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.
 * 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 mount, the Hog Rider 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.


 * 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, a Jump Spell or Earthquake Spells in order to assist them.
 * The Hog Rider could potentially be used in an extremely effective 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.
 * A good tactic for using Healing Spells is to place them strategically on a cluster of defenses (at least about 3 or more) and also deploy them shortly before the Hog Riders arrive in the area, i.e. deploy them ahead of the Hog Riders. This is so that the Hog Riders get the most out of the Healing Spell, and destroy the defenses without losing too much HP.
 * Spots where a Giant Bomb or a pair of Giant Bombs may be lurking should be given special attention when deploying Healing Spells. Hogs of the same level as the Giant Bomb will survive a single Giant Bomb, but they're helpless against a pair of Giant Bombs even with a Healing Spell. Heal them after they've went through a Giant Bomb blast.
 * The Hog Rider is the one of the best troop types for drawing out 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 2x2 areas around the base.
 * Hog Riders are helpless against airborne enemy Clan Castle troops, especially Dragons. Most mass Hog Rider strategies in Clan Wars, require that the Clan Castle troops be killed first by luring. Bring other troops in addition to Hog Riders, such as Wizards, to deal with enemy Clan Castle troops and do clean up.
 * Since the December 10, 2015 update, two Poison Spells (one in the player's army and one in the Clan Castle's spell slot, if it's level 4 or above) can be used to kill almost any enemy Clan Castle troop, including Dragons. Only the Lava Hound, Golem, and P.E.K.K.A. (for certain levels) can survive a double Poison Spell drop, but they're not very bothersome for Hog Riders. This advantage, coupled with the new 3 1/2-minute attack time, allows the attacker to free up space for more Hog Riders by not having to bring other troops to kill the CC troops, and therefore execute a more successful attack.
 * Stacking Poison Spells on top of another does not deal extra damage to enemy troops, meaning they cannot be deployed simultaneously and kill the Clan Castle, especially a Dragon. When dealing with an enemy level 5 Dragon, an offset of 5 seconds is recommended in order to kill it. The Poison Spells each should be at least level 2.
 * 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-powered defenses on the inside and lower-powered 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.
 * Hog Riders can be easily killed using "forced pathing". Forced pathing is a strategy that manipulates the Hog Rider AI and make them go to at least 2 Defenses that cannot be prevented by surgical dropping or side clearing. Placing a set of Giant Bombs in between the two can most certainly guarantee you a defensive win.
 * Clan Castle troops, Heroes, and Skeleton Traps set to Ground Mode 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.
 * In Clan Wars, Dragons are excellent troops to place in Clan Castles against Hog Riders, especially for Town Halls 8 and 9. They have high HP, meaning they won't die easily, and can kill mass quantities of Hog Riders swiftly if not properly lured. Most mass Hog Rider strategies require that the enemy Clan Castle troops be killed first, so if the attacker lures out a Dragon, but fails to kill it, then a 3-star win is next to impossible, much less a 1-star win via destroying 50% of the buildings.
 * Multi-target Inferno Towers can be a severe hindrance to Hog Riders, being able to block out healing effects, having high HP to take several hits from Hog Riders, while hitting large groups of them.
 * As of the 3 Jul 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.
 * A preemptive Healing Spell will save Hog Riders from a Giant Bomb if the Hog Riders are higher level than the Giant Bomb.
 * A pair of Giant Bombs, called a Double Giant Bomb, or DGB for short, regardless of level will destroy even maximum-level Hog Riders, and if the Giant Bomb's level is higher than that of the Hog Rider, only one Giant Bomb is needed. 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 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, and the hammer head goes further down onto the stick, creating a button looking object on the top of the hammer head.
 * 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.
 * When there are no defenses left and the Hog Riders are attacking a building, they do not attack Heroes nor Troops until they have destroyed the building.
 * He has more than a passing resemblance to "Mr. T", an American actor.
 * He was added in the 12 Mar 2013 update. On 27 Aug 2013 his training time was reduced from 5 minutes to 2, and he was given a preferred target (defenses).
 * Hog Riders have the most legs of any 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.
 * A real-world Chinese farmer, Jiong Chengyou, rides his own pig, but not with a hammer. Click https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CrJlwBkFAHw for the video.
 * A real-world Chinese farmer, Jiong Chengyou, rides his own pig, but not with a hammer. Click https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CrJlwBkFAHw for the video.



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