Source of: Where to start: clinic, lab and research

← Where to start: clinic, lab and research

**Where to start** in Last Asylum: Plague on a fresh server comes down to a handful of early
decisions that are expensive to undo later. The clinic and the Research Lab have to stay ahead of
the Sanctuary, the first hero shards are best saved for Arthur, and the early research branches
buy Might more cheaply than anything else. The sections below take those decisions in order and
close with a list of what unlocks at each Sanctuary level.

Current for game version 1.0.87, checked on 31 August 2026.

## The clinic from day one

[[sanctuary|Sanctuary]] levels require clinic stars, and stars accumulate slowly and cannot be
sped up. A postponed clinic turns into a wall in a place where nothing warned of a delay.

## Keep the lab one step ahead

The [[building-research-lab|Research Lab]] is first required at Sanctuary level eleven, which
asks for a lab of level seven. From level twelve to level thirty it sits one level below the
target. Keeping it ahead is cheaper than halting construction later and waiting for the lab to
finish.

## The first research node

The game itself marks a recommended first node, and it gives construction speed: cheap to take
and applied to every building that follows. Then come the early Development and Economy
branches, which buy Might an order of magnitude cheaper than the rest,
see [[research-priority|priorities]].

## The scale of the road

Getting to Sanctuary level seventeen costs roughly 250 million resources and 425 hours of pure
construction on a single queue. Hence the value of extra queues and alliance help,
see [[time-and-queues|speed-ups and queues]].

## The hero cap

Hero level is capped by the Sanctuary: from level five the cap sits at five times the Sanctuary
level, before that it stays at 5 for three levels and jumps to 15 at the fourth. Experience banks
up in the meantime, so pushing the [[campaign|campaign]] is worth it even when heroes have
already reached their cap.

## Who to spend shards on

On [[hero-arthur|Arthur]]. The base pool's guarantee gives him and no one else, and he also sits
in the guarantees of all four hero pools, so his shards pile up on their own for anyone who
recruits at all. No other hero can be farmed through a guarantee,
see [[hero-sources|where heroes come from]].

## The starter squad

The publisher's official guide suggests a starter five of Arthur and Bella in the front row and
Marlena, Claire and Celia in the back, with Marlena developed first and the fourth star treated as
the first big goal. All five are warriors, so the squad gets the full +20% faction bonus. In the
[[hero-teams|Teams]] model this five ranks 26,493rd of 169,911 possible squads across the whole
roster, but among squads without UR heroes other than Arthur and Marlena it trails the best one
by about 4%: the best such squad, Arthur, Lucius, Sivir, Bella and Marlena, differs by two heroes.
The advice about Marlena matches the fact that she is the only UR who accumulates for free, see
[[hero-teams|budget squads]]. The four-star threshold is not verified on this wiki.

## What pays most in the first days

Four sources give noticeably more than the rest early on, and none of them costs anything.

- **The exploration chain** around the city: 153 one-time steps including 145 recruit tickets,
  the first at step four, see [[exploration|the chain]].
- **The quiz**: 15 questions paying 10 diamonds for a correct answer and 5 for a wrong one,
  so entering is worth it even on guesses, see [[quiz|the quiz]].
- **Hunting rat hordes**: recruit tickets for energy that regenerates anyway, see [[hunting|hunting]].
- **Squads**: the second unlocks at Sanctuary 8 and the third at 20. Until the second squad every
  march waits its turn, so the eighth level changes the pace noticeably.

## What unlocks by Sanctuary level

New features do not appear at every Sanctuary level, and the table gathers the levels where
something noticeable opens.

| Level | What appears |
|---|---|
| 3 | castle skins, match-three |
| 4 | first squad, campaign, alliance, bag, mail, VIP, missions |
| 5 | daily missions, online reward |
| 8 | second squad, leaderboards, to-do list |
| 9 | treasure maps, second workbench |
| 10 | escort and alliance caravan, presents |
| 15 | entry to the Elixir Race, raven gear |
| 20 | third squad, gear stars |
| 30 | tier ten troops (plus a separate technology) |

The full list, with the building each feature hangs off, sits on its own page,
[[unlocks|Unlocks]].

## Where not to rush

Top levels of production buildings never pay back through production alone, and they are taken
for Might and for requirements. Hiring troops also buys Might cheaply, but that Might dies
with the soldiers, see [[power|Might]].

## FAQ

**What should be built first?** The clinic, see "The clinic from day one".

**When is the Research Lab needed?** First at Sanctuary level eleven, see "Keep the lab one step
ahead".

**Who gets the first hero shards?** Arthur, see "Who to spend shards on".

**When does the second squad open?** At Sanctuary level eight, and the third at twenty, see "What
pays most in the first days".

The [build calculator](/en/wiki/build-calc) assembles the upgrade order from day one: from the building levels it shows what the next Sanctuary level is missing and where to put speedups.

## Related pages

- [[sanctuary|Sanctuary]]
- [[research-priority|Research priorities]]
- [[unlocks|Unlocks]]
- [[daily-routine|Daily routine]]
- [Build calculator](/en/wiki/build-calc)