Hangar

The hangar is a building where units can be upgraded, promoted, or scrapped. As the hangar is upgraded, the amount of scrap gained from recycling units is increased. Occasionally the player is also rewarded with a free unit when upgrading this building. Upgrading this building is required for upgrading the research lab.

## Storing Units

One of the uses of the hangar is to store all the units the player has collected throughout their career. The player's current squad is shown in the topmost row with all other currently unused units listed below. The unused units are sorted in the following order:

* Rank - Units of higher rank come first
* Level - If equal in rank, units of higher level come first
* Natural rank - If equal in all the above, units with a higher natural rank come first
* Unit type - If equal in all the above, units are sorted based on their unit type

The player can utilize three other ways of viewing their units based on rank, type, and faction. In these viewing modes, the player's squad is not shown as a separate row and the units are sorted alongside the other unused units.

## Upgrading Units

The hangar is an important building for progressing through the game, especially since the hangar is the only place to upgrade units and make their squad stronger. The player can spend scrap and cash to increase the level and stats of a unit. If the player has upgraded a unit to its maximum level cap, the player can promote the unit.

The hangar is also the place where the player can spend thorium and oil to upgrade a unit's abilities and equip them with tech to give a bump in some stats. If the player has enough spare tech of the same level, the player can spend some cash to consume the spare tech and increase the level of equipped tech by 1. The cost of upgrading units to their maximum levels are as follows:

* 1 star - 161 scrap and 56,000 cash
* 2 stars - 646 scrap and 1,487,500 cash
* 3 stars - 2,232 scrap and 3,418,500 cash
* 4 stars - 6,873 scrap and 7,900,000 cash
* 5 stars - 19,652 scrap and 18,602,000 cash
* 6 stars - 53,274 scrap and 41,883,000 cash
* 7 stars - 165,324 scrap and 1,188,784,056 cash

## Promoting Units

* *For more information about unit ranks, see Units*

Once a unit has been upgraded to its maximum level, it becomes eligible for promotion. When promoted, the unit adds a star to its current count, has its level cap increased by 5 levels, and is reset back to level 1. In the case for promoting a unit to 7 stars, its level cap increases by 30 levels. An appearance change also accompanies the newly promoted unit, making the unit look tougher and more powerful.

In order to promote a unit, the player must sacrifice a certain amount of units with the same rank as the target unit. The amount of sacrifices needed equals the target unit's current star count. For example, if the player wants to promote a 3-star unit, they need three more 3-star units to perform the promotion. Should the player have any rank medals available they will be added automatically and may not be removed from the sacrifice selection. All tech that equipped on sacrifice units is lost if the player does not unequip said tech and any resources spent upgrading abilities on sacrifice units are not refunded either.

If the unit is promoted to an odd number of stars, an extra tech slot unlocks up to three slots maximum. If the unit is promoted to an even number of stars, a new unit ability is unlocked and ready to be upgraded up to three abilities maximum.

7 stars is the maximum in the game and is the ultimate version of a unit, making it one of the hardest things to achieve in LoW: Mercenaries. It requires a hefty price of six 6-star units for sacrificing in order to make one. A 7-star unit may be very strong due to being the highest rank in the game, though their stats and natural rank may indicate otherwise.

## Scrapping

If the player has excess units or is in need of scrap to upgrade other units, they can choose to scrap units. More scrap can be obtained when scrapping higher level and higher rank units or by upgrading the hangar. It is not recommended to scrap units that have been leveled up unless the player really needs to as costs to upgrade the unit is always higher than the bonus scrap gained from scrapping. Unless the player has upgraded their hangar to level 5 or above, they must scrap units one at a time. The possible amounts of scrap that can be acquired are as follows:

Note - The first number is for a level 1 hangar while the second number is for a level 20 hangar

* 1 star: ## - 94 scrap
* 1 star max level: ## - 115 scrap
* 2 stars: ## - 199 scrap
* 2 stars max level: ## - 277 scrap
* 3 stars: ## - 1,440 scrap
* 3 stars max level: ## - 1,708 scrap
* 4 stars: ## - 2,536 scrap
* 4 stars max level: ## - 3,362 scrap
* 5 stars: ## - 5,001 scrap
* 5 stars max level: ## - 7,360 scrap
* 6 stars: ## - 11,052 scrap
* 6 stars max level: 17,445 scrap
* 7 stars: ## - 21,600 scrap
* 7 stars max level: ## - 41,439 scrap\*

\*This number appears to be inconsistent between units of different natural ranks. The listed number is the maximum gained by scrapping a natural 6-star unit promoted to 7 stars.

## Bugs

* Currently, the hangar may appear to be invisible if the building is upgraded to higher levels.
* Unit deploy costs displayed in the hangar may be slightly different from the actual costs.

## Trivia

* When promoting infantry, a different cutscene is played rather than the one used for all other unit types.
* With a sufficiently high-level hangar, promoting a 2-star unit and then scrapping it at 3 stars yields more scrap than simply scrapping the 2-star units separately.
* There is a hidden limit of 9,999 units that can be stored at once in the hangar. Any more units acquired past this point are automatically scrapped. According to the developers, the reason for this limit is that "any player who manages to amass over 9,999 units is out of their mind."
* Rank medals are called rank tokens internally.