The Lava Hound
"I smell fireworks!"
- The Lava Hound
- Offensive Strategy
- Lava Hounds have a huge amount of hitpoints. Much like Golems, they're useful as an attack tank, but for air units. They protect Dragons, Minions or Balloons, much like Golems protect a group of Giants or Witches.
- They can distract an Air Defenses, which prevent the Air Defenses from destroying a group of Dragons.
- Defensive Strategy
- Spreading your air defence out is a good idea. Also have air mines and air bombs close by.
- Their weaknesses include Seeking Air Mines, which do significant damage against air troops.
- Trivia
- The Lava Hound was added in the 16 September 2014 update.
- You can have a maximum of 8 Lava Hounds at one time in a complete set of fully upgraded Army Camps. This number increases to 9 if you include the 1 that can fit into a level 5 or higher Clan Castle.
- The Lava Hound bears a strong resemblance to the Lava Dragon from DragonVale, another popular iOS game.
- The Lava Hound is often compared to the Golem due to its similar statistics and concept (e.g. once defeated mini-troops will continue to fight).
- When clicking on an Army Camp, the Lava Hound turns away from you.
- It looks like a golem.
Dragons
- Summary
- The Dragon is capable of attacking both ground and air units. Unlike the Balloon, the Dragon has both ranged and splash damage, like the Wizard.
- Also unlike the Balloon the Dragon does not target a specific Building to attack; he targets whatever is nearest.
- A Dragon does short-range splash damage when he attacks. This can only be noticed when used against Clan Castle Troops and Walls.
- Offensive Strategy
- Most Dragon strategies involve taking out as many Air Defenses as possible with other units (infantry, Giants, etc.) orLightning Spells, as it is a significant weakness to this powerful unit.
- A good strategy involves sending in 1 dragon first with the others just behind it to draw fire to it while the others do the damage. Some players use a mix of Dragons and Balloons for this. Dragons can suck up fire from Air Defenses and Wizard Towerswhile Balloons go straight for the Defensive Buildings, though this is a very costly strategy.
- Dragons are mostly used to get Trophies as their high cost doesn't make them great candidates for resource raiding.
- Best way to attack:
- Always check the "Air Defense" if it is weak or can be quickly destroyed since that is the key on cleaning a base with dragons, after that you can spread them over the rest of the base. Also check for X-Bows. If they are pointed up they can hit flying troops and can do that much more damage to your dragons. X-Bows pointed down however, are harmless to your dragon attack.
- Some players bring 20 archers in place of one of the dragons. With the archers you can usually clear a lot of exterior buildings which will help the dragons a lot. If you leave the ring of structures outside the walls intact, sometimes the dragons will go merry-go-round style around the outside of the base while they're getting hammered by towers, which can be a disaster for your attack. If you can clear the outside structures it generally assures the dragons will go straight for the interior of the base.
- Never spawn dragons all on top of each other.
- If you've deployed 7 dragons I'd recommend hanging on to 1 or 2 to see if you need to strategically place them. I always leave 2 behind and use them strategically towards the end of the attack, if I need them. Dragons can be pretty dumb. They have the AI of a barbarian and I have had more than one botched attack because the dragons just circled the defenses.
- You can never go wrong with L-shape deployment. It helps dragons clear out outside buildings first then work their way towards the core. Deploying all your dragons in the same spot where the resources are is not really the best way to deploy them.....Spread them around a corner...the dragons will converge into the middle this way. Balloons or minions will help distract the multiple air defenses.
- Defensive Strategy
- Multiple high-level Air Defenses are critical for success against Dragons; make sure that your Air Defenses are behind your primary line of defense so that they cannot be taken out early in the battle.
- Dragons are wonderful Clan Castle Troops. As a flying unit, the Dragon is completely immune to attacks from most ground troops, and his splash damage capability makes it especially suited for destroying groups of Barbarians and Goblins. His high health also helps him survive attacks from even multiple Archers or Wizards (although a large group of either will usually be enough to destroy the Dragon).
- Trivia
- You can have a maximum of 12 Dragons at one time in a complete set of fully upgraded Army Camps. This number increases to 13 if you include the 1 that can fit into a level 3 or higher Clan Castle.
- The first person to have reached over 4,000 trophies (Jorge Yao) used an all-Dragon army to do so. He used 4 Lightning Spells as support, one to take out Clan Castle troops and the rest to destroy an Air Defense. This was his way to ensure 50% damage practically every time he attacked in order to become the top player and achieve this wonderful feat.
- The Dragon is one of only two troops to have different appearances at every level (along with the P.E.K.K.A).
Balloons: your friendly farming friend!
- Balloons have 3 weaknesses. The first one, of course, is air defenses. When looking for a base to attack, make sure that the air defense is close to the edge of the base, so you can take it out easily. Take out the air defense using your giant, your wall breaker, your archers or your Barbarian King. Also, destroy any builders in the corners using either a barb or an archer.
- The second weakness is clan castle troops. Use your archers to get all the troops out of the castle, lure them all together then use your wizards, lightning spells and some archers to take them out.
- The third weakness is air bombs. Do not deploy all your Balloons together in one group. Two air bombs can destroy level three balloons very quickly.
- How to deploy your balloons. Lure out the cc troops and take them out with archers or cc troops. Deploy your Balloons 4 at a time, 1 first then 3 just behind, all around the base especially where the archer towers are. Deploy your minions in an arch or semi- circle right behind the wave of Balloons. Now deploy your rage spells one at a time just in front of your balloons but not all at once. Once all the defenses are destroyed, deploy your goblins and if you need to, any remaining barbs and archers to speed things up. If you still have them, Clan Castle troops can speed things up if you are running low on time.
The Hog Rider - riding his way to victory!
"The Hog Rider can jump over Walls, giving the user a great advantage over the enemy base!"
Pros:
- The Hog Rider can jump over ANY level wall
- Although the Hog Rider has high damage per second and high hit points, he only takes 2 minutes to train.
- Hog Riders make good distractions when deploying other units such as Archers.
- Hog Riders have nearly as much health as a similar-level Giant yet move twice as fast and do considerably more damage.
- His preferred target being defenses, the Hog Rider can be used as a replacement for Giants.
- They work perfectly with the Healing Spell when you group several of them together.
- They are also much less susceptible to Lightning Spell attacks than Minions and Tier 1 troops so may make a good substitute for clan castle troops
Cons:
- Although Hog Riders can jump walls they do not open gaps for other troops behind them
- Hog Riders cost a significant amount of Dark Elixir
- Several Large bombs placed in their path may take out Hog Riders as they group together
Offensive Strategy As Posted by kingleo10 in Supercell Forum
- According to my experience with hogs, Heroes and cc troops do not make any difference. The attacker usually has 40 hogs, 5-15 barbs and around 5 wiz and/or some archers or minions, 1 Golem in CC, 4 Heals, 1 Rage. They'll use the barbs to lure your heroes and CC. Heroes are easier to lure since they patrol the base. With a CC right in the middle and outside defense that is not covered by CC which some ppl call it "Unlurable". They simply pick a spot and send 2-3 hogs that kill the outside defense and move into the inner defense, as a result, CC troops are lured. Then, they use the remaining barbs to lure your heroes and CC troops to one spot, deploy the CC golem to tank, throw the rage spell and use heroes/wiz/archers to quickly kill all you troops and heroes. With the rage spell and Golem tanking, it DOES NOT MATTER if your HEROES are maxed or what kind of CC troops you get. They all get KILLED. You know what happens next? Your base gets 3 starred by the happy Mr T.
There are no real solutions to this. If a good attacker has followed the above steps no base stands a chance to defend. Only if you are lucky and the attacker messes up by not following the above steps, a good base may still save you from 3 stars but in most hog rider attacks your defense will most certainly lose.
- Defensive Strategy
- Some may argue there is no defense against a hog rider attack especially for TH8 and lower however at TH 9 and 10 there are some possibilities for a good anti-hog rider base design.
- The fact that they can jump over a Wall and attack a defense means that they may leave their ground support behind (Barbarians, etc.), as they will not be able to follow. This will allow your interior defenses to concentrate on the Hog Riders.
- Hog riders in large groups may be taken out with properly placed super bombs and traps. Place these close to defenses and in areas where you suspect a hog rider attack for ex. two maxed giant bombs placed near xbows, inferno towers or air defense. Use walls to funnel hogs right into traps. Bombs must be maxed and placed at least two together to effectively do any damage.
- Anti-hog base designs have pockets for traps and bombs between the defensive units. Close-knit egg crate designs don't work with hogs. Try creating a circle of defense outside and a layer of resource buildings inside with bows and mortars in the very center. Hogs are forced to go round and round with these kind of designs.
This base variation is meant to divert hogs from the core to the outside layer of defenses and right into traps.
See Mavios' base design Supercell forum
See Mavios' base design Supercell forum
Another anti-Hog Rider trophy base
- Upgrade Differences
- At level 3, the Hog Rider's hammer increases in size and turns black. The brass bands on the hammer's head disappear, replaced by a massive golden knob.
- At level 5 his mohawk turns from black to orange, making it similar to that of a level 5 Goblin.
- Trivia
- Though the Hog Rider appears in many ways to be a mounted barbarian, unlike the Barbarian the Hog Rider's teeth appear to be in perfect condition.
- He has more than a passing resemblance to "Mr. T", an American actor.
- He was added in the 12 March 2013 update. On 27 August 2013 his training time was reduced from 5 minutes to 2, and he was given a preferred target (defenses).
- Hog Riders bounce in the air when their Army Camp is tapped.
- You can have a maximum of 48 Hog Riders at one time in a complete set of fully upgraded Army Camps. This number increases to 55 if you include the 7 that can fit into a fully upgraded Clan Castle.
- He is the only ground troop able to jump or bypass Walls without using the Jump Spell.
- They have a similar body build to the Barbarian.
- The Hog Rider has a pierced right ear.
Witches: they never fight alone!
The Witch is a powerful troop that can summon dead warriors from past battles. She is used as a support troop (similar to the way the Healer works) and when used correctly, can wipe a battlefield with ease.
Pros:
- The Witch’s skeletons can easily overwhelm defenses, though Splash Damaging Buildings can wipe out them just as easily as they can be raised.
- The Witch has the same range as an Archer or Wizard
- The Witches' skeletons make good tanks to attact the attention of defense buildings
- The Witch’s skeletons are especially effective when used with Giants to destroy buildings.
Cons:
- Both the Witch and her skeletons are easily defeated by splash damage defenses, such as Mortars and Wizard Towers.
- Don’t group Witches together or they will get killed by the Mortar‘s splash damage.
- Since the Witch is easily taken out by defenses and because of her low hit points, the Witch is better placed at the back of an attack as a support troop
Offensive Strategy:
- Drop a couple of Giants or Golems as distractions. Drop Wall Breakers after that. Then add 1-3 Witches and they will spawn skeletons to help the Giants. When the Giants and the Witches finish destroying the defenses then drop 1-4 Wall Breakers (depending on level) and then add 1-4 Witches and more Giants.
- If you have strong enough Lightning Spells take out one or two Mortars at the start of the raid. This will greatly decrease the bases splash damage capability. More skeletons will then stay alive longer acting as a distraction for the defense and will let your stronger troops take care of the rest.
- Defensive Strategy
- Witches make formidable Clan Castle troops and a valuable defense against raids. Make sure to place the Clan Castle behind walls to protect her from getting killed.
- Upgrade Differences
- Currently, the Witch is the only troop that has two levels, as common troops usually have five or six levels. After having said this, it is highly likely that Supercell will add more levels in future updates.
- There is no difference in appearance in the two levels.
- Trivia
- The Witch has about the same amount of health as the Wizard.
- Although she seems to have no feet, which makes it seem like she is levitating, she is actually a ground troop and will not be attacked by air defenses.
- The skeletons are slightly stronger than a level 6 Archer.
- Up to two Witches can be held in a fully upgraded Clan Castle.
- You can have a maximum of 20 Witches at one time in a full complement of fully upgraded Army Camps. This number increases to 22 if you include the 2 that can fit into a upgraded Clan Castle.
- Only a certain amount of skeletons can be on the battlefield at the same time.
- The skeletons look very similar to Wall Breakers, they are more likely to be Barbarians because they have a similar look, stance and attacking style.
- If you observe carefully, the Witch looks similar to the Archer, only much more “zombified“.
Valkyries - deadliest women ever!
- The Valkyrie is a fierce warrior maiden with flaming crimson hair, dressed in a long leather loincloth with matching leather brassiere and knee-high boots. She wields a massive double-bladed axe, which is about 1/2 of her size.
- The Valkyrie has a total of 4 levels.
- She takes up 8 spaces in an Army Camp.
- Offensive Strategy
- Drop the Valkyries near the Barbarian King at the start of an attack. These Dark Elixir Troops do a lot of damage on Heroes and are an easy way to get rid of the Barbarian King early; this makes the whole attack easier and more effective.
- Using the Valkyrie against Clan Castle troops is a good idea, because they deal small area splash damage and will be able to take out groups of troops quickly and efficiently.
- Try to refrain from using the Valkyrie in mass quantities at one location, as they will tend to bunch up around the outside of a well-defended base where Mortars and Wizard Towers will make short work of them.
- Defensive Strategy
- Valkyries are extremely powerful troops and can be a problem to deal with; they do a lot of damage and have quite a bit of health (although nowhere near as much as a Dragon, P.E.K.K.A or Golem). Although their damage has a splash component, it is short range and generally has no effect except when they are attackingClan Castle troops (which they excel at) or Walls. While they do not have any particular weakness likeP.E.K.K.As do with Hidden Teslas, they also do not have any unusual offensive capabilities either (like Hog Riders) so essentially the best defense against Valkyries is simply good base design.
- Valkyries are wonderful Clan Castle troops. Their splash damage makes them extremely effective against large groups of lightly-armored, melee-range troops such as Barbarians and Goblins, though they are also very capable against groups of ranged troops such as Archers and even Wizards as well. On several occasions players have reported Valkyries to have single-handedly destroyed entire Goblin and Barbarian raids. She can only attack ground troops, however, and is completely ineffective against aerial units. Her high health also allows her to survive many hits.
- The Valkyrie is particularly deadly when deployed among Barbarians as part of the Clan Castle complement; although she is a much more powerful troop, she is approximately the same size and can easily be missed in a group of Barbarians. Often it will take a few moments for the attacking player to notice her and understand why his or her ground troops are dying so quickly.
Trivia
- While the Valkyrie has very high damage per second and hit points, she takes 15 minutes to train.
- The Valkyrie has the same original face design as the Archer.
- You can have a maximum of 30 Valkyries at one time in a complete set of fully upgraded Army Camps. This number increases to 34 if you include the 4 that can fit into a fully upgraded Clan Castle.
- Some players refer to her as a P.E.K.K.A with no armor, because she is female and has extremely high damage per second and hit points.
- The size of the Valkyrie is rather small and can easily be mistaken for a Barbarian or Archer.
Golems - How to & how NOT to use!
"The mighty Golem loves to soak up damage! When destroyed, it explodes and splits in two. The resultingGolemites have one-fifth the Golem's strength and hitpoints."
- Offensive Strategy
- A good strategy is to release Golems and wait until all splash damage defenses like Mortars and Wizard Towers fire on them then release units like Archers and Barbarians.
- Since the Golems do small amounts of damage themselves, it´s important you bring high damage-dealing troops as back-up, like Wizards or Witches.
- Golems aren't affected by Spring Traps. However, when one becomes two Golemites, the Golemites will be affected by Spring Traps.
- If possible, destroy Inferno Towers as quickly as possible. Otherwise, they will wipe out your Golems. If theInferno Tower is set on multiple target mode, it will not be much of a problem.
- Defensive Strategy
- Golems, like Giants and P.E.K.K.As, are very high-health units that can be used to soak up fire. Make sure that the Golem is in the middle or in range of most of your defenses, as the Golem can distract attacking troopsvery effectively for a considerable amount of time. Even when overwhelmed, the Golem does a surprising amount of splash damage, enough to kill all Tier 1 and most Tier 2 troops (including lower-level Giants), as well as even Hog Riders. Any remaining attackers will then have to deal with the two Golemites as well.
- Golems, like P.E.K.K.As are not affected by Spring Traps. Golemites are affected by Spring Traps
- Upgrade Differences
- The Golem undergoes a significant graphic change at level 5.
- At level 3, the Golem's rocky exterior changes shade from a light gray to a darker gray.
- At level 5, the Golem gains purple, crystal-like spikes, quite similar to those on the level 3 Wizard Tower, and his entire body gains a purple/grey color.
- The Golem undergoes a significant graphic change at level 5.
- Trivia
- You can have a maximum of 8 Golems at one time in a complete set of fully upgraded Army Camps. This number increases to 9 if you include the 1 that can fit into a level 5 or higher Clan Castle.
- It is the only troop that splits into multiple units upon death.
- Golems and Balloons are the only troops that deliver splash damage upon dying. This is in contrast to the Wall Breaker, which dies upon delivering splash damage.
- Has a housing space requirement of 30, which is 5 spaces more than a P.E.K.K.A.
- The Golem is the only troop that can fill a level 5 Clan Castle by itself.
- The Golem has the highest hitpoints among all troops even at level 1, however, it has the lowest DPS per housing space among all troops even at level 5, even lower than Giant at 2.2 DPS per housing space.
- You can have a maximum of 8 Golems at one time in a complete set of fully upgraded Army Camps. This number increases to 9 if you include the 1 that can fit into a level 5 or higher Clan Castle.
Flammy's Ultimate wallbreaker guide
"Nothing warms a Wall Breaker's cold and undead heart like blowing up walls. A squad of them will make way for your ground units, and they will do it with a BANG!"
- Upgrade Differences
- At level 3, the bomb that the Wall Breaker is holding becomes larger.
- At level 5, the Wall Breaker's bomb turns golden.
- At level 6, the Wall Breaker exchanges its bomb for a barrel of explosives.