Most players lose fights they should win, and then go shopping. The three rules below are First Fun's own, published in its English help centre, and each of them beats a power upgrade you were about to buy.
1. Rows are jobs, not decoration
The front row exists to absorb damage, so it belongs to Defense-type heroes. The back row is where your output lives — Attack heroes for damage and Support heroes to keep them alive and firing. Put a damage hero in front and you are paying UR prices for a hero that dies in the opening exchange.
2. The counter triangle decides fights that power does not
| Your unit | Beats | Loses to |
|---|---|---|
| Tank | Missile | Aircraft |
| Missile | Aircraft | Tank |
| Aircraft | Tank | Missile |
This is why the report screen sometimes shows you losing to an army with a smaller number under it. Before you rally, look at what the defender is fielding — the triangle is worth more than the last three levels of anything you were grinding.
3. The lineup bonus is the cheapest stat boost in the game
Field heroes of the same unit type together and the squad gets a flat bonus to HP, Attack and Defense:
| Same-type heroes in the squad | Bonus |
|---|---|
| 3 | +5% |
| 4 | +15% |
| 5 | +20% |
Read the jump from 4 to 5 carefully. Going from three to four same-type heroes triples the bonus; the fifth adds another five points on top. A mixed squad of stronger individual heroes routinely loses to a full single-type squad of weaker ones, because the weaker squad is running a fifth more of every stat that matters.
4. Why you cannot just do this on day 10
A complete five-UR lineup depends on how old your server is, because the heroes have to exist in the pool first. First Fun's own figures for when each type can realistically be completed:
| Lineup | Possible from about |
|---|---|
| Tank | server day 57 |
| Aircraft | server day 71 |
| Missile | server day 99 |
So on a new server the Tank lineup is the first one that can actually be assembled — which is the real reason early-server metas look Tank-heavy, not because Tank is secretly the strongest class.
5. Spend on one squad, not on five
Pick a main lineup and put everything into it. Concretely: upgrade the turret and the chip that serve your main attack hero, and push that hero's stars — four-star heroes are a step change, not an increment. The account that spreads the same materials across three half-built lineups fields three squads that all lose.
This guide follows First Fun's own English strategy article, published in the Last War help centre and credited by the publisher to a player from Server 1479. It is publisher-hosted material, not our own testing, and we have not independently measured the lineup bonus values.
Sources: First Fun’s official English help centre — How to Build the Best Squad