Part of the City Defense Series:

Shield Protection Guide: When to use a 24h bubble.

Infirmary Healing Strategy: Minimizing troop losses.

Beginner Strategy Hub: Core city building principles.

The Storehouse is the only building in your city that protects resources from being plundered. While walls, troops, and shields buy time or reduce losses, the Storehouse determines exactly how much of your stockpile an enemy walks away with when an attack lands.

This guide covers Storehouse mechanics, "protected" vs "secured" resources, the asymmetric capacity across resource types, and the discipline required for high-activity events like SVS.

Quick Answer: Storehouse Essentials

Unlock: Furnace Level 9.
Max Level: 30 (Standard upgrades, no Fire Crystals).
Function: Protects Meat, Wood, Coal, and Iron from plunder.
Limitation: Does not protect Steel, Refined Wood, or Gems.
Priority: Build immediately at Furnace 9 and upgrade to match your typical peak stockpile.

Storehouse vs. Shelter: A Note on Naming

The Storehouse is frequently confused with the Shelter. They are unrelated buildings:

Storehouse: Resource protection. Unlocks at Furnace 9. Max level 30.
Shelter: Survivor housing. Unlocks at Furnace 1. Max level 10. Up to 8 per city.

The Shelter has nothing to do with plunder or resource protection. If you are managing Survivor population or mood, check the Cookhouse Guide.

What the Storehouse Actually Protects

Understanding what is "safe" vs "exposed" is the difference between keeping your progress and being a "farm" for other players.

The Four Protected Resource Types

The Storehouse applies independent caps to:

Meat
Wood
Coal
Iron

Higher-tier processed resources like Steel and Refined Wood are never plunderable and thus do not use Storehouse capacity.

Secured vs. Non-Secured Resources

Resources in your city fall into two categories:

Category	Vulnerability	Source Examples
Secured	Never Plunderable	Uncollected production (Hunters Hut, Mines), Unopened crates in inventory.
Non-Secured	Vulnerable (above cap)	Main resource counter (top bar), Gathered resources, Plundered resources.

[!IMPORTANT] Don't collect unless you need to. Resources sitting uncollected in your production buildings are 100% safe. Collecting them moves them into your "Non-Secured" counter, where they become vulnerable if they exceed your Storehouse cap.

Capacity Mechanics & Asymmetry

The Storehouse does not have one pooled capacity; it has specific caps for each resource.

The Headline Numbers

Level 1 Storehouse: ~5,000 Meat / ~5,000 Wood protected.
Level 30 Storehouse: ~120,000,000 Meat / ~120,000,000 Wood protected.

The Coal and Iron Problem

Coal and Iron are protected at significantly lower ratios than Meat and Wood:

Coal Protection: Storehouse Meat/Wood cap ÷ 5
Iron Protection: Storehouse Meat/Wood cap ÷ 20

Resource	Lvl 1 Protected	Lvl 30 Protected
Meat / Wood	~5,000	~120,000,000
Coal	~1,000	~24,000,000
Iron	~250	~6,000,000

Iron is structurally the most exposed resource. Because it is heavily consumed in mid-to-late research, your "Iron held" often exceeds "Iron protected" much faster than other resources.

What Plunder Actually Removes

When an attacker breaches your city:

They can only take Non-Secured Resources in your visible counter.
They can only take amounts above your Storehouse cap for that specific resource.
Attacker march capacity and plunder coefficients limit the total, but the Storehouse cap is the absolute floor.

Example: You have 10M Meat and 1M Iron. Your caps are 5M Meat and 250K Iron.

Meat exposed: 5M.
Iron exposed: 750K. A successful raid can take up to those amounts, but anything under the cap is untouchable.

Stockpile Discipline: Professional Methods

To avoid being raided, keep your visible stockpile below your Storehouse caps before logging off—especially during SVS or Hall of Chiefs.

1. The "Crate Discipline"

Only open resource crates when you are ready to spend them. A 10M Meat crate in your bag is 100% safe. Once opened, it becomes Non-Secured and potentially plunderable.

2. Strategic Spending

Before logging off, dump excess resources into research, building upgrades, or troop training queues. Resources committed to a queue are "Secured" and cannot be taken.

3. Alliance Transfers

If you are heavily over-cap, gift resources to alliance members or move them to farm accounts that have room under their own caps.

4. Pre-emptive Upgrading

If your stockpile consistently outruns your cap, the Storehouse itself becomes your highest priority upgrade. The cost of one upgrade is almost always less than the cost of one major raid.

Investment Priority by Profile

F2P / Newer Players (Furnace 9–11): Build immediately. Upgrade Storehouse to match your typical peak stockpile. If you never exceed 10M meat, a Level 15 Storehouse is enough.
Light Spenders (Furnace 10–FC2): Pack openings can spike your stockpile. Upgrade your Storehouse until it can absorb the inflow of a typical pack bundle.
Committed Spenders (FC3+): Keep the Storehouse within a few levels of your Furnace. Ensure it can cover the massive resource volumes required for Fire Crystal research.

Known Ambiguities

Mid-level scaling: Specific capacity values for levels 2–29 are not reliably published; use the in-game preview.
VIP Bonuses: Some VIP levels may provide capacity bonuses, but these should be verified in your specific VIP menu.
Event Modes: Protection behavior in special modes like Daybreak Island is not consistently documented. Assume standard exposure applies.

Summary Checklist

Is my Storehouse at least Level 1? (Build at Furnace 9).
Do I have resource crates unopened in my bag? (Keep them there).
Is my Iron counter below the 1/20th protection cap?
Have I spent surpluses before logging off for SVS?

Whiteout Survival Storehouse Guide [2026] — Protect Your Resources