Research is one of the most important long-term progression systems in Last Z: Survival Shooter. The right research order can improve your troop stats, hero performance, research speed, survivability, and overall account progression, while a poor order can leave you spending hundreds of thousands of badges for upgrades that give very little immediate value.

This guide explains which research trees to prioritize, where to stop spending badges, and how to plan the long road toward T10 troops. If you’re still setting up your base and core mechanics, check out this Beginner’s Guide to Last Z Survival Shooter before diving into long-term research planning.

How Research Works in Last Z: Survival Shooter

Research is completed through the Laboratory. The game has both resource-based research and advanced research that requires Research Badges. The early research trees are important because they improve construction, research, training, and general account development without consuming your limited badge supply. Later trees become increasingly expensive and are designed around PvP, alliance events, troop specialization, and end-game progression.

The most important rule is simple: do not spend badges just because a research node is available. Look at what the node unlocks and how much it costs before committing. The current research system has expanded beyond the original nine badge trees. As of August 2026, Shooter Training is also available as a late-game badge tree after completing Field Research, making long-term research planning even more important.

Start With the Badge-Free Research

Before worrying about expensive badge trees, finish your core research that does not require badges. Prioritize New Home, Shelter Building, HQ Management, and Rapid Growth. These technologies improve construction and research efficiency and help your HQ progress faster. They also provide important prerequisites for later research. Elite Troops should also be completed because reaching 100% in this tree unlocks Military Strategies.

These researches still require resources and research time, but they do not consume your Research Badge stockpile. Therefore, there is little reason to leave them unfinished when you have the required resources. If you have access to a second Laboratory, use your research queues efficiently instead of allowing them to sit idle.

Best Badge Research Priority

Once your basic research is under control, your badge spending should be planned around the following priorities:

• Alliance Recognition for its important reward milestones
• Hero Training up to the efficient checkpoint
• Military Strategies
• Peace Shield and Urgent Rescue
• Siege to Seize
• Field Research for late-game combat scaling
• Unit Special Training for T10
• Army Building and other expensive specialization trees according to your account
• Shooter Training and other late-game troop-specialization research when appropriate

This is not a rule that every account must follow perfectly. Your faction, PvP activity, alliance strength, and T10 goal can change the best order.

Alliance Recognition – Spend Carefully

Alliance Recognition is one of the most debated research trees because it is not purely a combat tree. It can improve your rewards and progression through alliance-related activities, making it valuable for long-term accounts. However, you should not automatically dump every badge you own into it before considering your combat needs.

For many players, reaching the important early reward checkpoints is more efficient than immediately trying to complete the entire branch. Current research data puts the full Alliance Recognition tree at roughly 356,770 badges, so completing everything is a major commitment.

A good approach is to secure the valuable early milestones, then return to the tree later when your core combat research is in a better position.

Hero Training – Stop at the Efficient Point

Hero Training provides hero-related combat bonuses, but its value becomes less attractive as you move deeper into the tree. The commonly recommended checkpoint is Cockpit. Reaching this point gives useful account value without committing a large number of badges to comparatively small additional bonuses.

Hero Training costs around 39,930 badges for the complete current branch, making it much cheaper than most late-game trees. For a developing account, get the efficient Hero Training benefits and then move your badges toward troop and survivability research rather than automatically maxing every hero node.

Military Strategies – One of the Best Early Combat Trees

After completing Elite Troops, Military Strategies becomes one of your most efficient combat-focused badge investments. The complete Military Strategies tree currently costs about 79,816 badges, significantly less than the major end-game branches. It provides troop-related combat bonuses and also acts as a prerequisite for important research trees.

One of the biggest reasons to prioritize it is that it opens the way toward Peace Shield. You do not necessarily need to max every node immediately. If your account uses one main troop type, prioritize research that benefits that formation while progressing toward the required unlock percentages.

Peace Shield – Rush Urgent Rescue

Peace Shield is one of the most valuable defensive research paths for players who regularly participate in PvP. You need 50% Shelter Building and 45% Military Strategies to unlock Peace Shield. The full branch costs about 267,613 badges, but you do not necessarily need to complete the entire tree immediately. The major checkpoint is Urgent Rescue.

Urgent Rescue reduces troop losses by converting part of what would otherwise become deaths into severe injuries. This becomes particularly valuable in serious PvP because keeping troops alive and recoverable can make a major difference over repeated battles. For active PvP players, getting to Urgent Rescue is generally a much better badge investment than spending the same amount on low-impact upgrades elsewhere.

Siege to Seize – Your Offensive Research Route

Siege to Seize is the offensive counterpart to Peace Shield and focuses heavily on combat situations involving attacks and siege mechanics. It becomes available after reaching the required Military Strategies progress and costs approximately 267,375 badges to complete.

One of its most important late nodes is Recharge Shield, which improves troop HP.

HP is particularly valuable because it improves troop survivability and can scale extremely well with other formation bonuses. However, do not rush the entire branch simply because Recharge Shield is powerful. The deeper levels become increasingly expensive.

If you are building toward Field Research, completing Siege to Seize becomes necessary.

Field Research – A Major Late-Game Investment

Field Research is not an early-game badge sink. It requires 100% Siege to Seize and currently contains 14 nodes with a total cost of about 594,430 badges. The branch contains several troop-related bonuses, defensive upgrades, and a major Recharge Shield path.

The important thing to understand is that Field Research is not simply another cheap stepping stone. By the time you reach it, you are already spending hundreds of thousands of badges.

For competitive players, the HP and combat scaling can justify the investment. For developing F2P accounts, however, you should compare the cost against your T10 timeline before committing.

The T10 Path – Unit Special Training

The ultimate research goal for many long-term players is Unit Special Training (UST), the research tree that unlocks T10 troops. The current UST tree contains 22 nodes and 246 research levels and costs approximately 1,488,100 badges in total. The final Unit Special Training node itself costs 54,900 badges.

UST requires Laboratory Level 30. Current research databases also list HQ Level 24 as a tree requirement, although the actual ability to train T10 troops still depends on your required high-level buildings and troop facilities.

The UST path contains several major stat sections before the final unlock, including:

• Troop ATK and DEF
• Training Speed
• Rider, Assaulter, and Shooter ATK/DEF
• March Speed
• Destruction Value
• Recharge Shield
• Final T10 unlock

The important point is that you do not save 1.48 million badges and then instantly get T10. You must progress through the prerequisite nodes in the UST tree.

Which UST Nodes Should You Prioritize?

Do not blindly research the three troop branches equally.

Your main troop type should receive priority.

For example, if your formation is built around Shooters, prioritize the Shooter-related attack and defense research when the tree allows it. The same principle applies to Assaulters or Riders.

The UST tree contains separate bonuses for all three troop types, so spreading your badges evenly can delay the improvements that actually benefit your primary formation.

At the same time, some universal bonuses such as general Troop ATK, DEF, Training Speed, and Recharge Shield have broader value.

Recharge Shield is one of the most important late UST investments. The current tree allows this research to reach a substantial troop HP bonus, making it one of the strongest survivability upgrades in the branch.

Do Not Confuse Shooter Training With T10 Research

The research system changed in August 2026 with the addition of Shooter Training, a new late-game badge tree that appears after completing Field Research. Current research data lists Shooter Training at roughly 1.35 million badges for full completion. This is important because players can easily confuse troop-specialization research with the actual T10 route.

Unit Special Training is the T10 research path. Shooter Training is a separate late-game specialization branch. Therefore, if your primary objective is unlocking T10 as quickly as possible, do not divert a huge badge reserve into Shooter Training simply because you have unlocked it.

What About Army Building?

Army Building is another major late-game branch. It becomes available after completing 100% Peace Shield and currently costs around 632,530 badges to complete. It provides formation and combat improvements, but its enormous cost means it should be treated as a long-term project.

If T10 is your main objective, compare every major Army Building purchase against the badges and time it would take away from UST. For a competitive account that already has a strong T10 plan, Army Building can become an excellent secondary investment. For a developing account, it can delay T10 considerably.

Best Badge Spending Strategy for F2P Players

F2P players should be much more careful with badges because their badge income is limited. The biggest mistake is spreading badges across every research tree. You end up with several partially completed branches without reaching any important milestone. Instead, use a checkpoint system.

First, finish the important badge-free research. Then secure the most useful Alliance Recognition rewards, reach the efficient Hero Training checkpoint, progress through Military Strategies, and unlock Peace Shield.

After reaching Urgent Rescue, decide whether your account needs more immediate PvP survivability or whether you should begin preparing for the T10 path.

Once you commit to UST, keep a dedicated badge reserve for it. Do not repeatedly pull badges out of your T10 fund for unrelated upgrades.

How to Save Badges for T10

T10 should be treated as a long-term project rather than something you rush after reaching HQ 30. Keep earning badges through your normal events, alliance activities, and other available sources. When research-related events are active, time expensive research accordingly so the same badge expenditure can contribute toward event progression.

Most importantly, plan before spending.

Before starting a large research branch, check:

• What does this research unlock?
• How many badges are required?
• Does it improve my main formation?
• Is it required for T10?
• Will it delay an important checkpoint?
• Can I get additional event rewards by timing the research?

This simple process prevents most major badge mistakes.

The most important rule is to avoid treating every research tree equally. Cheap foundational research should be completed early, high-value combat checkpoints should come next, and massive end-game badge branches should only be started when they match your actual goal. Play Last Z: Survival Shooter on PC with BlueStacks for a smoother experience, better controls, and a larger screen while managing your base, research, and T10 progression.