You will level up your troops in Age of Apes as you research more technologies in the Research Lab. But once you have level 2 and then level 3 and 4 troops, should you upgrade the previous ones first or train new ones? This is a very important question to ask because doing it wrong could cost you a lot of power and wasted time.
I have to admit that I was always tempted to train my lower level troops into higher level ones as soon as I leveled up, especially from level 1 to level 2 when I had relatively low numbers of level 1 troops. But that is not always the best approach and we’ll see why.
Let’s look at the stats of two different level troops in Age of Apes. Remember that the same rule is followed by each of the four troops: with a new level, the stats increase nicely, making the higher level unit much stronger.
Let’s look at the first in-game unit you will get, the Pilots at level 1 and level 2:
As you can see, in this case, the power doubles from level one to level 2. It will double again from level 2 to 3, increasing by 2 points afterward. The skills of the Pilots also improve, with the attack almost doubling. The same goes for all the other troops.
Upgrading a lower level unit from a lower to a higher level will see you consume, in the end, the same amount of resources and wait the same amount of time as if you were to train the higher level unit from scratch.
For example, training 700 lvl 2 pilots takes me 5 hours and costs 56k food and 84k iron. Training 700 Lvl 1 Pilots takes 2 hours and 10 minutes and costs 28k food and 42k iron. Upgrading them to level 2 will required 2 hours and 50 minutes and cost 28k food and 42k iron. So no wasted resources or time, which is great.
But why, then, you shouldn’t hurry to level up your troops once you have unlocked a new level?
It’s all about sheer numbers, which are usually more important in the game in most situations than the level of your troops. Sure, 100 level 2 Pilots will give you the same power as 50 level 1 ones. But in terms of actual value of their stats, they won’t be twice as strong and won’t carry twice as many resources.
And this is why it might not be a good idea to rush into upgrading existing troops to a higher level.
If you can’t fill up 4 armies and send them on the map, either to attack other players or mutants or for gathering purposes, there is little sense for you to level up the troops instead of buying new ones.
Lower level troops are also faster than higher level ones. This means that they are perfect for farming: send them with your heroes and keep the strong, higher level troops at home. If somebody decides to attack your heroes that are gathering resources, for example, they will most likely have better troops than you do. In that case, it’s best to lose some lower level ones instead of high level troops, right?
Every now and then, especially after you have a huge amount of troops, you can start leveling up some of them in order to become stronger and having more options for your main heroes when attacking. But otherwise, it makes little sense to upgrade them once you unlock a new level.
How to upgrade lower level troops to higher level ones?
If you really want to level up your troops in Age of Apes, you will do so from the troop recruitment menu. When you go into a building for training, select the lower level troop that you want to train.
But instead of training more, click the arrow icon nest to their portrait to the left. This will take you to the level up menu instead.
But I repeat: in most cases, it makes little sense to upgrade your units, especially early on in the game. Better train new ones, higher level troops, and keep the lower ones for puny tasks and as cannon fodder.
If you want to learn more about Age of Apes and how to play it better, I recommend checking out my Age of Apes tips and tricks, a list of the best Fighters in the game or learn whether or not it’s worth spending money to buy Oscar as a hero.