Barbarian King



"This colossal menace soaks up huge amounts of damage and bashes anything in his path. He guards his territory fiercely when defending, and can launch into a devastating rage when attacking once his Iron Fist ability is unlocked!"


 * Summary
 * The Barbarian King is basically a larger, more aggressive, and more powerful Barbarian. He is automatically summoned once the Barbarian King Altar is constructed, which costs 10,000 Dark Elixir.
 * The Barbarian King is an immortal unit, so he only has to be summoned once. However, if he is injured or falls in battle, he must regenerate his health by sleeping for a period of time before he can be used again. If you attack a village while its Barbarian King is still regenerating, the Altar will be empty.
 * The amount of time he sleeps to regenerate is directly proportional to the health he has lost by the end of the battle. If he is not damaged (or is fully healed before the battle ends), then he is ready to fight immediately; however, if he falls in battle or is wounded, then he must sleep for some time to regenerate.
 * The more the Barbarian King is upgraded, the more time it will take to fully regenerate his health.
 * The Barbarian King has two modes when defending, "Guard" and "Sleep". In Guard, he will guard the village but will have to regenerate health (sleep) if he takes damage, while in Sleep mode he will not appear to your opponent.
 * On defense, the Barbarian King only defends his territory around his platform and will retreat if lured too far out.
 * Starting at level 5, the Barbarian King obtains an ability called Iron Fist which can be used on the battlefield. It partially heals him, summons up to twenty-two additional Barbarians and grants the Barbarian King and any surrounding Barbarians increased damage and speed. This does not stack with the Rage Spell, and does not affect any other troops except the Barbarian King and nearby (friendly) Barbarians. This ability gets more powerful every fifth level.
 * If the ability is unlocked, once the Barbarian King is deployed, his icon in the troop deployment window becomes the activation method for Iron Fist. Simply click on his icon again and Iron Fist will be activated.
 * The Barbarian King summons Barbarians equal to the level of your Barbarians researched in your Laboratory (e.g. if you can train level 5 Barbarians, the Barbarian King will summon Level 5 Barbarians).


 * Offensive Strategy
 * The Barbarian King is basically the counterpart of the Archer Queen, and vice versa. The Barbarian King is the tank specialist, while the Archer Queen is the damage specialist, with the Grand Warden as the support specialist.
 * When attacking, he can be deployed just like any other unit. When he is damaged, he must sleep to recharge before he can be used again. The regeneration time is directly proportional to how much health he must recover. He may be instantly brought up to full health with Gems.
 * He is best used with Healer and Archer support. Barbarians are also excellent support troops because they will also be affected by his Iron Fist ability if they are nearby when it is activated (unlike the Archer Queen where she can't affect Archers).
 * He is also good for helping to destroy the remaining buildings of a village after most or all defenses have been destroyed.
 * The Barbarian King can be easily swarmed by a group of Archers or Barbarians as he only attacks one target at a time and has slow attack speed.
 * If your army strategy uses Barbarians, try to use Iron Fist when there are some nearby. When they are close, activate your Iron Fist to make the most out of it.
 * As the Iron Fist ability recovers some health, you should let your Barbarian King take some damage before activating this ability to maximize the recovered health provided by activating the ability.
 * The Barbarian King can be healed by Healing Spell or a Healer while battling; however, this healing occurs at 50% of the rate of that of normal troops.
 * Defensive Strategy
 * Set the Barbarian King to "Guard" mode when he is at lower levels as he takes less time to regenerate and will not interfere when you are attacking.
 * Though he is very strong on offense, he only attacks one target at a time on defense which makes him easy to kill with multiple units, so protect him with splash-damaging defenses.
 * It is a good idea to place the Altar in the middle of a group of storages or other areas you wish to protect.
 * The Barbarian King cannot damage air units (though the Archer Queen and Grand Warden can).
 * Unlike troops in the Clan Castle, the Barbarian King cannot be lured to the edge of the map and then destroyed out of range of the defenses (unless his Altar is near the edge). If his target moves out of his patrol area, he will retreat and engage another enemy inside his patrol area. If no enemies remain in his patrol area, he will resume patrolling.
 * Although the Barbarian king cannot be lured outside of his patrol range, he will lure attacking troops towards him, sometimes ignoring the structure they were originally targeting. This may be a problem in some cases, if you put the Barbarian King near your Town Hall, the attacking troops can be lured toward the Barbarian King, and consequently get closer to the Town Hall.


 * Against a Barbarian King
 * If a defensive King is causing trouble to your troops, use some small troops, such as Barbarians, behind a tanking troop. This will ensure the King is defeated with minimal loss in troops.
 * If the base has no Archer Queen, or if she is far enough away from the Barbarian King, then attack with air troops, away from buildings that target air troops. You may have to deploy ground troops periodically in order to keep the Barbarian King in an area where your air troops may safely attack the King, so this strategy may not always be effective.
 * Air attacks such as Balloons and Minions have little to worry from a Barbarian King; he can usually be ignored in such cases. While the Barbarian King cannot retaliate against air troops, he can still distract them away from other valuable targets, such as the Town Hall.
 * Although swarms of troops are effective against the Barbarian King, the P.E.K.K.A is also effective for taking down low level Barbarian Kings.


 * Upgrade Differences
 * The Barbarian King goes through visual changes at levels 10, 20 and 41.
 * Initially, the Barbarian King is similar to a giant Barbarian, with a steel crown, steel gauntlet, and steel shoulder guard. He uses a blunt sword with a stone hilt.
 * At level 10, his gauntlet changes from steel to gold.
 * At level 20, his shoulder guard's edge turns to gold, and the central spike turns gold as well.
 * At level 41, his crown also turns gold.


 * History
 * He was introduced in the 10/1/13 update, with 30 levels.
 * The 5/23/13 update added the levels 31-40 for the newly added Town Hall 10, and decreased his upgrade time, regeneration time and upgrade costs on some levels.
 * The 1/29/14 update added the Iron Fist ability.
 * The 3/7/14 update reduced the effect of the Rage Spell on the King by 20%, but the Iron Fist ability recovers some health and summons more Barbarians.
 * The 9/16/14 update has halved the regeneration time relative to before that update (up to level 30).
 * The 5/24/16 update additionally decreased the regeneration time of all levels relative to before that by a significant amount.
 * The 12/19/16 update added levels 41-45 for the Barbarian King, and decreased his upgrade costs at levels 31-40.


 * Trivia
 * The Barbarian King only holds his sword in his right hand when he is turned toward to the right sides of the village. When the King turns and faces to the left he is rendered in mirror image, causing his sword and gauntlet/shoulder guard to switch arms. This is done ostensibly to save graphics space.
 * Every slash he makes on a building or unit creates a mini explosion.
 * When you tap on him he will yell a low pitched battle cry and stand still for a moment, similar to the Archer Queen and the Grand Warden.
 * When the Barbarian King is completely healed, a jingle will play, like the Archer Queen and the Grand Warden.
 * When the Barbarian King 'falls' in battle, an explosion occurs and a bright beam of light is sent up into the sky temporarily. He is then seen standing dazed with stars flying around his head for the remainder of the battle.
 * Each successive upgrade of the Barbarian King adds approximately 2.5% health and 2% damage, but also adds a constant one minute to his total regeneration time. As a consequence, the Barbarian King's regeneration rate changes as he levels up. Initially the Barbarian King's regeneration rate slows down each level, going from 10,200 hit points per hour at level 1 to 5,347.5 per hour at level 31. Beyond level 31 the rate begins to slowly climb again, eventually reaching 5,796.6 hit points per hour at level 50.
 * The level n Barbarian King's has $$\lfloor120*1.02^{n-1}\rfloor$$ DPS for levels 1-40 (however, level 41 and above has a slightly different formula, being $$\lfloor120*1.021^{n-1}\rfloor$$ DPS), $$\lfloor1700*1.025^{n-1}\rfloor$$ hitpoints, and takes n+9 minutes to regenerate.
 * While attacking, if your opponent's Barbarian King Altar is empty and the King wakes up during your battle, the Altar will sparkle like he is waking but there will be no Barbarian King to defend the base.
 * The Barbarian King will alternate between hitting the building with the sword and his fist. However, both types of strikes do equal damage.
 * The Barbarian King was also a part of the Town Hall Level 7 Starter Pack which came with the Barbarian King, a level 3 Hidden Tesla and 1,200 gems which cost $9.99.



Iron Fist Ability