Guides
Stick War Upgrade Guide – Best Upgrades & Gem Tips
Upgrades drive your army’s power. This guide covers how they work, which to prioritize, spending gems wisely and how to earn gems.
Upgrades drive your army’s power. This guide covers how they work, which to prioritize, spending gems wisely and how to earn gems.
Upgrades make your Stick War units stronger and are one of the biggest differences between a win and a loss. The exact system — what you upgrade, the cost and the currency named gems — varies by game title and update, so this guide focuses on what carries across titles.
In most titles you spend resources to strengthen units, sometimes with a premium currency called gems on top. Because they are permanent or long-lasting investments, the order you take upgrades shapes how your army performs. The smarter your priorities, the more value you get from every point spent.
There is no universal best order — it depends on your playstyle and the current meta (community opinion). A good default is to upgrade the units you field most frequently first, and to favor versatile upgrades that help in many situations over narrow ones. Damage and survivability for your core frontline usually pay off more than flashy but situational upgrades.
Gems are scarce, so spend them where they have the biggest long-term impact. Prefer permanent upgrades to your core army over one-off conveniences, and avoid spending on things you rarely use. Because earning rates and prices vary by version, compare value against the current game before spending.
The most stable way to get gems is to keep clearing the repeatable and account-level activities the current version actually offers, then save those gems for upgrades you know you will use. In community practice that usually means finishing main story rewards first, checking daily login or daily activity rewards, playing event missions when they are active, claiming achievement-style rewards, and pushing content you can clear consistently instead of chasing a harder challenge that wastes time. Exact gem rates, chest contents, streak rewards and event payouts are update-dependent, so do not plan around fixed totals unless you have checked them in the current game. A practical routine is to clear the reliable daily items, make progress on campaign or mission rewards, then stop spending until you can buy a permanent upgrade for your core army. That gives better long-term value than impulse spending on units or perks you rarely field.
Common questions about this topic.