There are probably dozens of questions, as no tool of this nature exists. I am trying to post as many guides about the game as possible; that’s not what this page is for. If you have game questions, head over to our new Discord channel and ask there. I’d appreciate the support. There is also an excellent Discord channel called DWSI.

Frequently Asked Questions

Dark War Survival FAQ

  1. How to communicate more effectively and build a community? Most alliances open a Discord server and invite members there. It’s easier to organise information, chat, and share images, etc.
  2. Are there any Dark War Survival apps for Discord? Yes, Z-War has created several Apps to help you run and organise your alliance. Find them in the Discord app Store
    1. Allied Duel Daily Reminders - with Allied Duel Tasks page and Calendar imports.
    2. Survivor Prep Reminders - with Survivor Prep Tasks Page and Calendar imports.
    3. Daily/Weekly Event Planner - with Weekly Event Planner and calendar imports
    4. Black Gold Battlefield Planner - with Black Gold Battlefield Teams Page
  3. What advantage does the Hive layout give? Should we make a “spaced out hive”? In Short, YES! Why? This is a historical thing; before Frankie had a 25-tile 3s speed buff, it was important to have the strongest players close to Frankie (in the middle). I was an early adopter and advocate of putting Franky in the middle, as tests clearly showed it increased total damage. It’s negated now as long as you’re within 25 tiles. Why put spaces in now, and how many spaces? You need TWO spaces now to allow Boomers to spawn closer or within the Hive. One space isn’t enough and offers no advantages. The Z-War Hive Planner will help you and has built-in templates
  4. Where do I find Territory and special season maps? The Z-War tool has unique interactive territory and season maps built in. Dark War Survival Territory and Season Maps
  5. Should I build all buildings to the same level? No! Follow the tower rush principle. Only build the buildings required to progress your Watchtower upgrades. ( Except Warehouse early game, Ind 3 research later, Plaza)
  6. Should I put my strongest team last to help auto-join? No! Joiner heroes do not count in a rally. Only your troops matter.
  7. Should I set all troop types in rally restrictions? No! Set only the troop type that matches your loaded Heroes in the truck. This ensures maximum buffs apply; NEVER mix types.
  8. What faction should I promote first? You will mostly see Fighters and Shooters as F1’s. In a fighter-rich theatre (early clusters), Shooters offer active counterattack in PvP and would be the better choice. Shooters do more damage for PvE too. In Shooter-rich theatres, higher clusters, you may opt for Rider F1 to gain the counter buff; but note that Riders are weaker vs Fighters, which always remain popular.
  9. How should I upgrade Orange gear? Each upgrade offers the same increase; 2-3 is the same as 8-9. Always level up evenly within each team/truck. Always max to level 100, starting with F1, then F2, etc. Level up evenly across the team.
  10. How should I upgrade Red Gear? Level up to red first, then upgrade each to 1 Red Star, 2 Red Stars, etc. The costs of upgrades go up; the buff/bonus increase remains the same till you fully complete each star level.
  11. How should I upgrade Pet Agents? There is a set format to “rescue” the next pet when the event starts. Don’t train early pets; rescuing all the Pets is a priority. Full Pet Agent Guide
  12. What’s the best plan for Black Gold Battlefield? You need to organise your team to seize early objects (Oil Refineries. Then take and HOLD at least one Hospital and one Military Base. These score more points (2.5x) than refineries, and 7 Players can rein each for points. Planning this and communicating with your team is essential to success. Full Black Gold Battlefield Guide and Planning Tool
  13. How do I score better in Arena? “Bait and Switch”. This is the practice of putting in your F2 team (or weaker) to make you easier to hit. Then you can swap in your F1 and revenge those attacks for more points. Always try to do Arena as the last task of the day. Swap the weak team in as one of the first tasks of the day.
  14. How do I score more in the Bio Mutant “Franky” event? If you’re a low-power player, join bigger players’ rallies. Know your team; ensure you swap out troops so you can join the “faction restricted” rallies. Full Bio Mutant “Franky” guide.

What is the Z-War tools app?

  1. Are the Z-War app tool and Discord apps safe? A lot of time and effort went into researching things before starting this project. You will notice there are no logins, no emails and no passwords. This eliminates the chance of your data being leaked. The app and tools are free, so you have no worries about payment information leaking. The Discord bots are all built with minimal permissions, absolutely no admin permissions (and the risk of your Discord guild being hacked/taken over). All shares, saves, and cloud snapshots are end-to-end encrypted. The key is on your device. Persistent data is on your device, files saves also, on your device. Shared data and share codes are OTP - one time passwords, which expire every 7 days unless you refresh them. Only alliance leaders should use the write access codes. Full Privacy Policy
  2. Z-War is an unofficial fan toolkit for Dark War Survival alliance R5/R4s primarily to make running an alliance and sharing information easier. Written by a player for players.
  3. Where are the tools? Click the Skull in the header/menu or add /app to the URL (Hive, Capital, Territory, BGB, Roster, Intel).
  4. The tool is currently web-based, but there is an “install” option via Chrome; this makes for a nicer/cleaner interface. The Android & IOS apps are still a work in progress.
  5. Do I need an account? — No. It does help for sharing. Accounts are created for Cloud saves that key you to the encrypted snapshot. Local-first; cloud is optional; codes on /account/. The code is generated on request on your device. It is stored there. The upload is encrypted on your device and uploaded. This system eliminates any need for logins and passwords. It is much more secure, and in the event of a breach, there is no personal data on the system.
  6. Leader vs Member code — Leader = write/sync; Member = read-only; codes shown once; leader code is for R4s’ or R5s’ only. This code allows editing of the hive or territory maps, roster, etc. Only share the read code with members or use the Discord apps or web pages to communicate with the team. Global Share = codes to share with other alliance leaders.
  7. How long Cloud saves last — sessions ~7 days; unused Cloud data is deleted; you are urged to keep a local backup - Tools → Backup file.
  8. Is my alliance data readable by Z-War? — cloud snapshots are end-to-end encrypted; we cannot see the content. You have the encryption key on your device. All your roster and event info is held in .localStorage
  9. Privacy / ads / selling data — we currently don’t have ads; we NEVER would sell your info (but we don’t have it anyway!); no email signup; only OTP (one-time passcodes; Cloudflare bot check on sensitive actions to keep the site secure; Privacy.
  10. Who to contact — Help and support on Discord.

About The Maps

  1. Hive: Base layouts, roster, tower level. PNG Image export.
    • 2 Space designs allow for boomer spawn
    • 1 space- doesn’t!- just for gathering and Radar.
  2. Territory / World Map — paint zones and allocate alliance(s) territory.
    • PNG Image export
    • Standard map cap 8 per alliance; season maps open.
  3. Roster — shared across Hive / Capital / BGB / Territory;
    • Import CSV from Player Import, Scan, Google Sheets, etc.
  4. Languages — one language picker in the app header for the whole tool.

Intel/mail

  1. What Intel is: it allows you to generate coloured and formatted emails just like the devs — in-game mail (DWS) & Discord colour formatting for clear aesthetics and a little pizzazz.
  2. These formatting tools are open for anyone to use. The Unity text has been chopped back to suit DWS.
  3. Discord colours are limited, and you cannot mix styles within the colour boundaries.

Player Import / OCR

  1. How Player Import works — In-Game > Ranking + CP screenshots →Scan via OCR → roster.csv then go to Roster → Import. This may still need editing: rank allocation, F1-F4 power, etc.
  2. Import Limited Uploads? This is to protect the server from malicious activity. Files are actually stripped back on your device before uploading.
    • 15 is the limit, and the server limits how many users can use it at once. It takes a few mins per scan.
    • Turnstile before the scan validates human vs bot. Again, this is to mitigate malicious activity. Persistent clicking starts with a 10m ban and escalates from there.
  3. Certain languages may not work well; you can use AI models to extract the text too.
  4. Full user guide is here: Player Import Tool

Events calendar

  1. Officer vs member calendar — /calendar/ is the web admin editor.
  2. Generates members’ use codes ?c=zw-… (read-only).
  3. Never share officer ?c=zc-… codes; these are to sync into the web admin panel
  4. Install in Discord, publish, member link from /calendar-admin share.
  5. The web version and the .ics calendar import are here too. Alliance Event Calendar. This is for non-Discord users and includes the Web admin page for R4s/R5.
  6. The full user guide is here: Events Reminder for Dark War Survival

Black Gold Battlefield

  1. Black Gold Battlefield tool is the only such tool available beyond a spreadsheet.
    1. Crew & Objective Assignment from multiple points
    2. Team A & B allocate starters & substitutes.
    3. Interactive Map - just click an objective to edit
    4. List edit - with dashboard, Crews, allocates players to objectives
  2. Reports: manual cut-and-paste, or use the Discord app to auto-post; members open the Discord view link (/bgb-teams-report/?v=…). Via web page for non-Discord users.
  3. BGB teams come from the shared Z-War roster. No Roster. No Plan.
  4. Full User Guide Here: Black Gold Battlefield Planner

Event & Task Diaries

  1. Survivor Prep — six 4-hour slots, public week page, ICS; times are Server Time.
    • Web Page - for any non-Discord users, includes .ics import feature. Survivor Prep
    • Discord App - in the Discord App Store - posts into your Discord guild
    • User Guide Here - Survivor Prep Discord App
  2. Allied Duel — weekly tracker + on-device checklist (browser only, resets each UTC week) + ICS.
    1. Web Page - for any non-Discord users, public week page, has .ics import feature.
    2. Discord App - in the Discord App Store - posts into your Discord guild
  3. Weekly Events Diary
    1. Web Page
    2. Discord App - in the Discord App Store - posts into your Discord Guild
    3. User Guide Here: install and usage guide

Bugs, Wrinkles and Clunky Layouts

This is still very much a work in progress. The whole thing was built very quickly as a proof of concept. I have been working through issues and bugs as time allows. The interface is getting better, and I already have a massive upgrade to the UX in the pipeline.

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Got a problem? Contact us via our Discord channel and tell us the issue.