"This terror of the skies was born out of Dark Elixir. Undetectable by the Seeking Air Mine, Minions materialize with ease, but are fragile in our world."
Level 1 & 2
Level 3 & 4
Level 5
Level 6
Level 7 & 8
Level 9
Summary
The Minion is a fast, cheap, and relatively weak ranged flying unit. Its appearance is that of a gargoyle with large horns, stubby wings, and large hands with sharp vicious claws covered in what seems to be Dark Elixir.
It is the first Dark Elixir Troop unlocked, being usable upon the construction of the Dark Barracks.
Out of all Dark Elixir Troops, the Minion has the lowest health and does the least damage per second. It also has the fastest training time and requires the least housing space per unit. On a per housing space basis, the Minion has the highest DPS of all Dark Elixir Troops (and is fifth among all other troops that are not super, after the Goblin, Wizard, Balloon, and Barbarian).
Minions have no preferred target when attacking; they will simply attack the closest building. However, once they become aware of enemy Clan Castletroops, Heroes, or Skeleton Trap skeletons (either by being attacked themselves or by being near another friendly troop under attack), they will leave their previously targeted building and instead engage the enemy troops. Once all of the nearby enemy troops are defeated, the Minions will proceed to attack the nearest structure.
Offensive Strategy
Minions are generally very useful utility troops.
It is extremely useful to carry a small number of Minions (3 or so) to pick off buildings that are defended by ground defenses only (Mortars, Cannons, Bomb Towers, and Ground Mode X-Bows). This is especially useful in Clan Wars, as they move fast and can easily take out the passive distraction buildings once the majority of the base is destroyed.
Minions are relatively cheap and take up only 2 housing space, making them well suited to use in a group rush strategy.
Minions are a part of a very efficient farming attack strategy for town hall 7s, 8s, 9s, and even 10s, called Loonion. Loonion is often brought with Rage Spells, Minions, Haste Spells, Poison Spell, and Balloons. The player will make a wall of Balloons where the air-targeting defenses mostly are, and if needed, support them with either a haste spell or a rage spell. Then, they deploy the minions to clean up behind once the first layer of defenses are taken down. However, Air Bombs can seriously ruin this attack if many Balloons or Minions were clumped up because Air Bombs can fully take out minions and leave Balloons damaged, or even destroyed completely unless a well-timed healing spell is dropped to prevent the Balloons from being destroyed.
Minions can be destroyed by a single Air Bomb; therefore a good strategy is to deploy them one at a time in different locations to set off the Air Bombs, and then follow up by deploying them in masses. Does not apply for Seeking Air Mines as Minions are undetectable by them and thus won't trigger them.
Using Giants as a distraction when using Minions to attack other buildings is a good idea since the Giants will attack the defensive buildings and keep them occupied while the Minions attack all the outside buildings achieving at least 50% damage.
Note that while Giants can be used to destroy an Air Defense, they will not occupy its attention while it is being attacked due to it cannot target foes on the ground.
Like Balloons, Minions are exceptionally useful in the Single Player Campaign. You can simply destroy all of the Air Defenses, Archer Towers, and Wizard Towers, then deploy a single Minion. It will destroy every building. It takes a bit of patience, but it pays off at the end. In the Single Player Campaign, there is no time limit, so one unthreatened Minion will eventually destroy every building.
Important note: In many cases, a single Minion will take enough time to destroy the remaining buildings that your game will time out due to inactivity, which will cause your attack to end prematurely and be unsuccessful (regardless of how many stars you had earned to that point). To prevent this from happening either deploy multiple Minions, move your screen around, tap in the red zone, or simply change the view every few moments by panning or zooming.
Minions can overpower Air Defenses as they are single target defenses, but beware of Wizard Towers that deal area splash damage unless you don't clump Minions together.
A good way to use minions is to use a meat shield such as Dragons or Lava Hounds as most Air Defenses and Air Bombs can kill Minions very quickly. While Air Defenses can be swarmed, Air Bombs can take out an entire horde of Minions but are otherwise ineffective against Dragons and Lava Hounds. Seeking Air Mines pose a threat to the meatshields, but Minions can't trigger them.
In Queen Walks, placing a Minion when a defending Lava Hound pops can save a lot of your healers' health.
Defensive Strategy
It is really helpful to have an Air Bomb in case you are attacked by Minions. It's the biggest weak spot for a Minion, especially if the attacker has multiple Minions, as Air Bombs do splash damage in a relatively large area and can wipe out an entire group at once. For this reason, it is helpful to place the Air Bombs near storages/Town Hall. A lone Air Bomb of any level can destroy a Minion of any level.
If your attacker plans on deploying a large number of Minions, they will typically try to trigger your Air Bombs first with single Minions deployed at several points around your base. To counter this, make sure the trigger radius of each Air Bomb is at least behind the first row of defended buildings; this will help ensure that the single Minions will be destroyed by other defenses before they can trigger the Air Bombs.
However, this can be countered by Lavaloonion Strategies, because Lava Hounds would usually go first and trigger the bombs, wasting them.
Since Minions are normally used as cleanup troops, instead try to counter strategies that use the minion rather than the minion itself.
Upgrade Differences
The Minion undergoes significant visual changes at all levels but level 2 and 8.
At level 1 and 2, the Minion appears to be a light-blue gargoyle with a small pair of wings on it's back, with 2 horns on its head.
At level 3, the Minion's skin changes from light blue to royal blue, with its horns and forearms a slightly darker shade of blue.
At level 5, the Minion's skin turns gray, and its horns and forearms both turn black. It grows a bit bigger, and the eyes also glow a ghostly white, making it resemble a fully-fledged gargoyle.
At level 6, the Minion's skin turns reddish-purple. Its wings also turn into light-colored purple, similar to Level 2 Dragon.
At level 7, the Minion becomes a rough orchid. Its horns become orange near the tips, and his wings turn orange.
At level 9, the Minion's skin turns blue-violet and its wings and horns gain an icy blue fade at the edges. Light blue spikes appear on its back. It appears to be bigger and bulkier than its previous levels.
Trivia
The Minion was added in the 12 March 2013 update.
In the Japanese and French language settings of the game, the Minion's name literally translates to "Gargoyle".
In the Chinese community, a common nickname for Minions is "Flies". This is also true for Clash Royale.
You can have a maximum of 150 Minions at one time in a complete set of fully upgraded Army Camps. This number increases to 172 if you include the 22 that can fit into a fully upgraded Clan Castle. On the battlefield, you can clone an additional 48 Minions with three fully upgraded Clone Spells.
Tapping on the Army Camp will make the Minion "sneeze," and they "sneeze" more when at level 6 to 8.
The Minion is the fastest flying unit, and one of the fastest troops overall along with the Goblin.
The Minion is the only flying troop (excluding sub-troops) that is undetectable by the Seeking Air Mine. The Healer was changed to be able to be targeted by traps as a part of the August 2016 update.
Minions attack in different ways in Clash of Clans and Clash Royale. The minion spits Dark Elixir in Clash of Clans while the Minion builds it and throws it in Clash Royale.
Minions can move up to 7.8 tiles per second in a maximum-level Haste Spell, which is also the same for Goblins in a maxed-out Haste spell.
