Casklord's Strategy Guides/Farming Guide

Introduction
Hi! I'm Casklord (IGN Lord). Welcome to my guide, I hope that it helps!



Guidelines
The minimum requirements for this technique are:
 * Level 3 Archers
 * Level 3 Goblins

What to Do Before You Start Farming!
Get the "Sweet Victory!" achievement. This will be vital in helping you to save up Gems to get Builder's Huts (you should almost never spend Gems on anything else until you have all your Builder's Huts). I personally spent about US$10 on Gems and saved up a massive amount of Gems from clearing Obstacles and the occasional Achievement to get my five Builder's Huts; getting five is definitely worth it to be able to constantly spend the resources that you farm so you don't constantly fill up.

Army Setup
There are many repetitive attack guides which have many different army setups based on what works for the writer. This is the template that works for me while farming; Giants, Barbarians and Minions can also be used to clean up bigger bases that have massive amounts of resources, but the basis of this farming technique is picking off unprotected/barely-protected mines and collectors. This setup may work for you but it is all about using what feels right.

Targets
In general, the bases you raid should have around 100k Gold and Elixir and require around 30 Goblins and 30 Archers. Your Barracks should be constantly pumping out Troops, two Barracks for Goblins and two for Archers. To improve the amount of Troops being produced at a time, you may want to also have Minions training at the same time if you can afford it.

Another type of base you can attack are ones with 200k Resources in the storages and a bad defensive setup; even with a farming army you should be able to reach the storages in these bases.

The final and best possible type of base are those where high-level players with high-level mines and collectors have been inactive for a long time; these bases can have over 300k resources easily accesible.

If you attack 4 to 5 times every half hour, you will earn around 800k each session (around 1.6 mil per hour). Furthermore, because people generally have the same level Gold Mines and Elixir Collectors, you will have a consistent supply of both resources.

Inactive Bases
To tell if a base is inactive (and therefore will have loot in the collectors), a few general tips can be used:
 * Gray league shields indicate inactivity for a minimum of the current season, i.e if the current league season began 4 days ago and they still are unranked, they have not attacked in at least the past 4 days.
 * If a player has "sleepy" Builder's Huts (Z's coming from them), they are not keeping their builders busy and may be neglecting their base.
 * If a player has empty X-Bows (no bowstring or Elixir magazine) and/or empty Inferno Towers (all dark with no lava pool), then that means that they have likely been attacked several times since the last time they were online.
 * Gravestones indicate inactivity as well. Typically the more gravestones there are, the more attacks they have incurred and consequently the longer they have been offline.
 * If a player is not in a Clan (no Clan Symbol on top of the Clan Castle) this is also good sign that they are inactive.
 * The storages appear empty. This may seem like an obvious one, but empty storages can be misleading for two reasons. The first is that there is a visual glitch that sometimes occurs that full storages can actually appear empty. The second is the fact that a storage will appear empty if it is less than 20% full. TH6s and above can up to level 11 storages, which each can hold 2 million Gold and Elixir. They will look empty even if they have nearly 400k in them.
 * Look for nice round numbers in available loot such as 105,000 or 90,000 this usually indicates that their storages are empty but mines and collectors are full.
 * If a base has many Obstacles, that may indicate inactivity. However, some players do not ever bother to clear them, so watch out!

Types of Raids
With the many different types of bases and equally varied distribution of loot, you will encounter many different types of raids during your journey. Knowing how to attack each one is very important.

Collector Raids
These raids are the ones that are best for farming. Usually they have the highest loot, with all of it in the collectors (meaning it is easily accessible). Knowing how to judge whether loot is in the collectors or storages in discussed in the 'Targets' section.

Storage Raids
These raids are often more challenging, although if you are having trouble finding a collector raid, you may have to settle for a storage raid. A storage raid is (as the name implies) one where all the loot is in the storages. Usually you'll want to go for a base where the defenses and base layout are poor so you can simply destroy the storages.

Revenge Raids
Revenge raids can potentially be the best of all, as you'll be able to check out their base beforehand to prepare the exact army you'll need. In addition you can check to see what is in their Clan Castle and plan your attack, and if you want you can wait until their storages and collectors are nice and full (assuming they don't have a shield). I usually train a revenge army overnight such as full Dragons or Wizard-Healers, and then whoever attacks me while im asleep will have a nasty surprise waiting for them in the morning.

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Techniques
It is important to be able to judge the amount of Elixir and Gold in storages compared to collectors, as the storages are usually well protected and not worth the time. It is also important to not get impatient and attack a base that has well-defended collectors and/or few Resources, as this will be a waste of Troops. It is also important to never fall beneath 1,100 Trophies; the bases below this level typically have very little loot and you will have to gain Trophies to get back up, potentially wasting both time and Troops.

The best method to hover in the ideal 1,100-1,200 range is to destroy the base's collectors (obviously for the Resources first; this will take you to around 30% destruction. Then, with Archers, pick off unprotected Army Camps, Builder's Huts, Barracks, Spell Factories, etc. to 50% and win Trophies. Enemy Clan Castle Troops and Heroes have the ability to hinder this type of farming, so make sure that you always have enough Troops to destroy them. If you are nearing 1,200 Trophies, be willing to lose the battle and drop a few Trophies.

Sub-200 Farming
This is a type of farming that has proven very effective for some people, so I will briefly go over it with what I know. The essence of this farming is dropping to as low a trophy count as possible to find low-level and inactive bases with easy-to-get resources. Several people in my clan use this strategy and highly recommend it.

To drop down to below 200 Trophies, the easiest way is to deploy one troop and then immediately click the "Next" button, thus surrendering the battle (and losing trophies) and going to the next battle. With a recent update this got slightly more time-consuming to do than before; now, as soon as you deploy the Troop, the "Next" button disappears, forcing you to end the battle using the "Surrender" button at the top of the screen. This takes a lot longer, as you have to return to your village and begin another attack through the attack screen. However, with correct timing you can still drop almost as efficiently as before (albeit with slightly greater difficulty).

Important Tips

 * An important tip with dropping trophies is to use your Heroes if you have them, because they cost no Elixir and can be used immediately if they took no damage. You are basically only spending the search cost and not the Troop one; though it is a small savings, it all adds up.
 * Being down at sub-200 requires you to be online a lot, as you will constantly be pushed back up in Trophies while you are offline by other people that are using the same strategy.

Builder Juggling
Being able to juggle your builders well is a vital aspect of making sure that you are always improving your base. What is builder juggling? It is ensuring that your builders are constantly being used to their maximum effectiveness. Say the you have 4 upgrades finishing one the same day. This means that even if you storages are full, you may not have enough resources to start your builders working on something again, thus setting them (and your total base development) back a day or so. Instead, if you constantly have one builder finishing each day, you will be able to consistently farm and spend resources at a steady sustainable rate.

Things to Keep in Mind
Firstly, PLEASE DO NOT RUSH YOUR TOWN HALL UPGRADE. It is recommended to max out the defensive buildings, army buildings and Walls at each Town Hall level. Each Town Hall level gets progressively harder to farm at because of the loot penalty (see table below). I made the mistake of rushing up to TH8; luckily I stopped there, and even though it was harder than if I had maxed out my buildings and walls at TH7, I have finally maxed out my defenses for TH8 and I'm in progress on walls (roughly 50 to lv8).

Secondly, remember storages can only contain a total of 198k (before Town Hall bonuses and penalties are take into account), so even if a extremely well-protected and active base has 320k of each and you feel like you cannot get to the center, remember that 320k - 198k = 118k at least must be in the collectors, and that is a solid amount.

Your Base
It is a good strategy to have your Town Hall outside your Walls and away from defenses while farming. This will let trophy farmers gain trophies with little effort, and encourage them to simply take your trophies and quickly move on without attacking the rest of your base. The attacker gets his trophies and zero downtime, and you get to keep your resources and a "free" 12-hour shield, so you both win!

For base design, have splash towers and storages in the middle, and avoid having "eggshell bases" (splash towers and storage sorruounded by 2-4 layers of walls and everything else outside). Do not have all the storages together either, though, as attackers may use Lightning Spells on them and get away with more resources then they spent. Also, try to have your Clan Castle near the middle so your troops are not eaily lured out. More will be discussed about this is my upcoming base-building guide.

Recommended Bases
This is my current base.

This is a previous base I have used, based on a base designed by Juanling in Exodias (I believe).

A Spiral type base.

A base that uses square blocks and now-outdated spiking of walls.

An original base.

A farming base that can easeily be switched to trophy base.

Nicely maxxed TH7 base design.

Well-designed TH7 base.

General Tips

 * When spending on upgrades, etc., leave around 50k Elixir for Troops and 20k Gold for finding a target if you plan on attacking soon after.
 * It is important to keep in the trophy range that works for you; the one I recommended may not be it. Play around a bit outside the range every once in a while to see if you have better luck.
 * Queue troops before you go into battle, as during the two or so minutes you are raiding, about 5 troops will have trained from each Barracks, allowing you next attack to begin that much sooner.
 * Before you go to sleep, train a high-level army such as Healer-Wizard, full Dragons, "Rage Balloons" or "GoWiPe" (Golem, Wizard, P.E.K.K.A).
 * There is a glitch where near-full collectors and mines will appear empty; be careful to look at the top left for the resource count before skipping a seemingly-empty base.
 * Queue Troops overnight in your Dark Barracks while your Army Camps are full to store Dark Elixir where it cannot be raided.
 * Attacking Town Halls 2 or 3 levels above you will grant a resource bonus, e.g a TH8 attacking a TH10 will have 300k lootable from storages instead of 200k.
 * It is important to spread your Archers out and release your Goblins in short bursts to prevent them from being taken out by splash towers in one shot, as they tend to group together.
 * Be mindful of Heroes and Clan Castle reinforcements when attacking a base.
 * Never have all your storages in one compartment, as once an attacker gets in that one, your storages are as good as gone.

My Details
(if anyone wants to know)
 * IGN: Lord
 * Clan: Exploited
 * Level: 81
 * Farming range currently: 1,200-1,350
 * Walls: Level 7 with about 80 Level 8
 * Town Hall Level: 8
 * Defenses: Maxed for TH8
 * Favorite army composition: Healer-Wizard
 * Favorite troop: Goblin
 * Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/casklord (Check me out!)