Web+tube's Strategy Guides/Rushing: Another way to play Clash

Introduction

Clash of Clans is a game with many play styles. Some play this game for the progression aspect, some play for the warring scene. Then there are some, who play this game as a toilet break game. No matter what, as long as you are having fun playing this game, there is no wrong decision (usually). As such, there is no definitive play style in Clash. It is all based on what you enjoy from the game the most.

That said, this is also a strategy game, which means one can employ strategies to boost themselves ahead of their peers. Numerous online guides can be found on the Internet, including but not limited to, YouTube, online blogs, and even this very Fandom page itself! And remember, the strategical aspect is not only limited to attack strategy. Base upgrades are just as, if not more important than attack strategies.

As such, this guide would like to talk about…rushing.

Too long; didn't read

• Rushing used to be bad before 2014, it is great as another way to play now.
• There are many types of rushing, this guide talks about rushing for progression.
• Rushing has many benefits:
  • Rushing allows you to progress faster (contrary to popular belief) by allowing you to farm more efficiently, use magic items more efficiently, have better offensive strength which results in better CWL performance.
  • Rushing allows you to start heroes sooner, get high level heroes sooner for good book usage, and max out heroes sooner.
  • Depending on your clan, rushing actually makes you a great asset to your clan by contributing in donations and CWL.
  • Rushing is more suited to casual players to progress by allowing easier builder/lab management with cheap upgrades.
  • Subjective: Rushing is fun for some as you get to unlock new content and potentially less burnt-out.
• This is a game, do what's most fun for you. Rushing might not be for everyone, and so is maxing.

History

The Stigma

Back then, rushing used to be generally frowned upon, and for good reason too. Back then, rushing used to disadvantage you in numerous ways.

• Multiplayer matchmaking used to not include Town Hall (hence will be referred to as "TH") level when searching for bases. The only matching criteria was trophy levels. Combined with loot penalty for hitting TH levels below you and loot bonus for hitting TH levels above you, and it's obvious to see that farming at lower TH levels are typically better.
• Shields mechanics: Getting one star used to automatically grant you a shield, no matter how little destruction your opponent has achieved. This is the factor for TH sniping back in the early days, it's to incentivize trophy pushers to only take your TH with as few troops as possible, and leave your storages alone.
  • If you're rushed, trophy pushers can try to attack your entire base instead to get their 3 stars, resulting in more trophies. If you're maxed, trophy pushers can be intimidated by your high-level defenses and only snipe your TH for the few but guaranteed trophies, and not waste troops attempting to get more.
• War matchmaking used to solely be based on TH level only. As such, a maxed base is always superior in clan wars compared to a rushed TH base. Bringing a rushed base into war hurts your clan and resulted in perma-maxed bases being the best for war.

What changed?

If you noticed, none of the above is true anymore.

• Loot bonus when attacking opponents at higher town hall levels has been removed since December 2013. Multiplayer matchmaking now also take TH levels into account since May 2015.
• Shields mechanics have been reworked in December 2015, not granting one upon TH destruction. This effectively kills TH sniping since the main incentive of getting TH sniped is to gain a shield to protect your loot from other attackers. Nowadays, trying this stunts ends with you getting you possibly having your TH destroyed numerous times in quick succession.
• It is not exactly clear when war matchmaking has changed, but putting maxed THs into war does not always yield favorable matchups now.

As one can see, Supercell has been systematically removing advantages of maxing and encouraged other play styles to emerge. Since 2016, rushing started to become an excellent way of playing for those looking to hasten their base progress.

Misconceptions and Advantages

Disclaimer: While there are many forms of rushing, and every play style is as valid as any other (provided they follow the Terms of Services), this guide specifically focuses on rushing for progression. There are different rushing tactics for war (engineering).

Misconceptions of rushing: Not a big deal as it used to be

This section will highlight what misconceptions may arise from rushing, and will also explain the benefits at the same time.
You'll get crushed at Multiplayer defense

• Even as a rushed player, my defense log are not all triples. There are many times the attacker can't get to triple my base. Some of them can't even steal much of my loot!
• Let's say I do get crushed in Multiplayer every time, and that I lose 500k-600k (which as I mentioned in the first point, doesn't happen that often). I now have a 16 hour shield, and in 16 hours, my Gold Mines, Elixir Collectors and Dark Elixir Drills can produce 1.0584M/1.0584M/11.52k respectively (rushed TH13, for the record). That is more than enough to cover defenses losses. If I sacrificed shield time to attack other bases, I can find bases filled with loot to earn loot even quicker, thus nullifying any disadvantage of having low-levelled defenses in Multiplayer.
  • The best way to deal with defense loss is not to upgrade your defenses, it's to simply attack often to regain loss loot and trophies.

TL;DR: Defenses are meaningless in Multiplayer unless you're in Legend League, since any loot or trophy loss can be recouped by attacking other bases.

You will suffer loot penalty
By that logic, you farm more in TH7 than you do in TH11/12. As long as your farming troops are sufficiently upgraded, you can attack bases at your own TH level, with no loot penalty, and still grab all/most loot in that base.

You are slowing your progress
Simply false. In fact, did you know fully maxing out your base is the slowest way to progress in Clash? It's one thing to enjoy maxing out because it is fun to you, it's another to advocate maxing out for efficiency when it's the slowest method available.

Why is maxing slower and rushing faster for base progression?

1. Skip bottlenecks. Fully maxing means you sacrifice Gold/Elixir/Dark Elixir/Builder Time/Laboratory Time, or multiple at once in order to stay back at your TH level finishing those upgrades. If you maxed TH8, you would find yourself having overflowing elixir and dark elixir at one point in TH8. If you maxed TH9, you are very likely to waste Gold, Elixir, 3 Builders and Laboratory being idle just to finish Heroes. TH10+ and you'll always find yourself completing everything else while waiting for lab, thus wasting resources and Builder time. Rushing allows you to skip those bottlenecks and progress with great efficiency compared to maxers, even if you both have the same upgrades costing the same amount of resources and take the same amount of time.
2. Access longer upgrades sooner. Some may think that if you rushed, you would have to do more upgrades at that TH level. The thing is, that upgrade always exists in your Clash journey at some point, and they cost the same whether you're at TH9 or TH13. By getting these longer upgrades sooner, they get the most values from magic items, so you can spend them immediately efficiently to save a lot of time. (We're talking about 14 days per Book/Hammer used!)
3. Attacking bases is how you farm loot. It is also how you attack war bases and win the war. Not to mention, attacking is a requirement in events (Win 10 attacks with ___) and Season Challenges (Use 8 ___ in attacks). Now how many times defenses are featured in what was mentioned? Arguably only 1, and that is defenses can help you win wars if your offense is already at its peak. By rushing, you can farm better loot at higher TH levels, and you can have higher war troops to take into CWL.
4. CWL benefits rushing, a lot. CWL has no weight-based matchmaking system, therefore stronger base = better CWL performance. Rushing lets you have stronger offense for CWL and your defenses won't be too shabby either. A maxed TH9 has no chance of tripling a rushed TH13 with Scattershots, especially if said base is an anti-2, in which the TH9 is not likely to get 2 stars either. Meanwhile, your rushed TH13 with maxed TH13 offense (excluding heroes) can triple TH12 and below bases with ease, and you can triple another TH13 if you are sufficiently skilled. You only give 3 stars to 7 difference clans, and you can pull up to 21 stars into your own clan, that's a 21 - 3 = 18 stars lead based on your base alone!
5. In addition, higher CWL leagues means more league medals, more league medals means more hammers, more hammers means more boosted progression, which in turn leads to better performance in CWL! It's a positive feedback loop that one can take full advantage of.
6. Doesn't always happen, but when a new TH level releases, cost and time discounts are given to lower TH levels. This disproportionally benefits rushers since they tend to have a bunch of low level upgrades sitting around, while the maxer cannot utilise these discounts as well since they had maxed out their upgrades at their previous TH level.
7. Heroes are hard to grind. They are also one of the most important units in attacking and defending. By starting the hero grind sooner, you can start levelling up your heroes sooner. You'll be able to reach long upgrade timers sooner, and thus utilise Books of Heroes more efficiently to max out your Heroes sooner.

You will be a liability in your Clan
Not true. In fact, aren't rushed donation accounts made for the sake of donating high level donations to clan members? For low levelled clan, high level bases, rushed or maxed, are a great asset. Said high level base can contribute to CWL and perhaps push your clan to a league higher too.

Rushing is only for the hardcore
If anything, rushing is actually more geared towards casual players. If you find yourself unable to play much Clash for some period of time, being rushed really helps with that. Rushed = Have low level upgrades which are cheap. You have easier Builder/Lab management with cheaper and less time-consuming upgrades to space out your upgrades. When you're busy, you can just start a cheap upgrade when a builder/lab comes free and do expensive upgrades when you have time to farm. As a maxer, you don't have many options as all your low level upgrades doesn't exist anymore. If you're active in Clash 24/7, you'll do fine without cheap upgrades. But when life gets in the way, you are going to have idle builders/lab, which compound to the issue of bottlenecks and thus prolonging your grind even longer.

Rushing is unfun because (insert reason here)
This is rather subjective. Yes, some people just doesn't like seeing a rushed base. That's a perfectly valid reason to not rush. Some people prefer maxing because it is more fun. Some people prefer maxing because they get to experience each TH level war attacks. Those are all valid reasons to max.

But this goes both ways, there are many reasons people prefer rushing too. Rushing lets you reach max sooner. In addition, you get to experience new content faster than a maxer could. Maybe crushing in CWL or being the top donor of your clan is what makes this game fun for you. In which case, rushing is an excellent idea. It ultimately boils down to what you like to do most in Clash.

To be continued

If you're enjoying this guide so far, or you have any critisms (just make sure it's constructive), feel free to comment here! :D

Planning to add:
-Rushing and Regular Wars
-How to rush correctly (general)
-Fixing a rush?
-Maybe throw some photos into the mix, too...

I feel like this needs to be reiterated again: Clash of Clans is a game! If you find maxing enjoyable, go for it! If you find rushing enjoyable, more power to you! No need to shun rushers for doing what they enjoy!