Dark Elixir Drill



"Our Alchemists have finally figured a way to extract pure Dark Elixir, the rarest form of the magical substance."


 * Summary
 * The Dark Elixir Drill collects Dark Elixir from an unlimited underground reserve, and stores it until it is collected by the player and placed into a Dark Elixir Storage. When the drill is full, production will be stopped until it is collected.
 * Attackers can steal up to 75% of the uncollected Dark Elixir in the drill. Having too many uncollected resources will make players a more attractive target.
 * The Dark Elixir Drill takes up a 3x3 space.
 * After the 2014 Christmas update, the Dark Elixir Drill is unlocked at Town Hall level 7, along with the Storage. The second and third drills are now unlocked at Town Halls 8 and 10, respectively. Until the drill is constructed, Dark Elixir can only be obtained by raiding, participating in Clan Wars, collecting Dark Tombstones from dead Dark Elixir Troops and/or using Gems.
 * When you choose to upgrade a Dark Elixir Drill, it will automatically collect any uncollected Dark Elixir. Note that if your Dark Elixir Storage is full at that time, the uncollected Dark Elixir will be lost. During the upgrade the drill stops producing Dark Elixir; if it is destroyed in an attack while the upgrade is in progress, no resources will be lost to the attacker, as the drill is empty.
 * It can be difficult to see without zooming in, but you can visually tell approximately how much Dark Elixir a Dark Elixir Drill currently contains by looking at the glass box on the top rear portion of the drill. An empty (clear) box means the Drill is less than 20% full, while a full (black) box means the Drill is at least 60% full.
 * You can temporarily boost its production with Gems. Spending Gems will double the Drill's production rate for 1 day.
 * When raiding, the easiest way to tell the difference between the various levels of enemy Drills is to look at the Drill's footings. Unlike the top of the Drill, there is a very recognizable difference between the footings of all six levels.


 * Upgrade Differences
 * Dark Elixir Drills undergo a significant visual change at level 3.
 * When initially constructed, the Dark Elixir Drill consists of a huge helical auger, suspended from a sturdy wooden frame with mortared stone footings. A deep hole, framed with wood, sits under the auger.
 * At level 2, the Drill's footings become smooth white stone, and the tops of the wooden pillars suspending the auger receive plating. Three hexagonal shapes are also added to the top of the drill.
 * At level 3, a large part the drill's top surface and frame become covered in gold plating, and the footings gain a grey metal plate.
 * At level 4 the footings trade their smooth stone and grey plate for smooth dark iron.
 * At level 5 the mining hole increases in size and the footings acquire a gold cover.
 * At level 6 the gold cover on the footings is replaced by a spiked gold plate. The auger itself turns gold as well.


 * Trivia
 * The level 3 Dark Elixir Drill will continue to produce over the course of a full 12-hour shield (assuming it was empty when the shield is obtained). A level 5 Dark Elixir Drill will continue to produce over the course of a full 16-hour shield.
 * When you activate the boost for a Dark Elixir Drill, a clock will appear over the drill for a few seconds.
 * When loading Clash of Clans, an outdated hint can be seen that says that the drill isn't unlocked until Town Hall level 8 (which was the case until the Winter 2014 update). However Supercell has stated that it will fix this in a future update.



&#42; The Catch-Up Point is the time at which the newly upgraded Dark Elixir Drill has equaled the total production of the drill had it not been upgraded - this does not consider recovering the cost of the Elixir required to perform the upgrade. Caveat: The Catch-Up Point calculation assumes that the player collects all resources from the Dark Elixir Drill without allowing it to reach its storage capacity, as resource production ceases at that point. This is more of a concern at lower levels where the capacity is limited and Time to Fill is relatively short. If the player is unable to regularly collect and achieve the full potential of the collector, the Catch-Up Point is actually shorter and performing the upgrade becomes more advantageous.

For additional statistics and information, see the Unit Calculators page.