Make sure to obtain the green right column season skills that reward EXP for killing monsters and upgrading structures. This ensures you get Profession EXP for all your kills and upgrades. Double Exchange and Professional Insights are also recommended pickups. Top Up EXP is likely good pick up as well, especially for those who want to start banking Alliance Season Contribution points and get some extra Profession EXP from doing so.
The Protector's Oath (Instantly obtain XX highest level Desert Protectors), Indomitable Will (When Desert Protectors die during a march X%, of them regroup back at the base), and Explosive Enhancement (The Desert Protector's Death Shockwave ratio is increased) profession skills have been removed for S4. The Fragile Spell and Shrinking Spell profession skills are the two available Protector-related skills. I consider Shrinking Spell to be in the fun, non-essential category. Fragile Spell could have situational tactical use, but I don't think there will be enough game-changing situations to pick it up for the early game. I plan on skipping both for these for the PvE progression phase.
I intend to fully engage with the Blood Night Hunter PvP events and plan on using 4 points to pick up the 3 Blood Night Hunter skills and Lightfall even though the Blood Night Hunter skills cannot be used in the first week. Ultimately this is up to you on whether you find them useful. Try to avoid using a Profession Skill Reset Book later over these skills by leaving a few points unspent until you decide.
Flare gives you another option to illuminate land, but comes with a 47.5 hour cooldown. The right column skills above Flare are not skillable until later in the season.
Disruption Mine will allow you to break the armor of an Oniwagon in Blood Night Stage 2.
Save a Profession Reset Book for later. Once PvE progression is over and the season shifts to more of a PvP focus, swapping some skills around could make sense to help you and your alliance out for the battles.
Note: Changes were made for S4 Wave 2 Servers. Blood Night Hunter skills are not skillable until Week 2. Lightfall requires Lab 15. There is a delay on Flare as well.
If you are only purchasing the Season Pass, same as above. Snag it first so you get credit for the work you are putting in to unlock the pass tiers faster.
Reminder that once the donation threshold has been reached, every player needs to go and collect the chests within the Season 4 → Week 1 interface to unlock the Lab and the Workshop.
Upgrading the two structures to Level 10 will not consume any Stone/Quartz. The Level 11 upgrade will require a Level 35 Optoelectronic Lab (and season rss). This is a very quick and easy way to get some Season Pass credit. This structure will start to provide HP/ATK/DEF buffs to your Protectors at Level 11.
To push Zombie and Doom Elite progression, utilize your Lighthouse to temporarily increase Virus Resistance for yourself and your allies.
IF A PLAYER TURNS ON THEIR LIGHTHOUSE, ANY BASES WITHIN THE ILLUMINATION RANGE OF THAT BASE WILL RECEIVE THEIR LIGHTHOUSE BUFF.
There will be tons of moments where playing solo and cranking up your Lighthouse L3 for a quick progression kill makes sense. However, I would recommend building habits early on to change the perspective of all alliance members to the Lighthouse being a shared alliance resource. For example, if everyone goes into the Blood Night Descends events with a solo mentality, you could in theory have entire alliance turn on their Lighthouse at the start of the event and everyone in recharging minutes into the event. The optimal scenario would be communication across the team to stagger members turning on their Lighthouse and using the brightness range so nearby bases can obtain the buffs. Once the initial bases run out of power, another base within each cluster can power theirs on.
Illuminate your marches to negate Darkness effects (Monsters are 50% stronger if you don't). You can ask alliance members to send electricians to your base to temporarily increase your power. This can extend the time your Lighthouse can powered on or can help you recharge faster if you are out of power.
Note: Additional VR can be obtained through the Weekly Pass (+250 VR), Protectors (+250 VR), and another +250 VR for use in Blood Night can be obtained once the Divine Tree is unlocked. Tactics Cards are also available, but the skills with a cooldown will likely be better utilized for Strongholds for the early season.
Ideally, some of the season structures will be unlocked while farming, which will allow you to push a little further from the increased Virus Resistance and Illuminating Path on your marches to negate Darkness effects.
UPGRADE YOUR QUARTZ WORKSHOPS BEFORE YOU COLLECT YOUR QUARTZ!
This is a very easy to to get some extra Quartz. If you upgrade your Workshop(s) BEFORE collecting your Quartz, you will reap the benefit of the production upgrade immediately.
Turn on your Lighthouse to begin collecting Season 4->Goals progress. You may need to perform some power management until you unlock the second Zombie-powered Generator (Optoelectronic Lab reaches Level 5) and/or your Alliance Center is completed.
The completed Alliance Center will initially provide 600 power to bases within the border.
This event takes place every 8 hours at 8:30AM, 4:30PM, and 12:30AM Eastern Time. Stage 1 of this event provides a second set of more powerful Doom Elites & Zombies that give another set of First Blood Stone/Quartz rewards. You also get a currency (Magatama) which can be used in the Magatama Shop to snag additional Quartz, Legendary Tactics Pack, Purple Overlord Supply Chests, Training Certifcates, Iron/Food/Gold, and Speeds (similar to the S3 shop).
The event cranks power usage to 18,000/min (even more if you are participating) so anyone who isn't online for the event will notice that their Lighthouse is no longer powered on the next time they login.
After completing everything you can, check to see how much Quartz your Lab needs to upgrade. Calculate the Quartz per hour from your Workshops and any additional Quartz gain (i.e. Season 4 -> Goals Rewards). Set an alarm for when you will have enough Quartz to upgrade. Login when the alarm goes off, upgrade the Lab, get more Zombie and Doom Elite First Bloods, upgrade anything else you can. Recalculate, set another alarm, and do it all over again.
Blood Night is all about maximizing speed, power management, progression during the 30 minute event. Once you turn on your Lighthouse, it will start burning 18,000 power/minute. For Stage 1 Difficulty of the event, you will focus on Small Zombie and Doom Elite First Bloods for Stone/Quartz to upgrade your Lab and Workshops and acquiring the Magatama currency to begin clearing out the Magatama Market.
This event takes place every 8 hours at 8:30AM, 4:30PM, and 12:30AM Eastern Time. If you know you cannot make the event, please help the players that are able to participate by doing the following:
Turn off your Lighthouse and dispatch max Electricians that your power input can handle to the Virus Resistance leaders that will be active during the event. This will allow the alliance as a whole to make more progression during the 30 minute window. As soon as the event goes live, your Lighthouse will start burning 18,000 power/min even if you are not logged in and your Lighthouse will shut off during the event. This gives you a way to help the alliance even if you can't make it.
I am going to break down the event into parts:
Kill as many Zombies and Doom Elites with your Lighthouse OFF (to conserve power). For the first event, you may want to use your first and second squad to get more done until you hit a progression wall. Illuminate the marches to negate the Darkness effects on the monsters.
Note: The devs patched to make monsters much more aggressive in hitting bases. If you are playing in a group, Lighthouse coverage from another base will keep you safe, but if you are playing solo you can turn on your Lighthouse to prevent damage.
Obtain the Level 3 Brightness (30,000 power/min, +250 VR) buff either through your Lighthouse or an alliance member. Start a rally (with illuminate ON) then turn your Lighthouse OFF. At this point in time, the game saves your VR after the rally has been launched. Repeat for progression on Zombies and Doom Elites. Time is ticking due to the immense power drain, so try to get as much done as possible during these windows.
If you are being "carried" by a big through Blood Night Doom Elites, send an electrician to the player helping you or the player who is providing the Lighthouse buff for your big. Be sure to illuminate your march/rally.
As mentioned above, reinforce your Alliance Center on return marches to speed up their return.
If you have not looted your 5 Tactics Card Chests, continue to kill small zombies in your VR range with illuminated marches (drop rate is increased during Blood Night). Assist with City Oni Generals if any are still up. Once you have completed progression, dispatch your Electricians to players that are still actively progressing in the event.
Remember to turn your Lighthouse back on after the event is over.
I would suggest the alliance have a quick chat on how these will be handled (unlocks additional Magatama for the alliance). Nothing wrong with winging the event, but if you do come up with a system, slot it into whatever part below that makes sense. You will get pop-up notifications in the bottom right of the game interface when they are up. You can also go to Alliance->Alliance City to see all spawned Generals. However, by the time these are released, you will have most of the event free to take them down.
Note: Optimal strategy will change as the stages unlock.