Elite Equipment

There are two main pieces to elite equipment, Equipment and Extensions, I'll be using these words to differentiate between the two from here on out. At it's core, both of these items work in harmony to upgrade your stats and are a crucial part of building your city. To be clear, unless you have a lot of money to spare, I would highly recommend building these slow and steady. If you have the money, I would still recommend reading this guide, as gambling will save you quite a bit of time and money.

Power Ore

Gathering power ore is pretty straightforward. On the map there are big, blue, circular mines. Inside there are eight levels. The goal is to clear the levels as high as you can and gather power ore. It won't be long before all eight levels are open. You are able to gather from power ore mines for up to four hours a day. The neat part? Gathering from power ore mines doesn't use a fleet queue, meaning it can serve as a good place to hide troops for a few hours during war. You can hide a lot of troops if you do it right, but that's for another article. For now, just make sure to gather power ore from the highest level mine you can every day.

Equipment

There are 8 different pieces of equipment. In no particular order they are:

• Radar
• Computer
• Medic Pod
• Weapon Apparatus
• Reactor
• Stimulator
• Armor
• Retrofit

There are a few different paths to get there, but your ultimate goal should be to get all equipment to orange level 6 which unlocks at city level 35 (c35). The obvious path, which will take years or lots of money, would be to start all equipment at orange and use all orange components to level them up. The other method is commonly referred to as gambling, where you start each equipment item at purple level 1 and “gamble” on orange starting at level 4.

Wait, how do I level up equipment? If you click on the “Elite Equipment Facility”, then on “Storage”, you will see a grid of parts, Circuit Board, Power Pump, Console, Graphite, Sturdy Adhesive, Tungsten Steel, Trititanium Alloy, Insulation Coating, Ceramic Fiber, Conductive Rubber, Super Silver, and EM Shielding Glass. Together, along with power ore, these make up the building blocks for the equipment. Starting out, you want to merge these together to get as many purple as possible. Why purple and not orange? As you notice, it takes quite a few parts to get a single purple component, which is fine up to level 3. Once your Equipment hits level 3 it's time to “gamble” to go from level 3 to level 4. This is where you'll need a few orange pieces. The goal is to have the left side of the upgrades orange, while the right side is purple. Huh? When you are in the upgrade screen, the easier to get components are on the left side, with harder components are on the right.

Why not use all orange? Because more likely than not, you will waste Consoles, Power Pumps, and Circuit Boards, that you will need later on. Better off to keep these purple even if the chance at orange is a bit less. Moment of truth, you upgrade and darn, purple again. No worries, it happens to everyone, that's why we start gambling from levels 3 → 4 so we follow the same strategy for levels 4 → 5. Or, wait a minute, it is orange! Now what?

When you finally have an orange equipment it is important to no longer gamble. It is easy to get the rush and think if it happened once it can happen again! You wouldn't be wrong, but time wise, just remember how long it took you to get to this point, how many weeks or months of saving up power ore and components just to lose it all by having a purple piece bring your orange back down to purple. That means when you have an orange piece, both the right and left sides should be orange when you next go to upgrade, no purple in sight.

The alternative to gambling is not something I recommend. Equipment is certainly a long game, but starting level 1 orange makes you gather a ridiculous amount of orange components to keep orange from level 1 to level 6, way more components than you would need with gambling. While this is certainly a guaranteed route to orange, Just remember that purple equipment is still very powerful, there's nothing wrong with being at purple for a while. As of writing this, I still have a number of purple equipment at C36.

Extensions

Extensions…..extensions. In my opinion, these are probably the most complicated part of the game. Each piece of equipment can have three extensions attached to it. Each extension can go up to level 6. If you thought equipment was pricey and took a long time, that's nothing on extensions. Extensions also have different level tiers, and again you want to focus on getting these to orange. Unfortunately, there is no gambling with extensions like there was with equipment.

To create an extension you need 100 blueprint fragments to assemble a blueprint. These come in green, blue, purple, and orange colors, similar to equipment. When creating an extension you have the option between different slots. There are 6 possible choices for creating an orange extension, and each equipment has different slots. I won't go into detail about which equipment has which slots, just remember to pay attention to the shapes. Or, if you prefer less risk, assemble the extension from within the specific equipment screen, i.e. if you need an extension for the Radar, click on Radar, click on an open extension slot, and create it there.

How do I upgrade extensions? You are able to upgrade extensions just like the equipment, except this time, you don't need more blueprints or equipment components, but a resource called Extension Components. Extension Components can be purchased in the Infinite Zombie store, 100 extension components for 450 coins, or in bulk in the shop for gold where 5000 extension components cost 40,000 gold.

In terms of which extensions to focus on first, I recommend going with your primary battle stats. If you are a long range player, focus on the Radar first, if you are a midrange player, the Reactor is better for you. One thing I would caution against is spending extension components on anything below purple, no green or blue. Extension components are a very scare resource, that it's best to play the long game on these.

What to focus on first?

Which piece you focus on first depends on whether you are long range or mid-range. Most people are long range, so let's start there. For long range, you want to focus on the Radar. The Radar gives the most important Long Range Attack (“LRA”) buffs, +60% at orange level 5 and +72% at orange level 6. When you are a long range player (snipers, cannons, and EMPs), LRA is the most important stat to keep track of as it determines how much damage you do to enemy forces. If you are a midrange player, swap the Radar for the Reactor and focus on that first.

Next, we want to prioritize Melee health, so either the Medic Pod or Stimulator depending on whether you are LRA or MRA. If you are LRA an argument could be made for the Weapon Apparatus to take priority over the Medic Pod, as it also offers LRA damage increase, but that choice is up to you.

Summary

Hopefully you feel a little more clear around what Equipment and Extensions are, how they work together, how to upgrade them, and what to prioritize. Still confused? I don't blame you, equipment is arguably the most confusing aspect of the game. The most important takeaway is not to rush it, a small boost now is not worth having to start from scratch again later on. When in doubt, try to ask you alliance mates before upgrading or gambling to prevent potentially wasting your hard earned resources.