Allies: Making friends

There are two reasons to make allies. First, they send you gifts. When you're starting the game, it's pretty good to have people send you that Desert AK-47 or the Secret Society Ring; they are better than the weapons that you can buy, and will help you in battles or wars. Second, in PvP War (also called Invade), you get to equip as many allies as you have, so it makes a weak guy stronger, through strength in numbers.

The Allies page is reached from a link in the menu at the bottom of the main page. It has two tabs: HIRE ALLIES and YOUR ALLIES. They are somewhat self-explanatory, but the YOUR ALLIES page has a box to enter army codes for new allies.

You can make allies in several ways. In no particular order:

• Buy 'em. You can do this by hiring them from the allies page, or by clicking "add ally" while viewing their profile page. They cost game dollars, which are commonly referred to as $. This is not the same thing as real world dollars. If you're ever confused about whether you're using real dollars or game dollars, just try to notice if you are asked for the password for your appleID. That's a hint that you're using real money. 
• Watch the world chat. Many players post their army codes here. I find that it's easier to write down 30-40 codes than it is to try to remember one long enough to enter it, but you might like to do just that. 
• Post in world chat. You don't have to say, "Add me," or "Daily gifter." Just post your army code in world chat. Be mindful that world chat requires chat tokens. If you don't have any, you won't be able to chat there. I have bought several promo packs that included 50 world chat tokens, but I have never seen my chat token balance, and am not sure how to find out. NOTE: there is an achievement for posting to world chat five times: you get one Favor Point. Some players do that all at once. I think it's better to space them out, because your code is more likely to be viewed by different players. 
• Find them online. There are several websites you can use to find army codes. This works if you use a desktop or laptop for your browser, because you can view the codes as you enter them on the allies page. 
• Underworldempireforums.com - this is the first place you'd go for UWE info [link] (This is the place where I've had the most success by posting my own code, too.)
• FTSmilitia.blogspot.com - lots of good information here [link] 
• Clancodes - a site for codes for many games [link]
• Accept ally requests from people who want to be your ally.

But there's a salient difference, when you are viewing someone's profile page, between the two most common ways to add an ally. If you click the "Add Ally" button, the game will send them an ally request from you, but it will cost you game cash. When you start the game, this is small, as little as $100 at the beginning. As you level up, this cost becomes prohibitive. At level 60, this costs about $80,000.

But you have an alternative. In their profile, in the top right corner of the screen, players have a "profile message." It starts out saying "add me to your army." But players can change this to whatever profound statement they'd like to make. It's a common practice to put YOUR army code in your profile. So, if you see one on someone else's profile, you can write it down or try to remember it, go to the allies page, and type it in. You'll have the ally immediately, and it won't cost you any dollars, regardless of what level you've reached in the game.

How many allies do you need? Well, you'll have to decide. 

• The game limits you to 1500, so you might not want to set your goal higher than that. 
• The fifth seat in your Inner Circle of Lieutenants is filled if you have 500 allies (and the other 4 seats are filled, they each have conditions).
• When you War (this is PvP war, not EvE war) or Invade, your power includes a combination of your equipment and the number of allies you have, up to 500 allies. 
• Some LT's will increase that limit. Cesar adds a handful. Sin adds 40 or more. 

A FEW THOUGHTS ABOUT WAR AND ALLIES

In war, the power formula is calculated by your own attack and defense statistics, the attack and defense of your lieutenants, and the gear you can provide for your allies. 

If you are an LSI build, you'll be very weak. Your own attack and defense will not be much of a factor. But your powers are multiplied by the number of allies you have, up to 501 (500 of them, plus you). If your attack and defense are both 1, the lowest number possible, and you have 500 allies, you'll get 500 attack and 70% of 500 defense, for a smooth 850 points of power in the war. If the other guy has 100 attack and 50 def, and no allies, he will get 100 plus 35, and you'll win by a lot. When you play Skinny Guy War, you look for guys with a low number of allies, and you war with them. They can kill you in Duel, and you can kill them in War, and both sides benefit from the exchange. 

If you have LT's like AK and Mia seated, they will add 3-4 points to your attack and defense, respectively. That would jack up your war power by 2500-3500 points, if you have 500 allies. These are the tricks that help in Skinny Guy War. (I won't go into detail here, but you may decide that you don't care about war, that you only want to do Boss fights. If so, the only benefit you'll get from having allies is that you can ask them to help in your boss war, and they give you gifts. Guns. Glasses. Puzzle pieces.)

At level 100, most players have about 20 LTs, although their powers vary widely. If you level up your LT's, they'll contribute a lot to your total power. Often each LT has more strength than the player. But if you war with players with similar numbers of allies, you will probably not see much advantage or disadvantage from your LT strengths. (There are exceptions. Some LT's increase YOUR strength. These are very important in "Skinny Guy War" - the only kind that I can win.)

I think you get your seated LT's plus one for every five allies, but I might be mistaken about the first part. This is important to know, because if you are like many level 100 players, you will have 20 LT's and 500 allies. You won't get 100 LT's. You'll get the 20 you have. 

Note that you don't get your allies' powers or THEIR weapons. It doesn't matter whether they are level 6 or 600. They will be equipped with your equipment. If you have 40 rifles and 10 allies, you will get the power of the best 10 rifles you own, as chosen by the game. If you have 10 rifles and 40 allies, you will get the power of the best 10 rifles you have, as chosen by the game. 

Players are faced with a difficult choice here. Do you buy weapons to increase this part of your war powers? If you are an LSI build, you ought to consider it. If you are a PvP build, this part of the game will be a minimal part of your score, and it's probably not worth it. Comments on the forums vary, but the idea that you can get better weapons from Boss jobs, and you'll be forced to buy weapons to complete District jobs anyway, lead people to recommend that you use your money to buy properties that give you more income, and let the weapons come over time. No single answer works for everyone, so just do what works for you.