Chip Upgrade Priorities

Drone Skill Chips are a mid-to-late-game layer, separate from Drone Components, Drone Parts, and Battle Data. The system unlocks when both are true:

• Your server has been open 82 days
• Your Drone Combat Boost is level 10

There are four chip categories — Initial Move, Attack, Interference, Defense — and each chip also carries Unit Stats for Tank, Aircraft, or Missile. Matching those to the formation using the preset is what makes the bonuses land.

Lethal Firestorm is the fourth chip you craft but often the third chip you upgrade, because its stars add drone targets:

• 2 stars: +1 drone target
• 5 stars: +1 more — drone attack now hits 3 targets

If Lethal Firestorm is one promotion from 2★ or 5★, finishing that milestone beats putting the same materials into Absolute Quantum Field.

1. Memory Ultra Fission to 2★
2. Gravitational Resonance Armor to 2★
3. Lethal Firestorm to 2★ (target breakpoint)
4. Absolute Quantum Field to 2★
5. Work the whole set toward 5★, chasing breakpoints over visual uniformity
6. Finish Lethal Firestorm’s 5★ target upgrade when practical

Balanced vs. focused:

Above 5★: on older servers progression can extend further, with 8 stars commonly treated as the next meaningful point. Check the star preview in the Drone interface before crafting duplicates — it tells you exactly what the next milestone gives.

Chip Lab: the first Legendary recipe unlocks at level 15, and all Legendary recipes are available by level 20. Level 20 is the target — past that, weigh further upgrades against Tech Center, troop centers, Barracks, Drill Grounds, or HQ prerequisites.

Combat Boost unlocks:

Feed unwanted Data Chips into Combat Boost — but never one that’s still filling an active slot.

Recheck presets any time you switch your formation between Tank, Aircraft, and Missile.

Two separate resources — they are not interchangeable:

• Basic Chip Material → Epic / SSR chips
• Premium Chip Material → Legendary / UR chips

Each Legendary chip costs 800 Premium Chip Material.

Chest yields:

Don’t open chests on sight. If the Alliance Duel task list awards points for opening Drone Data Chip Chests — normally Day 1 — save them and get both the rewards and the VS points.

Don’t confuse Skill Chip Chests with Drone Component Chests; they feed different progression and can score on different VS days.

• Epic / SSR: fine as temporary equipment while you build the Legendary set. Only feed them to Combat Boost after a UR replacement is equipped.
• Rare and below: little long-term value — feed to Combat Boost, but check they aren’t in another squad’s preset first.

1. Four usable chips on your main squad
2. Replace the main squad’s SSR chips with UR
3. Hit efficient star milestones on all four main chips
4. Build a functional second-squad set
5. Return to deeper main-squad stars while the cost still pays off
6. Third and fourth presets as Combat Boost and account progression justify

• Crafting chips for the wrong troop type.
• Ranking Lethal Firestorm permanently fourth without checking its next star effect.
• Maxing one chip while the other three stagnate.
• Feeding still-equipped Epic chips into Combat Boost too early.
• Leaving strong chips assigned to the wrong preset.
• Opening every chip chest immediately instead of banking them for VS Day 1.
• Neglecting core Drone levels for a shiny new chip — after Drone level 150, Drone Parts matter a lot for continued leveling.