Hog Rider



"Having tamed the fierce leaping hog, the Hog Rider punishes those who hide behind their puny walls! Fueled by Dark Elixir, these warriors have never known defeat!"


 * Summary
 * The Hog Rider is a rugged, dark-skinned man with a mohawk riding a large hog. He is bare-chested, wearing only a brown leather loincloth, a red belt and a pair of leather sandals. He has two large golden wristbands and a gold earring. His weapon of choice is a large warhammer that gets bigger as you upgrade the hog rider.
 * His mount is a large boar/hog, about half its rider's height; the Hog Rider holds a brown leather bridle which is looped around the boar's tusks.
 * Because of his hog he can jump over Walls, giving the user a great advantage over the enemy base.
 * Although he has high damage per second and moderate hit points, he only takes 2 minutes to train.
 * Hog Riders make good distractions when deploying other units such as Archers.
 * Because of his moderate levels of health and high levels of damage, and his preferred target being defenses, the Hog Rider can be used as a replacement for Giants.


 * Offensive Strategy
 * He can be used to jump over any level Walls, rendering them ineffective against Hog Riders. Note that while this allows Hog Riders free access to what lies behind the wall, it does not open up gaps for other troops to move through. If the Hog Riders need the support of other ground troops, you will still need to deploy Wall Breakers or a Jump Spell in order to assist them.
 * The Hog Rider could potentially be used in a fashion similar to Barbarians, i.e. a "Hog Rider Rush", without requiring any Wall Breakers to break Walls. However, this would likely be a poor tradeoff of resources, as a large raid of Hog Riders would cost a significant amount of Dark Elixir.
 * Hog Riders are quite capable of acting as distracting troops like Giants; they have nearly as much health as a similar-level Giant, move twice as quickly and do considerably more damage.
 * They work well with the Healing Spell when you group several of them together.
 * When used all together they can be extremely effective offensive troops, though this is balanced by the fact that you must use a substantial amount of Dark Elixir.
 * The Hog Rider is the one of the best troop types for distracting Clan Castle troops, as it can avoid Walls to penetrate deep enough to reach centrally-placed Clan Castles (and enough health to not die before it gets there). Deploy one or a few to trigger the Clan Castle troops, then lure the reinforcement troops to the corner side, and deploy multiple Archers or Wizards to slaughter them, and then deploy the remainder of your Hog Riders. This strategy is especially effective during Clan War raids. However, skeletons from the Skeleton Trap and heroes can also easily kill the hog riders, as they can only target defenses, so make sure to have some troops that target anything.
 * Because Giant Bombs do extra damage to Hog Riders, be sure to try to trigger as many Giant Bombs as possible with sacrificial troops like Barbarians or lone Hog Riders before deploying more Hog Riders. Try to find 3x3 areas around the base.
 * Defensive Strategy 
 * Defending against Hog Riders is tricky, as their ability to bypass walls renders them irrelevant. However, the fact that they can jump over walls and attack defenses means that they may leave behind their ground support (such as Barbarians, etc.), as they will not be able to follow. This will allow your interior defenses to concentrate on the Hog Riders.
 * Another way to defend against Hog Riders is to exploit the fact that they will attack the closest defensive building. You can arrange your base in such a way so that you have high power defense on the inside and lower power defense on the outside, with a layer of resources in between. That way, the hogs will (in theory) complete a loop around your base before being able to attack your interior defenses (Inferno Towers, X-Bows, etc.), by which time they should have all been killed by the interior defenses.
 * You can place Spring Traps in between Defensive Buildings to take out a few Hog Riders at a time; good usage of multiple Spring Traps can severely hinder a Hog Rider rush.
 * Clan Castle troops and Heroes can be an annoyance to mass Hog Rider raids, as Hog Riders will not attack them unless all defensive buildings have been destroyed. Make sure to centralize them if you want to beat Hog Riders.
 * Multi-target Inferno Towers can be a severe hindrance to Hog Riders, being able to block out Healing Spell effects, having high HP to take several hits from Hog Riders, while hitting large groups of them.
 * As of the July 3, 2014 update, Giant Bombs do 1.5x damage to Hog Riders. This means that a centralized Giant Bomb can easily wipe out a horde of Hog Riders before Healing Spells can be deployed. This was likely done to put another nerf on the Hog Riders, who could easily destroy unprepared bases without multi-targeted Inferno Towers.
 * A pair of Giant Bombs regardless of level will destroy even maximum-level Hog Riders, and if the Giant Bomb's level is higher than the Hog Rider level, one Giant Bomb is enough to destroy a group of Hog Riders. For defending your base against Hog Riders pair up as many Giant Bombs as possible; multiple high-level Bombs grouped together, even though they do not do extra damage, are a good substitute.
 * Although the Hog Rider is certainly not a liability on defense, the fact that all defensive troops are unimpeded by walls negates the primary advantage of the Hog Rider. As of the 30 Jul 2013 update, they take up the same amount of housing space (5) as Giants but are much faster and do considerably more damage. They are also much less susceptible to Lightning Spell attacks than Minions and Tier 1 troops, so they may be a good alternative for the Clan Castle if your clanmates don't mind donating Dark Elixir Troops.


 * Upgrade Differences
 * Initially, the Hog Rider has a black Mohawk and beard and a gold earring in his right ear. He has two heavy golden wristbands, a red belt, and a brown loincloth. The Hog Rider's hammer is smaller and has two brass bands.
 * At level 3, the Hog Rider's hammer increases in size and turns black. The brass bands on the hammer's head disappear, replaced by a massive golden knob.
 * At level 5 his mohawk turns from black to orange, making it similar to that of a level 5 Goblin.


 * Trivia
 * Though the Hog Rider appears in many ways to be a mounted barbarian, unlike the Barbarian the Hog Rider's teeth appear to be in perfect condition.
 * In the Clan Wars commercial, if you look carefully, you can see a gold tooth.
 * He has more than a passing resemblance to "Mr. T", an American actor/ wrestler.
 * He was added in the 12 March 2013 update. On 27 August 2013 his training time was reduced from 5 minutes to 2, and he was given a preferred target (defenses).
 * Hog Riders bounce in the air when their Army Camp is tapped.
 * He is the only ground troop able to jump or bypass Walls without using the Jump Spell.
 * They have a similar body build to the Barbarian.
 * The Hog Rider has a pierced right ear.
 * Hog Riders have the most amount of legs than any other troop with a total of six (including man and hog).
 * The phrase,"Did somebody say Hog Rider?" comes from the Clash of Clans TV commercial.
 * The phrase,"Did somebody say Hog Rider?" comes from the Clash of Clans TV commercial.



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