- For a similar trap that deals moderate splash damage, see Air Bomb.
- For a similar defense in the Builder Base and Clan Capital that deals heavy splash damage, see Air Bombs.
- For a similar ground trap that deals massive splash damage, see Giga Bomb.
"Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Well, it makes no difference as the Seeking Air Mine will blow it sky high. This trap does devastating damage to a single air unit."
Idle
Levels 1-2
Levels 3-4
Levels 5-6
Level 7
Targeting
File:Seeking Air Mine1 Targeting.png
Levels 1-2
File:Seeking Air Mine3 Targeting.png
Levels 3-4
File:Seeking Air Mine5 Targeting.png
Levels 5-6
Summary
- The Seeking Air Mine is a single-target air trap. It consists of a spiky metallic bomb attached to three black balloons with white skulls painted onto them.
- While the Air Bomb is considered as the aerial counterpart of the Bomb, the Seeking Air Mine is considered the aerial counterpart of the Giga Bomb, though without splash with extreme damage.
- This trap will target air units with at least 5 housing spaces (including Healers, Siege Machines, Heroes and Pets). The only air troops with fewer than 5 housing spaces are Minions, Lava Pups (and other Pup variations), Bats, and Boogers, none of which can trigger the Seeking Air Mine, or get affected by it.
- Angry Jelly cannot be targeted by the Seeking Air Mine while it is still brainwashing a Hero.
- Since the Seeking Air Mine can only target a single unit, unlike the Giga Bomb and the Clan Capital's Spear Trap, the Seeking Air Mine only counts housing spaces of single troops, rather than summing up.
- Like all traps, once it is activated, the Seeking Air Mine must be re-armed in order to be a part of the next defense (with the exception of Clan Wars and in Legend League, where all traps are active for every enemy attack). Doing so is free and occurs automatically once the player logs into the game.
Strategies
Defensive Strategies
- A good place for the Seeking Air Mine is next to an Air Defense. When the enemy destroys an Air Defense and then deploys powerful flying units in the vicinity, the Seeking Air Mine can cripple one quickly, if not destroying one.
- Its inability to be used against Minions can work out in favor of the defender. This means that only larger troops, where the Seeking Air Mine has more utility in, such as Balloons, can be hit.
- You can place it near the outside of your base to quickly take down any Healers that are deployed. However, more skilled players can deploy Balloons to test for SAMs and defuse them. Therefore, it might be more advisable to place them deeper in the base, such as behind a row of defenses.
- It is best used on Dragons or any other powerful flying unit. One can even use this to easily take out Baby Dragons as Baby Dragons are usually deployed without cover from air units.
- You can place it next to your Town Hall to stop lone Dragons from destroying it.
- It is an effective way to counter a Grand Warden in air mode. They can do devastating damage, or knock him out in one hit if he is lower-leveled. This can be used to either force the attacker to use the Eternal Tome early (at a point in the attack where it isn't important), or if the attacker does not react in time, prevent the Eternal Tome from activating at all, reducing the risk of a defensive loss.
- If the player has the setting "Automatically use Hero abilities on KO" turned on, the Grand Warden will be able to endure a hit from the Seeking Air Mine regardless of the level provided his ability has not yet been used. If the Seeking Air Mine would defeat him, the Grand Warden will use his ability and survive with barely any health remaining.
- It can be used to take down a Battle Blimp that is being used to finish off the Town Hall after a ground or air attack, due to the speed of the SAM being faster. However, this may have adverse effects since the Battle Blimp may spawn the Clan Castle troops in an unfavorable location, such as the P.E.K.K.A right near a Wizard Tower or even the Town Hall itself.
- At higher Town Hall levels, Seeking Air Mines can greatly reduce the health of aerial Siege Machines, or even destroy them early. You can spread your Seeking Air Mines in a hexagonal (Th12), heptagonal (Th13), or octagonal (Th14 and above) pattern, so that they can cover as many possible Siege Machine directions as possible.
- It is usually not recommended to group together multiple Seeking Air Mines since they will all target the same unit, effectively wasting them.
- However, at Town Hall 9, where Lava Hounds are used often with Balloons, double Seeking Air Mines can be placed near two Air Defenses, to greatly damage Lava Hounds and make them more vulnerable to getting killed early.
Offensive Strategies
- The Balloon is the best choice against this trap, as it occupies only 5 housing space. It gains even more value if too many traps are set off against once since they will all just hit the balloon for nothing.
- This is useful in some Single Player maps where a level can contain hundreds of them as a single Balloon will trigger dozens of SAMs and waste them all.
- In the Mashup Mania event, you could also use the Ice Minion, since it is more housing space-efficient.
- Using the Grand Warden's Eternal Tome ability can negate the damage done by the Seeking Air Mine, but if you wish to do so, you have to activate it quickly, otherwise, the troop will get heavily damaged, if not get taken out. Success on your part may be advantageous as you will have negated a powerful trap, but usually, the Eternal Tome is better used to negate damage from more dangerous sources, such as a Giga Tesla's death explosion at level 5.
Upgrade Differences
The Seeking Air Mine undergoes a visual change at levels 3, 5, and 7.
- When initially placed, the Seeking Air Mine is a spherical, explosive contact mine made of metal with spikes as triggers and a small red dot at the center, some of which parts are hidden under a trapdoor just like the Air Bomb. Inside the mine, there is an explosive material, most likely trinitrotoluene, and produces red smoke as it flies to the target. Three black balloons with white skulls are attached to the mine via a metal handle. When triggered, the mine leaves a red trail and its red dot blinks repeatedly as it intercepts its target, and explodes with a red vertical cloud will appear once it hits, dealing massive damage.
- At level 3, the spikes on the Seeking Air Mine become bigger and turn golden, and the Seeking Air Mine can be seen more easily within its compartment as it opens up slightly.
- At level 5, the mine's red dot becomes bigger, and the four spikes are replaced by three larger ones with metal reinforcements that hold them. When it follows its target, the dot lights up repeatedly.
- At level 7, the amount of spikes of the mine increases to five at the top, and are bigger in size, which each resembling a cactus with a spike at the end. The mine itself changes into a grey base with a golden circle at the top. The balloons are now shinier, making them look like a 3D model, in addition to the skulls being slightly changed.
Statistics
Gold Pass modifiers 
Input Gold Pass boosts to modify the statistics in the tables below accordingly
| ApplyReset |
| Town Hall Level | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number Available | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | ||
| 5 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | ||
Size 
|
|---|
| 1x1 |
Level
|
Damage
|
Cost
|
Build Time
|
Experience Gained
|
Town Hall Level Required
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,500 | 12,000 | N/A | N/A | 7 |
| 2 | 1,800 | 600,000 | 12h | 207 | 9 |
| 3 | 2,100 | 1,200,000 | 1d | 293 | 10 |
| 4 | 2,500 | 2,500,000 | 1d 12h | 360 | 13 |
| 5 | 2,800 | 5,000,000 | 3d | 509 | 15 |
| 6 | 3,000 | 6,500,000 | 4d 12h | 623 | 16 |
| 7 | 3,200 | 14,000,000 | 10d | 929 | 17 |
| Trigger Radius | Damage Type | Unit Type Targeted | Favorite Target |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 tiles | Single Target | Air | None |
| Unarmed Seeking Air Mine | |||||||
| |||||||
Icon Descriptions
 | Tapping this icon displays information about the Seeking Air Mine, such as Level, Damage Type and Targets. |
 | Tapping this icon begins upgrading the Seeking Air Mine to the next level, if you have enough resources and a free Builder (or B.O.B). When the Seeking Air Mine is at maximum level, this icon is not shown. |
 | Tapping this icon instantly upgrades the Seeking Air Mine to the next level, at the cost of one Hammer of Building if you have one. When the Seeking Air Mine is at maximum level, or if the Town Hall requirements for the next level are not met, this icon is not shown. |
 | Tapping this icon, which is displayed only while an upgrade is in progress, instantly finishes that upgrade at the cost of the displayed number of Gems. |
 | Tapping this icon, which is displayed only while an upgrade is in progress, instantly finishes that upgrade at the cost of one Book of Building. This icon is only shown if you have at least one Book of Building. |
 | Tapping this icon, which is displayed only while an upgrade is in progress, instantly finishes that upgrade at the cost of one Book of Everything. This icon is only shown if you have at least one Book of Everything but do not have a Book of Building. |
 | Tapping this icon, which is displayed only while an upgrade is in progress, gives the player the option to assign a Builder's Apprentice to that Building. This icon only is only shown if you have unlocked Builder's Apprentice for 500 Gems. |
 | Tapping this icon, which is displayed only while an upgrade is in progress, boosts all your Builders for 1 hour by a factor of ten, at the cost of one Builder Potion. This icon is only shown if you have at least one Builder Potion. |
 | Tapping this icon, which is displayed only while an upgrade is in progress, cancels the current upgrade and refunds half of the upgrade cost. |
Sounds
| Sound Effect | Captions | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Trap triggered | When an air unit triggers the Seeking Air Mine | |
| Seeking Air Mine seeks | Plays when the Seeking Air Mine follows its target | |
| Seeking Air Mine explodes | When the Seeking Air Mine hits an aerial unit | |
| Trap re-armed | Plays when the Seeking Air Mine is re-armed (became unused since the April 2, 2019 update) |
Gallery
Seeking Air Mine in the Chinese version (note that this version has the skulls removed)
Trivia
General
- The Seeking Air Mine appears to come out of its compartment and then hits an air troop, causing a small, red vertical flash.
- The Seeking Air Mine is heavier than an Air Bomb, as it needs three Balloons to carry it, which is most likely that the spiky metal ball has more weight than a wooden barrel.
- The Seeking Air Mine shares its initials with the Surface-to-Air Missile. Both are powerful, grounded explosives that can devastate singular aerial units but are ineffective when enemies come in larger numbers, and are not used against weak aerial threats.
- After hitting an aerial unit, it disappears, but it looks like a deflated Balloon instead of an exploded one when triggered and viewed after a battle or when upgrading the trap. The same applies to the Air Bomb.
- Prior to the November 2013 update, it required Dark Elixir to build them. This same update made Traps permanent structures instead of despawning upon activation.
- Previously, from the 2/24/2015 update, Healers were made unable to trigger air traps, including the Seeking Air Mine. This has since been reverted following a balance change on 8/25/2016.
- The Seeking Air Mine's description is a reference to the musical "It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman".
- Following the balance changes on August 12, 2021, its speed increased from 2.5 tiles/s to 3.5 tiles/s, which outflies the Battle Blimp.
Comparisons
- The Seeking Air Mine is the only trap that can knock out the Grand Warden set to air mode in one hit, provided that the Seeking Air Mine is max-leveled and the Grand Warden is not equipped with Equipment that increases his max health.
- The Seeking Air Mine has the highest damage out of all the traps.
- The Seeking Air Mine and the Skeleton Trap are the only traps that do not do splash damage.