Part of the Tips & FAQ Series:

Quick Answer

The terms that cause the most confusion in state chat, in one place:

Term Means
SvS State versus State, the monthly war event
SotF Survival of the Fittest, the monthly solo scoring event
R4 / R5 Alliance officer / alliance leader
HQ Headquarters, the building that caps everything else
Biocaps The premium currency
Hive Alliance members packed into one area of the map
Trap An account built to absorb attacks
BP Battle Power, the aggregate account number
Rally A coordinated multi-player attack
Limitless The upgrade path that re-releases early heroes

Everything else is below, grouped by what it belongs to rather than alphabetically, because that is how you actually need it.

Overview

This game has three vocabularies stacked on top of each other. There is the genre vocabulary that transfers from other strategy titles, the game's own terminology, and the shorthand your state's chat has developed on top of both.

What you'll find is that the third layer causes most of the trouble. Someone types "r4 calling rally on the trap, need joiners, bring hunters" and every word in it is doing work a new player cannot decode.

Terms here link to the guide that covers them properly. Where the handbook does not have a full guide on something, the entry says what it is and stops.

Accounts and Progression

Term What it means
HQ Headquarters. Caps every other building's level and gates troop tiers and features. See HQ upgrade requirements.
Chief You. The player character, with their own gear, talents and badges.
BP / Battle Power The aggregate power number on your profile. A vanity metric more than a combat predictor.
Settlement Your base. Its layout is cosmetic.
Wilderness / world map Two names for the same shared open map, where gathering and open-world PvP happen.
Enlistment Office Catches lost troops overflowing your Hospital. Recovers 70%, at 4x Hospital capacity (6x during State Warfare).
Prosperity A settlement stat required for HQ upgrades. Not a resource.
VIP The account-wide bonus track, VIP 1 to 12.
F2P Free to play, an account that spends no money.
Whale Heavy spender. Usually descriptive rather than hostile.
Migration Rating The score determining your state transfer pass cost.
Plasma Progression above ordinary HQ 30. Older P1–P15 tables do not describe the newest cap. See Plasma progression.

Resources and Currencies

Term What it means
Biocaps Premium currency. What to spend it on and what not to.
The four resources Food, wood, metal, gas. Gas is the late-game wall.
Backpack Protected inventory. Resources here cannot be raided.
Warehouse protection The portion of stored resources shielded from raids. Anything above the cap is exposed.
Speed-ups Timer reduction items. Bank them for scoring events.
Combat Manuals Hero EXP items used for ordinary levels; see Training Area and resets.
Alliance Honor Personal store currency earned through eligible alliance activities; separate from Alliance Gold used by the alliance. See alliance currencies.
Peace Flare The shield item, in 2h, 8h and 24h versions. Attacking or reconning drops it.
Fragments Hero-specific unlock and star-up currency. The real bottleneck.
Hero Badges Rarity-matched materials used alongside fragments for classic hero rank upgrades; separate from Chief Badges.
Hero Skill Books Materials for classic hero skill upgrades, subject to their requirements.
Behemoth Core Shared Behemoth stat feature introduced in 1.24.200, unlocked at Institute level 30.
Behemoth Cells Materials for relevant individual Behemoth enhancement paths; separate from the Behemoth Core feature.
Alloy Chief gear material, largely from Plague Zones and Alliance Showdown.
Service Badge Unlocks and upgrades Hero Appointment posts.
Tempest Arms Mold Ten craft one piece of Tempest Arms.
Vehicle parts Craft war vehicles. Biocaps or dedicated bundles.
Gene Catalyst Blue vials that drive Genetic Recombination.
Energy Conversion Unit Installed in the Special Forces Engine for per-building troop stats.
Chief Stamina Spent on PvE rallies. 25 per Infected Fiend. Distinct from Squad Stamina.
Bottle Caps Seasonal currency from Nexus Struggle Trade Runs.

Heroes

Term What it means
Generation / Gen Hero release cohort, Gen 1–28 roster reference. Unlocks track your state's age, not your account.
Brawler / Scout / Marksman The three hero classes.
Affinity The troop type a hero buffs: Infantry, Riders or Hunters.
Limitless The path that re-releases and extends earlier heroes. Gens 13 and 14 are Limitless versions of Gens 1 and 2.
Resonance / Resonating hero A hero that copies another hero's stats and adds its own skills. Same class only.
Rally lead The hero leading a rally. Their skills apply to every joiner, making them the highest-leverage investment in the game.
Collab hero A crossover hero from a licensed collab event. Sits outside the generation system.
Appointment Assigning heroes to posts for account-wide bonuses.
Hero Precinct The building for hero upgrades. A prerequisite for every HQ level.
Pets A separate roster bred and nurtured for troop-type bonuses. See pets and breeding.

Troops and Combat

Term What it means
Troop subtypes Units within Infantry, Riders and Hunters have different defensive or targeting skills; see formations.
Tiers / T1 to T12 Troop quality levels. T1 to T10 unlock on troop building level; T11 and T12 sit behind Institute research.
March One deployment of troops.
March slots How many marches you can have out at once.
March capacity How many troops fit in one march. Different stat, different sources.
Rally Coordinated multi-player attack. One leader, several joiners.
Joiner Someone contributing troops to a rally. Where developing accounts add real value.
Garrison Troops defending your settlement; coordinate heroes, reinforcements and protection.
Scout / Recon Checking a target before attacking. Free, fast, and skipped constantly.
Shield Protection from attack. Does not cover marches already on the map.
Trap An account built to absorb attacks and punish attackers.
Revival The SvS phase returning 90% of warfare deaths. Not a general combat mechanic.
Hospital capacity How many wounded you can hold. Overflow is 70% recoverable via the Enlistment Office when defending, and not at all when attacking.
Presets Saved formations. Swapping them is the habit that saves armies.
Carrier Deployed instead of Aircraft when leading a rally; buffs every allied Aircraft. Needs Airplane 140.

Alliance and State

Term What it means
R1 to R5 Alliance ranks. R5 leads, R4s are officers who call rallies and register for events.
Alliance help Tapping to cut other members' timers. Give it every login.
Alliance Tech The shared research tree with Development, Territory and Battle branches.
Hive Alliance members relocated into one tight cluster. Enormous during warfare.
Assembly Point The alliance's rally gathering location.
Territory Map area held by an alliance, expanded with Alliance Towers.
State Your server. Sometimes called a kingdom in other games.
Governor Holder of the state capital, who deploys state buffs and grants titles.
State buff A state-wide bonus. Applies only to work started after it lands.
Transfer / Migration Moving your account to another state. Requires HQ 16 and a pass.

Events

Term What it means
SvS State versus State. Five preparation phases, a Saturday warfare window, then Revival. Full guide.
SotF Survival of the Fittest. Monthly solo event, seven staged days.
Bloodsport What SotF becomes after your state's first World Event.
Prep / Preparation phase The scoring days before SvS warfare. Where most individual reward is.
Capital Clash Alliance fight inside SvS warfare for the capital.
Throwdown Alliance Throwdown, the six-day task event the week before SvS.
RR Reservoir Raid. Weekly on Sundays. Troops don't die.
KotH King of the Hill.
MIGO The world event season, roughly nine weeks. Introduces whole systems.
Plague Zone Active strike-team PvE, with attack, completion, daily and weekly rewards.
Explorer Trail Staged tower defence running on Squad Stamina.
Intel The daily mission board.
Collab A licensed crossover event. Full history in the collab guide.
Hoarding cycle Bank between events, fire everything inside the scoring window. The core discipline of the whole game.

Chat Shorthand

Not game terms, but you will meet them constantly.

Term Means
Zeroed An account whose troops have been wiped out.
Farmed Repeatedly raided by stronger players.
Porting / TP Teleporting to a new map location.
Bubble A shield.
Alt A secondary account, often used for gathering.
Cooking / Chief Chef The recipe minigame with its own task list and ratings.
Last Warrior A different game entirely, constantly confused with this one.
Dead alliance One where help requests sit unfilled and nobody talks. Leave.
Gen jump Transitioning your core roster when a new generation unlocks.
Free track The no-payment reward path in a collab or seasonal event.

F2P vs Spender

Terminology does not change by spending tier, with one exception worth flagging. "Worth it" means different things in state chat depending on who is saying it. A recommendation to "just buy the pack" from someone spending monthly is not advice a free account should take at face value, and the biocaps guide covers what actually returns value at each tier.

Common Mistakes

Assuming genre terms transfer. Several do not, and settlement layout is the clearest example. Fix: check here first.

Confusing march slots with march capacity. Different stats, different sources. Fix: read the difference.

Confusing Behemoth Core with Cells. The Core is a separate shared development feature; Cells serve individual enhancement paths.

Treating Revival as a general mechanic. It is specific to SvS warfare. Fix: assume normal combat losses are real.

Not asking. Alliance chat will explain any of this. Fix: ask; nobody minds.

FAQ

What does SvS mean in State of Survival? State versus State, the monthly war event between two matched states. Five preparation phases, a Saturday warfare window, then a Revival phase that returns 90% of warfare deaths.

What is an R4 in State of Survival? An alliance officer. R4s manage members, call rallies and register the alliance for events. R5 is the leader. R1 to R3 are ordinary members.

What are biocaps? The premium currency, earned from events, codes and daily activity or bought with money. Builder and march slots are the best uses.

What is a hive? An alliance whose members have relocated into one tight cluster of the map, so reinforcements arrive in seconds and attackers face a wall of defended settlements.

What does "trap" mean? An account deliberately built to absorb attacks it can survive, protecting weaker alliance members. It needs deep defensive investment to work.

What is Limitless? The upgrade path that re-releases and extends earlier heroes. Generations 13 and 14 are Limitless versions of the Gen 1 and Gen 2 rosters.

What's the difference between march slots and march capacity? Slots are how many marches you can run at once; capacity is how many troops fit in one. Slots matter more early, capacity more later.

Is Prosperity a resource? No. It is a settlement stat required for HQ upgrades, listed separately from food, wood, metal and gas.

Key Takeaways

  • SvS is the monthly state war; SotF is the monthly solo event; RR is weekly Reservoir Raid.
  • R5 leads, R4s are officers. Follow their rally calls.
  • March slots and march capacity are different stats with different sources.
  • Troop roles and subtype skills matter: a simple counter triangle does not describe the full battle.
  • Revival is SvS-specific. Normal combat losses are real losses.
  • The currency is a Behemoth Cell, not a core.
  • Prosperity is not a resource. It is an HQ requirement.
  • When a term isn't here, ask in alliance chat. It is what it is for.