"Headhunter has just one job: taking out enemy heroes. As her other job, she works at the village apothecary. She's lightweight enough to jump over walls and her poisoned weapons make her targets move and attack slower."
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Summary
The Headhunter is a troop unlocked once the Dark Barracks is upgraded to level nine.
Headhunters prioritize Heroes above all other targets, and will bypass all other types of enemy buildings and troops while any enemy Heroes remain on the battlefield. This is true even if they are under attack by enemy Clan Castletroops or Skeleton Trap skeletons. Note that the defending Grand Warden is considered a defense and not as a Hero. Once all enemy Heroes are knocked out, Headhunters become like any other troop with no preferred target; they will attack the nearest building to them regardless of type, and will turn and attack enemy units if they become aware of any nearby.
The Headhunter's attacks have a Poison Spell effect, which slows down troops and heroes that are hit. The poison has no effect on buildings and does not deal damage by itself.
Interestingly, Headhunters do not target the defending Grand Warden (nor do their weapons poison or do extra damage to him). It is due to the fact that the defending Grand Warden is considered a defensive building.
Since Headhunters can jump over walls, you do not need to support her with a Jump Spell or Earthquake Spell. You can send them with the main army of a hybrid, as they can take out the enemy heroes instead of something else.
Due to Headhunters being able to jump over walls, they can be used to lure out an enemy Clan Castle provided that an enemy hero is nearby. This may require more than one headhunter (or protection from a meat shield such as a Giant) due to their low hitpoints.
If all enemy heroes are down, they will alternatively target enemy Clan Castle troops. This is useful on bases that already have their heroes down, either because they are regenerating or being upgraded.
However, this is quite rare as the Heroes are commonly well protected enough to either force the activation of a Clan Castle or require too much time to individually kill all of them.
Sneaking in a Headhunter during a Queen walk/charge can gain massive value as long as it doesn't get targeted by defenses, saving poison or freeze spells used against heroes.
You can also sneak one in during a Suicide hero, where the planned objectives are near or include an enemy hero to save some health of the hero.
Defensive Strategy
As defending Clan Castle troops, Headhunters are effective against attackers' Heroes, including the Grand Warden, regardless of whether he is set to Ground or Air mode. Even if no heroes are present, its ability to poison attacking troops make it a valuable unit on defense.
Headhunters are amazing troops to defend against a queen charge. Their extremely high damage and slowing poison forces the Archer Queen's ability every time, even while under poison spells. If the attacker doesn't respond fast enough with spells such as lightning or freeze, Headhunters can easily take out the Archer Queen, even with the ability.
Headhunters will jump over walls and dive straight for the hero. Putting them closer to the core of your base will force the headhunters to go away from most possible tanks and get targeted themselves.
Upgrade Differences
At level 1, the Headhunter has a purple-and-black robe covering her whole body. Her face is covered in darkness, except for the eyes which are black with a yellow-orange sclera.
At level 2, the part of the robe covering the face gains a silver trim. She also gains a poison symbol on her robe's back.
At level 3, the trim turns to gold, as well as appearing on the start of her gloves. Her symbol on the back of her robe also turns gold.
Trivia
You can have a maximum of 50 Headhunters at one time in a complete set of fully upgraded Army Camps. This number increases to 57 if you include the 7 that can fit into a fully upgraded Clan Castle. On the battlefield, you can clone an additional 15 Headhunters with three level 5 or higher Clone Spells.
In the developer Livestream, the Headhunter was responsible for stalking for heroes, as stated by TV Royale, but the original suspects were the Bandit from Clash Royale and Tara from Brawl Stars.
It may be assumed that players use Headhunters to brew Poison Spells, as stated in the description, despite being unlocked 4 THs after you unlock poison spells.
In the trailer, her third card had the Clash of Clans Logo. In in-game artwork, she only appears to wield two cards, and in battle, she only appears to use sword cards (needs confirmation). In the level 9 Dark Barracks (the only other place where cards can be seen), three cards are present; two sword cards and one crown card.
The Headhunter is one of the four troops to have upgrade differences at each level, the others being the Dragon, P.E.K.K.A, and Yeti.
One of her cards has a hero crown on it, which is fitting seeing as she specifically eliminates them.
The Headhunter is the only unit that targets heroes.
She is one of the three Troops that has three prefered target stages(the Headhunter only has two target stages if there are no Clan Castle troops), the others being the Lava Hound and the Ice Hound.
Statistic Modifiers
Input values into these modifiers below to modify the statistics in the tables below accordingly
