Clash Royale Free Player Success Guide

Clash Royale Free Player Success Guide by voteforlee

Hey everyone,

As the game has just been released globally I am going to try to help out some new players, as well as some more experienced players that have hit a wall. My in game name is Irish and I am a Co-Leader at the No.1 Reddit clan (in terms of trophies), Reddit Alpha. Feel free to look up my account to verify trophies and my deck.

Tip 1 – Deck Selection

There are 3 main ways to play the game from my experience

• 1 Build an “unstoppable” push of cards to brute force down a tower. At low level this is mostly done using giants with high damage/splash damage troops behind the giant. At higher levels this is usually done using a pekka or a golem. It can also be done using spawner stlye decks.Success is based around playing cards that your opponent has to try to deal with or they will lose a tower
• 2 Defence only style decks – These are decks not very concerned about getting troops to your tower. They defend their side using buildings and troops and then deal damage using buildings like mortar, xbow etc or spells like rocket
• 3 Counter and push decks – Basically you sit on your side of the maps continually shutting down their attacks until you build up an elixir advantage, then you attack with something like a hog/prince and deal your damage while they are largely defenseless.

You’ll find a lot of the time 1 beats 2, 2 beats 3, 3 beats 1. This varies a lot based on the decks but that’s been my experience

The reason I say this is I think it’s important to decide which type of style you are going to play and embrace it. The cards you unlock early may decide your best deck, perhaps you keep running into a certain deck and that will shape your deck. I just feel this most important thing is trying to stick with a style long enough to fully understand it. Every deck has weaknesses and constantly switching decks will not lead to you having much more success. I have pretty much only played counter and push style for 80% of my time in game so that is what I will speak on, but you will find advice translates to other styles.

My Deck and how it came to me

So my deck is made up of cards for different purposes

• Knight – This card is in the deck for defending primarily. It will take out a wiz (+2 elixir) witch (+2) musketeer (+1) Bomber, archers (-) etc and still survive to battle on assuming you deployed him close enough to the troops. It will also distract a baby dragon while your tower takes it out. It will even take out a giant skeleton on it’s own if your tower is shooting at it. Offensively it acts as a decent tank and will do surprising damage to a tower
• Archers – Primarily in the deck for defense.Deals good damage to air and ground, doesn’t die to arrows or the same level. Deals a lot of damage to towers if protected
• Fireball – Primarily in the deck for defense against Barbarians although they have tiny bit of health left (+1), Minion horde (+1). Is a very very important card for defending against the “unstoppable push deck”. Lets say they drop a giant, they will often follow up with maybe a bomber and archers. Your fireball will take out all the troops behind the giant and they are the ones that cause the real damage. Will also take out a wiz/musketeer if it is a level higher than it. Also useful on offense to finish of a building. If opponent drops a troop near their tower like a bomber or archers it is a pretty good trade to take out those troops and to get damage on the tower.
• Tombstone – use for defense. Is mainly used as a distraction for Hogs/pekka/golem/giant/balloon/prince etc but is good against almost every troop in the game. nice card to play when full on elixir and waiting for opponent to act
• Tesla – Again for defense, two buildings are key for this strategy or you won’t be able to stop the “unstoppable push”. Will distract the troops listed above and lasts 1 minute which is very useful. I like to play the buildings while waiting for the opponent to act to that I can set up my counter push.
• Lightning – Used primarily to gain an elixir advantage. I had to put this spell in as I was getting beaten too easily by spawner decks and the defense decks. You have to be very careful using this spell effectively as it costs so much. If your opponent has a barb hut down and a goblin hut your 6 elixir lightning and take both mostly out while still damaging a tower. If they drop a wiz/witch on by their tower take it out instantly for 1 less elixir for you but damage on their tower. A giant with a musketeer and witch behind it, why not lightning them and take the giant down some health while taking out the other two. used against 1 or 2 defensive buildings it is also great, bomb tower, inferno and an xbow, well i’ll take them all almost totally out for a gain of 10 elixir.
• Baby Dragon – Used for defense and attack. Every deck needs a splash damage unit to deal with barbs/minion horde primarily. Is cheaper than those cards and less vulnerable to spells due to high hitpoints. Will also sneak down the edge of the map to deal some decent damage to a tower if ignored. Offensively I use combined with hog to take out the small troops used to defend against Hog
• Hog – Attack only. Use when your opponent is too low on elixir to defend or their method of defending is out of rotation. For example the only building they have is a bomb tower. You take that out quickly using minions and now you know they can’t stop your hog. The Hog is easily distracted but deals great damage if it gets on a tower. I pair it with the baby drag when pushing if I can, or even behind a knight (fun trick hog will push the knight to make it go faster). The main Idea is that you need to only deploy the hog when it’s going to be effective. Lightning can be used very well with hog as opponent with two defenses up feels safe from hog. Drop lightning as soon as hog is coming in and their defenses are gone, suddenly they are wide open.

This deck is not the perfect deck but it works for me.

• Evolution wise the hog used to be the prince but I switched when I realized gaining a 4 elixir advantage is a lot more feasible than 5.
• The lightning use to be a freeze. I loved freeze hog but freeze is rarely worth it defensively and I needed a way to deal with spawner decks.
• The Baby dragon used to be a wiz but it was too vulnerable to spells and costs a little too much
• Archers used to be spear goblins but I was sick of losing them to arrows
• Tesla used to be inferno but then inferno got nerfed to 45 seconds and wasn’t versatile enough

The idea being I modified this deck quite a bit from what it was 5 weeks ago, but the core mechanics didn’t change much and that is why I have success with it. Every troop has a function in the deck and If I wanted to change one out I found another troop that still performed that function. I have experience dealing with pretty much all attacks with it and If i constantly changed that wouldn’t happen. I know decks it’s weak against and I can try for a draw. I know decks it’s strong against and I can push etc. The main style is counter and push and that is why the primary purpose of the majority of my cards are defense based. I may bring prince back in if I get him leveled to 3 since then every card in my deck could defend if I needed it to

Tip 2 – Elixir advantage.

Key to winning in this game. Try to have more elixir than them most of the time. Every positive trade you make you are closer to winning. Arrows on their minion horde. That’s +2 for you. Keeping track of your opponents elixir and trying to have yourself having more is the #1 way to victory

Tip 3 – Gems

Use gems for 1 thing, buying gold from the shop to spend on upgrades or purchase a card or two from the shop. Only other time you should use gems is something like 2 to finish a silver chest off so you can start your gold chest before bed/school etc.

If you are not F2P spend gems mostly still on gold and be patient with the shop

Tip 4 – donate a lot

Game is based on giving you more cards than gold so you buy gold. Donate all the cards you can and you won’t want for gold, also try to not upgrade every card just the ones you want to use based on your strat

Tip 5 – Practice battle your clan mates as much as possible

If you keep losing to a certain deck practice beating that deck in your clan. You can also get feedback from your opponent which you can’t do in normal matchmaking

Tip 6 – keep track of your opponents deck and how they are countering you

Knowing your opponents deck shapes your strategy. For example if I push with a hog and they drop a minion horde to defend I will remember that. Next time I push with hog I will play a preemptive fireball or arrows and take out the horde before they take damage. Risky moves like this are often the difference between winning and losing