Game Tips

Other places to get tips and advice

 * 1) The Strategy Guides Category on this wiki
 * 2) On YouTube, such as Flammy's Channel
 * 3) From the official Clash of Clans forums

Offensive Tips

 * 1) The maximum amount of resources you can raid during multiplayer battles are 50% of resources stored in the gold/elixir collectors, 75% of Dark Elixir stored in Dark Elixir Drills, 4-6% (depending on the opponent's Town Hall level) of Dark Elixir stored in Dark Elixir Storage (up to a maximum of 2,000-3,000), plus 10-20% of Gold/Elixir Storage (up to a maximum of 200,000-400,000) and 100% of what is stored in the Town Hall. Note that the available loot is reduced if the opponent has a Town Hall which is lower than yours. See Loot for a detailed explanation.
 * 2) During a raid, you can end the battle without losing trophies as long as you haven't deployed anything and the button does not say "Surrender", instead it will say "End Battle".
 * 3) You get 1 star for destroying an opponent's Town Hall or reaching 50% total damage. At that point you may claim victory and end the battle with 1 star, or continue battling to earn the remaining 2 stars. The second star is earned when you achieve the other original objective (either destroying the Town Hall or achieving 50% total damage, whichever you did not achieve for your first star). You get the third star for destroying everything (walls are not included). You can get the full amount of trophies only if you get 3 stars in a raid. (It is impossible to get more than one star in a raid without destroying the opponent's Town Hall.)
 * 4) Barracks will continue to produce troops while you're raiding an enemy village, so it is advisable to start troop production for your next battle before you begin a raid. However, if you return home before you raid another village, these troops will not be produced.
 * 5) Once you deploy a troop during attack it must be replaced, even if it survives the battle. This discourages players from attacking with more troops than necessary to achieve their objectives. The only exception to this is Heroes.
 * 6) You can tell if the X-Bow is set to ground only or air and ground by the way it is elevated. You can also tell if it is full or empty by the presence/lack of a bowstring and Elixir magazine. See X-Bow for images.
 * 7) You can also tell if the Inferno Tower is operational or not by the presence of the flame on it and the color of the tower itself. See Inferno Tower for images.
 * 8) Raiding people with high level Town Halls normally gives you more loot, but also gives them the opportunity to "Revenge" attack you later.
 * 9) The Lightning Spell can be used to destroy or weaken a defense or Heroes, or take out Clan Castle troops once they are outside of the Clan Castle.
 * 10) If you are looking for Dark Elixir and you are not concerned with trophy loss, you can use a Lightning Spell against the storage and/or drills.
 * 11) You can use Goblins to set off any Hidden Teslas, Spring Traps or Bombs in the way. Goblins are the fastest troop in the game, they can be made very quickly and cost a minimal amount of Elixir.
 * 12) You can use a Freeze Spell on a strong defense (i.e. the Inferno Tower) so your weaker units can destroy it and/or pass through.
 * 13) Beware of people who appear to be farmers by putting their Town Hall outside their walls. If you attack them, they may "Revenge" attack you and steal your resources when you have plenty of them. Be especially watchful of farmers who have Barracks that can train tier 3 troops if your level is lower than theirs (they are more experienced and their buildings are more upgraded).
 * 14) Do not center a Healing Spell on a moving target. Use it a little in front of the troops that you want to heal. This way you can ensure that the troops will stay inside its radius longer and the Healing Spell would not go to waste. The same goes for Rage and Jump Spells.
 * 15) When the Healer is not available for training (when your Barracks are upgrading or when you haven't unlocked it in your Barracks), two Healing Spells work well as a replacement. For example, when your Giants are low on health, you can use a Healing Spell to heal them, and then use a second Healing Spell later when your Giants are weak again.
 * 16) Lightning Spells are good at destroying certain defenses. For example, if you are attacking with a lot of tier 1 units, 2 Lightning Spells work well in destroying a Mortar. 3 Lightning Spells can also take out an Air Defense, assuming the Lightning Spell's level is high enough. 2 level 5+ Lightning Spells are sufficient to take out a level 1 Air Defense.
 * 17) Never underestimate an empty spot within an enemy's base. Traps or Hidden Teslas may be hiding there.
 * 18) Multiple Level 4+ Lightning Spell can easily take out even the strongest Mortar and Wizard Tower. If a defense has the majority of their Mortars and Wizard Towers adjacent to each other, use your Lightning Spell to take them out. You then have very little worry about area splash damage.
 * 19) You can use Jump spells to get over annoying walls If you are having trouble destroying them. Hog Riders and flying troops are not affected by walls, so you can use these troops as an alternative. If you still are having issues, use Wall Breakers to destroy walls.
 * 20) Always aim for at least 50% if you are gunning for trophies, you may attack the buildings outside of the wall area since these buildings usually comprise almost 50% of the whole base already
 * 21) Clan Castle Troops will only engage once a troop moves into the Clan Castle's radius. These troops can easily ruin an attack, so lure them out by using a Giant, Wall Breaker, Hog Rider or Barbarian.

Gameplay Tips
Factual points about the game beyond opinion:
 * 1) Clan Castle troops surviving a defensive raid will return to your Clan Castle at full health, even if they were damaged during the attack. Clan Castle troops deployed as part of your own attack will be lost regardless of whether they survive the battle or not.
 * 2) A Healer or Witch will fit into a level 2 or higher Clan Castle.
 * 3) A Dragon will fit into a level 3 or higher Clan Castle.
 * 4) A P.E.K.K.A will fit into a level 4 or higher Clan Castle.
 * 5) A Golem or Lava Hound will fit into a level 5 or higher Clan Castle.
 * 6) Enemy troops can still spawn on the darker colored grass where you cannot place buildings.
 * 7) Multiplayer matchmaking is based on trophy count only. Enemy levels and capabilities will vary widely.
 * 8) You get a 12-hour shield if your Town Hall is destroyed, or if 40%-89% of your buildings are destroyed. The shield increases to 16 hours if 90%+ is destroyed (whether or not your Town Hall is destroyed is irrelevant).
 * 9) Leaving the Town Hall unprotected is ideal if you are farming. The reason for this is that it will cause players looking for easy trophies to destroy your Town Hall and end the battle following that, giving you a twelve hour shield. Your resources will not be touched.
 * 10) Troops occupying your Army Camps cannot defend, but they are unaffected if their Army Camp is destroyed during a raid.
 * 11) Upgrading your Resource collectors collects the resources inside and halts production. They will not begin to produce again until their upgrade is completed.
 * 12) If only 40-49% of your buildings are destroyed (not including Town Hall or walls) you gain a 12-hour shield with increase to your trophies. (Use this time to upgrade defenses.)
 * 13) Defensive Buildings are rated in damage per second rather than per shot; therefore slow-firing Defensive Buildings like the Mortar have high damage per shot and yet have a relatively low damage per second rating. This does not mean they are not important, nor that they do not cause a great deal of damage.
 * 14) You can't cancel a troop upgrade in the Laboratory, so plan your upgrades beforehand!
 * 15) Donating troops to clan members gives high experience points; however the player level currently has little or no meaning.
 * 16) The player level can roughly show how long a player has been playing.
 * 17) Army Camps, Clan Castles, Gold Storages, Elixir Storages, and the Dark Elixir Storage still function normally while upgrading.
 * 18) You can move your Buildings/Walls/Decorations while they are being built or upgraded.
 * 19) Players cannot raid your village while you're online, though the game times out if not touched for five minutes (even if your device does not go into screen lock).
 * 20) The higher level your Town Hall is, the more troops and defensive buildings you have access to. However, you will be subjected to loot penalty, and the battle searching cost also increases. These are the main reasons why you should not upgrade your Town Hall prematurely.
 * 21) The placement of Bombs and Spring Traps, along with Air Bombs and Seeking Air Mines, can dramatically alter the result of a raid.
 * 22) Your Gems cannot be stolen.
 * 23) Traps and Decorations can be placed without the need of a free Builder, unlike building/upgrading walls and removing obstacles.
 * 24) The Wizard Tower is the only defensive building that does splash damage to air units.
 * 25) The amount of experience needed to go up a level below level 200 is (current level-1) * 50. Thus, it will take 50 experience points more every level you are rising. For example, to go from level 10 to 11 requires 450 experience points, so to go from level 11 to 12 it will require 500 experience points.
 * 26) Being in a Trophy League will also provide a loot bonus in addition to the loot from the raid. You enter Trophy Leagues automatically by completing a raid (successful or not) and possessing the required amount of trophies when it finishes.
 * 27) Even though you are in your own Trophy League, you can still be matched with players from higher or lower leagues (or no league at all).
 * 28) When part of an attacking force, Healers only heal ground units and Heroes. They do not heal flying units such as Dragons or other Healers.
 * 29) Don't use double walls anymore; wall breakers have a three tile blast range!
 * 30) When you attack people send, in a Barbarian, Giant, anything that doesn't have long ranged attacks to the wall and then spawn a wallbreaker so the other troops takes up all of the damge and the wallbreaker can break through the wall.
 * 31) The game continues to run for a small period of time after closing, this is to prevent having to reload the game or loss of attacks if a notification appears or if the app is exited accidentally.

Miscellaneous Tips
You can "hide" a maximum of 603,600 Elixir in your Barracks when you're offline. Make sure the Army Camps are completely filled with troops you need the next time you come online. Then train the maximum amount of Dragons (or Wall Breakers if you don't have Dragons) in the Barracks. When you come back online, just cancel all these trainees and you get the training costs back! (Three level 4 Dragons, seven level 6 Wall Breakers and one level 7 Archer in each of the four level 10 Barracks = 603,600 Elixir.)
 * 1) It is recommended that you upgrade all your towers and buildings to the maximum level allowed before upgrading your Town Hall.
 * 2) Try to upgrade Defensive Buildings during shields as they do not defend while upgrading.
 * 3) A good place for the Clan Castle is in the middle of the village. Archers are nice all-purpose troops to fill it with. Other good troops are Wizards, Dragons and Minions.
 * 4) Try to spend, or hide, all your resources at the end of the day if you don't have a shield. That way those who raid for resources will most likely ignore your village.
 * 1) Similarly, you can "hide" a maximum of 5,030 Dark Elixir by queuing Dark Elixir Troops, when your Army Camps are full. (Seven Level 2 Witches and one Level 5 Hog Rider each in both your Level 6 Dark Barracks = 5,030 Dark Elixir).
 * 2) If you wish to remodel your village without using the Village Edit Mode, try to do so when you have a shield. If for some reason the game crashes, you will get three-starred easily while your village is only halfway finished.
 * 3) If you see someone who has a high amount of loot and the loot is a rounded number (92,500 for instance), then their storages are most likely empty and the resources are all in the Gold Mines and Elixir Collectors.
 * 4) If you have a lot of resources and your shield is about to run out, stay online or purchase a shield.
 * 5) Believe it or not, often all a farmer needs is a few Wall Breakers and a horde of Goblins for stealing large amounts of resources.
 * 6) Abandoned Bases (players who have not played the game for 50 hours) are easily identified by having available loot anywhere from 20,000-600,000 Gold and Elixir each, all Gold Mines, Elixir Collectors and Dark Elixir Drills filled, empty Storages, all builders in their huts sleeping (ZzZ....), no Trophy League badge, abundant tombstones, etc. Attack these bases by using Archers to gain easy Gold and Elixir.
 * 7) Watch out for high level players with a village that looks weak. Some players will make their base look easy to break into, but they will have Hidden Teslas spread out in the base, which will destroy a weak army.
 * 8) Make sure you are prepared for all situations during battle. For instance, make sure you have at least some troops that can target air units, as Minions or a Dragon may be stored in the Clan Castle.
 * 9) One way to avoid the Clan Castle troops from ruining your attack is to use a Barbarian or two to "lure" the them to an area where the defenses cannot reach, and spam your Barbarians or Archers. This works extremely well when attacking a player whose base is relatively compact and his/her Clan Castle is easily accessible.
 * 10) Be wary of the nearby defensive structures like Wizard Towers, Mortars, etc. and the amount of troops you use.
 * 11) Just before a troop upgrade is finished, make sure the Army Camp are full and train as many upgrading troops as you can in the Barracks. When the upgrade is finished all the queued troops in the Barracks are upgraded as well! When you un-queue them, you will receive the upgraded training cost back.
 * 12) Leave Defensive Buildings and resource collectors outside your walls that still have a long time left on their upgrade; they will not be productive in any way. You can also choose to place Spring Traps around this "bait" for Giants or Goblins. This way, when the Giants target the upgrading defense or when the Goblins target the upgrading resource building, they will be thrown out of the field since the Spring Trap is touching the building and the troops should stop right on the Spring Trap. It can weaken an opponent's army or maybe, more rarely, ruin his attack. Giant Bombs work well here too, as do other traps.
 * 13) Trophy farming: Before attacking a person hold next, then release one Goblin, or any low cost troops, and let go of next as fast as you can (may not work).