Dokugan's Strategy Guides/General

Welcome!
Hello and welcome, fellow Clashers! This is Dokugan's Strategy Guide, as the name implies. Here I will show you the 'everything-you-need-to-know-except-for-the-parts-where-I-couldn't-be-bothered-to-type-in' tricks, tips and... You know what? Let's get started!

This article was inspired by Flammy's Strategy Guides.

Note: Some content may have been already around the Clash of Clans Wiki.


 * This page is NOT complete. More content will be added over time.

Creating the perfect base!
When you start Clash of Clans, a good base is not essential due to the lack of defenses, & awesome stuff when you start playing, but from Town Hall level 4 and above, you would start to think about protecting those precious Gold and Elixir from those evil raiders that are stealing from you nearly everytime you log off. Okay, let's start of building our base!

Types of bases
There are many different bases out there. Many you will see being uploaded on YouTube to share with the world, or just a screenshot posted on the net. I'll explain the more common types of bases here:

Cornered base: This is a base that is in a corner, except that there are no walls at the back. Probably players who don't watch replays and don't know how to spawn troops outside the ring of the 40x40 square village. Easiest to destroy, pummel and flat out win for you.

Packed base: This is a common base at lower levels- one of the easiest and probably the most enjoyable base to raid. One line of walls surrounds the base and is the only thing in the way from stopping the mass mob of monsters outside. Once one of the walls are broken, the raider has almost full control over the ongoing raid and if this happens- it should decide the fate of your Gold and Elixir. Bad base, altogether.



Split base: Also another common but poor base, two ajoinong 'parts' of a base are either (A) separate from each other or (B) Connected like a packed base, but a wall in the middle. From previous experiences, they are almost funny to watch how they are decimated so easily. Yet another poor base, but at least better than a packed base.

Pocketed Base: High levels use it, so why shouldn't you? Well, for one, it wouldn't be very effective unless your roughly Town Hall 6 and above. When I used it, it was quite- okay, extremely poor. Back then, it gave me 90% chances of losing a battle, (though that may be because of my high trophy count at that time) so I changed it. Great or not, that I can't say.

Spiral base: Now it starts to get interesting- spiral bases can be extremely effective if planned carefully, but if done lazily, may lead to disaster. Not common, but that all just leads to your advantage- if you choose to unleash it onto your Clash of Clans. Not much to say here but this is a start to an effective base.

Titanic base: Other known as bulkhead base, it is like the Titanic's 'unsinkable' technique - when one section is breached, the the other sections keep it afloat. The flaw was, the iceberg ripped two sections in a row, leaving the Titanic in ruins.

Anyway, let's call it the Bulkhead base.Bulkhead bases are usually a building surrounded a walls, except there are quite a few and are packed closely together. People who love symmetry most likely won't the bulkhead base, even though this is a common and extremely effective killer base. How the base works is that when one part of the bulkhead is destroyed, the enemy troops are packed into one section and have to breach the other inner walls, making wallbreakers almost useless.

'''Update: Bulkhead bases will NOT prevent Wall Breakers from coming inside and blowing up those walls. Look at the article 'Dark Elixir and Artificial Intelligence

Okay, we're done! Once you have chosen your favoured base, it time to kick out buildings (YAY)!

What should be outside your base?
You should most definitely keep your Army Camps, Barracks, Builder's Huts, Laboratory and Spell Factory outside you main part of you base.Elixir Collectors and Gold Mines should be outside, unless you want to prevent enemy troops from spawing there, etc. One defense or two outside your walls is not recommended, but sometimes it can be extremely efficient, like leading and distracting enemy troops.

Town Hall is a different matter. It shall depend on if you want trophies to match the trophy count of a clan you really want to join, or resources to get that Town Hall upgrade you never seem to have time to store up before it's time to sleep.



Messing with raiders
You've always hated people raiding you, correct? Well, it's time to frustrate them-for your enjoyment! (mwuhahahahaha...)

'''UPDATE: These tricks will no longer work. Check out the 'Dark Elixir and Artificial Intelligence' section.'''

Spiking: A common tactic is to spike. What's that? Spiking is when you put walls that jut out from your base. This is how one looks like:

Wallbreakers, when deployed, will go blow up they spikes and not the inside walls. Other troops, sadly, are smart enough(only just!) to attack the inner walls. Yes, I know, isn't Clash of Clans AI just fascinating?

Good Game Spawn Point: Lol, I just made that name on the spot. Spawn Point is when you make a "accident"- a mistake where there's a little spawn hole to put troops. This must be done carefully. If not, you, my sir, shall die. Jokes. Anyway, if you do it correctly, the troops there might A. activate a trap or B. get killed by the surrounding defenses around the spawn hole. Not suggested to use unless you are familiar with the game.

Forcing: Forcing is also a good old tactic. It's when you put decorations and waiting for obstacles to pop up where you want them, just to make your enemy spawn their deadly troops a little furtherer. Good 'ol forcing.

EDIT:Since this will no longer work, I will show you a  different type of 'forcing'. It is when you put walls, but leave an intentional gap to bring the enemy troops to go through it. There is usually a Spring Trap or bomb, and are effective at taking down large amount of troops.

Funneling: Also an "accident", it is when there is a hole that varies from small to large to encourage the raider to spawn their troops where they want. Most likely if you see such thing, you'd expect traps. This is not always true. Sometimes, a funnel might mean the troops will attack the nearest building, and while it's distracted, get killed by the rain of death and destruction from the inner base. Very useful, even for lower levels.

EDIT: Found a person who uses trick spawns! He goes on to explain that 'I don't lose a cent'. This also involves the use of dropping troops onto Hidden Teslas, which became availible after the update. Here it is:



Wew, finished the first section! Feel free to edit my mistakes, grammar errors and typos. If there is any type of vandalism, please delete it and report to the Clash of Clans Wiki Community. Now that's cleared, ONTO THE NEXT SECTION!

Raiding
Now we've cleared how to discourage people from raiding you, allow me to give you tips on how TO raid people. I know... how evil!

Okay, to start off (just for the beginners. If you are familiar with this, please move to the next section.) I shall show you a guide to the functions of raiding:




 * 1) This is the Find a Match button. Click on it to find a match, and keep clicking till you find a suitable victim to raid (mwahahaha...)
 * 2) This is how much the cost is to search and raid. The price will go up everytime you upgrade your Town Hall.
 * 3) This, is the display for how many trophies you have!
 * 4) The trophy button shows the strongest (most trophies) Clans and players in the world... and in your local country!
 * 5) This is the display for how many stars you have earned attacking the goblins. You may have remembered that they were the first to raid you...
 * 6) This is the amount of stars for that level. As you can see, the player has only achieved 1/3 stars. He can either try again, or move on to 'Bouncy Castle'.
 * 7) The player has completely crushed the goblins! He has gotten 3/3 stars.
 * 8) This is the level that can be played next. Click play!
 * 9) This level is locked. You can unlock it by playing the current level available.

And now...here are four types of raiding! They are...

Multiplayer Raids: When you attack another player, but only if they are offline. You must pay a small fee each time you refresh to see another potential victim. As in the picture, the Town Hall level is 6 and so it costs 250 Gold. The cost doesn't matter as you will usually regain it after you raid someone.

When viewing a base in Multiplayer, it will also display the amount of Gold, Elixir and sometimes Dark Elixir. Trophies can also be viewed, and may vary from 0-30. One third of trophies can be earned by getting one star or destroying a Town Hall which rewards one star anyway. Two thirds of trophies is from 2 stars either from 75% or 50% and destroying the Town Hall. Full amount of trophies can earned from getting 100%, and only 100%. More info can be viewed in the section 'Trophies'.

Single Player Campaign: When you raid those Goblins who led the very first raid on you and you Town Hall level 1 base(Been a long way, haven't you?). Single Player Campaign doesn't give any significant loot until the more advanced levels, but still fun to raid when your shield is up. Nothing else to explain here other than the fact that no trophies can be gained through this.

Being raided ._. Nothing you can do here. Just reminding you of the anger that swells up when you see the message "You have been raided by xXx YOLO xXx".

Revenge Raids: When you revenge someone who raided you (fortunately Supercell added this after the initial release). This is one of the best ways to raid someone as you can view their loot, scan their weak spots in their base, and if you think your not up to the challenge, copy their base if you share the Town Hall level! Recommended   raiding out of all, most definitely.

Army Compositions
There are a limitless amount of army compositions. Now I don't want to get ahead of myself, so don't sweat- there is no composition here that says something like "5 PEKKAs and 100 Archers". Feel free to add good army compositions, but please be mindful of the lower levels who may not have even unlocked 'Wallbreaker'. Thanks!

My current army composition is as follows-

40% Giants, 3 Wallbreakers, 35% archers and 25% barbarians.

How to use: Deploy Giants to distract defences. Wallbreakers are optional, as they are pretty pointless in the raid. Spread the of the base near the Giants with archers and barbarians to terminate the base. Near guarantee of 1 star or 2 star.

A example of a lower level composition is quite easy and basic- 

100% Barbarians

How to use: Deploy all at once. quite effective, though there's no strategy involved.

A army composition that is usually used for farming of resources- 

100% Goblins. I know.

How to use: Send all goblins to wipe out the resources and leave the base of nothing else. Usually.

Add more if you want!

The Perfect Raid
Admit it- we all want the perfect raid. But first, what is it? You choose.

Well in my opinion, the 2 Goblin Raid is the 'ideal' type of raid I want. But here's the tricky question- If you keep doing this, wouldn't you lose so many trophies you won't be able to find such high amount of loot in one collector?

Not true. When you lose, you rarely lose a lot of trophies, so after you save up for that Town Hall upgrade you want, you can just rise back up quite easily- notably with the help of farmers with one-two goblin raids like you. Also it's been proven that Raid Two can steal, and manage to rake in more resources that Raid One. Of course, people still like to go all out, as I have done before.

Look for Poor bases
A poor base usually does not follow the rules for a good and solid base. As mentioned in the first section, it is usually a packed base or a cornered base, but can sometimes be a bulkhead base too. This rarely matters, but can you see if the storages are well protected there? And if they look like they are brimming with Gold or Elixir? How about the loot number- is it nice and round, or uneven?

These are the questions you must answer when scanning for a base. If storages are too well protected, skip that base.If they don't look as if they have lots of loot, that means most of the loot is in the collectors. Very important, especially if they have a nice and round amount of resources. If its like this:

100,000 Gold and 1,000 Elixir, it means that the player has been on not to long ago.This also means most of the resources have been collected and put into the storages. Skip if they are.

If it's like this:

105,000 Gold and 90,000 go ahead, if your feeling confident. The factors are essential.

I sometimes raid higher levels, as in much higher levels because of the high amount of loot- as in, 200K of each. Very satisfying, as the loot is almost definitely in the collectors.

I hope you enjoy your perfect raid! (I hope I made sense!)

Trophies
Let's review the section above, shall we?

"...One third of trophies can be earned by getting one star or destroying a Town Hall which rewards one star anyway. Two thirds of trophies is from 2 stars either from 75% or 50% and destroying the Town Hall. Full amount of trophies can earned from getting 100%, and only 100%. More info can be viewed in the section 'Trophies'." More trophies can be potentially earned if your opponent is 'weaker' than you. Here comes the very difficult and unfair thing about Clash of Clans- farming, when higher levels drop their trophies intentionally so people at their trophy count can't raid them. Very efficient and very helpful, especially when you want to save up for a Town Hall upgrade."

People earn Trophies and people ditch trophies. Ditching trophies is, called farming. Very efficient to save up for a Town Hall upgrade. Let's look:

The leaderboard (Top 50, etc.) is determined by the cups.When you scroll down in the Top 50, you can see your name or clan and the amount of trophies your clan has or how much you have.

Anyway, you can either lose or win trophies by raiding people.If you win a raid, you win trophies and they lose trophies. Vice versa.

When you raid, you are matched with people about your trophy count. People can ditch trophies just to attack you.

Earning 1250 trophies, you can get the Sweet Victory achievement and get 450 Gems.

There is an idea on the Supercell Forums about trophies, and the whole idea is the encourage people to earn trophies. It states

"Just thinking about why people don't like trophies and I thought this might be a good way to make trophies mean something. Trophies could increase the percentage of loot you get after a raid like a bonus. Could be something small like 5% per 500 cups but just something to give reason to increase your trophies other then vanity.

An example would be you raid someone at 1000 trophies for 100k elixir and gold and 1k dark elixir. On the victory screen after it tallys your score you would get a bonus of 10% for your trophy count so you'd end up with 110k each gold and elixir, and 1.1k dark elixir. This would not be extra stolen from your opponent just a bonus on top after the raid is over."

This is a good idea, as people are abusing the system by farming. I'm not saying its a bad thing, but what I am saying is that there is a huge loophole in the entire system and the whole purpose of 'trophies'. I once tried lowering my trophy count to 300, and jumped straight back up with 215 trophies. This tactic can be used for getting the Unbreakable achievement, which is successfully defending against 250 attacks. Nice thing.

Down

Down

Down

Down<

Doooowwwn...

Clan
Okay- here we are, at the main purpose of the game- a Clan! I will show you all I know about Clans- earning loyalty, respect and honour and all that trash. Let's start from the start...

Your Clan Castle is needs to be rebuilt to join or create a Clan. If you haven't done that, rebuild it for 40,000 Gold. Anyway, lets assume that you have rebuilt your Clan Castle. First things first, join a clan...

Choosing a Clan
To do this, you must click on your Clan Castle and hit the 'Clan' option. It will show a list of clans that will range from either 22 to 44 people in each. You may be allowed to search for a clan, like your friend's clan.

Anyway, once you have chosen a clan, say Hi! Have a chat, request for troops, donate troops, everything a typical clan usually does. If there is no one talking in the clan, check the last message made. If it says something like 11d 2h ago, or 12h ago when you usually sleep, then it's best to find another clan, as the people must live in a different time zone than you.

Donating Troops
When donating troops, you should donate archers as they are the best form of troops to donate and get donated. Why? Becasue archers are cheap, they can shoot over walls and people are just willing to donate them. You can only ask for troops every 20 minutes. Try to donate as many troops as possible as they give you 1xp each time you donate, and people will like you more. Every troop you donate will also count for the Friend In Need achievement, which will reward you with GEMS!!

Defensive
Move it into a strategic place, like where most people attack you from because your Clan Castle has lot's of health and can absorb a lot of damage. Also, your donated troops (if any) will come out and attack the enemy, slowing them down and possibly, but unlikely, change the tides of the battle.

Offensive
Put down one archer or a weak troop to test if there are any troops inside. If there is, send a giant and about 5-10 archers, depending how many troops are inside. At the unlikely chance of a strong unit coming out like  a PEKKA, just send in all your troops as it will overwhelm the Clan Castle Troops and defeat it.

Leader
Has complete control over the entire Clan. He (or she) can either change the message displayed on the Clan Info bar, change the flag, kick anyone out (including elder) and control who comes into the clan and who doesn't. Leader has the most powerful position in the entire Clan.

Elder
Has no rights except that they can promote members to elders, kick members and in Invite Only clans, accept who comes into the Clan. Leaders be warned, elder's should be chosen carefully.

Member
Zero rights. Nip, none and nada.

How many trophies count towards the total Clan Trophy Count?
Interesting, eh? Now you can see why the top clans aren't always full.

Clan Hoppers- find them, and destroy them.
Everyone hates Clan Hoppers. What's that? It's when some joins a clan, then leaves, usually causing a trail of destruction in it's wake. What they do... The only type of clan hopper that is welcomed friendly is probably the ones that are friends with the leaders in those clans, or when a extremely high level player or someone in the Top 50 joins. Not common, but there have been records of those that have.
 * 1) Become Elder, then kick everyone. Sometimes they manage to persuade the leader to give them leader, and it never ends well.
 * 2) Someone who starts a argument, or spams the Clan Chat, usually with emty boxes or lot's of swearing.
 * 3) Clan advertisers that come to the clan to try and persuade the people inside to join their clan. These people are hated in a extreme way.
 * 4) Greedy troop taker- a hopper that asks for troops than leaves. Always resented, especially if clan members gave them a high level troop.

My Clan
This is the list of all the Clans that I have been in. These are also the ones that I remember. So, in no particular order... And yeah. This is for the people who are curious, that's all.
 * 1) Honour (later Geronimo Apache)
 * 2) War Wizards
 * 3) Reddit Delta
 * 4) Reddit Alpha
 * 5) Dragon Knightz
 * 6)  Call of Mini
 * 7) Immune

Tips and Tricks
This is a list of useful game tips. Feel free to add more.

Click here for the original article.

Try to save up your gems to buy a Builder's Hut.
 * 1) Clan Castle Troops that survive a raid will return to your Clan Castle. If not, they come back as 20 Elixir.
 * 2) The maximum amount of resources you can take during multiplayer battles are 50% of resources stored in the gold/elixir collectors, 75% of dark elixir stored in Dark Elixir Drills, 5% of dark elixir stored in the Dark Elixir Storage, 25% of Gold/Elixir Storage and 100% of what is stored in the Town Hall.  However, if the opponent has a Town Hall which is 2 levels lower than yours the maximum available loot is reduced by 50%.  3 or more levels lower and it's a 75% reduction.
 * 3) Multiplayer raiding is based on trophy count. Enemy levels will vary largely.
 * 4) During a raid, you can end the battle even after the countdown has begun without penalty as long as you haven't deployed troops and the button does not say "Surrender".
 * 5) Try to upgrade defensive buildings when you have a shield as they do not defend while upgrading.
 * 6) You get a 12 hour shield if your Town Hall is destroyed, or 40%-89% of buildings are destroyed. 16 Hours if 90%+ is destroyed. (Yippee!)
 * 7) You get 1 star for destroying an opponent's town hall.  You get another star for 50% total damage.  You get the third star for destroying everything.
 * 8) A Dragon and Healer can fit in a level 3 Clan Castle, and a P.E.K.K.A can fit in a level 4 one.
 * 9) Upgrading your gold mines or elixir collectors stops production, and they won't begin to collect until they are completed.
 * 10) Defensive buildings are rated as damage per second rather than per shot, therefore slow firing. For example, the Mortar has high damage per shot and yet has a low damage per second.
 * 11) Donating troops to Clan Members gives experience points, however the player level has no meaning.
 * 12) You can't cancel  troop upgrades in the Laboratory.
 * 13) Army Camps, Clan Castles, Gold storage and Elixir storage can still be used while upgrading.
 * 14) Players cannot raid your Village while you're online, though the game times out if not touched for over 5 minutes.
 * 15) Bombs, spring traps, air mines and decorations can be built without the need of a free Builder, unlike building or upgrading walls and removing obstacles.
 * 16) Wizard Tower is the only defensive building that does splash damage to air attacks.
 * 17) Nobody can steal your Gems.
 * 18) Barracks will produce troops while you're raiding an enemy village. Start production for your next battle before you begin a raid.
 * 19) Start training troops when you log off.  They will be ready for the next day even if your camps are destroyed.
 * 20) You can safely hide up to 900k elixir by filling the training queue of your barracks with Wall Breakers, which has the highest elixir per unit slot of 3000 at level 5, when your Army Camps are full.  Cancel the training to get the elixir back and then train troops you will actually attack with.
 * 21) The amount of experience needed to go up a level is 50 for level 1. For example to go from level 10 to 11 requires 500xp.
 * 22) Even if your troops you used in attack survive the battle, if you actually deployed them to the battlefield, then you will still need to replace them.
 * 23) Upgrade all your towers and buildings to the max before upgrading your town hall.

Dark Elixir and Artificial Intelligence
The latest 2 updates was so big that I had to cover it in one chapter. I will explain about Dark Elixir, Dark  Barracks, Dark Elixir Troops, Wall breakers, the latest Artificial Intelligence for troops and, additionally,exploiting Dark Barracks! Let's get started!

'''This chapter affects 'Messing with Raiders'. '''

Dark Elixir
Okay. Dark Elixir is a rare form of Elixir- namely Dark Elixir. You can buy a Dark Elixir Storage for 600,000 Elixir at Town Hall level 7, and a Dark Elixir Drill for 1,000,000 Elixir at Town Hall level 8. When you have 10,000 Dark Elixir (which can be bought with gems) you can buy a Barbarian King, and with 40,000 an Archer Queen.

Minions, which can be trained from Dark Elixir Barracks which cost 750,000 Elixir, cost 6 Dark Elixir each, Valkyrie for 100 Dark Elixir each and Hog Rider for 30. (Repeated below)

Best way to get those rare Dark Elixir? Rain Lightning Spells on it. Not effective, but do you really think you would be able to get any more with full force? Possibly, but unlikely for the well guarded ones.



Dark Barracks
Dark Barracks can train Dark Elixir Troops! Just like a regular barrack, troops cannot be trained while being upgraded (I know). What can they train? Read on!

Dark Elixir Troops
Can train...


 * 1) Minions, which cost 6 Dark Elixir. They do 35 damage per second, and have 55 hitpoints. They are a flying unit (well, DUH)


 * 1) Valkyrie for 100 Dark Elixir. The do 60 damage per second, and have 750 hitpoints, which is more than a Giant.


 * 1) Hog Rider for 30 Dark Elixir. 50 damage per second, have 300 hitpoints. Can jump over walls.

Wall Breakers and their new AI
Wall Breakers used to be fooled by spiking. But now, as you can see, Wall Breakers are now smarter than they look (or are they?) and need more elbow room, so they take up 2 spaces. This means that you can store half the elixir you could have stored before, using a trick that can be read in the 'Tips and Tricks' section.

So anyway, now our Wall Breakers are smarter, they will ignore spiking. Good thing or bad thing?

Pros:

When raiding, you can ignore any spikes. And, Wall Breakers are finally smart enough to blow up the inside walls, and not the outer walls, despite the description for Wall Breakers...

Cons: You can't spike.

This stuff depends on how much you play. If you play a lot, than this update should be GOOD for you, and if you are less active, this update is a Clashers nightmare... Well, not much to write about there.

Dark Barracks' Ultimate Flaw
I was thinking of this last night- If you could store Elixir when your Army Camps are full, can't you store Dark Elixir with Dark Barracks? This is a theory, as I haven't been on Clash of Clans after the update. Let me know if this works!

UPDATE: This has been comfirmed to work.

Conclusion, and about Dokugan
Okay, there is no conclusion as more content will be added over time, but some facts and trivia you might be interested in me... Stay tuned, as Dokugan is not finished!
 * I am a level 38! (Yeah, believe it or not. Most people in general have problems with people who don't even share the same Town Hall level as them. Well, I have one thing to say to them- El Problemo?
 * I am 12-25 years old. I will not tell my actual age, as this would probably won't go well with people who are older than me.
 * This took about 2-3 weeks to make this guide. Hard work!
 * This was inspired by Flammy, which I earlier on mentioned
 * My favourite troop is the Wizard! And my favourite Dark Elixir Troop is the Minion, which has the same characteristics as the Wizard (Can deal high damage, low hitpoints)
 * My Town Hall is level 6
 * My clan is Dragon Knightz! The leader is BlazedDragon, who you may know of...

'''EDIT: I present to you... The beginning of Dokugan's Strategy Guide: PART 2! '''

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Welcome, again!
This is Part 2 of Dokugan's Strategy Guide. Here we will cover more of Clash of Clans' mysteries, and we will show you how to unlock them, and them exploit them. You may have read the Dark Elixir's Flaw. If you haven't, scroll above, or read the original article here.