Last War: Survival – Iron Mine Guide & Tips

The Iron Mine in Last War: Survival is a base resource building that passively produces Iron. Your first Iron Mine becomes available at Headquarters level 2, and upgrading it increases hourly production, building power, and the amount of time the mine can produce before its storage fills.

At level 30, an Iron Mine produces a base 33,840 Iron per hour and stores up to 12 hours of production. Age of Oil progression raises the building cap to level 35, where output reaches 39,600 Iron per hour. The 12-hour production limit does not increase after level 30.

How the Iron Mine Works in Last War

The Iron Mine generates Iron automatically inside your base. Once production reaches the building’s storage limit, it stops accumulating additional Iron until you collect the stored resources.

Iron is one of the game’s core development resources and is consumed heavily by building upgrades and research. Costs become especially large at higher Headquarters levels, so base production provides a useful steady supply even though it will not cover every late-game expense by itself.

The Iron Mine unlocks when your Headquarters reaches level 2. As your HQ rises, you can continue raising your resource buildings within the available building-level cap. The Last War Headquarters upgrade guide covers the requirements for advancing your base further.

Last War Iron Mine Upgrade Costs: Levels 1–30

Each Iron Mine upgrade increases its base hourly production and power. Maximum production time also rises by eight minutes per level until reaching 12 hours at level 30.

The figures below are reference base values. Construction-cost reductions and other account bonuses can make the resources or time shown on your own upgrade screen different, so always confirm the final requirement in-game before opening large resource reserves.

Level	Iron	Food	Coin	Upgrade Time	Power	Iron/hr	Max Production
1	5	15	—	1s	600	1,440	8h 8m
2	75	230	—	12s	1,200	2,160	8h 16m
3	340	1,000	—	47s	1,800	3,600	8h 24m
4	840	2,500	—	1m 57s	2,400	4,320	8h 32m
5	1,700	5,100	—	2m 56s	3,000	5,760	8h 40m
6	5,100	15,000	—	5m 51s	3,600	6,480	8h 48m
7	10,000	30,000	—	11m 42s	4,200	7,920	8h 56m
8	16,000	49,000	—	23m 24s	4,800	9,360	9h 4m
9	26,000	78,000	17,000	32m 46s	5,400	10,080	9h 12m
10	31,000	93,000	20,000	42m 36s	6,000	11,520	9h 20m
11	78,000	230,000	50,000	55m 22s	6,700	12,240	9h 28m
12	130,000	400,000	85,000	1h 11m 59s	7,600	13,680	9h 36m
13	150,000	440,000	93,000	1h 33m 34s	8,500	14,400	9h 44m
14	200,000	610,000	130,000	2h 1m 39s	9,600	15,840	9h 52m
15	290,000	860,000	180,000	2h 50m 18s	10,900	17,280	10h
16	510,000	1,500,000	320,000	3h 58m 25s	12,500	18,000	10h 8m
17	660,000	2,000,000	420,000	5h 33m 47s	14,400	19,440	10h 16m
18	1,200,000	3,500,000	740,000	7h 47m 17s	16,900	20,160	10h 24m
19	1,400,000	4,200,000	890,000	10h 54m 12s	19,600	21,600	10h 32m
20	2,500,000	7,500,000	1,600,000	15h 15m 52s	23,200	23,040	10h 40m
21	3,500,000	10,000,000	2,200,000	19h 50m 38s	27,400	23,760	10h 48m
22	4,500,000	14,000,000	2,900,000	1d 1h 47m 49s	32,300	25,200	10h 56m
23	5,700,000	17,000,000	3,600,000	1d 9h 32m 9s	37,700	25,920	11h 4m
24	7,100,000	21,000,000	4,500,000	1d 22h 57m 1s	43,700	27,360	11h 12m
25	12,000,000	36,000,000	7,700,000	2d 17h 43m 49s	51,500	28,080	11h 20m
26	17,000,000	51,000,000	11,000,000	3d 20h 1m 20s	60,800	29,520	11h 28m
27	22,000,000	66,000,000	14,000,000	5d 8h 49m 52s	71,400	30,960	11h 36m
28	31,000,000	92,000,000	20,000,000	7d 12h 21m 48s	84,000	31,680	11h 44m
29	43,000,000	130,000,000	28,000,000	10d 3h	98,900	33,120	11h 52m
30	60,000,000	180,000,000	39,000,000	13d 6h	116,400	33,840	12h

Iron Mine Production and Storage Explained

Hourly production determines how quickly a mine generates Iron, while maximum production time determines how long that Iron can accumulate without collection.

For example, a level 30 Iron Mine has a base output of 33,840 Iron per hour and a 12-hour production window. If it runs for a complete cycle without other modifiers, that represents up to 406,080 base Iron before collection is needed.

A level 35 mine produces 39,600 per hour. Since its maximum production time remains 12 hours, a full base cycle represents 475,200 Iron.

Production bonuses can make your actual output higher than these base values, but the main rule remains the same: once the storage cycle is full, leaving the resources uncollected means losing potential future production.

Iron Mine vs. World Map Iron Mines

There are two different Iron systems that players may refer to as an “Iron Mine.”

• Base Iron Mine: A building inside your base that continuously generates Iron until its production storage fills.
• World Map Iron Mine: A gathering resource tile where you dispatch a squad to collect Iron over time.

World Map gathering is separate from your base production. Gathering can also be useful during activities that award points for collecting resources, while the base mine provides passive income without occupying a marching squad.

How to Increase Iron Mine Production

Upgrade the Mine

The most direct method is simply raising the building level. Base production rises from 1,440 Iron per hour at level 1 to 33,840 at level 30 and 39,600 at level 35.

Assign Useful Survivors

Survivors assigned to production buildings can provide economic bonuses. When you have survivors with suitable production effects, place stronger options where they generate the most value instead of leaving production-building survivor slots unmanaged.

Because survivor quality and bonuses vary by account, check the actual production increase shown in your building rather than assuming that every Iron Mine will produce the same amount after bonuses.

Use Rapid Production When Available

The Engineer profession includes Rapid Production, which can instantly grant several hours of production from in-base Food, Iron, and Coin buildings. Its value rises when your resource buildings and production bonuses are already well developed.

Profession availability and progression depend on your server’s seasonal stage, so this is a supplemental production method rather than something early-game accounts should plan around.

Collect Before Storage Fills

Upgrading production is wasted if the mine repeatedly sits at maximum capacity. The collection window gradually increases as the mine levels, reaching 12 hours at level 30 and remaining at 12 hours through level 35.

If you normally log in once in the morning and once in the evening, higher-level mines fit that schedule well. More active players can collect whenever convenient, as long as they avoid extended periods beyond the cap.

Iron Mine Levels 31–35

After Season 2, the Age of Oil system eventually raises the Headquarters and normal building cap from 30 to 35. Access to the Age of Oil research tree currently requires a level 30 Tech Center and at least 40% completion of Special Forces research. The HQ Expansion research later enables Headquarters and other buildings to progress beyond level 30.

The Last War Season 2 guide covers the seasonal progression leading into this stage, while the Tech Center guide can help with the building progression required to reach it.

Although these levels are unlocked through the Age of Oil, current reference tables do not list Oil as a direct resource cost for Iron Mine upgrades from level 31 to 35. They continue to use Iron, Food, and Coin.

Level	Iron	Food	Coin	Power	Iron/hr	Max Production
31	79,000,000	240,000,000	51,000,000	136,500	35,280	12h
32	100,000,000	310,000,000	65,000,000	159,300	36,000	12h
33	130,000,000	380,000,000	82,000,000	184,800	37,440	12h
34	150,000,000	450,000,000	97,000,000	212,400	38,880	12h
35	180,000,000	530,000,000	110,000,000	242,300	39,600	12h

Should You Max the Iron Mine?

The answer depends on your progression stage and available resources.

Early Game

Iron Mine upgrades are inexpensive and finish quickly, so keeping them reasonably close to your available building cap is useful. The extra passive resources accumulate over time and help support early Headquarters and research costs.

Mid Game

Production remains useful, but Headquarters prerequisites and military development become more expensive. At this point, avoid consuming the resources or construction queue needed for an important progression gate just to add another small amount of hourly Iron.

Late Game and F2P

Late upgrades become much harder to justify based on production alone. Going from level 30 to 35 provides more power and raises hourly output, but the resource investment is very large. F2P players should generally complete higher-priority Headquarters, research, troop, and prerequisite-building investments before maxing every resource building.

Spenders and Highly Developed Accounts

Accounts with abundant resource reserves or fewer urgent progression bottlenecks can upgrade Iron Mines more aggressively. Passive production becomes more valuable when multiplied across developed resource buildings and strengthened by survivor or other economic bonuses.

Best Iron Mine Upgrade Tips

• Collect regularly: Do not allow the production timer to remain full for long periods.
• Plan around your Headquarters: Check upcoming HQ requirements before committing large resource reserves to production buildings.
• Keep Food production healthy: Iron Mine upgrades consume substantially more Food than Iron. Maintain your Farmland so Food does not become the unexpected blocker.
• Do not neglect Coin: Coin enters Iron Mine upgrade costs at level 9 and becomes increasingly expensive later. The Gold Mine guide covers passive Coin production.
• Use your best production survivors: Review survivor assignments as your roster improves rather than leaving early-game workers permanently assigned.
• Use alliance help on longer upgrades: Request assistance after beginning construction. The Alliance Support Hub guide explains how the help system develops.
• Time upgrades around useful events: If current events reward building power or construction activity, completing planned upgrades during the appropriate scoring window can provide extra value. Check the Last War Event Hub guide when planning major builds.
• Save speedups for worthwhile timers: Low-level Iron Mine upgrades finish quickly. Longer late-game construction competes with more important Headquarters and Tech Center projects for your speedups.

How the Iron Mine Fits Into Your Resource Economy

Iron should be managed alongside Food and Coin rather than in isolation. An Iron Mine upgrade itself often costs roughly three times as much Food as Iron, while many other important buildings require large quantities of both resources.

Before beginning a major Headquarters push, calculate the resources needed not only for the HQ but also for its prerequisite buildings. This prevents a common problem where players spend their reserve on optional production upgrades and then discover that the next required Tech Center or Wall upgrade costs far more than expected.

Resource chests are also more flexible than already-opened resources because you can use them when a specific resource becomes the bottleneck. Avoid opening more than you need for the current upgrade if you expect another expensive project soon.

For players who prefer starting with established infrastructure instead of progressing every resource building from the early game, Heaven Guardian also lists Last War accounts for sale as an optional progression path. Players developing their own base should focus primarily on efficient resource planning and keeping construction priorities aligned with the next major unlock.

Common Iron Mine Mistakes

• Letting storage stay full: Once the production limit is reached, additional passive Iron is lost until you collect.
• Maxing resource buildings before progression blockers: Extra hourly Iron rarely compensates for delaying a key Headquarters or Tech Center upgrade.
• Ignoring Food costs: Iron Mine upgrades require significantly more Food than Iron at many levels.
• Assuming Age of Oil means every upgrade costs Oil: Current level 31–35 Iron Mine tables list Iron, Food, and Coin, but no direct Oil requirement.
• Confusing base production with map gathering: Your city Iron Mine and World Map Iron resource tiles are separate systems.
• Leaving survivor assignments untouched: Production-focused survivors can improve the value of your resource buildings as your roster develops.

FAQs

When does the Iron Mine unlock in Last War?

The first Iron Mine becomes available at Headquarters level 2. It then produces Iron passively inside your base.

What is the maximum Iron Mine level?

The currently verified maximum is level 35. Levels above 30 become available through post-Season 2 Age of Oil progression and HQ Expansion research.

How much Iron does a level 35 Iron Mine produce?

A level 35 Iron Mine has a base production rate of 39,600 Iron per hour. With a 12-hour maximum production cycle, that equals 475,200 base Iron between collections before additional production bonuses are considered.

Do Iron Mine levels 31–35 require Oil?

Current building-cost references do not list Oil as a direct upgrade cost for Iron Mine levels 31–35. These levels are unlocked through Age of Oil progression, but the upgrades themselves are listed as requiring Iron, Food, and Coin.

What happens when an Iron Mine reaches maximum capacity?

The mine stops accumulating additional Iron until you collect its stored production. The maximum production window reaches 12 hours at level 30 and remains 12 hours through level 35.

Should I upgrade the Iron Mine or Headquarters first?

Prioritize Headquarters and required prerequisite buildings when an Iron Mine upgrade would delay an important unlock. Resource buildings are valuable, especially early on, but late-game mine upgrades have a much slower return from passive production alone.

Conclusion

The Last War Iron Mine provides dependable passive Iron, but efficient progression is about balancing production against the cost of upgrading the mine itself. Collect before storage fills, use strong production survivors, keep Food and Coin generation healthy, and avoid delaying critical Headquarters or Tech Center upgrades simply to maximize hourly output.

For more resource, building, event, and progression strategies, browse our Last War Survival guides.