the Hero of the Season. SvS ranking rewards include Hero Shards, and the specific hero rotates each generation. If the current season's hero is one you want to develop, ranking pressure justifies more aggressive Day 4 spending; if it isn't, you can prioritize lower-ranked rewards and conserve resources.
• Gear stat upgrades typically yield meaningful Day 4 contributions and align directly with combat readiness. The double dividend — Prep points now, stronger marches Saturday — makes gear progression a high-priority Day 4 activity.

Preparation Phase strategy summary

Stockpile aggressively in the weeks before SvS (see Pre-Event Timeline above). The single largest source of Prep Phase underperformance is showing up to Day 1 with no reserves to deploy.

Match resource type to day. Construction speedups burned on Day 3 generate nothing for state score. The single largest unforced error in Prep is asynchronous spending — a coordinated alliance, where members rotate stockpiles into the correct themed day, can outscore a higher-Power but uncoordinated alliance.

Day 5 is decisive. Power Boost rewards troop training, promotion, and bulk resource expenditures, and it is the longest of the daily stages. If your state is behind going into Day 5, this is the day to deploy reserves — including high-tier promotions, which tend to score disproportionately well per resource invested.

Hold something back for the Battle Phase. Spending every last training speedup on Day 5 leaves you unable to rebuild troops between Battle Phase waves or after Field Triage.

President buffs help. General-game position buffs — Mercantilism, Mobilize, and similar — affect construction and training speeds during Preparation Phase, which translates indirectly into more SvS points per unit time. Confirm your alliance leadership is rotating these correctly during the relevant days.

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Phase 2: Battle Phase

The Battle Phase begins at 10:00 UTC on Saturday and runs for 12 hours, concluding at 22:00 UTC. It opens with a window of free cross-state movement and battle, contains the Sunfire Castle Battle in the middle, and closes with a final window of free cross-state movement and battle. The exact internal split has been adjusted by recent updates — see the Castle Battle section below.

Cross-state movement

Each chief receives 3 free cross-state teleports from their home state to the enemy state during the Battle Phase. Additional cross-state teleports can be purchased; cost varies and should be confirmed in the in-game UI before purchase.

Critical points to internalize:

• Crossing the server abandon your reinforcements. Any reinforcements stationed in your city are lost when you teleport out. Coordinate withdrawal timing with the chiefs reinforcing you.
• Auto Hunting works in the enemy state. Auto Rally does not. Rallies must be initiated manually after crossing.
• Facility buffs persist. Buffs from your facilities remain in effect after crossing — your home-state infrastructure investment continues to pay off across the server.
• You can change Alliance after crossing. This enables tactical realignment with whichever attacking alliance has the strongest position in the enemy state.
• Teleporting back returns you to (or near) your last known location in the home state.

Furnace level rules for combat points

Killing enemy troops and losing your own troops both generate SvS points during the Battle Phase — but only when the level gap is within tolerance.

The ±3 Furnace level rule. To earn points from killing or wounding enemy troops, the enemy chief's Furnace level must be within 3 levels of yours, in either direction. A Furnace 28 chief earns nothing by stomping a Furnace 20; nor do they earn anything when crushed by a Furnace 33.

Rally Captain Furnace level governs the rally. When rallying, the Furnace level of the Rally Captain is what's checked for point eligibility — for every participant in that rally. A rally led by a Furnace 25 captain that includes a Furnace 30 player will only generate points when the target is within 3 levels of the captain (Furnace 22–28), not the participants. Build rallies around the captain whose level matches your intended target band.

Reinforcements may use the reinforcee's level. When troops are reinforcing another player on the battlefield, the level of the player being assisted is generally what's evaluated for point eligibility. This is worth confirming through your own combat tests, as it can affect how you stage defensive reinforcements.

Approximate combat point values

Points earned per troop killed or per own troop lost (within the ±3 Furnace band), by tier:

The same points accrue for both kills and losses, which has an important strategic implication: a state that fights aggressively and loses heavily can still score well in combat points, provided the fights happen against valid targets.

Cross-state attack rules

• After crossing the server, you can attack players in the same state but from different alliances — internal politics in the enemy state do not protect anyone outside your immediate alliance.
• Alliance buildings cannot be attacked during the Battle Phase. Flags, fortresses, banners, and similar structures are off-limits to direct assault.
• You can still teleport into enemy alliance territory, even though you cannot destroy their alliance buildings. Strategic positioning around a target alliance's perimeter is fully permitted.

The Sunfire Castle Battle

The Castle Battle is a 5-hour window (reduced from 6 hours in the October 22, 2025 update) embedded in the middle of the 12-hour Battle Phase, with free cross-state movement bookending it. It is held in the state that lost the Preparation Phase.

Win conditions. The Castle is won under either of two conditions:

1. Instant win: A single alliance holds the Sunfire Castle for 2.5 consecutive hours (reduced from 3 hours in the same update). The clock resets if the Castle changes hands.
2. Fallback (longest hold): If no alliance achieves the consecutive hold, the alliance that held the Castle for the longest cumulative time during the 5-hour window wins.

Turret behaviour. The Sunfire Castle is surrounded by Turrets, which damage occupants of the Castle they're not aligned with. Two important rules:

• If the Castle and a Turret are held by alliances from the same state, that Turret will not attack the Castle. State-level cohesion provides automatic mutual protection at the Turret tier — but only at the state level.
• If two alliances from the same state rally the same building (Castle or Turret), they will clash and damage each other. Same-state alliances are not automatically allied at the rally level.

This dual rule means coordinated states can stack Turret control behind a single primary Castle holder, but uncoordinated alliances within the same state can sabotage their own offensive by stepping on each other's rallies.

Castle and Turret occupation points

Holding the Castle or any Turret generates 1 point per 1,000 Power per 60 seconds of occupation. Stacking Power on the Castle and Turrets — through reinforcement and march composition — is therefore a primary scoring lever during the Castle Battle window, alongside straightforward kills.

Castle stance: a decision framework

Not every state should fight for the Castle the same way. The right stance depends on the Power distribution between your top alliances and the matched-up enemy alliances. Three viable stances exist, and committing fully to one early outperforms vacillating between them.

Stance A: Primary Holder (one or two anchor alliances)

Choose this stance when:

• Your top one or two alliances clearly outpower any single enemy alliance.
• Your top alliance has the cohesion to maintain a 2.5-hour consecutive hold (i.e., they can keep enough Power continuously rallied or stationed at the Castle without rotation gaps).
• Lower-ranked alliances are willing to support rather than compete.

In this stance, the anchor alliance commits fully to the Castle. Lower alliances either reinforce the anchor's Castle hold or take Turrets to feed the same-state Turret protection rule. Going for the consecutive 2.5-hour win is the goal; the longest-hold tiebreaker is the fallback.

Stance B: Turret Stack (no clear single anchor)

Choose this stance when:

• Two or three of your alliances are competitive with each other in Power, and none is clearly dominant.
• Coordinating a single anchor's hold is politically difficult.
• The enemy's top alliance is strong enough to threaten any single one of yours but not multiple simultaneously.

In this stance, multiple alliances each take a Turret. Same-state Turret protection prevents Turrets from attacking your own Castle holders, while denying those Turret slots to the enemy. Castle occupation rotates between alliances or remains contested, with the longest-hold tiebreaker as the realistic win condition.

Stance C: Disruption / Kill Farm (lower-Power alliances)

Choose this stance when:

• Your alliance is not in the top one or two and cannot meaningfully contest the Castle directly.
• Combat points are achievable through perimeter rallies on matched-Furnace enemy chiefs.
• Personal milestone rewards are the realistic ceiling for your alliance's contribution.

In this stance, the alliance ignores the Castle's occupation contest and focuses on accumulating kill/loss points around the Castle perimeter and across the broader map. This sounds defeatist but is correct: a Power-mismatched alliance grinding the Castle wastes troops without scoring meaningfully, while the same troops applied to perimeter combat score per the kill/loss tier table.

Rally Captain selection framework

Under the ±3 Furnace rule and the captain-governs-rally rule, captain selection is one of the highest-leverage decisions in Battle Phase. The framework:

1. Inventory the enemy's matched-band targets. From scouting (or top-100 leaderboard reviews), identify the Furnace level distribution of the enemy state's top 50–100 chiefs. This gives you the bands that need captains.
2. Assign one or more captains per band. A state with a thick enemy population at Furnace 26–28 needs at least one captain at Furnace 23–25 (to reach down) and one at Furnace 26–29 (to reach across), to cover the band.
3. Match captain hero readiness to band. Within a band, the captain with the strongest hero/gear loadout is the right choice. A weaker captain in the right band still scores; a stronger captain in the wrong band scores zero.
4. Stage a backup captain per band. A captain who is shielded, defeated, or otherwise out of action mid-battle leaves their band uncovered. Each critical band should have a designated backup.

The error to avoid: a high-Furnace alliance R5 captaining all the rallies because they're R5. If R5 is Furnace 30 and the enemy's main band sits at Furnace 25, R5's rallies are scoring zero. Captain assignment should follow the math, not the hierarchy.

Reinforcement chain protocols

Reinforcements during Battle Phase carry two structural risks: the recall problem and the same-state intra-alliance rally clash. Both are managed with explicit protocols agreed before the phase begins.

The recall problem. Reinforcements stationed in a chief's city are lost when that chief teleports cross-state. Players who plan to cross need to recall their reinforcing allies before using a teleport. The protocol: each cross-staging chief publishes their planned cross-time, and reinforcing allies recall a designated number of minutes before that time.

Reinforcement direction. Two distinct flows operate during Battle Phase:

• Home-state reinforcement: Reinforcing allies who remain in the home state to defend chiefs who have not crossed. This is the role for chiefs below Furnace 16 and for any chief deliberately holding home position.
• Cross-state reinforcement: Reinforcing allies who have crossed to support marches and Castle holds in the enemy state. This requires the reinforcer to also have crossed.

These two flows are not interchangeable mid-battle. A chief reinforcing in the home state cannot suddenly reinforce a cross-state ally without first crossing themselves and losing their home-state reinforcement role.

Reinforcing the Castle holder. During the 5-hour Castle Battle window, the primary holder needs continuous reinforcement to maintain the Castle hold. Reinforcers stack march Power on the Castle, contributing both to the 1-pt/1,000-Power/60-second occupation scoring and to the durability of the hold against enemy rallies. The protocol: a designated rotation of reinforcers ensures Castle Power never drops below the threshold required to survive expected enemy rally strength.

Same-state coordination and NAP conventions

Same-state alliances are not automatically allied, but coordinated states perform meaningfully better than uncoordinated ones. Common conventions ("Non-Aggression Pacts" or NAPs) emerge before Castle Battle to manage potential intra-state conflict. These are player-made agreements without game-mechanical enforcement, but the typical patterns are worth understanding.

Castle priority order. States typically agree on which alliance has the primary Castle commitment, with other alliances taking supporting roles (Turrets, perimeter combat). This avoids the same-state rally clash inside the Castle itself.

Turret division. Each Turret is assigned to a specific alliance, with same-state Turret protection providing mutual defense. Conflicts arise when two alliances both want the same Turret; resolving this before Castle Battle starts is essential.

Kill-point neutrality on the perimeter. Many NAPs specify that alliances will not attack same-state chiefs around the Castle perimeter, since intra-state kills tend not to enter the Field Triage revival pool and produce no SvS scoring upside.

Limits to internalize. None of these conventions are enforced by the game. A same-state alliance that breaks the convention faces only social pressure. Plan for breakdowns: have a fallback Castle stance ready if a key NAP partner defects mid-battle, and treat any agreement based on "we won't attack each other" as conditional rather than guaranteed.

Battle Phase strategy summary

Establish a forward base before the Castle Battle starts. The opening free-movement window exists to let attacking alliances stage troops, set up reinforcement chains, and identify defensive weak points before the Castle clock starts. States that wait until the middle window opens to start crossing the server cede positional advantage.

Coordinate Rally Captains around target bands (see framework above).

Decide your Castle stance early (see framework above). Switching mid-battle is costly.

Watch the Field Triage rule. Troops killed by your own state generally don't enter the revivable pool in Field Triage. Cross-state kills are recoverable; intra-state kills tend not to be.

Same-state coordination is not automatic (see NAP conventions above).

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Phase 3: Field Triage

Field Triage begins immediately after the Battle Phase ends at 22:00 UTC and is where most of your battlefield losses are recovered. The phase comes with an automatic +20% Healing Speed buff.

The 30 / 10 / 50 revival breakdown

Of the troops killed during the Battle Phase, the maximum recoverable percentage is 90%, distributed across three sources:

• 30% are revived automatically by the system. No action required.
• 10% can be revived with Revival Potions, purchased with Gems during Field Triage.
• 50% can be revived through Ally Help, using Rebirth Tomes contributed by alliance members.

These are independent ceilings, not cumulative requirements — a player who collects no Ally Help but maxes Gem revival will recover 30% + 10% = 40% of their losses, not 90%.

Revival Potions (Gem cost)

Each Revival Potion adds 1% to your personal revival rate, up to the 10% Gem ceiling. The Gem cost escalates with each potion purchased:

Total cost to fully cap Gem revival: 2,250 Gems. This is a meaningful spend and should be evaluated against the size of your losses — capping Gem revival on a small loss is rarely worth the Gems, but it can be the difference between a workable and crippled army after a catastrophic Castle Battle.

Rebirth Tomes (Ally Help)

Each player receives 20 Rebirth Tomes when Field Triage begins. Each Tome used on an alliance member adds 1% to that member's revival rate. Each player can receive up to 50 Tome assists from alliance members — meaning the 50% Ally Help ceiling is enforced both as a personal cap and as a function of how many allies are willing to spend Tomes on you.

Gem spend decision framework

Spending the full 2,250 Gems to cap Revival Potions buys 10% of your losses back. Whether that's worth it depends on the size of your losses.

A practical framework:

• If losses are small (a single rally's worth of mid-tier troops, a few hundred T9s), the 10% recovered is small in absolute terms. Skip Gem revival entirely or buy only the cheap early potions (the first three cost just 300 Gems combined for 3% recovery).
• If losses are moderate (thousands of T10/T11), buy through potion 5 or 6 (750–1,050 Gems) for 5–6% recovery. The escalating cost beyond potion 6 hits 300 Gems per percent, which is a poor rate unless losses are catastrophic.
• If losses are catastrophic (tens of thousands of high-tier troops, multiple full rally wipes), the full 2,250 Gems is justified. The 10% absolute recovery is large enough in raw troops to be worth the spend, and rebuilding those troops through training would cost more in resources and time than the Gems.

The break-even point varies by player and by what the troops would otherwise cost to retrain. Set a personal Gem budget before the Battle Phase starts, not while looking at a freshly emptied training queue.

Tome distribution priority

Tomes are personal resources that benefit alliance members, which makes their distribution a coordination problem rather than an individual one. The principle is straightforward: Tomes are most valuable on players with the largest absolute losses of the highest-tier troops, regardless of in-alliance hierarchy.

A practical distribution protocol:

1. R5 publishes a casualty ranking within the first hour of Field Triage. Members report total losses by tier.
2. Tomes flow to top-loss members first. A member who lost 5,000 T11 troops is a higher Tome priority than three members who each lost 1,000 T9 troops, even if the three are higher-ranked in the alliance.
3. Cap-aware distribution. Each member has a 50-assist personal cap. Tomes beyond that cap are wasted on that member, so once a high-loss member is at 50 assists, distribution shifts to the next priority.
4. Farm characters as donors. A common alliance optimization is to invite farm accounts into the alliance during Field Triage solely to donate their unused Tomes. This is a player convention rather than a game-supported feature, but it works at scale.

The mistake to avoid: distributing Tomes evenly across the alliance regardless of loss size. The 50-assist cap means even distribution leaves heavy losers under-revived while light losers get assists they don't need.

Field Triage strategy summary

Don't forget the Healing Speed buff. Even after Field Triage maxes revival, surviving wounded troops continue healing at the +20% rate. Make sure your enlistment office is upgraded enough to accommodate the surge — capacity is one of the two Preparation Phase Buff outputs precisely because this matters.

Cap Gem revival deliberately (see framework above).

Triage Tomes by loss size, not rank (see priority protocol above).

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Presidency Outcomes

When State of Power begins, the previous President's skills are automatically invalidated. The seat is contested fresh each event.

Outcome matrix

The presidency outcome depends on the combination of Preparation Phase result and Castle Battle result:

• Win Preparation + Win Castle Battle → The winning alliance leader appoints a Supreme President ruling both states for two weeks.
• Win Preparation + Lose Castle Battle → Each state appoints a regular President. No Supreme President is created.
• Lose Preparation + Win Castle Battle (i.e., the defending state successfully holds its own Castle in its own state after losing Prep) → Outcome depends on alliance positioning at Castle Battle's conclusion; consult in-game messaging for the exact result, as the defending side's position is more conditional than the attacking side's.

The Supreme President's powers

A Supreme President can use all President skills except State Search on players of both their current state and the affiliated (defeated) state. This includes appointment powers, position assignments, and most state-management buffs.

The Supreme President's term is 2 weeks, after which both states return to independent presidencies until the next State of Power cycle.

Position cooldowns

When a President appoints a player to a position and then cancels the appointment, that position enters a 30-minute cooldown before it can be reassigned. Plan position rotations with this in mind, especially during the Battle Phase when buff timing matters.

Capitalizing the Supreme presidency

A Supreme presidency is not a static reward — it is two weeks of dual-state position rotation that, used well, accelerates the winning alliance's progression meaningfully. Practical considerations:

• Plan position assignments before the result is known. A winning alliance that scrambles to figure out who gets which President skill in the hours after Castle Battle wastes a meaningful portion of the 2-week window.
• Cross-state appointments matter. The Supreme President can apply most skills to the affiliated state's players. This is normally framed as a punishment for the defeated state, but coordinated alliances often use it constructively — applying Mercantilism or Mobilize to friendly players in the affiliated state who agree to share buffs.
• Plan around the 30-minute cancellation cooldown. Position swaps cost 30 minutes of dead time on the swapped position. Sequencing assignments to avoid mid-day cancellations is worth more than it sounds across a 2-week window.

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Shields and Defense

Shield mechanics interact specifically with SvS in ways that catch players off guard. The rules below apply throughout the event but are most consequential during the Battle Phase.

• Attacking or joining a rally while shielded triggers a 30-minute shield cooldown. During this cooldown, the shield cannot be reactivated. Plan your offensive windows around this — the cooldown is long enough to leave you exposed for an entire enemy march cycle.
• You cannot activate a shield while in the enemy state.
• You cannot activate a shield while attacking or reinforcing the Sunfire Castle or its Turrets. Castle commitment is a one-way door for the duration of the engagement.
• Sending reinforcements does not break your shield. Reinforcing allies is the safest way to contribute to a rally without exposing yourself, and is the primary defensive role for chiefs who don't meet the Furnace 16 cutoff.

These rules together mean the offensive cycle (shield down → attack/rally → 30-minute cooldown) is the most vulnerable window in SvS combat. Coordinate offensive timing across your alliance so that not every attacker is exposed simultaneously.

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Rewards

SvS rewards span personal milestones, alliance milestones, redemption shops, and presidency benefits. The four primary reward currencies are Sunfire Tokens, State Medals, Warfare Signets, and Hero Shards.

Sunfire Tokens

Sunfire Tokens are the event currency and are earned through both personal and alliance milestone rewards across the Preparation Phase and Battle Phase. They are spent in the State of Power Shop on items that vary by state age — older states see higher-tier offerings and larger redemption quantities.

State Medals

State Medals are earned by claiming all 3 daily chests in a phase. Collecting 2 State Medals unlocks the Medal Reward claim, a separate reward track from milestone rewards.

Warfare Signets

Warfare Signets are earned from the third solo crate of both the Preparation Stage and the Warfare Stage. Collecting certain amounts unlocks Signet Rewards.

Hero Shards (Hero of the Season)

Ranking rewards include Hero Shards, and the specific hero whose shards are awarded rotates each generation ("Hero of the Season"). This means the value proposition of pushing for high ranking depends partly on how desirable the current season's hero is to your collection. Confirm the rotation before the event if hero-specific shard targets matter to you.

How alliance points are settled

• Both Personal and Alliance Rewards are calculated based on your Alliance's points. Your personal rank still matters for personal milestones, but alliance contribution determines what reward tier the whole alliance plays in.
• If you switch alliances mid-event, points earned with Alliance A do not transfer to Alliance B, and Alliance B's points are not retroactively adjusted.
• Leaving the alliance before tally forfeits rewards. Members who leave before the settlement phase will not receive alliance rewards, regardless of how much they contributed.

The lesson is simple: pick your alliance before SvS starts, and stay in it through Field Triage at minimum.

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Common Pitfalls

A short list of mistakes that consistently cost states the event:

Spending speedups on the wrong day. The single largest unforced error. Day-themed scoring means a Construction speedup used on Day 3 contributes nothing.

Crossing the server with reinforcements still in your city. They're abandoned. Coordinate withdrawal timing with reinforcing chiefs before you teleport.

Rallies built around the wrong Captain. A rally led by a Furnace level outside your target band scores nothing — even if the participants are at the correct levels.

Treating same-state alliances as automatically allied. They're not. Same-state alliances rallying the same Castle or Turret will clash. Coordinate target assignments at the state level before the Castle Battle window opens.

Switching alliances mid-event. Forfeits accumulated alliance contribution. Leaving before tally forfeits alliance rewards entirely.

Burning all training speedups in Preparation Phase. Day 5 is decisive, but you also need troops to rebuild between Battle Phase waves and to absorb Field Triage's recoverable losses. Hold a meaningful reserve.

Activating a shield reflexively after attacking. The 30-minute cooldown after attacking or rally-joining locks you out of shielding entirely. Plan offensive windows knowing you cannot shield through them.

Undervaluing the Preparation Phase Buff. Healing Speed and Enlistment Office capacity sound modest on paper. In a 12-hour Battle Phase fought against a comparable opponent, they are often the deciding factor — and they're the entire point of contesting Prep at all.

Capping Gem revival on a small loss. 2,250 Gems for 10% of a small loss is poor value. Set a personal Gem budget before Battle Phase, not after.

Distributing Tomes evenly across the alliance. The 50-assist personal cap means even distribution leaves heavy losers under-revived while light losers receive Tomes they didn't need. Triage by loss size.

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Post-Event Cycle

The event ends with Field Triage, but the strategic cycle does not. Three things should happen in the days immediately following SvS:

Settle the rebuild. Field Triage recovers up to 90% of losses, but the remaining 10%+ requires retraining. Schedule training queues immediately so the rebuild is underway during the post-event week, not sitting idle until you remember to start it.

Capitalize the presidency window (if you won). The Supreme presidency lasts 2 weeks; the regular presidency lasts until the next State of Power. Either way, position rotation is now a strategic resource — not just an alliance-leadership formality.

Begin the next stockpile cycle. The next SvS cycle is roughly four weeks away. Throwdown will arrive in the middle of that window, and KoI will arrive in the week before SvS. Treat the post-event week as the beginning of T-4 stockpile accumulation. The single highest-leverage post-event decision is not spending recovered speedups on standard events when SvS rotation logic would yield more next cycle.

The states that win SvS consistently do so by treating each cycle as part of an ongoing four-week cadence rather than a discrete event. The losers treat each SvS as a fresh start, scramble to stockpile in the final week, and arrive at Day 1 underprepared.

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Closing Notes

State of Power rewards three things, in roughly equal measure: stockpile discipline before the event, day-by-day rotation discipline during Preparation, and tactical coordination during the Battle Phase. States with deeper Power but weaker coordination routinely lose to lighter, better-organized opponents — particularly at the Castle Battle level, where a single 2.5-hour consecutive hold is achievable by any state with a committed top alliance.

Specific point values, milestone thresholds, and shop offerings can shift between server generations and game updates. The mechanical structure described above — the four phases, the ±3 Furnace rule, the 30/10/50 revival breakdown, the Castle hold conditions, the Castle stance options, and the presidency outcome matrix — has remained stable, and is the foundation on which season-to-season strategy is built.