Part of the PvP & Warfare Series:
- Shields and Settlement Protection: Peace Flares and the five defensive layers (You Are Here).
- PvP and Rally Guide: Rallies, scouting, and offence.
- Traps and Baiting: The deliberate opposite of this page.
- SvS Guide: The window where all of this gets tested.
- Buildings Reference: Warehouse, Hospital and Lookout Tower.
Quick Answer
Settlement defence has five layers, and they matter in this order:
| Layer | What it does | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Peace Flare (shield) | Blocks attacks and recon outright | Free 8h on cooldown, or alliance coins |
| 2. Prepared garrison | Supports defense with suitable troops, heroes and reinforcements | Troop and hero investment |
| 3. Warehouse level | Shields a portion of stored resources | Construction |
| 4. Hospital + Enlistment Office | Wounded heal; overflow is 70% recoverable when defending | Construction |
| 5. Lookout Tower | Tells you what's incoming and whether it's a rally | Construction |
What does not defend you: building placement. Layout is purely cosmetic and no combat calculation refers to it.
The three rules that prevent almost all real losses:
- Shield before you log off during warfare windows or state hostility.
- Recall your marches first. Shields do not cover troops already on the map.
- Don't push HQ ahead of your troops. A high-level settlement with a thin garrison advertises itself.
Overview
Being attacked in this game rarely feels like being outplayed. It feels like waking up.
What you'll find is that the overwhelming majority of expensive losses happen to accounts that were asleep, unshielded, sitting on resources above their warehouse cap, with a garrison specialised into one troop type. None of those are tactical failures. They are logistics failures, and every one of them is preventable with habits that cost nothing.
Prepare for the threats your account can realistically face. Check frontline troops, reinforcement capacity and Hospital room. A garrison plan can reduce avoidable losses, but it does not substitute for a shield against an attack the account cannot withstand.
Peace Flares
The shield item, and the only thing that stops an attack outright.
A Peace Flare puts a protective bubble over your settlement, blocking incoming attacks and reconnaissance. That second part matters more than people expect: an attacker who cannot scout you cannot see whether you are worth hitting, and many will simply move on to a target they can read.
They come in three durations, and the pricing is the whole story:
| Duration | Alliance coins | Biocaps |
|---|---|---|
| 2 hours | 8,000 | 400 |
| 8 hours | 12,000 / 24,000 / 40,000 by tier | 1,200 |
| 24 hours | — | 4,800 |
There are also free charged 8-hour Peace Flares, which cost nothing but sit on a cooldown. Use those first, always.
Read the two columns against each other. The alliance-coin route is the one that matters, because coins come from donating to Alliance Tech daily and biocaps do not. Paying 4,800 biocaps for a day of shield is a genuinely bad trade for a free account when the same protection is a routine alliance-store purchase for someone who donates.
When to use one:
- Before you log off during any SvS warfare window.
- Any period of state hostility, whether or not an event is running.
- When your Lookout Tower shows an incoming rally you cannot survive.
- Before a long absence. Holidays are when accounts get zeroed.
[!WARNING] A shield does not protect marches already out on the map. Gathering troops, rally contributions and marches in transit all remain vulnerable while your settlement sits safely bubbled. Recall before you shield if you expect trouble.
[!IMPORTANT] Attacking or even reconning another player while your Flare is up drops it. Scouting counts. If you are shielded and considering hitting a target, you are choosing to become attackable, and during a warfare window that is frequently a bad trade.
The Garrison
Your standing defensive troops, and the layer most players get backwards.
Plan the full defense. Check available troops, frontline strength, the relevant heroes, reinforcement capacity and Hospital room. A universal even split is not a substitute for that plan, and a simple counter triangle does not predict the result. The formation guide explains how to assess composition through reports.
Garrison heroes matter too. Compare the defensive skills and attainable development of your available heroes. An early-generation hero recommendation is not a universal best choice for every state era.
The Warehouse
The Warehouse protects a displayed portion of exposed resources. Unopened Backpack resource items are a separate inventory state; open only what you plan to use.
Your Warehouse shields a portion of your stored resources from raids. Anything above that cap is exposed if you are attacked and lose. Raiders are not usually after your troops; they are after the surplus sitting above your protected line.
Two consequences:
Keep it upgraded alongside HQ. It is easy to skip because nothing prompts you and the cost is invisible until a raid.
Spend down before you log off in a contested state. If you are hoarding for an event and warfare is live, the hoard is the target. Either shield it or convert it into something raiders cannot take, which in practice means starting an upgrade or a training batch.
VIP 3 adds +200K storage protection on top of the Warehouse, which arrives early and is genuinely useful to a small account. See the VIP guide.
The Hospital
The layer that decides whether losing a fight is expensive or merely annoying.
Wounded troops go to the hospital and heal, which is far cheaper than replacing them. Capacity is what matters: wounded beyond your Hospital capacity overflow, and when you are defending, 70% of that overflow reaches the Enlistment Office while 30% is lost immediately. Past a full Enlistment Office, losses are permanent.
Hospital capacity is therefore a direct discount on every fight you lose. The full overflow chain sits in the HQ 1–15 guide.
Scale it with your army size, not with your HQ level. An account that trained hard and never touched the hospital is taking permanent losses in fights that should have cost nothing.
[!NOTE] The 90% recovery figure people quote is the State Hospital and Revival phase of SvS, covering troops killed during that specific warfare window and Capital Clash. It is not a general property of combat, and it is a different mechanic from the 70% Enlistment Office overflow above.
After an attack, check Hospital and Enlistment recovery before assuming every missing troop is permanently lost. Ordinary healing and recovery of eligible overflow use different systems.
The Lookout Tower
Your warning system, and the layer that turns the other four into decisions.
It reports an incoming attack, and at sufficient level it tells you the attacker's march capacity, arrival time, and whether you are facing a solo attack or a rally.
That last detail is the whole value. A solo attack from someone your size is often worth taking. A full alliance rally is not, and the correct response is to shield immediately. Without the tower you cannot tell them apart, so you either over-shield or get caught.
Don't Look Like a Target
The passive layer, and the cheapest of all.
Keep HQ in step with troops and research. A high-level settlement with a thin garrison is the most attractive target on the map, because the profile promises loot and the defence doesn't deliver a fight. The base-building hub makes the same point from the other direction: HQ is a gate, not a score.
Live in the hive. Isolated settlements get picked off. Inside an alliance cluster, reinforcements arrive in seconds and an attacker has to fight through neighbours to reach you.
Don't start fights you can't finish. Attacking someone stronger, or someone in an organised alliance, invites retaliation you will not enjoy. This is the most common way a developing account acquires a persistent problem.
F2P vs Spender
F2P accounts should be shield-first and conflict-averse. Your troops cost far more relative to your income than a spender's do, so a lost march is a genuine setback rather than an inconvenience. Buy Peace Flares with Alliance Honor, keep the garrison balanced, and contribute through rally joining rather than open-field fighting.
Spending accounts can absorb losses and can afford to run all three troop types competitively, which is the real advantage money buys in combat. Even so, shields remain the correct answer overnight during warfare. There is no spending tier at which sleeping unshielded in a contested state is a good idea.
Common Mistakes
Sleeping unshielded during warfare. The most expensive habit in the game. Fix: shield before you log off.
Shielding with marches out. The shield does not cover them. Fix: recall first.
A specialised garrison. You don't pick your attacker. Fix: keep defence balanced.
Neglecting the Warehouse. Invisible until it isn't. Fix: upgrade it alongside HQ.
Hospital behind the army. Wounded beyond capacity die. Fix: scale it with troop count.
Pushing HQ ahead of troops. Advertises loot with no defence. Fix: grow them together.
Assuming 90% of losses come back. That's SvS Revival only. Fix: treat normal losses as real.
FAQ
How do I stop getting attacked in State of Survival? Shield with a Peace Flare when offline, keep a prepared garrison, hold resources near your warehouse cap, live inside your alliance's hive, and avoid pushing HQ ahead of your troop power.
What is a Peace Flare? The shield item, in 2-hour, 8-hour and 24-hour versions. It blocks attacks and reconnaissance on your settlement. There are free charged 8-hour flares on a cooldown; beyond those, buy them with alliance coins (8,000 for 2h, from 12,000 for 8h) rather than biocaps, where a 24-hour flare runs 4,800.
Do shields protect my gathering marches? No. Marches already on the map stay vulnerable while your settlement is protected. Recall them before you shield if you expect trouble.
Does base layout affect defence? No. Placement is cosmetic and no combat calculation refers to it. Defence comes from garrison, heroes, warehouse, hospital and shields.
Should my garrison be balanced or specialised? Balanced, roughly even across the three troop types. You do not choose who attacks you, so a specialised garrison is free food for two of the three attacker types.
What happens to my resources if I'm raided? Everything above your Warehouse protection cap is exposed. VIP 3 adds a further 200K of storage protection on top.
Why do my troops die instead of healing? Your Hospital is full. Overflow beyond it is only 70% recoverable through the Enlistment Office when defending, and permanent once that fills, which is why capacity should track army size rather than HQ level.
Does attacking someone drop my shield? Normally yes. Choosing to attack while shielded means choosing to become attackable, which is usually a poor trade during a warfare window.
Key Takeaways
- Five layers: Peace Flare, prepared garrison, Warehouse, Hospital, Lookout Tower.
- Peace Flares block attacks and recon. Buy them with Alliance Honor from the Alliance Store.
- Shields do not cover marches. Recall before you bubble.
- Prepare the garrison: check troop roles, heroes and reinforcement capacity.
- Warehouse caps what raiders can take. VIP 3 adds +200K on top.
- Hospital capacity is a discount on every lost fight. Scale it with your army.
- The 90% figure is SvS Revival only, not general combat.
- Layout is cosmetic. It defends nothing.