Chief Expansion · Materials

Having enough Alloy does not mean you can afford the upgrade.

Chief Gear uses four materials, but they do not arrive at the same speed — and you do not need all four from day one. The bottleneck changes as your gear grows. Knowing what each material does, where to earn more without spending, and what you will need next is the difference between building a plan and clearing red dots.

The material timeline

The bottleneck moves.

Early

Alloy + Solution

Blue ★★

Design Plans enter

Mid-game

Plans often squeeze

Late-game

Lunar Amber joins

Material by material

What it is, where it comes from, and when to stop throwing it around.

The pile that looks endless — until it isn't

Hardened Alloy

When you need it

Used from the beginning and throughout Chief Gear progression.

Ways to earn it without buying a pack

Lv.3+ Polar Terror rallies, Lv.22+ Beasts, Crazy Joe, Alliance Championship Shop, material chests and other event rewards.

Frost strategy

Alloy is the easiest of the four to accumulate naturally, which is exactly why players can end up with a mountain of it during Design Plan-heavy stages. Do not confuse a huge Alloy balance with being upgrade-ready. Later upgrades burn through much larger amounts, and the exchange can eventually turn a genuine surplus into harder-to-find materials.

The quieter recurring bottleneck

Polishing Solution

When you need it

Used alongside Alloy through much of the Chief Gear path.

Ways to earn it without buying a pack

Crazy Joe, Frostfire Mine, Alliance Championship Shop, material chests and event rewards.

Frost strategy

Solution usually arrives more slowly than Alloy. That makes it worth checking both balances before planning a run of upgrades. Once the exchange is unlocked, excess Solution can become Design Plans — but the reverse conversion is intentionally worse, so do not bounce materials back and forth.

Where progression starts making you plan

Design Plans

When you need it

Design Plans begin at Blue ★★ and remain important through higher Chief Gear progression.

Ways to earn it without buying a pack

Intel Missions and event rewards, plus shops such as Foundry, State of Power, Canyon and Alliance Championship when available for your state/progression. Tundra Trading Station and material chests can also provide them.

Frost strategy

Plans are the classic mid-game choke point. There are stretches where Alloy and Solution keep piling up while Plans control how quickly you move. They also become strategically important because 10 Plans can later be exchanged for 1 Lunar Amber. Treat them as a planned resource, not spare paper.

The late-game gate

Lunar Amber

When you need it

Required once Chief Gear enters the later Legendary/Red progression after the exchange-unlock milestone.

Ways to earn it without buying a pack

The Enhancement Material Exchange is the dependable non-pack route once unlocked; some events or special content may also offer Amber depending on current game rotation.

Frost strategy

Amber is where late Chief Gear becomes much more deliberate. The exchange rate is 10 Design Plans for 1 Amber, so every Amber conversion also spends a resource your other pieces still need. Reserve Plans for the upgrades you are actually chasing before converting the leftovers.

Enhancement Material Exchange

One deliberate push changes your material economy.

Upgrade one Chief Gear piece to Mythic T2 ★★★ to unlock the Enhancement Material Exchange.

This is a legitimate reason to let one piece run ahead temporarily: you are unlocking a permanent conversion system that can turn a real surplus into the material blocking your progression.

You spendYou receiveLimit*

10 Design Plans→ 1 Lunar Amber500

1 Design Plan→ 3 Polishing Solution500

1 Design Plan→ 300 Hardened Alloy500

10 Polishing Solution→ 1 Design Plan50

1 Polishing Solution→ 50 Hardened Alloy1,000

1,000 Hardened Alloy→ 1 Design Plan50

200 Hardened Alloy→ 1 Polishing Solution500

*Limits shown are from an in-game exchange shop captured September 2026. Check your own shop for the current counter and reset timer.

Do not play material ping-pong

The exchange is intentionally lossy.

One Design Plan gives you 300 Alloy. Buying that Plan back costs 1,000 Alloy. One Plan gives 3 Solution; buying one Plan costs 10 Solution. Convert to solve a confirmed shortage, not because one pile looks annoyingly large.

Event warning

Exchanging is not the same thing as upgrading.

Material conversions have reset limits and do not count as Chief Gear material consumption for event missions. If you are banking materials for SvS Prep or another Chief Gear scoring window, converting them does not replace the points from actually completing the upgrade.

Okay, but what if I spend?

Packs buy time. Compare the material you are actually short on.

Pack names, contents, prices and “value” percentages can rotate. These are real $4.99 examples captured in September 2026 — not a promise that your shop will always show the same offer.

$4.99 example

Chief Gear Tool Pack

15 Polishing Solution + 1,500 Hardened Alloy, plus the pack's other items

$4.99 example

Chief Gear Enhancement

20 Design Plans + 9 Polishing Solution + 900 Hardened Alloy, plus the pack's other items

$4.99 example

Lunar Amber Pack

5 Lunar Amber, plus the pack's other items

Frost rule: ignore the giant VALUE % sticker.

If you spend, compare packs by the bottleneck you are trying to solve. Five Amber can be more useful to an Amber-blocked account than a much larger-looking pile of Alloy. A pack is only “better” if its useful materials move your actual upgrade plan.

Before spending materials

Check the whole upgrade path.

1.What material blocks the next upgrade?

2.What blocks the upgrade after that?

3.Are you close to a 3-piece Defense or 6-piece Attack set threshold?

4.Are you close enough to the exchange unlock to justify a one-piece push?

5.If you convert materials, have you reserved what the other pieces still need?

6.Can the actual upgrade score in an upcoming event?

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