Sezeky's Strategy Guides/Upgrade Guides/TH9 to TH10

Summary:

To contribute in a war focused clan, it is important that you upgrade your base at a pace that gives you the highest advantage in wars. Each base has a "weight" associated with it that determines your match-up in the war. What you choose to upgrade first will have an impact on your base weight and ultimately determine your match-up in wars. This article is intended to help players upgrade through TH10 while giving them the best advantage in wars. The goal is to have you hit your equal position opponent for more stars than they can hit you.

Weight is determined by looking at the strength of your defensive buildings and comparing it to your offense. Keep in mind that defensive buildings add far more weight than offense making them less of a priority right off the bat. Generally, you'll want to make major improvements to your offense before even touching the defensive buildings. After your offense starts to catch up to TH10 criteria, you'll start to mix in defensive weight.

When to go TH10:

It is always recommended to upgrade your town hall only after every building, troop, wall, and hero is completely maxed. If you are the anxious type, at least wait until everything besides heroes are maxed. If you make the move too soon, your offense will never be able to hit a normal TH10 for more than 1 or 2 stars. Many people find maxing walls at TH9 too tedious and are content at lvl 8 or 9. I pushed to 10 and I can guarantee it is worth it but if you refuse, at least get them to 9. The hit points really do make a difference and can slow heroes and high damage troops significantly. Heroes are tough to upgrade but make sure your K/Q are lvl 20+ minimum. Heroes should account for 15% base destruction each when attacking, anything less and you're asking too much of your troops. Once you've met these criteria or you're impatient and hit the minimum, you can make the move to TH10!

First order of business:

Do not be tempted to hurry the upgrade timer on your TH. Use that time to fill your gold and elixir storages to 7+ million each (8 is max). I find crystal league 1 or 2 is the easiest to accomplish this. As soon as your TH finishes, you need to... million elixir) million elixir) This will clean out your storages but are essential to improving your offense immediately. Focus on keeping your elixir storages full. You'll never want a break in your research lab, keep it going non-stop. After you've got a few of your favorite troops upgraded, you can take a break from the research lab and work on these elixir upgrades: Once your Clan Castle is upgrading, you'll want to buy all the new available traps and upgrade them to TH9 max. These two paths will keep your builders working and your gold/elixir storages churning. As always, keep pushing those hero upgrades (or favorite DE troops) with any DE earned during this time.
 * 1) Upgrade Clan Castle to 6 (7 million gold)
 * 2) Upgrade Research Lab to 8 (4
 * 1)                 Spell Factory to 5 (3.2
 * 1)                 Army Camps
 * 2)                 Dark Barracks
 * 3)                 New DE drill to lvl 6
 * 1)                 Giant bomb to 3
 * 2)                 Air bomb to 5
 * 3)                 SAM to 2
 * 4)                 Skeleton trap to 3
 * 5)                 Max all traps

Max quickly upgrades:

These buildings add little to no war weight so knock these out sooner rather than later. Research priorities (you may have different preferences based on attack strategies):
 * 1)                 Collectors
 * 2)                 Air defenses to 8 (massive DPS, very little war weight)
 * 3)                 Air sweepers to 6 (devastating to air assaults)
 * 4)                 Teslas to 8 (what they can't see will definitely hurt them)
 * 5)                 New walls to 10, it will cost only 11 million to get all 25 walls to lvl 8. From 8 to 10 will cost 37.5 million gold/elixir.  Take care of other priorities but this can be done fairly early on.

Giants to 7, this might be the best upgrade in the game. Giants receive a massive increase in HP/HS when they go from lvl 6 to 7, take advantage of these tanks while looting early on. massive HP boost between 4 and 5. Finally, defenses:
 * 1) Spells (healing, jump, freeze...)
 * 2) Valkyries to 5, like giants, valks receive a
 * 1) Baby Dragon to 4, allows a successful baby loon attack which might just become your favorite looting army
 * 2) Lavahound to 3, for the baby loon attack
 * 3) Golem to 5, ideal for war attacks
 * 4) Your call, focus on troops you use the most often from here

By now, you've maxed your resource buildings, placed all your new traps. Boosted your favorite attack troops, and brought your new walls to lvl 10. It is now time to introduce a few new defenses but take it very slow. Complete each step before moving to the next. You will tell from your war match-ups if you go too quickly! Balancing:
 * 1) New cannon and archer tower to 11
 * 2) New xbow to 3
 * 3) New bomb tower to 3
 * 4) Both infernos to 1 (every upgrade of these has substantial weight, leave at 1 for now)
 * 5) Cannons (6) and archer towers (7) to 12
 * 6) Wizard towers (4) to 9
 * 7) Mortars (4) to 8, if you haven't yet, gear up one of your mortars
 * 8) Bomb towers (2) to 4
 * 9) Cannons (6) and archer towers (7) to 13
 * 10) Infernos to 2 and 3 (this is the main factor in weight, once they hit lvl 3 you will see little change in war opponents)

Keep an eye on the types of bases you are consistently 3 staring. If you get to the point where you're able to 3 star your equal in war, consider moving to the next defensive building step. Don't make it too easy for your equal to 3 star you!

This strategy will help you take advantage of players who rush their bases and pay little attention to strategy. You will find that being patient leads to favorable match-ups and clan superiority. It will also help you proceed through TH10 as quickly as possible!