State of Survival SvS Guide: Preparation Stages and Warfare

Part of the Alliance Series:

• SvS Guide: Preparation stages, scoring, and the warfare window (You Are Here).
• Alliance Guide Hub: Ranks, help, and picking an alliance that's worth your time.
• Reservoir Raid Guide: The other big alliance-versus-alliance event.
• Troop Formations Guide: Composition and counters for the warfare stage.
• PvP and Rally Guide: Rallies, scouting, and shields for the warfare window.

Quick Answer

State versus State pits your whole state against another. It runs monthly, and only in states that are at least 14 weeks old.

The full cycle, in order:

The state with the most preparation points wins that half and carries a 15% healing buff through warfare. The losing state hosts Capital Clash.

The whole event rewards hoarding. Bank everything, then dump it into the phase that scores it.

Overview

SvS is the biggest recurring thing in the game and the clearest test of whether your alliance is organised. Individually you contribute points; collectively your state either coordinates or gets rolled.

What you'll find is that preparation decides more than warfare does for most players. Warfare is dramatic and matters enormously if you're in a top alliance, but the bulk of individual reward comes from scoring well across the five preparation phases. Plenty of accounts that never send a single march finish SvS with strong personal rankings.

Here's the thing that catches new players: each phase scores different activities, and spending on the wrong day is the single most common way to waste a week of saved resources.

The Preparation Stage

Five phases, each rewarding a different kind of work. The exact themes shift with game updates and with your state's era, but the shape is consistent: construction and research speed-ups, troop training, infected and intel work, resource gathering, and hero or behemoth item spending.

The scoring mirrors Survival of the Fittest closely, which is genuinely useful to know. The same items pay out in both: speed-ups by the hour consumed, Completion Capsules, Behemoth Cells, biobatteries, Plasma Cores, troops by tier. If you know what scores in SotF, you already know what scores here.

One wrinkle worth checking against your own state: pre-plasma and post-plasma states get slightly different task lists. If your state hasn't reached HQ 30 territory yet, some of the plasma-item tasks simply won't appear for you.

The discipline that matters:

1. Know which phase is running before you spend anything. Check on login, every day of the event.
2. Bank in advance. Finish research and construction to the point where you can start them instantly, then hold.
3. Fire everything inside the matching phase. Speed-ups, resources, and the queued upgrades all at once.
4. Don't spread across phases. Concentrating on the phases you're strongest in beats a thin showing in all five.

[!IMPORTANT] Two point pools run at once. Alliance points are your personal accumulation within your alliance, and drive your individual rewards and ranking. State points aggregate across every alliance and decide which state wins. Both come from the same actions, so scoring well serves you and your state simultaneously.

Warfare Stage

Saturday, 08:45 to 19:00 UTC. Just over ten hours in which the two states can attack each other directly, opening the moment preparation phase 5 closes. Whether you should participate depends entirely on your account.

If you're a strong account in an organised alliance: this is what you prepared for. Follow rally calls, keep a march free, and listen to your R4s and R5s.

If you're a developing account: your job is usually to stay safe and contribute to rallies as a joiner rather than lead anything. Being a farm for the opposing state helps nobody.

If you're going to be offline: use a shield. Sitting unshielded and unattended through a warfare window is how accounts lose troops they spent months training.

The winning state's 15% healing buff is significant, since it means their losses cost less to recover. That is a real reason to care about the preparation half even if you never send a march.

Capital Clash

Runs inside the warfare stage, 10:45 to 18:45 UTC, hosted by the state that lost preparation. It's a concentrated fight over the capital and the buffs that come with holding it, and it occupies the middle eight hours of the warfare window.

Participation is heavily alliance-coordinated. If you're not in one of the alliances contesting it, your realistic contribution is joining rallies when called. Read your alliance chat and do what the callers ask.

Capital Clash is also the main source of Mercenary Influence, which feeds chief badges. If you needed a reason to show up beyond state pride, that's it.

Revival: Why Warfare Losses Look Worse Than They Are

The phase most players don't plan around, and it changes the maths of the whole event.

Sunday into Monday 12:00, 90% of the troops killed during Warfare are revived. Not healed from the hospital, revived outright. Only a tenth of what you lost in the window is actually gone.

That should change how you fight. A ten-hour warfare window where you hold everything back to avoid losses is a window where you scored nothing and revived nothing, and the account that threw marches all day comes out ahead on kills, points and rewards while losing a tenth of what it looked like they lost.

[!TIP] Warfare is far cheaper than it appears. Commit troops during the window rather than sitting on them. The 90% revival means the real cost of a lost march is a tenth of the headline number.

Preparing Properly

Two things sit outside your own account here. Your state's Governor decides when state buffs land, and buffs only boost work you start after they go live. Your alliance's Alliance Tech level decides what bonuses you fight with.

The week before, in priority order:

• Bank speed-ups. Every one you hold is worth roughly double inside a scoring phase.
• Hold completed research and construction ready to start instantly.
• Stockpile resources above what you need, since the phases consume them fast. See the resource guide.
• Save troop upgrades rather than training new troops, since upgrading usually scores better.
• Stockpile hero materials for the hero development phase.
• Get your shields in order before the warfare window opens.

[!WARNING] Don't spend the week before SvS. The single most expensive habit in this game is doing all your upgrades on a quiet Wednesday and then having nothing to score with when the event opens.

F2P vs Spender

F2P accounts should treat SvS as their best scoring opportunity of the cycle. You will not out-spend anyone, and you can absolutely out-prepare people who buy their way through carelessly. Hoard for the full gap between events, concentrate on two or three phases, and take the personal ranking rewards.

Spending accounts get the most from buying inside the phases rather than before them, since purchases made during a scoring window pay milestones on top of what they bought.

Common Mistakes

Spending before the event. Same work, zero points. Fix: bank everything for the fortnight before.

Not checking which phase is live. Dumping troop resources on the construction day. Fix: check on every login during the event.

Spreading thin across all five phases. Mediocre in five beats nothing, but strong in two beats both. Fix: pick your phases and go deep.

Sitting unshielded through warfare. Losing months of troop investment while asleep. Fix: shield before you log off.

Leading rallies as a developing account. You're feeding kills. Fix: join rallies rather than leading them until your account can take it.

FAQ

How long is SvS in State of Survival? The full cycle runs about a week: matching on Friday and Saturday, pre-preparation on Sunday, five preparation phases Monday to Saturday, then warfare. Preparation phases 1 to 4 run 24 hours each and phase 5 runs 32, ending Saturday at 08:45 UTC.

What is the SvS warfare schedule? Saturday, 08:45 to 19:00 UTC, opening the moment preparation phase 5 closes. Capital Clash sits inside it from 10:45 to 18:45 UTC.

What are the SvS preparation stages? Five phases, each scoring a different activity theme, with phases 1 to 4 lasting 24 hours and phase 5 lasting 32. Scoring mirrors Survival of the Fittest: speed-ups by the hour, troops by tier, and item spends like capsules, cells, biobatteries and plasma cores.

What does the winning state get? A 15% healing buff through the warfare stage, which makes their troop losses cheaper to recover. The losing state hosts Capital Clash.

When is Capital Clash? Inside the warfare stage, from 10:45 to 18:45 UTC, hosted by the state that lost preparation.

Do I get my troops back after SvS warfare? Mostly. The Revival phase runs Sunday into Monday 12:00 and revives 90% of the troops killed during Warfare, so the real cost of fighting is a tenth of what the casualty numbers suggest.

What states can take part in SvS? States that are at least 14 weeks old. Younger states haven't entered the SvS cycle yet.

What's the difference between alliance points and state points? Alliance points are your personal total, driving individual rewards. State points aggregate across all alliances and decide which state wins.

Should I participate in warfare as a small account? Join rallies rather than leading them, and shield when you're offline. Being farmed helps nobody.

Can I score in SvS without fighting? Yes, and most players do. The preparation phases reward construction, research, training and hero development, none of which need a single march sent.

Key Takeaways

• Monthly, for states 14+ weeks old. Matching Friday, pre-prep Sunday, five preparation phases Monday to Saturday, then warfare.
• Preparation phases 1 to 4 run 24 hours, phase 5 runs 32, ending Saturday 08:45 UTC.
• Warfare: Saturday 08:45 to 19:00 UTC. Capital Clash: 10:45 to 18:45 UTC, hosted by the state that lost preparation.
• Revival returns 90% of Warfare deaths on Sunday into Monday. Fighting costs far less than it looks.
• Winning preparation grants a 15% healing buff through warfare.
• Preparation scoring mirrors Survival of the Fittest, so the same banked items pay in both.
• Bank everything for the fortnight before. Spending between events is the biggest waste in the game.
• Check which phase is live on every login; spending on the wrong day scores nothing.
• Most personal reward comes from preparation, not fighting. You can score well without sending a march.
• Shield before you log off during the warfare window.