Clash of Clans New Player’s Guide

Clash of Clans New Player’s Guide by Chief Roskandy

I decided to write a mini guide for lower Ths. Hopefully it’s helpful :x

Basics

– This game is easier and more fun if you think of loot as an active thing rather than a passive one. Yes, your collectors can help. But don’t depend on them for your $.

– Stop giving a shit about trophies. Like literally, I “end battle” at 49% because I don’t want to put down/waste more troops. They have no value at this level. You also don’t need to worry about being in a specific trophy range, etc. You’ll settle into one that will be right for you.

– Don’t worry too much about defending against attacks. You’ll make back your money really quickly if you focus on attacks. Also, a lot of players at lower TH are not very good at attacks. Upgrade your defensive buildings but it’s fine if you keep getting killed on defense.

– Upgrade your troops ASAP. Upgrade order? Start with troops you use a lot. Then do the other ones if you have time/money to spare.

– Being in a clan is fun but it can be hard to join one as a new player. You’ll get kicked a lot. Don’t take it personally. The best thing would be to join a clan with some friends (IRL friends omg).

– I think it’s helpful to learn how to farm really effectively. Once you’re sitting on full storages and/or between upgrades, practice attacking for stars/trophies. Practice every army comp you can find. Play around and have fun! Just make sure you have enough elixir left to deploy a farming army at least once in case you run out of money, haha.

Farming

The most important thing about farming is figuring out what afull collector or mine looks like and being able to tell at a glance about what level they are. Why? Because collectors and mines are usually easily accessible. I’ve found that gold mines are pretty difficult to glance over. Elixir collectors look full, though, and turn darker when they’re overflowing. The higher level the collector, the more loot they hold.

There are pictures of half full collectors at every level here.

Also, don’t be shy about pressing the “next” button. Go foreasy bases with lots of loot. There’s no need to make every raid one you want to post on the internets.

Here are some army comps to try for farming:
3-5 giants, rest goblins
– How to use: Put down the giants as shields (one at a time). Put goblins everywhere. Try not to clump them too much so they don’t all die in one hit from a mortar.
– When to use: Open bases–all collectors outside walls (sometimes storages) or the entire base inside one layer of wall.
– Notes: This will feel really stupid when you are doing it. But it will feel less stupid when you’re a Th5 walking away from a raid with 100k of each resource.

Some barbarians, some goblins
– How to use: Use barbs as shields and put a few down at a time. Use goblins to kill all the collectors, mines, and storages. Army comp doesn’t matter, usually use about 1/2 and 1/2.
– Notes: Much cheaper and somewhat faster to train than giant-goblin, but giants are better shields than barbs.

Barcher
– How to use: About half and half barbs and archers. Circle the base with barbs once, circle with archers next. Once you have more barracks space, it’s helpful to bring 1-2 wallbreakers in case the base is inside some walls. Since everything is spread out, splash damage (mortars, wizard towers) doesn’t matter as much. One tip is that you can drag your finger to deploy your troops faster. You have to press and hold for 2 sec and THEN drag (the game is weird. I’m silly and thought point and drag didn’t work on android phones.)
– When to use: Collectors outside walls. Splash defenses wayy inside walls.
– Notes: This is your bread and butter for most of the game. Barcher is still my favorite comp for farming at Th8.

Halp, I got attacked!

So what actually happens when you get attacked?

1. All your buildings will “rebuild” themselves in about 3 seconds. No permanent damage. I think the 3 seconds is just for the effect but destroyed looking buildings don’t actually have any issues.

2. Any current upgrades and research will continue as if nothing happened. Phew.

3. You’ll need to rearm your traps (bombs, spring traps) for some gold cost. They’ll only go off once–so if you get attacked multiple times before you can rearm them, the second/third time, the traps won’t go off so your base may be weaker.

4. For Th5 (and below, I believe), 20% of your elixir or gold from your storages can be stolen per raid. However, if the person who attacks you doesn’t get to 40% destruction, the next person can steal 20% of your loot, again. This means that technically, people can steal more than 20% of your loot total before you log on again! From your collectors, 50% of all the money in there can be stolen.

5. When you get destroyed by 40% or more, you get a (free!) shield. The shield will prevent people from attacking you again until the shield runs out (8-12ish hours depending on how much you got destroyed) or until you break the shield. Any time you press attack and scout bases, you’ll break the shield. (You can do the goblin campaign without breaking your shield though).

Okay. Hopefully this was helpful to some new players!

Tip: To help on defenses, leave your town hall outside of your walls. Some players will just attack your town hall for the stars and you get a free shield with minimal loot stolen.