Clash Royale Entering Legendary Arena Guide

Clash Royale Entering Legendary Arena Guide by Koutsokostas

My name is Dimitris, and I am a Psychology undergraduate student and an avid competitive player of Clash Royale. I have been in many video games since the age of three. It all started with Pokemon (as with most of us) and at the peak of “competitiveness” it happened with League of Legends, Hearthstone and CS:GO. Clash Royale, has given me so much enthusiasm as a game the past 2 months, that whenever I felt down, even though it is a stressful game, just the idea of playing CR while enjoying my coffee at 10 AM before I begin studying for exams, was exstatic. In game, I had funny moments and at the same time, super-frustrating losses that almost made me break my phone.

This being said, Clash Royale after all is a game, and we should not take it too seriously, even if we are competitive players. For the sake of competition, there are many factors that we could consider. In particular, factors like card levels and player level differences are shaking the ground and often, may make players feel the sense of being treated unfair. Although this is true, there are other factors that you could put to use, to minimize any in-game unfairness, to the point that it could even become your own advantage.

In this short guide, I will cover 3 different elements. Beggining with Tenacity, I will explain why it is important to keep yourself stable and focused. I will also exemplify the issue with Tilts and how to combat Tilting quickly without having to waste a significant amount of time in order to reset your mindset. With the category of Knowledge, we will shortly identify how to learn the game and ourselves better.

Tenacity: This is one of the most important things that makes a competitive player shine. Often players tend to switch deck every 1-2 games, simply because they believe a different deck is better, or they play to have fun. This is a wrong action. If there is a certain deck which not only you feel comfortable playing, but is strong in the given meta-game, you are having already the edge. For example, as hated as it may be, I found the Royal Hog strategy, to be one of the most comfortable decks to play in the game. I may have lost to Sparky decks many times, and switched to other decks many times, because I thought that swapping my deck would change something, or that the other deck is stronger. Mistake. I personally never found Solo Hog Cycle Decks powerful, I never managed to pull a nice Hog run, and I probably never will, so many high-rank players use such a deck, for me, that was not the case. Tenacity therefore, is super important. By focusing on one strategy that you feel comfortable, you increase the odds of outplaying your opponents. Sure switching strategy on meta-shifts or if you found a better tool for your deck, is okay, but you should not switch your trustworthy decks because that #1 player in the world is playing a Golem deck, unless you are a great golem user yourself.

What should we do? Focus on using a specific deck which you are comfortable with. Remember that your goal is not having fun, but to reach the mark of 3000 trophies and beyond. Always play when you are comfortable, with comfortable strategies and keep grinding with your goal in mind. The only thing that you need to be aware of, is that every battle is different, thus you have to focus every single second on defeating your current opponent in this given instance. Remember, tenacity is all about making moves step by step, and keeping a strong grip of your most powerful strategy.

Tilt: This is the killer-mood of all competitive players. Sometimes it is as big as losing 800 matchmaking ranking points, or as small as losing 100 points. What remains the same is the fact that Tilting, could replace losing. Tilts can happen out of nowhere, but sometimes tilts are visible even before you begin playing. I have been on tilt so many times in this game, sometimes it was as huge as falling from Arena 7 to Arena 4, can you imagine? After a while? I am back up, and I am here, enjoying playing with mutually skilled players in Arena 8, writing guides here on Reddit, with my head clear and my heart full. When you lose one game, the odds are in favor of losing another. This is a fact. If you can beat the odds, and win the game, then you probably got saved from tilting, but upon losing a second game it is better to stop playing for a while? Right? Well there are two answers to this question, and many different types of tilting. A player may be on tilt because of his bad mood. Another player may be on tilt because of consecutive losses. This guy over there might be on tilt because he got tired of playing for 7 hours. It is a very easy thing to happen, in any game, and no, there are no bots made by supercell to make you tilt so you buy gems, nor the opponents decks are instant counters to your decks, being on tilt means that you enforce negative bias on any situation, which means that you judge every single happening negatively, not being able to think clearly at any given instance. Poker players, who coined the term, first analyze how they are in tilt (By external factors? By game factors?), and then identify if they are unlucky in game, or they just cannot think clearly. After that, the most common strategy to deal with a tilt is to stop playing.

How to avoid tilts? The short answer is to stop playing. However, I myself have found a different remedy for tilts, in case you are in need of coping with a tilt fast, so that you could continue playing in order to achieve your goal. If your tilt is by an external factor, it is fairly easy to forget it while playing, unless we are talking about a death, a break up or a serious instance which is of significant importance to your life. If you are on tilt because of your country’s politics or news that you do not like, then it is pretty easy to play a few warmup games with your clanmates, in order to forget what is happening around you, so you can focus on the game. If the tilt is happening by an ingame factor, it is much easier. You could abuse your own mind by reinforcing yourself with treats, or by creating a cheerful atmosphere around you. Do you like drinking coffee? Drink a large sip after every defeat to calm yourself, smaller sips on victories. There are tons of things your head can imagine, to force the environment around you, hold you up, when the game drags you down. My personal strategy for all tilts is to avoid playing after 2 defeats in a row, but lately I seem to keep on playing and I seem to get only more losses, so I decided to start a reinforcement strategy with small pauses after each loss, so I can get a victory then, and it has worked wonders for me. For example, I win a game, play music while you take a break of 1 min, or do anything you really adore, but keep the break strictly to 1 min, not more not less. When defeated, play music, do a quick activity, check the news, talk to a friend or even visit the subreddit and relax, but after each loss, set the pause timer to two and a half minutes, so you can start returning to your good mood in which you were winning games.

Knowledge: This is an important factor in order to acquire achievements in any game, or activity in life. Knowledge is power, and you should learn a lot! You see a lot of Sparky decks? Try to learn what defeats Sparky, and maybe if you are a complete-compete tryhard, try to learn the stats of the given cards which cast fear and terror on your strategies. Reading deck guides is very important too, because more often than not, guide-writers often list the counters of a given deck and the strategy behind it, which means that you will be one step ahead of your opponent, which is very important when you dance in the arenas. For example, Arena 1-2 players are in terror when they see Baby Dragon or Prince. If such players knew that Skeleton Army counters Prince with a positive trade of 1 elixir, or that Musketeer could even out a Baby Dragon, they could have been much more happier than they are. Much more importantly, with a level 2 Princess, I have baited so many weak arrows from ignorant Arena 7 players, who thought that Arrows always kill a Princess, which created a huge elixir tempo for me, and allowed me to play a fearsome Minion Horde, when its counter was down! There are so many things you can learn, and trust me, even those high ranked players are still learning things for the game. After all, it is a new game that keeps getting updated very often, so you should not think that there is an absolute situation where you become a god and you know every single value ingame, but you should force yourself to learn a thing or two. I am an Arena 8 player, who cannot use Zap and cannot play Hog Cycle decks, but I have learned these decks in order to be able to defeat them. I stick to my own custom deck, but I keep reading guides online, in order to understand how certain decks work, so that I can be one step ahead of my opponents.

Where to begin with learning? Read a couple guides, learn how to form a deck, read card counters, read, read and read! It is important that you are up to date with the meta, and that you are able to understand deck concepts and cards, so that you can defeat them with much more ease in the game. It is not rocket science, it is just theory crafting, with simple numbers, and straightforward strategies.

How will I use your examples to pull myself up to Arena 8? Well, the main reason that I used examples, is in order for you to be able to find an instance in which my examples fit in.

Listing of what to keep in mind after reading the mindset-guide.

• It is important to stick to one strategy and continue with it, till you find something that feels more comfortable to you.
• Do not give up because you are stuck in a certain trophy range for more than 3 days. Stay tenacious!
• Focus on the instance of the current battle, but keep your goal in mind.
• Don’t be reckless with chasing victories.
• Avoid negative-bias even when you are on a winning streak.
• Take a 10-30min. break after two defeats in a row.
• Take a minute break after each victory, and take two and a half minutes pause after each defeat.
• Reinforce yourself after victories/defeats so that you can keep yourself calm/happy.
• Keep up to date with the meta.
• Learn cards that you are afraid of.
• Try to learn as many deck-strategies as possible, so you can beat them with more ease in your future games.
• Focus on acquiring knowledge by every game that you play (I.E. watch your replays).
• Not all players have great knowledge, not even the highest ranked players know every single aspect of the game, so do not give up.
• Know yourself, to know the enemy.^{TenacityCreatesKnowledge}
• Pay to win or Free to play. Both are players, both win and lose. Both can be masters or losers. It is in your heart and soul to win or not. It does not matter at the end of the day. Focus on getting better, rather than whining.

To summarize, stick with one strategy, mind your actions when you win/lose, keep calm and remember that it is just a game. Finally, to become a top notch player you have to keep learning every single second.

TL;DR? This is summed up with the bullet points and the super-short summary, but please, if you are reading strategy guides, don’t read titles and headlines, but read the whole thing for better results and illustrations. Willing to read something is one of the most important virtues in our society nowadays.

Thank you for reading my short-guide, I hope it helps you to improve in Clash Royale (and not only), and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Yours sincerely,

Dimitris / Jim.