The Laboratory is where every research tree lives, and it’s the one building your Headquarters asks for at every level from 8 to 31, always one level behind, so it ends up the second-most-upgraded building in any base that’s moving. Its level also opens the trees: Military Strategies at 16, Peace Shield and Siege to Seize at 18, the troop-class trees at 25, Unit Special Training and Tier 10 at 30, Tactical Master at 31. Lab No. 2 arrives at HQ 18 with a Research License and gives you a second queue at about an eighth of the cost.
- Unlock: Headquarters 7 (Lab No. 2 at Headquarters 18, with the Research License)
- Levels: 35 for both labs
- What it gates: every research tree’s unlock level, and HQ 8 to 31
- What it raises: base power, and which trees you can open; research speed comes from elsewhere
- What it needs: the Headquarters at the level you’re building to
- The table below: every level’s cost and base time, read from state 37 in September 2026 and the community wiki, with the levels where readings split marked
What the Laboratory does and what it gates
Research is the slow half of power in Last Z. Buildings and troops are bought with wood, food and Zents; research is bought with those plus electricity, and the combat trees with badges on top, and all of it runs through this building. Every tree you’ve heard a stronger player name, Hero Training, Military Strategies, Peace Shield, Alliance Recognition, Unit Special Training, is a tab inside the Laboratory, and each tab has a Laboratory level it won’t open below.
So the building does two things. It gates research: a tree stays dark until the lab reaches its level, however many badges you’ve saved. And it gates the Headquarters: from HQ 8 to HQ 31, every HQ upgrade asks for the lab one level below the HQ you’re building, which is why “upgrade the lab” is the answer to “why is my HQ button greyed out” more often than any other building.
One thing it doesn’t do, or at least nothing on any reading of its panel says it does: the lab’s level doesn’t speed research up. The time a node takes is cut by the Bookstore, by Scientist refugees, by Amelia, by the research-speed nodes in the free trees and by the office bonuses. The lab’s level decides what you can research; those decide how fast.
When the Laboratory unlocks and what it needs
The Laboratory unlocks at Headquarters 7 and costs 6,000 wood and 6,000 food to place. From there every level asks for one thing: the Headquarters at the same level you’re building the lab to, so Lab 20 needs HQ 20. There’s no second building in its chain, which is what makes it the building you can always be upgrading between HQ levels.
In practice the two climb together in a two-step. HQ 20 needs Lab 19; once HQ 20 is up, Lab 20 becomes possible; HQ 21 needs Lab 20. The only way to break the rhythm is to let the lab fall behind, and the next HQ level then stops until it catches up.
Lab No. 2 unlocks at Headquarters 18 and needs the Research License, which you buy; one site puts it in the Alliance Shop, the wiki names a License Store, and a third calls it one of the few purchases worth real money. Its levels need the Headquarters at the same level too, and its costs run about an eighth of the first lab’s at every level.
Laboratory levels, costs and build times
Wood and food cost the same at every level, so the table prints them once; Zents are the third resource, steel joins at 31. Times are the base timer before construction speed, alliance help and speedups. Levels 2 to 26 match on every source that prints them; 27 to 30 split between readings and the split is marked; 31 to 35 come from one state only, flagged in the last column.
Read on state 37 (September 2026) and the community wiki; levels 24 to 30 also on state 11.
| Level | Wood and food, each | Zents | Steel | Base time | Power | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 9.1K | 0 | 30s | 1,888 | agreed | |
| 3 | 13.6K | 0 | 59s | 4,035 | agreed | |
| 4 | 20.4K | 0 | 1m 57s | 6,665 | agreed | |
| 5 | 40.9K | 0 | 8m 20s | 10,384 | agreed | |
| 6 | 122.8K | 24.6K | 20m | 17,344 | agreed | |
| 7 | 245.6K | 49.1K | 47m 35s | 27,186 | agreed | |
| 8 | 393.0K | 78.6K | 1h 22m | 39,635 | agreed | |
| 9 | 628.9K | 126K | 1h 55m | 55,384 | agreed | |
| 10 | 754.8K | 151K | 2h 47m | 72,635 | agreed | |
| 11 | 1.8M | 377K | 3h 47m | 99,909 | agreed | |
| 12 | 3.2M | 641K | 4h 41m | 135,470 | agreed | |
| 13 | 3.5M | 706K | 7h 7m | 172,771 | agreed | |
| 14 | 4.9M | 988K | 10h 43m | 216,904 | agreed | |
| 15 | 6.9M | 1.38M | 14h 12m | 269,115 | state 37 (the wiki’s row is blank) | |
| 16 | 12.3M | 2.4M | 21h 18m | 338,780 | agreed | |
| 17 | 16.0M | 3.2M | 1d 6h | 418,214 | state 37 (the wiki’s row is blank) | |
| 18 | 28.0M | 5.6M | 1d 17h | 523,296 | agreed | |
| 19 | 33.6M | 6.7M | 2d 12h | 638,408 | agreed | |
| 20 | 60.4M | 12.1M | 4d 2h | 792,850 | agreed | |
| 21 | 84.6M | 16.9M | 6d 1h | 975,558 | agreed | |
| 22 | 110.0M | 22.0M | 9d 1h | 1,183,897 | agreed | |
| 23 | 137.6M | 27.5M | 13d 13h | 1,416,828 | agreed | |
| 24 | 172.0M | 34.4M | 18d 21h | 1,677,266 | agreed | |
| 25 | 292.4M | 58.5M | 26d 9h | 2,016,844 | agreed | |
| 26 | 409.3M | 81.9M | 36d 21h | 2,418,638 | agreed | |
| 27 | 532.1M | 106.0M | 47d 21h | 2,876,609 | states 11 and 37; the wiki says 505.5M | |
| 28 | 633.3M | 126.6M | 62d 5h | 3,418,644 | state 11 and the wiki; state 37 says 745M | |
| 29 | 1.04B | 208.9M | 80d 20h | 4,060,077 | state 37 and the wiki; state 11 says 886.6M | |
| 30 | 1.24B | 248.2M | 105d 1h | 4,818,919 | state 11 and the wiki; state 37 says 1.46B | |
| 31 | 1.27B | 254M | 2.37M | 102d 17h | 5,527,397 | state 37 only |
| 32 | 1.53B | 305M | 3.31M | 123d 6h | 6,303,584 | state 37 only |
| 33 | 1.83B | 366M | 4.31M | 147d 22h | 7,153,887 | state 37 only |
| 34 | 2.11B | 421M | 5.60M | 170d 2h | 8,065,811 | state 37 only |
| 35 | 2.42B | 485M | 6.72M | 195d 15h | 9,043,887 | state 37, and the power on a second site |
Level 1 is the first build, 6,000 wood and food. The timers agree wherever two states print them, which is every level from 24 up; where the costs split at 27 to 30 it’s the same pattern the Headquarters shows, one state’s panel reading about 15 percent above or below another’s, and the likeliest reason is a cost discount applied on one of them. Your own panel is the authority, and the timer holds either way.
HQ 2 to 30 asks for Lab 1 to 29 along the way, which is 3.6 billion wood, 3.6 billion food and 717 million Zents over about 314 days of base timer on these figures, around two-thirds of what the Headquarters itself costs across the same stretch. Lab 30, the Tier 10 gate, is another 1.24 billion and 105 days on top.
Lab No. 2, the same levels at a fraction. The second lab’s table runs the same shape at roughly one-eighth of the cost and a tenth of the time: 1.1K wood and food at level 2, 93.6K and 17.6K Zents at 10, 7.5M and 1.41M at 20, 181M and 34.0M Zents at 30 with a 14-day timer, 300M, 56.3M Zents and 756K steel at 35 with a 26-day timer. Its power is about a third of the first lab’s at every level (1,689,723 at 30 against 4,818,919). Those are the milestones of a table that runs the same shape as the one above; the shape is what matters, because the second lab is a building you can take to 30 in weeks while the first takes a year.
What each Laboratory level unlocks
The research trees open by lab level, not HQ level, though the two track each other. These are the gates as the game’s research panel lists them, read through two trackers; the three that matter most, 25, 30 and 31, are on both, the rest on one.
| Laboratory level | What opens |
|---|---|
| 1 | New Home, Shelter Building and Elite Troops, the free trees you start with |
| 8 | Hero Training (Cockpit, +20 troops per hero, sits in it) |
| 10 | Alliance Recognition and Fully Armed Alliance, once you’re in an alliance and past the first Alliance Duel |
| 16 | Military Strategies, once Elite Troops is at 100 percent |
| 18 | Peace Shield (Military Strategies at 45 percent) and Siege to Seize (Military Strategies at 15 to 40 percent, the sites split) |
| 22 | Field Research, once Siege to Seize is at 100 percent |
| 25 | Army Building (Peace Shield at 100 percent) and the Shooter, Rider and Assaulter Training trees (Field Research at 100 percent) |
| 30 | Unit Special Training, the Tier 10 tree |
| 31 | Tactical Master |
| Lab No. 2 at 30 | Steel Age, on one site’s reading; another ties it to HQ 31 |
Two gates get asked about more than the rest. Tier 10 troops need Unit Special Training, which needs Laboratory 30, which needs Headquarters 30; nothing short of that opens it, and the tree itself is 1.49 million badges once it does. And Peace Shield’s Urgent Rescue node, the one that turns a fifth of your dead into wounded, sits behind Lab 18 and 45 percent of Military Strategies, which is reachable months before anything else on this list.
When to upgrade the Laboratory, and when to stop
- Keep it one level behind the Headquarters, always. Not level with it, not three behind: one. The HQ needs it there at every level from 8 to 31, and nothing else in the base needs it higher. A lab that’s level with the HQ has spent a timer early; a lab three behind has stalled the HQ for the length of two lab timers.
- Queue it the moment an HQ level finishes. The HQ finishing at level N makes Lab N possible, and HQ N+1 needs Lab N. The lab timer at 20 is four days against the HQ’s five, and at 25 it’s 26 days against 35, so a lab queued on the day the HQ lands is done before the resources for the next HQ are.
- Hold the lab with the HQ at 27. If you’re pausing the Headquarters at 27 to let troops and research catch up, Lab 26 is where the lab stops; 27 is only needed for HQ 28. Lab 27 to 29 together is 191 days of base timer, a bill you pay when you’re ready to climb again.
- Take it to 30 for Tier 10, and then decide. Lab 30 opens Unit Special Training. Lab 31 opens Tactical Master and is the last level the Headquarters asks for; 32 to 35 raise power and nothing else on any reading, at 123 to 196 days each. A player working through the Tier 10 tree has a year of research ahead before 32 would matter.
- Build Lab No. 2 the day it unlocks, and level it when the first lab’s queue is idle. The second queue is the biggest research gain in the game that isn’t a badge. Its levels cost an eighth of the first lab’s, so they fit in the gaps, and its level 30 is a gate of its own for the Steel Age tree.
When to stop: a farm account stops the lab where it stops the Headquarters, since the lab exists on a farm only to unlock the gathering nodes in the free trees. A main account stops at 31 until Tactical Master is funded, and at 35 because that’s the cap.
How to upgrade the Laboratory faster
The lab’s timers are construction timers, so everything that speeds the Headquarters speeds the lab: Sophia’s talent and stars, the Villa’s +2 percent a level, Butler refugees, the Skillful Craftsman nodes, the second builder, alliance help on every queue. Those are on the Headquarters page and they apply here unchanged.
What’s different is that the research inside the lab has its own speed, and that’s the number to raise once the building is where it needs to be.
- The Bookstore. Research speed +2 percent a level to +60 at 30, no Zents in its costs at any level, and never an HQ prerequisite, so it’s a second-builder project from HQ 12 on.
- Scientist refugees. Deployed at the Bookstore, they add research speed and free research-completion time; an orange Scientist is the largest single step. Butlers and Scientists are the two refugee types worth spending tickets on first.
- Amelia. Her third skill speeds up research for the whole account and adds 90 minutes of free research time; she’s the research mirror of Sophia and gets levelled for the same reason.
- The free trees’ own nodes. Advanced Mathematics I and II in New Home (+5 and +10 percent), Parallel Work in Shelter Building (+2 a level to +10), carried further by HQ Management and Rapid Growth, and the Steel Age’s Parallel Work (+3 a level to +30, badges). The first three cost electricity and Zents only.
- The Minister of Research office. Where your state’s ruler hands it out, +15 percent research speed and an hour on the free-completion window.
- Timing. Hold research speedups for Alliance Duel’s Age of Science day, where every minute of speedup scores, and let long nodes finish on that day where you can.
The electricity is the other half. Badge trees cost badges and electricity and Zents; the free trees cost electricity and Zents, and electricity comes from the Wind Turbine and gathering, not from anything you’d otherwise prioritise. A base with four Wind Turbines at a reasonable level and the gathering nodes in New Home doesn’t run short; a base that skipped them runs short at exactly the nodes that matter.
Laboratory questions
What level does the Laboratory unlock at? Headquarters 7. Lab No. 2 at Headquarters 18, with the Research License.
What’s the max Laboratory level? 35, the same as the Headquarters. The Headquarters stops asking for it at 31.
Does the Headquarters need the Laboratory at every level? From HQ 8 to HQ 31, yes, one level below the HQ you’re building. HQ 32 to 35 need only their cycle building (City Walls 31, Alliance Center 32, Assaulter Camp 33, Shooter Camp 34).
What Laboratory level do I need for T10? 30, which needs HQ 30. Then the Unit Special Training tree, 1.49 million badges.
Does upgrading the Laboratory make research faster? Nothing on its panel says so, and no reading of its table carries a speed column. Research speed comes from the Bookstore, Scientists, Amelia, the research nodes and the office; the lab’s level decides which trees you can open.
What does Lab No. 2 do? A second research queue, so two nodes run at once. Its own level matters for power and for the Steel Age gate at 30; its costs are about an eighth of the first lab’s.
Is the Research License worth it? Yes, and the reason is simple: one queue runs one node, two queues run two, and the late trees are measured in hundreds of days of research time.
The Laboratory sits beside the Headquarters in the buildings guide, feeds the research guide and the Unit Special Training page when they exist, and leans on Amelia for speed, Alliance Duel for the day research scores twice, and the diamond guide for what speedups are worth buying.
