Raising Alcatraz for Maximum Benefit

Alcatraz is without a doubt the #1 game changer for anyone who is in a GvG based guild, regardless of if you are fighting or farming. The reason being that having Traz means you can both fight extensively, or you can be far more effective at laying DAs if you’re not a fighter. This single GB is the key to sustained work on the maps, because troops are not something you can just easily get, even with the addition of GE. GE helps, for sure, but you’re limited on how many you can earn a week, whereas Traz will just keep plopping troops out for you.

In addition, Traz works off your guild level, in that you don’t have to wait 24hrs for it to produce like with other GBs. Traz will benefit from the reduced recruitment time just like your other troop barracks, so if you’re the kind of person who times it just right (or your guild is of high enough level), you may get to collect it twice in one day without the benefit of double-dipping as you level! That’s never a bad thing!

While Arc is definitely the most powerful GB in the game (so far) because of how it changes the way you can earn FPs, medals, and BPs; Traz is far more effective for actually playing the game. Leveling GBs is all well and good, but at the end of the day, what does that leave? Some people really enjoy the grinding aspects of games, but if that’s not you then Arc is going to be just a tool and Traz will quickly become the GB you love the most. The most interactive part of the game, aside from the community within it, is fighting and trading. As far as fighting is concerned, Traz is it. This GB makes or breaks your fighting game, especially on the GvG maps.

So, if you’re reading this, then you likely have Traz, and you either like to fight or want to farm troops for DAs–doesn’t matter which–and you want to take it well beyond level 10. This is especially so because it isn’t until level 12 that you’re making 10 troops a day, and at level 52 you’ll be up to 50 troops a day. Now, if you fight in GvG, you know that you can go through 50 rogues without blinking just one day on the maps, if not more than that. Depends on how many fighters are on, and the number of sectors you’re after. It’s easy to see how without a powerful Traz you will be out of the fight before you know it.

There are two ways to level Traz, just like with Arc. First, you’ll probably want to prep in a group of three with a Power Arc. If you haven’t read the Arc Prep article to see how that works, now’s a good time to go read it. If you are familiar with Arc Prep, then this is just a brief re-cap.

Essentially, three of you will form a group to level your Traz one at a time. You can either always take a certain spot on a certain person, or you can alternate. We’ll call the members of the group A, B, and C. So your options are:

A takes 2 on B, and 3 on C always
B takes 2 on C, and 3 on A always
C takes 2 on A, and 3 on B always
-or-
A takes 2 on B, and 3 on C; then takes 2 on C and 3 on B, alternating each time
B takes 2 on C, and 3 on A; then takes 2 on A and 3 on C, alternating each time
C takes 2 on A, and 3 on B; then takes 2 on B and 3 on A, alternating each time

Either way will work. The goal here is to raise your Traz in a timely manner, while not over-spending FPs, and earning BPs to keep you going from level to level. Ideally you’ll have people with similar FP incomes to do this, so that no one falls too far behind.

First place will always be taken with a Power Arc that’s 80+ at their non-profit rate, because this speeds things up significantly. The loss of 1 BP here and there to increase the rate at which you level is huge. Especially because unlike Arc, Traz is a lot more difficult to level. The Return-on-Investment (ROI) isn’t there in the rewards to make it easy to level. You can see this because unlike Arc, at no point will 1/2/3 be a clean lock (three Power Arcs can come in and lock their spots with no self-investment by the GB holder).

In addition, with only a few mates in the group you’re protecting yourself from potential snipers, and you’re leaving some spots open on the cheap for fellow guild mates to earn some BPs if they either don’t have Traz, or just need extras. Likely, you’ll need extras from these slots on other mates anyways, because you’re going to want to aim for a minimum of level 52, and that takes 53 full sets of BPs to achieve (1 set to get to 10, and then a full set for each level beyond that).

Unlike some swap groups, you won’t be posting your daily amount. Instead, you’re going to donate until you reach your donation point, as dictated in the table called “Traz Prep Group Reference” below. It should be noted though, that this table does not take into account if you hold a Power Arc, so if you’re in a guild that requires you to be 0 profit, you may need to increase your donation amount to make that happen (and with the latest update, you can see that by hovering over the reward).

The prepping groups are great, but at some point you will outgrow them. If you have a Power Arc, this may be sooner than without, but the recommended time to start getting locks and doing this like the speed run for Arc (another article you’ll want to be familiar with) is around level 30. This is where it gets relatively inexpensive to self-level, where 1/2/3 can be taken by Level 80 Arcs at 1.9 easily, so that you can go even faster. There is a point where you can get some 1/2 clean locks with a 1.9 rate, and those will be the easiest of all the levels. Again, unfortunately unlike Arc, Traz is much harder to level and at no point is 3 able to be clean-locked.

Referencing the table called “Traz Power Run Reference” will show you what it takes to get locks outside of a prep group, and it will overlap with the first table making it easier to determine when you are ready to make the transition.

As a fighter it’s never too early to think about Traz, but it should be noted that for the first few levels (even though they’re included), you really don’t need the prepping group. They should be fairly simple to get taken care of without one. But around level 5 or so you may want to consider finding two other mates and starting the prep work.

These tables only go to level 80, but you can take Traz as high as you want. It will continue to get more expensive to do so, but just think… if you get to level 102, that’s 100 troops a day. That’s a lot of troops. 52 is a sweet spot and a good goal, but the higher you go, the more effectively you can sustain fighting or laying DAs.

As far as DAs go, a level 66 Traz will start bringing in 64 troops a day, and 64 troops will completely fill one sector in GvG to defend it. Since Traz will give you a mix of whatever racks you have down (attached to roads and built or not), that would mean that you would be extremely effective at helping your guild keep the sectors that fighters fought to take. That’s some pretty powerful stuff!

So again, regardless of if you’re using Traz to get troops (rogues most likely) for intense fighting in GvG, or to gather a lot of troops to plant DAs (if you don’t fight), it is absolutely beneficial to take it beyond level 10. It helps to have your trifecta well-leveled already, but there is nothing wrong with pausing your trifecta once it hit’s an appropriate level for a fighting town of your current era to work on Traz. And if you hit a point where you need to pause on Traz to gather more BPs for it, or because you’ve aged up an era and need to work on your trifecta to be effective as a fighter again, you can absolutely do that. Balance is important, too.

Finally, an unintended side-effect of leveling Traz like this means you’ll probably never have to worry about happiness, again. Hooray for that! Happy leveling!

Traz Prep Group Reference
Arc donation at 1.9
Reminder for those with a Power Arc to make sure you’re not profiting if that is a guild rule, these rates may not reflect that.

Traz Power Run Reference
Arc donation at 1.9