Clan Castle: Your Most Important Defense

Many people simply ignore their clan castle and throw it in the corner of the ease because it has no DPS, or at least that’s what they think. The Clan Castle can be very effective against attacker s who either don’t know what they are doing or can be effective against everyone, only if you know what you are doing. When I create a farming base, the first thing I put down in the center is my Clan Castle because I recognize the importance of it in my base.

Where Should I put my Clan Castle?


The Clan Castle should be right in the center. For farming bases, it should be the first thing you put down and for Trophy bases it should be put down right after the Town Hall. Although it may be hard to centralize the Clan Castle in a trophy base, make sure it is close to the center. With the Clan Castle centralized, attackers will have to waste more troops to lure out your troops. In my base, the radius of the Clan Castle stays within my walls so it is much harder to pull out. Because of this, often people fail to lure out my troops and they start their raid while my troops are still in the Castle. Then I just sit back and watch my wizards annihilate their Giants.

My base, with a centralized and hard to pull out Clan Castle

My base, with a centralized and hard to pull out Clan Castle

Where Not to Place Your Clan Castle


A Clan Castle that Is Easy to Lure outside the Walls

A Clan Castle that Is Easy to Lure outside the Walls

I  know this wasn’t a very long post, I just wanted to get the message out. Drop a comment down below and I’ll be sure to respond 😀

The Complete, In-Depth Guide On Dark Elixir

At the start of the game, each player has three main resources: Gold, Elixir, and Gems. They visit a top players base and see a mystical new substance called Dark Elixir and find it charming and look forward to the day where they can have some. Although Dark Elixir may seem like a completely foreign, odd, and complex topic at the beginning of the game, it is really quite simple once you understand it. In this blog post I’ll have a little for everyone: An introduction of what it is and what it can be used for, what to do first with Dark Elixir, and what dark Elixir upgrades to prioritize, all wrapped up in a nice FAQ format

First Off, What the Heck is Dark Elixir?


Dark Elixir is a new resource that is unlocked for players at Town Hall 7. Dark Elixir can be used to buy and upgrade heroes(which I’ll explain in a bit), buy new troops which are unlocked in the Dark Barracks, and then to upgrade those troops in the Laboratory. The two Dark Elixir Troops you unlock at Town Hall 7 are the Minion and the Hog Rider. The Hog Rider can jump over walls and targets defenses and is the second troop unlocked. The minion is a flying troops that has relatively low Health and Damage.

What’s a Hero?


The heroes have both an offensive and defensive purpose. At Town Hall 7, you can summon the Barbarian King for 10,000 Dark Elixir; Don’t worry, this may seem like a lot at first but you will get it eventually. Once you summon the Barbarian King by building his Altar, you can use him as an attacking troop. However, when he dies or takes damage, you don’t have to buy him again, he just takes around an hour to regenerate. On defense, the Barbarian King stands on his altar  and fights against troops that enter a 9-tile radius of the Altar. When he dies or loses health on defense, he also has to regenerate. Heroes can be upgraded to Level 40 and also have special abilities, which are unlocked at Level 5. The Barbarians King’s ability is that for 10 seances, he does increased damage and summons Barbarians by his side to help him. Furthermore, he also regains some of his health. The Archer Queen, which is unlocked at Town Hall 9, becomes invisible for a little bit, does more damage, and summons up a few archers.

The Barbarian King

The Archer Queen

What to Do With Dark Elixir


The most important thing to do with Dark Elixir at Town Hall 7 is to upgrade your Barbarian King. he becomes much more powerful and also gains his ability if upgraded to the highest level for Town Hall 7. If you are Town Hall 8, I would suggest upgrading your Barbarian King and at the same time upgrading a few troops that you use often. When you get to Town Hall 9, Dark Elixir is much easier to come by. As a Town Hall 8, you can have one Level three Drill that produces 1,080 Dark Elixir per Day. At Town Hall 9, you can have two Level 6 Drills that will get you 4,800 Dark Elixir per day. This is a huge difference, which is why I have not upgraded many of my Dark Troops and I plan and working of the Drill as soon as I get to Town Hall 9.

At Town Hall 9, What Should I Prioritize?


I would recommend first working on your Archer Queen and getting her up to a good level. Then, if your Barbarian King is at a good level, I would work on your Dark Elixir Troops that you use the most. After that, continue to work on your heroes until they are at around Level 15, at which point you should finish your other troop upgrades. Dark Elixir may seem like it’s hard to get at first, but if you keep trying it’ll come easily.

VaWiPe: The Powerful Strategy That Nobody Knows About

In one of my clan wars this week, we were up by a ton with not much time left so I decided that I would have a little fun and try some new armies out. I had never used Valkyries much before and I wanted to see how much better they were now. Then I wanted to throw in my two favorite troops, one of which has extremely high amount of hitpoints. Those two troops were the wizard and the P.E.K.K.A, both high-damage dealing troops. The last thing I needed to do was add in a few wallbreakers so the Valkyries and P.E.K.K.A’s would just walk around the base as the they always do and also some archers to lure out the CC. Then add a rage and two heal spells and that’s it!

What Types of Bases to Look For


For this strategy, you are going to look for very compact bases that will allow you to direct your wallbreakers to the core, which mean that shouldn’t have  a ton of compartments. At the same time, you don’t want each compartment to be too big or else the Valkyries and P.E.K.K.A’s would simply go the wrong way. The base must be compact so the Valkyries can capitalize on their newfound ability to optimize their attack position.

How to Attack


The first thing you will want to do is try to lure out the enemy Clan Castle and then kill them using wizards, heroes, your clan castle, or what ever you want. Next placed a few wizards near the planned spot of entry to clear away outside buildings. Next, drop one valkyrie as a distraction and then deeply a few wallbreakers. If the buildings inside the wall are the close building, good job. I an outside building is closer, destroy it with a wizard so your Valkyries won’t run around the base instead of through it. Now comes the real attack. First, drop your Barbarian King , followed by the P.E.K.K.A’s. Then drop in all of your valkyries and your wizards and finally your Archer Queen. Drop in a few more wallbreakers to breach the next layer and then drop rage spells and heal spells when you feel they are necessary. Lastly, sit back and relax while your troops make quick work of the base.

Hidden Teslas: Filled with Powerful Electrickery

My favorite defense in the game is either the Hidden Tesla of the Wizard Tower. The Tesla has two attractive features. First of all, It is hidden until an attackers comes within 6 tiles of it. This can easily ruin an attack if well placed. When I’m doing GoWiPe, I look for bases that don’t have spaces in the middle for Tesla’s because they will wreck my P.E.K.K.A’s if they are high leveled. Many people simply don’y upgrade their Teslas because they find them too expensive or time-consuming. At Town Hall 7, I was wondering whether or not to upgrade my Tesla because they seems so expensive them. As a Maxed-Out Town Hall 8 on his way to 9, I am glad I upgraded my Teslas as they are a game changer. The second reason they are so effective is because of their high damage.

How to Surprise Enemies with Your Teslas


In my opinion, completely hiding Teslas is not taking advantage of their damage. to hide them, they would need to be completely out of your walls and so the attacker would have NO  IDEA where your teslas were. This will surprise the, but a few archers and a giants can take out a tesla. Others have  4 square 2 by 2 opening where all 4 of their Teslas have to be. This lets the attacker plan their attack around this and doesn’t take advantage of the fact that they are hidden. What I prefer to do is have them inside the walls and have a few places where they could be but aren’t. This way, you will keep the attacker guessing and can take advantage of both of their strengths. In most bases I create, I put Teslas either in the second ring or inside the core. Teslas are also effective on the outer layer because they will surprise a few wallbreakers and make their day miserable. 😀

How Underrated Teslas Are


Teslas are one of the most underrated defenses in the entire game. Many people ignore them and don’t focus on them, yet at Level 1 they do 34 DPS, which is extremely high for a level one defense. At Town Hall 8, a maxed Tesla will be the high damage-dealing defense you have. The Teslas can also be upgraded A TON during Town Hall 7 and 8, which makes them WAY more powerful. Furthermore, the Teslas do double damage against the highest damage troop, the P.E.K.KA. This makes high-level Teslas a must to defend against GoWiPe and other strategies that they are used in. With the new level 5 P.E.K.KA, Teslas will be even more important to upgrade.

 

The Golem: The Best Tank In the Game

The Golem represents sheer power on the battlefield. Although it doesn’t do very much damage, it will soak up all the damage and let your other troops do the damage. It is a very large part of higher level gameplay and I love to use it at TH8. Albeit the training cost is relatively, it is most definitely worth it.

Golems have no purpose other than to soak up fire from other defenses and draw fire away from your damage-dealing troops. A level one Golem has the same hitpoints as a newly released level 5 P.E.K.K.A and a Level 5 Golem has 6300 Hitpoints. Another interesting part of the Golem is the fact that it does 350 damage u[on it’s death similarly to a Balloon. However, it doesn’t just die, it splits into two Golemites, which have 1/5 the health. So actually, the Level One Golem has 40% more total health than a maxed out P.E.K.K.A. Isn’t that crazy? 

Strategies Which the Golems Are Used In


 The two main strategies that Golem’s are used in are GoWiPe and GoWiWi. GoWiPe becomes available to a player at Town Hall 8 because that is when you unlock both P.E.K.K.A’s and Golem and at GoWiWI is available at Town Hall 9 because that is when Witches are unlocked. Although GoWiWi seems to more common right now, I think GoWiPe will become more common as GoWiWi is very hero dependent and the heroes got a large nerf in the recent update. I personally love GoWiPe and it is one of the strongest Clan Wars armies I have ever used.

 

Why Not to Rush Your Town Hall

A common, permanent mistake I see often is a Town Hall 9 or 10 who went there just for new defenses and has completely under-leveled defenses. That is a huge mistake, which will haunt you for the rest of your Clash of Clans career.

Why Not to Rush Your Town Hall


What many people don’t know about when the upgrade their Town Hall is the Loot Penalty. Sounds like a daunting term doesn’t it? It’s not that complicated. As you go up in Town Hall, you get less loot from Town Hall’s below you. One town hall level doesn’t hurt you that bad, as the loot penalty is only 90% for one Town Hall below. However, it falls drastically after that. If you attack someone two Town Hall levels below you, you only get 50% of the loot you would get if you were their level. From there, it just get worse.

My Experience with Rushing Town Halls


I talk about tho soften an sometimes people ask, well why should I listen to you? What do you know? When I was Town Hall 5, I really wanted to get Dark Elixir and Hidden Teslas. So I finished up TH 5 and headed to TH6 with full storages. I was planning on upgrading my GoldStorages and then immediately going to 7. This was obviously the wrong move. I was stuck at Town Hall 7 for a while, struggling to get loot, and I learned my lesson. A few months and some hard raids longer, I was a Maxed Town Hall 7. I learned my lesson after that and from now on, I max out all my defenses before I go to the next Town Hall. Before you upgrade your Town Hall, You should have all your Troops and Defenses Maxed, and you should have your Walls maxed or one level from max. Let me know in the comment if you have experience with rushing your Town Hall.

A Very Rushed Town Hall 10

BARCH: There’s more than you think

Although some people might not know, there are actually three  different types of Barch. They are used in different scenarios and have different objectives. In the first scenario, you are looking to push up to Masters and you want a quick and efficient way to gain cups. In the second scenario, you are farming and see a base with full collectors. Some are inside a layer of walls and some are outside the walls. In the third and final scenario, you see a base with one compartment in the center that houses all the loot and you are farming.

The First Scenario


In the first scenario, your goal should be to take out as many outside buildings as possible and to get 50%, securing one-third of the possible trophies. First, place a ring or barbarians around the base. Behind them, place a ring of archers around the base. After the Barbarians and Archers take out the buildings on the outside. The Barbarians will attack the walls and act like shields while the Archers take care of the buildings in the first layer of the base. In most bases, this will get you an easy 50% and this will now be even easier because no pesky heroes will be following you around everywhere. This is a quick and efficient way to gain cups and is used by many pushers to get to Masters. However, to get to Champion’s League takes more than Barbarians and Archers.

The Second Scenario


Your response to the second scenario  should be very similar to the first scenario, except instead of trying to destroy all the buildings, you only should try to destroy the buildings with loot (Except if you want change up the trophy range). This way, you won’t have to train up as many troops, reducing the times between raids, increasing the efficiency of farming. This is a similar to the style I mentioned earlier, except that it doesn’t go for trophies, just loot.

The Third Scenario


The Third Scenario is the most complicated to handle. For this one, wall breakers and heroes are needed for this one. For this , you will want to take out the buildings surrounding your planned entry point with barbarians and archers. Then you, will want to deploy your wallbreakers and after they break a wall, drop you BK and then barbarians behind him. For this one, I can’t tell you exactly what to do, so use your judgement. After the barbarians get into the base, drop more wallbreakers and then some archers and your Archer Queen behind your archers.

Final Thoughts


Barch is one of the most versatile armies in the entire game. I have been using for a while at Town Hall 8 to farm for walls and have been successful with it so far. My current Barch Configuration is 92 Archers, 92 Barbarians, and 8 Wallbreakers. Barch is one of my favorite armies that I have used in the game and it doesn’t take very much to time to pick up.

P.E.K.K.A: The Most Powerful (Although Not the Smartest) Troop

P.E.K.K.A’s would be the best troop in the game, no doubt, if they were just a little smarter. Although some people say they are impossible to raid with because they go everywhere, these people just aren’t raiding correctly. They would drop the P.E.K.K.A’s and be annoyed that he went to the collector that was two tiles away instead of to the wall, which was five tiles away. The most important thing to do when using P.E.K.K.A’s is to have a few wizards, not in a clan castle, because they need to be spread out. Deploy the Wizards in the area around where you want the P.E.K.K.A’s to enter the base. Then drop a few wallbreakers and there you, a path staright into the base that has no deterents.

The P.E.K.K.A is easily the most powerful unit in the entire game. She has the highest Damage per Second of all the troops in the game and at the same time, has the second highest hit points in the entire game, behind the Golem, which is solely meant to be used as a tank. If used correctly, they will dominate bases and help you get multiple stars in clan wars. My favorite way to use them is either using 7 P.E.K.K.A’s and a few wallbreakers and Archers, GoWiPe, or 4 P.E.K.K.A’s and the rest wizards and wallbreakers.  Although they are the most cost effective, they are worth every drop of Elixir.

P.E.K.K.A’s are such an overwhelming forced and I expect to see the return of the once King GoWiPe, triumphing over GoWiWi, as the heroes, an essential part of GoWiWi, got a HUGE nerf. Furthermore, the new level five P.E.K.K.A’s are even more powerful than before, gaining 40 more DPS (100 more Damage per Hit) and 500 hitpoints. Although they will have to face the new Level  8 Hidden Teslas,I think they will still be a dominating power on the battlefield.

The State of My Base

Right now, I feel like my base is in very good shape. I have completely maxed defenses for Town Hall 8, mostly level 7 Walls, and I am currently farming like crazy to get the Dark Elixir for the Archer Queen ready as soon as I reach Town Hall 9. I also have a level nine Barbarian King, which is one level away from the max level of ten for a Town Hall 8.

As soon as I reach Town Hall 9, I plan on summoning the Archer Queen Immediately with the Dark Elixir I have saved up. For the first five days of the upgrade to Town Hall 9, I will be farming for Gold and Dark Elixir so I can upgrade my walls. For the last five days, I will start saving up gold so as soon as the upgrade finishes, I can build both X-Bows. With my Electra, I will start the Lab Upgrade and at the same time, upgrade the current Dark Elixir Drill.

My Gold Priorities For Town Hall 9


  1. Build Both X-Bows
  2. Build and Upgrade New Walls
  3. Upgrade Clan Castle to Level 5
  4. Upgrade Splash Defenses
  5. Upgrade Teslas
  6. Upgrade Air Defenses
  7. Upgrade X-Bows to Level 2
  8. Upgrade all Archer Towers and Cannons
  9. Upgrade X-Bows to Level 3

My Elixir Priorities For Town Hall 9


  1. Upgrade Labratory
  2. Upgrade and Build New Dark Elixir Drill
  3. Upgrade Spell Factory
  4. Get Witches
  5. Upgrade Army Camps
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My Current Base

Defense Tips for a Town Hall 8

So many people get easily confused when making a base layout. They don’t realizes that it is quite a simple process if you know just a few easy tips, which I will explain to you here. The most important part any base is making sure the Clan Castle is centralized. You don’t know how many times I pass a base in matchmaking with its Clan Castle on the edge of the base or even outside the walls. As a farmer, the first thing I put down is my Clan Castle, straight in the middle. When I used to have my clan castle not centralized, I hated when someone would attack my Town Hall, pull out my troops accidently, and then kill some of them. IT WAS SO FRUSTRATING! One of the perks of having an extremely hard to pull out clan castle is that sometimes people will attempt to lure out my troops, fail, then drop all their troops and watch while their Giants get demolished by my wizards. As many people say, your clan castle is your best defense.

The next two most important things are centralizing and triangulating your mortars and air defenses. SO many bases I see with a mortar here, a mortar there, and a mortar thrown outside the base because the have no space and don’t prioritize defenses. Also make sure to never have a few mortars clumped together, as a smart attacker will wipe them both out with a few lightning spells. Air defense is extremely important to centralize too. If I see a base with air defenses on the outside layer of your base, I will completely wipe you out with Draginion, and others will destroy you with Balloons. My base, with centralized air defense, holds up against Dragons and Balloonion.

Wizard Towers are also important to triangulate, but it is more important to have them in range of your storages. The do splash damage and relatively quickly, so they are great candidates for wiping out large groups of Goblins. My favorite thing to see in a replay is somebody trying to make their way to my storages with wallbreakers, but their Barbarian, Archers, and Goblins got hosed down by my Wizard Towers.

For your other defenses, try to spread them out. I always try to alternate between Archer Towers and Cannons so that I will have more air coverage. The Teslas I usually drop in when I have a space available, and I do the same thing with giants bombs.

Traps are another important aspect of any base. Easily my favorite trap is the spring trap and I always use it a TON to funnel giants and other troops. The base I use currently leads Giants into spring traps and helps defend against them really well. Some people are very nitpicky about bomb placement and giants bomb placement, but for me they don’t really matter, I just spread them out or put them where I have space. However, with air bombs, I prefer to have one on each side so that I will be defended well from everywhere.

Lastly, I need to talk about heroes. Heroes should go near anything you want to protect. For farmers, put them next to your resources. For pushers, put them next to your Town Hall. Now that the heroes have a purpose on defense, they are very important to place correctly. Furthermore, you NEVER want  to have the radius of a hero extend past your outer walls. This will give attackers to bring your heroes out to there and kill the, which wouldn’t be taking advantage of the new update. I will leave you with my current base for both Clan Wars and my normal farming base.

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My Clan War or Trophy Base

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Farming Base