Introduced by patch 1.357.001, Gadgets are new gear pieces available to certain heroes in the game on the 3rd day of Season 0 for players whose Control Center is at least level 11.
While I was writing this, they changed the name from “Gadgets” to “Ultimate Weapons” (smh). I won’t change the name in the guide, but keep this in mind.
You can see which heroes have a Gadget slot by opening the Hero tab and scrolling to the bottom of the faction filters. The last tab is the “Heroes with Gadgets” tab.
Currently (Patch 1.358.001), only these 15 heroes have Gadgets, and the emphasis is on the Vindicators. I assume they will go faction by faction in the future.
I think more heroes will get their Gadgets in the future, so I’d recommend the following:
- Do not upgrade Gadgets for any heroes besides Benson and Bolton for now. Wait until the next batch of Gadgets is released.
- If you still want to upgrade more than those two, go only for the heroes in the first row of the screenshot (from Blanche to Roland).
- Do not unlock Master (red) Gadgets yet, as they are pretty hard to unlock, and you might be better off with some of the future Gadgets.
Maybe they wanted to try making some of the four-skill heroes viable, so they created Gadgets for many of them.
While I was writing the guide, we got three new Gadgets in the 1.360.001 update.
Gadget Stats and Skills
A Gadget adds some of the stats to the hero who equips it and has its own skill that improves some of the hero’s attributes and sometimes the hero’s first skill.
Gadgets are of three qualities: Elite (purple), Epic (orange), and Master (red). The higher the quality, the better the stats and skill.
Only the Vindicators have gadgets of all three rarities. All other heroes from the available pool have only Elite or Elite and Master gadgets.
Stats
Gadgets have their unique stat called Combat Gadget’s Energy (CGE for short), which increases as you upgrade the Gadget. When fighting another player, for every 100 points of CGE you have more than the enemy, you will get a 1% damage bonus and 0.5% damage reduction.
Note: It is unclear if “you” here means your lineup or only the heroes with gadgets, but I suppose it is the hero.
The next two attributes depend on the hero’s main stat. Gadgets improve the hero’s main stat (INT or STR): TAC ATK for INT heroes and WPN ATK for STR heroes.
And the last stat is HP.
Here are the max stats based on the Gadget rarity:
| Elite | Epic | Master | |
|---|---|---|---|
| CGE | 1068 | 3080 | 6700 |
| WPN\TAC | 6% | 12% | 25% |
| STR\INT | 6% | 12% | 25% |
| HP | 24% | 48% | 80% |
As you can see, the bonuses a Gadget of a better rarity provides are twice as great as those of a lower rarity.
Note: You can view the maximum possible stats and skill bonuses while the Gadget is still locked. Once you unlock it, you will only see its current stats and the stats of the next level.
Skills
You will see that many Gadget skills have extra bonuses against zombies. I assume they did this so that you could use these heroes against the Queen or in any zombie-related fights (regular, mutant, etc.).
That might be viable in pre-S5 seasons to an extent, but that would also mean wasting your elite hero medals on 4-skill heroes, which I do not recommend at all.
Here is the list of all Gadget skills available now:
| Hero | Faction | Gadget Name | Gadget Quality | Skill (Max. Lvl.) | Comment | Rating X / 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barron | Vindicators | Rusty Brass Knuckles | Elite | HP +15% | Just a flat HP bonus does not make this hero any better. | 1 |
| Barron | Vindicators | Poisoned Brass Knuckles | Epic | HP +15% (+25% vs. zombies) | The zombie bonus is still not enough to make the hero usable. | 1 |
| Barron | Vindicators | Crimson Drill | Master | First enemy who attacks each round -25% DMG (-50% DMG vs. zombies) | You might think it is OK vs. fast lineups with a heavy hitter that attacks first (like Victoria), but considering how difficult it is to get red Gadget cards and how much it costs to max the Gadget out, it is not worth it. | 1 |
| Blanche | Vindicators | Blade Guitar | Elite | When attacking back-row heroes, +15% DMG | A decent buff, considering her damage was already good. | 5 |
| Blanche | Vindicators | Icy Guitar | Epic | When attacking back-row heroes, +20% DMG. (+35% vs. zombies). | I'd go for a level 40 here and stop, waiting for the other Gadgets release. | 6 |
| Blanche | Vindicators | Midnight Poodle | Master | Skill restores 700 Focus if crits. Restores more focus vs. zombies. Restores 100 focus and +100 more for each hero you outnumber the enemy by. | The 700 Focus restore is not available right away - you will need to upgrade the gadget. Might be decent with a 60% Crit Rate on her. I can see it being used in a Casino lineup as an experiment. | 7 |
| Enrique | Vindicators | Spiked Barricade | Elite | All other heroes in your lineup + 20% Crit Rate. | Good one, I'd even say better than the Epic one because you can max it out faster. Also, good synergy with the Blanche's Master Gadget skill. Also can see it being used in a Casino lineup instead of Chu, for example. | 8 |
| Enrique | Vindicators | Burning Meteror | Epic | All other heroes in the lineup + 20% Crit Rate. Skill also reduces the Crit Immunity Rate by 15% vs. zombies. | I think it's not worth it. Yes, the maxed-out stats would be better, but the skills are pretty much the same. | 5 |
| Enrique | Vindicators | Dark Shark | Master | When battle starts, protects 2 heroes behind Enrique from 1 taunt effect. Renews after Enrique's Focus gets to 1,000. Increases Crit Rate of Protected heroes vs. zombies by 15% and +15% for each hero you outnumber the enemy by. Becomes ineffective after Enrique dies. | I assume, the protection works against things like Mind Control set's second skill or Casino's second skill. Can't say that's too great. As for the second part, the bonus is applied only to protected heroes, so placing him in the front will be a must. Also, as it reads now, it will only give the Crit Rate buff after you start having more heroes in the battle, which does not sound very reliable. | 6 |
| Max | Vindicators | Punky Chainsaw | Elite | DMG against enemies with Bleeding +15% | Makes Ripper gear and Fujiwara a bit more viable. You can ensure everyone has bleeding if you are using heroes whose skills hit multiple targets and are considered as normal attacks with Ripper gear on them, like Chu. So, the core here would be Max, Chu, Fuji, for example. Still, two 4-skill heroes in your lineup sounds very weak. | 3 |
| Max | Vindicators | Crazy Chainsaw | Epic | DMG against enemies with Bleeding +15%. When a zombie with Bleeding dies, it restores HP equal to 200% ATK for their front-row teammates. | You might try a lineup I descripbed above in some zombie fights you struggle to overcome, but I would not recommend it. | 3 |
| Max | Vindicators | Spark Rider | Master | Incapacitates a random enemy at the start of each round. Your team ATK vs. incapacitated enemy +15% for 3 rounds (stacks up to 3 times and up to 5 times vs. zombies). | So, each round, a random enemy can become incapacitated. Considering that the skills are fired in round three without Super Core and in round two with Super Core gear, let's say you can incapacitate at least two heroes. Is the +15% ATK (not damage) worth it? Do not think so. | 2 |
| Quinn | Vindicators | Doomsday Messenger | Elite | Lineup's DMG +10% | Quinn is used only in regular and mutant zombie fights, so you might get her Gadget like to level 20 if you lack a bit of damage vs. zombies in early seasons. But I would not recommend it. | 6 |
| Quinn | Vindicators | Ruthless Heart | Epic | Lineup's DMG +10% and WPN DMG +5%. Additionally, +5% DMG and +5% WPN DMG vs. zombies. | A bit better than the Elite one, but not worth spending Epic cards on. | 7 |
| Quinn | Vindicators | Mr. Bomb | Master | Skill reduces the enemy's DEF by 25%, which is evenly split among enemies. Reduce by 15% more vs. zombies. | The "evenly split among" part is what makes it meh. That means at the start of a fight, each enemy heroe receives only -5% DEF. This is not enough to justify using an already bad battle hero. | 5 |
| Kobayakawa | Minutemen | Pinkie Dream | Elite | Prolonges Burning from Skill by 4 rounds. | Makes the Buring effect last 4 more rounds. Needs testing with Benson and Flamethrower APC weapon to see if this can be good. | 5 |
| Benson | Minutemen | Fire Thrower | Elite | Burning can be stacked up to 5 times. | This can synergize with the Koba Gadget. Kobayakawa prolongs and intensifies (her last skill) the Burning effect that then stacks with each Benson skill usage. For this to work, Koba must attack after Benson. | 5 |
| Bolton | Minutemen | Camo Shield | Elite | Skill restores 30% of lost HP for the hero. | If you are using Bolton in your main lineup, this will make him a bit more tanky. I'd say getting the Gadget to level 20-30 is fine in this case. | 3 |
| Bolton | Minutemen | AC Shield | Master | When battle starts, gains a shield of 200% (300% vs. zombies) of max HP. Each round loses 40% (30% vs. zombies) of max HP shield. Stone\Iron gathering speed of Bolton's lineup +30%. | Gains 2 HP's worth of shields. If not damaged, loses it in five turns. Not sure how good it is, probably extends his life for a couple more rounds. But the gathering boost is nice, can be used in a gathering lineup with Minutemen gathering heroes. | 5 |
| Chihiro | Minutemen | Murasame | Elite | When triggers Bleeding, the target's healing effect -20% | The wording is not very clear. Does the target receive 20% less healing from other heroes? Or does the target heal others for 20% less? The first case would be better. | 4 |
| Rebecca | Minutemen | Camo Shield | Elite | Rebecca's DMG to enemies with shields +30%. | Useless in my opinion. The enemy must be shielded for this to have any effect. The only use case is vs. Victoria lineups, but it is very inconsistent. Not worth it. | 1 |
| Kelly | Watchers | Serpent Whip | Elite | Male heroes in your lineup +15% DMG. | Haha, a girl with a whip makes the guys around her work harder, sounds like a video title to me. Jokes aside, it might be usable in early seasons when Kelly + Galande lineups are used. Roger and Benson are good candidates in this case. Wait, is Heytex a male? | 6 |
| Kelly | Watchers | Spine Whip | Master | 50% (70% vs. zombies) to take a ssecond action every round. 100% chance to take an action every three rounds. If taken, the second action is performed after all heroes do their actions. Destructive might of Kelly's lineup +60. | I assume that an action is either a normal attack or a skill. In this case, it will mostly be normal attacks, but there is a chance of her using Skill twice if her first action is Skill, and she gets attacked a bunch of times for the Focus to reach 100 by the the time her second action is triggered. Makes using Ripper gear on her a bit more viable. The destructive might bonus is negligible. Also has synergy with Laurel's Master Gadget. | 6 |
| Laurel | Watchers | Golded Rifle | Elite | DMG vs. back-row enemies +15%. | Decent for early lineups; getting to level 20-30 might be fine. | 7 |
| Laurel | Watchers | Buried Rose | Master | Each round, after a teammate takes an action, Laurel gains one Rose Effect (stacks up to 20). Once the max number is reached, Laurel deals 300% TAC DMG to all emenies. When fighting zombies, each stack of Rose Effect will also increase her ATK by 1%. Plunder Load +30% for the lineup. | For outmost effectiveness, Laurel must be the last to take her turn (lowest LUK in the lineup) and survive till round 5 for the stacks to reach 20. If there is Kelly with her Master Gadget maxed in the lineup, it is possible to trigger Laurel's effect earlier, in round 4, assuming Laurel does not need to take action to trigger the effect. Plundering bonus is nice but not something too special. | 7 |
| Roland | Watchers | Infinity Glove | Elite | Skill has a 30% chance of applying Dizzy to the target. | Dizzing is akin to Buccaneer's skill effect that stuns an enemy. However, the 30% chance makes it a bit meh. Maybe if you use Roland, you can get it to level 20 or so. | 4 |
| Suzuki Ren | Watchers | Golden SMG | Elite | Shield and Healing effects +20%. | If Suzuki were a 5-skill hero, it might have been interesting to test this in a Victoria lineup. But as it is now, I do not think it is worth investing. | 3 |
| Qian Qian | Watchers | Gilden Sword | Elite | WPN DEF +40% but TAC DEF -40% | Do not undestand what they were trying to do here. This might be the most useless Gadget so far. | 1 |
Getting Gadgets
Just as they introduced Gadgets, there were two main ways of getting them besides buying in packs: the Zombie Queen Raid event and the 3D Printer.
The 3D Printer uses a Printing Coil you could get during the initial event. Ten coils can be used for one random reward in the printer. The event is not always available (it comes and goes). For now, it came back only once, but there is no way of getting coils again besides buying them.
Zombie Queen Raid
This is the main way of getting the resources to unlock and upgrade your gadgets.
You can access it via the Event Center:
Or via the World Map:
The Event Center tab shows the Suggested heroes that would increase the chance of getting rare rewards:
The maximum possible bonus here is 18%.
Creating the Raid
First, tap “Create Raid Team” either from the tab (which will transfer you to the closest Queen) or from the world map.
The “Quick Team Up” option will either make you enter someone’s created raid with an unoccupied slot or create a new raid with these settings:
The “Post team info to the recruitment hall” option determines if other players on your server will see your newly created raid in the Event Center tab sidebar:
You can also set the minimum required CP if you are in the early seasons and need strong players to finish off the Queen.
After tapping “Confirm,” you will be transferred to a new window to choose a lineup for the raid and invite other players.
In contrast to Mutant rallies, you cannot create a raid and do other things in the game. You must stay here and start the raid when all the players are in. Consider this when setting raid time in the previous step.
“Invite” gives you the option to post an invite message in any of the game chats.
After you choose your lineup, in about 5 seconds or so, the bots will join your raid. This is so that you could always participate in a raid.
They are automatically ready, so you can hit the “Start Now” button.
If you do not want the bots to join, do not choose your lineup or manually remove them via the red button in the upper right corner of their avatars.
Fighting the Queen
After starting the raid, you will see the raid creator’s APC move towards the closest Queen and start fighting.
Fun fact: the time it takes to travel from the player’s base to the Queen is always five seconds, so if she is closer, the APC will move slower and vice versa.
During the fight, you will see:
- The reward chests you are getting are in the upper left corner.
- The cumulative damage dealt by all participants is displayed in the middle of the screen.
- The damage dealt by each participant is in the bottom left corner.
- Damage is displayed in real-time and gets refreshed after each round.
The Queen attacks three heroes with her skill—the first-row and one back-row hero with the highest AGI stat among the three back-row heroes.
That one back-row hero will then not be able to use their skill for two rounds, but it might also bug out and make it so that that hero would not be able to use their skill till the end of the fight.
Hence, ensure your main damage dealer in the back row has a lower AGI stat than the other two heroes.
After you beat the Queen, you will see what rewards you get and who (if there was one) the MVP of the raid was.
You can then claim the rewards in your mail in the System tab.
The higher the MVP damage %, the higher the chance of the participants of getting better rewards, namely:
- 40-49%: +4%
- 50-59%: +8%
- 60% and more: +12%
As it is now, you want to have an MVP in your raid, which is a bit strange to me. This way, you would always want to play with bots only to ensure you are the MVP every time.
After you
Lineup
So, what heroes do you want to be using vs. the Queen?
Use heroes with high single-target damage: Roger, Heytex, Blanche, and Victoria.
Victoria is, so far, the best choice here. Paired with Heytex, the other heroes you include don’t matter as much for damage.
If you do not have Heytex and Victori yet, use Blanche and Roger and four Vindicator or Minutemen heroes to get the four-hero faction buff.
Remember that there were Suggested Heroes in the Queen Raid tab?
If you use these, you will increase your chance of getting better rewards in the Raid. As you can see, all these are the heroes with Gadgets, so the vs. Zombie traits in Gadgets were probably designed with the idea of players using these in the Raid in mind.
You can get a +18% bonus if you use five of these, but I won’t recommend that.
Here’s what I am using (applicable to S5+ players):
Heytex is in position one, and Victoria is in position three with Alpha Tech gear. The other three heroes are there to tank, deal additional damage, and give me a +12% chance of getting better rewards.
Average Rewards per Day
I recorded the rewards I got from each raid for a week with the following conditions:
- Damage Dealt to the Queen – Max. (5,000,000)
- MVP – 60+% always
- Suggested Heroes bonus – 12%
Here are the average rewards you should expect under such conditions:
| Raid Average | Daily Average | Weekly Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Master Boxes 1 | 1.46 | 7.29 | 51 |
| Master Boxes 2 | 0.74 | 3.71 | 26 |
| Epic Boxes 1 | 4.37 | 21.86 | 153 |
| Epic Boxes 2 | 2.17 | 10.86 | 76 |
| Elite Boxes 1 | 19.31 | 96.57 | 676 |
| Elite Boxes 2 | 10 | 50 | 350 |
| M-U Chips | 65.14 | 325.71 | 2280 |
| V-U Chips | 189 | 945 | 6615 |
| W-U Chips | 64.57 | 322.86 | 2260 |
| M-B Chips | 9.29 | 46.43 | 325 |
| V-B Chips | 27.86 | 139.29 | 975 |
| W-B Chips | 8.86 | 44.29 | 310 |
Explanation:
- Boxes 1 – boxes with cards for 4-skill heroes.
- Boxes 2 – boxes with cards for 5-skill heroes.
- X-U Chips – Upgrade Chips, where X is the first letter of the faction name.
- X-B Chips – Breakthrough Chips, where X is the first letter of the faction name.
I will use these numbers further for the upgrade estimations.
Upgrading Gadgets
First, you will need to unlock a Gadget with Blueprints (cards) from the Blueprint Chests (boxes). Afterward, you can upgrade the Gadget with Upgrade Chips of the appropriate faction.
However, to upgrade the gadget further, you will need to use Breakthrough Chips along with Upgrade Chips every five levels.
Besides that, at certain levels, you will not be able to upgrade the Gadget until you star it up using the Blueprints. Here are the star-up levels for each Gadget rarity:
- Elite: 10, 20, 40
- Epic: 10, 20, 40, 60
- Master: 10, 20, 40, 60, 80
Besides allowing you to upgrade the Gadget further, each star improves its skill. The numbers in the gadget skill table from before are for gadgets that are fully starred up.
Resources
Here’s how many resources you need to upgrade Gadgets:
| Elite | Epic | Master | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Max. Level | 60 | 80 | 100 |
| Max. ⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| 🔓 | 30 | 50 | 100 |
| ⭐ | 30 | 50 | 100 |
| ⭐⭐ | 50 | 50 | 100 |
| ⭐⭐⭐ | 70 | 150 | 150 |
| ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | - | 200 | 150 |
| ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | - | - | 200 |
| Total | 180 | 500 | 800 |
| Level 10 | 225 | 450 | 900 |
| Level 20 | 950 | 1900 | 3800 |
| Level 30 | 2,450 | 4900 | 9800 |
| Level 40 | 4,950 | 9900 | 19800 |
| Level 50 | 9,000 | 18000 | 36000 |
| Level 60 | 15,050 | 30100 | 60200 |
| Max Out | 15,050 | 78,900 | ~414,000*** |
| Level 10 | 15 | 30 | 60 |
| Level 20 | 120 | 240 | 480 |
| Level 30 | 346 | 692 | 1384 |
| Level 40 | 766 | 1532 | 3064 |
| Level 50 | 1428 | 2856 | 5712 |
| Level 60 | 2478 | 4956 | 9912 |
| Max Out | 2478 | 13006 | ~68264*** |
As you can see, Epic gadgets require twice as many resources for the same levels as Elite gadgets, and Master gadgets require twice as many as Epic ones.
Time to get
| Days to Get | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Elite | Epic | Master | |
| 🔓 | 0.31 | 2.29 | 13.72 |
| ⭐ | 0.31 | 2.29 | 13.72 |
| ⭐⭐ | 0.52 | 2.29 | 13.72 |
| ⭐⭐⭐ | 0.72 | 6.86 | 20.58 |
| ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | - | 9.15 | 20.58 |
| ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | - | - | 27.43 |
| Total Days | 1.86 | 22.87 | 109.74 |
| 🔓 | 0.6 | 4.6 | 26.95 |
| ⭐ | 0.6 | 4.6 | 26.95 |
| ⭐⭐ | 1 | 4.6 | 26.95 |
| ⭐⭐⭐ | 1.4 | 13.81 | 40.43 |
| ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | - | 18.42 | 40.43 |
| ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | - | - | 53.91 |
| Total Days | 3.6 | 46.04 | 215.63 |
| Vindicators Upgrade | |||
| Level 10 | 0.24 | 0.48 | 0.95 |
| Level 20 | 1.01 | 2.01 | 4.02 |
| Level 30 | 2.59 | 5.19 | 10.37 |
| Level 40 | 5.24 | 10.48 | 20.95 |
| Level 50 | 9.52 | 19.05 | 38.1 |
| Level 60 | 15.93 | 31.85 | 63.7 |
| Days to Max Out | 15.93 | 83.49 | 438.1 |
| Level 10 | 0.69 | - | 2.76 |
| Level 20 | 2.92 | - | 11.67 |
| Level 30 | 7.52 | - | 30.09 |
| Level 40 | 15.2 | - | 60.79 |
| Level 50 | 27.63 | - | 110.53 |
| Level 60 | 46.21 | - | 184.83 |
| Days to Max Out | 46.21 | - | 1271.07 |
| Level 10 | 0.11 | 0.22 | 0.43 |
| Level 20 | 0.86 | 1.72 | 3.45 |
| Level 30 | 2.48 | 4.97 | 9.94 |
| Level 40 | 5.5 | 11 | 22 |
| Level 50 | 10.25 | 20.5 | 41.01 |
| Level 60 | 17.79 | 35.58 | 71.16 |
| Days to Max Out | 17.79 | 93.37 | 490.09 |
| Level 10 | 0.32 | - | 1.29 |
| Level 20 | 2.58 | - | 10.34 |
| Level 30 | 7.45 | - | 29.81 |
| Level 40 | 16.5 | - | 65.99 |
| Level 50 | 30.76 | - | 123.02 |
| Level 60 | 53.37 | - | 213.48 |
| Days to Max Out | 53.37 | - | 1470.26 |
* Boxes 1:
- Elite: Fuji, Rebecca, Suzuki, Qian, Max, Barron, and Quinn.
- Epic: Max, Barron, and Quinn.
- Master: Max, Barron, and Quinn.
** Boxes 2:
- Elite: Bolton, Benson, Kobayakawa, Roland, Kelly, Laurel, Enrique, and Blanche.
- Epic: Enrique and Blanche.
- Master: Kelly, Laurel, Bolton, Enrique, and Blanche.
These numbers are based purely on Queen Raids, without any assistance cards.
As you can see, without buying anything, with current drop rates from Queen Raids and the conditions I described at the start of the section, it would take you ~110 days to unlock and fully start up a Master gadget for Quinn, Barron, or Max, or ~216 days to unlock and fully star up a Master Gadget for other Heroes.
That will only allow you to reach the gadget’s maximum skill level. To get the maximum stats, you’d need ~490 days for Vindicators and ~1470 days for Minutemen and Watchmen.
I suppose various events will allow you to get more cards and chips, so hopefully, it will take less time.
Hope this guide will help you decide which gadget to (not)upgrade. I will update this if anything vital changes.