Complete Beginner's Guide to Clash Royale!

Table of Contents:

1.
2.
3.
4.

Introduction

Battling Guidelines & Tips

How to win
When to attack king's tower
Using Elixir efficiently
Attacking & Defending fundamentals

Ultimate Deck Building Guide

Tips on how to spend Gems

Chests Information

Donating

All cards and how to counter them

Introduction
When I first started playing the game, I had struggled to understand the
basic fundamentals, whether I was playing the right way or the wrong
way. As a beginner, it was definitely a challenge figuring out the game

with the lack of guides and information. I am hoping that this guide will
help enlighten all the new players get a better understanding and have
you enjoy the game even more!
I also upload exclusive Clash Royale strategy videos every day, so be sure
to follow me on YouTube!
My YouTube Channel
Clash Royale is a real-time multiplayer head-to-head battle game with
your favorite Clash of Clans characters. The game features tower defensestyle battles, collecting and leveling cards as you progress through
different arenas and unlock new cards! This guide will help you understand
everything you need to know as a beginner to get started!
The first thing you will be doing when starting the game is completing the
tutorial, which will teach you how to deploy your cards to the battlefield
and win. Unfortunately, it does not get more into detail of how to
advantageously deploy your cards in strategic ways. So thats what Ill be
doing in this guide, introduce you to the many battling strategies and
ultimately win!

Battling Guidelines & Tips for Beginners:

How to win:
To win a battle you must either destroy your opponents Kings Tower
(which will grant you an instant 3 Crown victory) OR destroy one more
tower than your opponent within the given time of the battle. Both you
and your opponent are given three minutes, but if within this three
minutes there is still a tie, then the game will go to sudden death mode in
overtime (which is an extra one minute). Within this overtime period, the
first player to knock down any of their opponents tower will be claimed
the victor. However, if neither player had succeeded in taking down a
tower within this overtime period, then the battle will conclude in a draw.
A victory will reward you with trophies. You will obtain the same number
of trophies whether you win with 1 Crown or 3 Crowns. A 3 Crown victory
is no more special than a 1 Crown victory. In fact, most battles are won by
either 1 Crown or 2 Crowns. Thus, you need to understand when to
pursue attacking the opposing Kings Tower and when its better to just
destroy one or two Arena Towers instead.

Arena Tower

1 Crown = You must destroy one of the opposing Arena Towers

2 Crowns = You must destroy two of the opposing Arena Towers
3 Crowns = You must destroy the opposing Kings Tower.
When should I attack the Kings Tower?

Sleep Mode =

Defense Mode =

The Kings Towers HP (Health Points) is much greater

than the Arena Towers. In fact, the HP of the Kings Tower
is over 60% greater than one Arena Tower!

Usually, it is much safer to win by either destroying one or two

Arena Towers and by playing good defense to prevent your
opponent from destroying two of your Arena Towers.

The King is in sleep mode when the battle begins,

which means that he will not assist you on defense with his
cannon as long as he is sleeping. In order for the King to
wake, one of the following must happen:

1. One of the Arena Towers is destroyed.

2. The Kings Tower would have to be attacked. If both of the
Arena Towers are still up and the Kings Tower is damage, then
that will awaken the King.
Important: Avoid attacking the Kings Tower if you have not destroyed an
Arena Tower! As this will awaken your opponents King on defense, and he
will start firing at your troops with his cannon. So make sure when youre
dropping area damage cards such as Fireball or Arrows, avoid touching the
Kings Tower! Inflicting damage onto the Kings Tower before taking out an
Arena Tower is one of the biggest mistakes new players make and this
makes a very big difference in battles.

Efficiently using Elixir is the key to victory

This is the secret formula to victory. Every card has an Elixir cost value. To
be in an advantage, your goal is to counter your opponent by using cards
or combination of cards with a lower Elixir cost than what is played by
your opponent. For example, if your opponent sends out the Knight (3
Elixir) and Archers (3 Elixir) together, then you use your Fireball (4 Elixir)
to take both of these troops out at once. This is a rewarding move
because you spent a 4 Elixir card to take out a 6 Elixir combo. Thus, this
will place you in a 2 Elixir lead. The greater you are in the Elixir race, the
greater chance you have of winning (as you will begin to create stronger
combinations). And so, you should always use Elixir efficiently!
Key fundamentals:

Do not waste Elixir! Your Elixir is always loading more Elixir

every second, but it will cap out when it reaches 10! This is
very important because when it reaches 10, your Elixir bar will
not generate any more Elixir. Thus, you should always keep
your Elixir bar loading and avoid allowing it to hit 10.

Do not recklessly deploy multiple cards all at once as

this will make it easy for your opponent to counter your
combination of cards with a small usage Elixir. For example,
take the Fireball example we used earlier. If you deploy your
Knight (3 Elixir) and Barbarians (5 Elixir) and Spear Goblins (2
Elixir) all at once, then you have spent all your 10 Elixir.
However, your opponent can simply deploy a single Fireball (4
Elixir) and all your troops will quickly vanish, which will place
you in a 6 Elixir deficit and also render you helpless against
any attack your opponent can form with his 6 Elixir lead. Thus,
it is very important to start slow, make good "trade-offs" with
Elixir, and counter with a good Elixir lead.

Oftentimes, it is a better idea to allow your opponent to

deal a small amount of damage to your towers, and in
return, take the Elixir lead. For example, say your bar is at
5 Elixir and your opponent sends Spear Goblins onto one of
your Towers and you only have the Barbarian or the Arrow
card to counter. However, in this case, is it better not to use
either card to counter the Spear Goblins. Why?

1. Arrows cost 3 Elixir. Using a 3 Elixir card to solely destroy a 2

Elixir card (Spear Goblin), is a poor trade-off.
2. Barbarians cost 5 Elixir and your bar is at 5. If you use the
Barbarian card, then you will run out of Elixir, which means
you're allowing your opponent to then create stronger combo
to both counter and target your tower.
3. Your Arena Towers are protected by Archers sitting atop them,
which means that they will attack and destroy the weak Spear
Goblins with a few hits while the Spear Goblins deal some
damage onto your Tower. Even though your Tower took some
damage, it is still a great trade-off because in return you have
taken a 2 Elixir lead. This gives you the opportunity to form a
stronger combination of cards than your opponent to deal
even heavier damage.

Attacking and Defending Fundamentals:

When starting your battle, you should first allow your

Elixir bar to fill. You should not recklessly deploy your cards
without first loading up on a full Elixir bar as this will only give
your opponent the advantage. For example, say you deploy
your Prince card when battle just started and you have 6 Elixir.
Your opponent can simply place a Tombstone, which costs 2
less Elixir and quickly counter your Prince and take a 2 Elixir
lead. Another example is playing a defense such as the
Inferno Tower right away. This is a bad idea as your opponent
can just wait a few seconds to load up on full Elixir, plan out a
good counter, and also weaken your Inferno Tower without
even touching it because of the Inferno Tower's 40 second
lifetime. Thus, it is important to first allow your bar to load up.

Usually, you will face opponents who will also wait to deploy
until they have a full Elixir bar. In this case, you have two
options:

1. Deploy your card first - If you reach 10 Elixir and deploy you
deploy your card first, then you will be given a greater Elixir
lead for every second your opponent remains at full Elixir.
2. Deploy your card second - If you reach 10 Elixir and decide to
wait and deploy your card right after your opponent to play a

better counter, then that will give your opponent an extra 1

Elixir lead.

Usually, it is best to deploy your first card at the moment or

right before you have a full Elixir bar.

Start slow. I have stated in this guide numerous times that

you should start your battle with a slow tempo, and this is a
key fundamental to winning. When starting your battle, it
is often a good idea to start with a low Elixir cost card.
For example, say you have the Prince and Archer card in your
starting hand. Do you start with the Archers or your Prince? It
is often better to start with the Archers due to their
significantly less Elixir cost (3 Elixir compared to Prince's 5
Elixir cost). Why is this important? This is important as
starting with a high Elixir-costing card is often dangerous. If
your opponent simply places a Tombstone card (3 Elixir cost),
then you are quickly in losing the Elixir race by 2. While
playing a low Elixir-costing card such as the Archer comes with
less risk of that and will also allow you to scout your
opponent's first move without having to waste Elixir on a full
bar. If your opponent decides to send out his Giant and
Musketeer at the same time, then you are prepared to make a
good counter with the 7 remaining Elixir. While if you had
deployed your Prince, then the Giant + Musketeer combination
will quickly take out your Prince.

A good idea is to load up on Elixir to create a stronger

combination of cards is to deploy your troop card at the
very end of the battlefield (behind your Towers). As your
troop(s) take a longer time to travel to the opposite side, you
allow yourself to load up on greater Elixir. Thus, if you wish to
create a deadly combination such as a Giant + Musketeer +
Witch, then this requires 14 Elixir to do so. To accomplish this,
you can place your Giant at the far end behind one of your
Towers and by the time he travels to the crossing bridge, you
will have the additional 9 Elixir to complete your combination.

Which Arena Tower should I attack first? When starting

your battle, you may choose to attack either of your
opponent's Arena Towers first. However, if your opponent
chooses to attack first, then you should prepare a counter to
his threat to protect your tower rather than ignore the threat
and attack the other tower. For example, if your opponent
sends out Archers against your left Arena Tower, ignoring the

Archers and going for the right Arena Tower with your Prince
card is a bad idea because the Archers will deal significant
damage to your left Arena Tower while there is no guarantee
that your Prince will make it to right Arena Tower as your
opponent can simply place a Tombstone or Skeleton Army to
stomp your Prince. And so, ignoring the threat and making a
reckless play like that can cost you the battle right from turn
one.

Focus on destroying one Arena Tower at a time. A big

mistake I see new players often make is that they keep
switching towers. You should focus on destroying the tower
with the lowest HP first, and then move onto attacking the
second tower while also playing defense if you're in the lead
(to let the clock run out).

Try to shift the momentum of the battle towards the

direction of your healthiest Arena Tower. For example,
say that your left Arena Tower has 1000 HP and your right
Arena Tower has 2000 HP (and both your opponent's Arena
Towers are at full health). In this scenario, your opponent will
try to constantly target your left Arena Tower since it is
obviously weakened. However, it is still very possible for you
to win even if you're trailing. What you should do to make a
comeback is try to force your opponent to attack right Arena
Tower rather than your weakened left Tower. In order to do
this, you should load up on Elixir, and play a little defense on
your left Arena Tower (remember Arena Towers have Archers
atop them to assist you on defense so take advantage of that)
and then make the first move in attacking your opponent's
right Arena Tower with a good combo (i.e. Giant +
Musketeer). This will make it difficult for your opponent to
ignore the big threat and will have him shift his offense
towards to protect his Arena Tower. With his offense shifted
towards the right side, you can now focus on repeatedly
placing pressure towards this side (preventing your opponent
from spending Elixir to target your left side).

The most powerful attacks are attacks that are played

in combinations. For example, a card such as the Giant is
not much of a threat alone as he is a very slow troop.
However, when combined with a ranged attacker such as the
Archer or Musketeer card, it becomes a much bigger task to
stop this threat. A Giant alone can be taken down by a 3 Elixir
Minion card, but with the assistance of Archers, the Minions
will not be able to take out the Giant (as he makes his way to
your opponent's tower). Thus, you should constantly try to

load up on Elixir (and also win Elixir trade-offs) and attack in

combinations!

There are many distinct ways of classifying a troop card

and its specialties:
1. Ground troop = A troop that attacks on land.
2. Air troop = A troop that can fly and attack from above.
Air troops can avoid being targeted by Ground troops
that cannot target flying units (such as Bomber, Prince,
Knight, Valkyrie, etc.).
3. Melee troop = A troop that fights mano a mano (handto-hand combat).
4. Range troop = A troop that can attack from a distance.
Range troops such as Archers are able to attack from
afar and so they are best utilized behind melee troops as
the melee troops are able to shield your ranged attacker.

--------

There are two types of damage inflicting cards. Cards

that deal "point damage" (damage to a single troop or
building) and cards that deal "area or splash damage"
(damage to multiple troops or buildings). Point damage cards
include Musketeer, Prince, Archer, Mini Pekka, etc. Area
damage cards include Bomber, Valkyrie, Witch, Baby Dragon,
Arrow, Fireball, etc. While it may sound like area-damaging
cards are the better option, they are among the weakest cards
in the game. Thus, these two types of cards have different
roles. With the ability to damage multiple units, area damage
cards are best utilized for defeating hordes or swarms of low
HP troops such as Skeletons, Goblins, Barbarians, etc. While
point-damaging cards tend to have the greatest DPS (Damage
Per Second) among all cards and so they can best utilized for
destroying high HP units. For example, a Mini Pekka can be
used to quickly take down a Giant. While an area attacker like
the Valkyrie will struggle to deal decent damage onto the
Giant.

Ultimate Deck Building Guide

A great and well-balanced deck is key for success in this game. You can
view my full Deck Building Guide here:
http://forum.supercell.net/showthread.php/989275
The guide includes a step-by-step tutorial with key ingredients for building
your perfect deck!

Some of my great decks for (beginners):

Prince deck for beginners (Arena 1 & 2) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=QUwGW5KEf2g

Witch deck for beginners (Arena 1 & 2) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=ueEUsI31ZFY

Baby Dragon deck for beginners (Arena 1 & 2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caiYEvifxr4

Skeleton Army deck for beginners (Arena 1 & 2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WETRIXL7rMs

Arena 3 & 4 Decks with Prince, Baby Dragon, or Witch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dObOg5qOD1g

Arena 5 Decks with Prince, Baby Dragon, or Witch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JFMCVFoXyg

Arena 6+ Decks with Prince + Hog deck, Air deck, and Pekka deck
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL2_L1FIaeY

--------

Tip on How to Spend Gems & Chest Info

This guide has been submitted by The_RumHam and his original reddit
post, which you can view here.
Chest Types There are 5 types of Chests you can find or buy in Clash Royale:

- Silver Chest (3 hours, 18 Gem Timer): Most common, fewest cards. All Commons, with a
chance at a single Rare, or low chance at Epic or Legendary. Your Free Chest every 4 hours is
a Silver chest
- Golden Chest (8 hours, 48 Gem Timer): Regular drop from games, about once every 5
wins. Mostly Commons with a few Rares. Small chance of an Epic or Legendary. Your Crown
Chests are Golden Chests
- Giant Chest (12 hours, 72 Gem Timer): Large chest, like an overstuffed Golden Chest. Tons
of Commons and Rares, small chance at Epic or Legendary
- Magical Chest (12 hours, 72 Gem Timer): Very rare drop, roughly 1-in-75 wins. Mix of
Commons, several Rares, and a few Epics. Good chance at a Legendary
- Super Magical Chest (24 hours, 144 Gem Timer): Extremely rare drop, no idea the
frequency as it's just added to the game. Tons of Commons, Rares, and many Epics. Best
chance at a Legendary
----------------------I Want To Be Free-to-Play, No Purchases Ever
The game has a Tournament Cap, the level at which Friendly and (eventually) Tournament
Matches will cap your Card level. It is Level 3 Epics, Level 6 Rares, and Level 8 Commons.
This should be your goal (along with getting to Arena 7 / 2000 Trophies to unlock all the
cards), as going any higher on the ladder is only for the deeper pockets. You'll be able to
compete in Tournaments with that level, which is very attainable for F2P players.
Save gems religiously, you are never going to have enough gems to make regular purchases.
You are saving for one or two game-changing buys
Purchase 10,000 Gold for 500 Gems (Saves 100 Gems over the 1,000 gold bundles)
Use the Gold to upgrade your Troops (you'll find Gold to be a pinch very soon in your
progression)
Watch the Shop daily and spend your Gold to purchase 1-2 rares each day (especially if you
can donate them for a profit) or that Epic you've really been wanting.
Try to focus on one Epic you really want, 6 buys of 2000 (with each natural open saving you
2000 each) gets your Epic to level 3, which is what Tournament Mode caps you at. This
should be your goal 1-2 Epics at a time. Try not to spread yourself too thin or you'll find
yourself unable to afford the crucial level-up.
While tempting to purchase a single big Chest, this is a really inefficient purchase for a few
reasons. You aren't guaranteed to get what you want, and with Gold as a pinch you may not be
able to even upgrade the cards you opened.
I Want To Make One Medium Sized Purchase Ever
Clash Royale is probably the best mobile game I've seen for making a purchase last for a
while. A single purchase of $20-$100 gem bundles can last weeks or even months before you
are out of gems.
After the purchase, immediately buy a bundle of Gold (either 10,000 or 100,000) and save the

rest of the gems

As you play, open chests when your chest row is full.
The most common complaint of F2P players is they feel blocked when they chest row is full.
Following this path is like pre-paying at an arcade; every time you want to play when you
have a full chest row you are putting in a quarter to keep playing. 1 Gem is roughly a penny
(depending on the gem bundle you buy) so you are quite literally paying a quarter or two to
open Silver and Golden chests.
It's better value than opening chests directly. When your chest row is full, it's like you are
getting a 50% or greater discount on chests. Golden Chests used to sell for 80-120 Gems
directly in the store, but only cost 48 Gems to speed up the timer. Magical Chests cost several
hundred gems to buy but only 72 Gems to speed up, which is over a 90% discount at Arena 8!
If you wanted to optimize further, save a long duration (Gold or better) chest for overnights
but open Silvers during the day. The better the chest, the more of a discount you get by
speeding it up. Silver Chests have the worst discount so you are better off letting those open
with a timer.
When Should I Buy Chests in the Shop?

Buying Chests in the shop is a very inefficient way to spend your Gems, but it's by far the
FASTEST way to level up. If you have goals of "I want to be Player Level X" or "I want to
collect all the cards", buying chests in the shop is going to be the shortest path from A to B
Last edited by Eternal625; March 19th, 2016 at 03:26 PM.
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Should I Buy Cards Directly in the Shop?

Yes! This is very dependent on your Gold balance, but in general the first 3 Commons, the
first 2 Rares, and the first Epic are indisputably great values if you want those cards.
If you have purchased 100,000 Gold, I believe purchasing the 2nd Epic for 3600 is also worth
it (instead of waiting for the Epic to come back in the shop, which may be 3 weeks or longer).
I tend to buy Rares up to the 150 gold cost if it's a good card, or Commons up to the 20 gold
cost if I reallllllly want to upgrade that Common.

*Donating
What About Clan Donations?
Yes! Every time you can. Clash Royale gives you more cards than Gold. In order to have
enough Gold to upgrade your cards, you will have to donate regularly. Commons grant 5
Gold, Rares grant 50 Gold. You can donate up to 300 Gold worth of cards per day, and you'll
earn XP for doing so!
If you really want to focus on a single card, it is possible to hoard it and get it higher level
than your other cards. However, the nature of card scaling means its usually only going to be
worth it until a card is level 7 or 8, after that point the time spent on upgrading a single card
one level is probably better invested to catch your 2nd favorite card up to level 7 or 8.

Counterplay of Every Card!

This guide has been submitted by vm88 and his original reddit post,
which you can view here.

Training Camp:
Arrows(3 Elixir Cost) - Arrows is a huge deterrent card, as it can one shot warm troops Goblins, Spear Goblins, Goblin Barrel, Minions, Minion Hordes, Skeletons (from Tombstone,
Skeleton Army, Witch, and Skeletons), Princess - and in most cases, put the Arrows caster at
an elixir advantage. To effectively counter arrows, try to bait it out before plopping down your
cheap swarm swarm. My personal favorite is to throw a preemptive Goblin Barrel which
usually forces out the arrows before playing my Minion Swarm/Spear Gob/Gobs.
Bomber (3 Elixir Cost) - Like arrows, Bomber trades very well vs swarm

troops and Barbarians, especially if it is played behind the tower or

another beefy troop to tank the damage. If their Bomber is played behind
the tower, it may be worth a Fireball to take him out, damage the tower,
and save your push. If he is played behind a tank and pushing onto your
side of the arena, dropping something a bit beefier behind the Bomber to
attack him (such as Knight) will take him out easily while sustaining
minimal damage. If the Bomber is locked on to your tower, he can do a
ton of damage, however, it may be best to ignore him if the tower is
locked onto him as well as he dies in 2 tower hits.
Archers (3 Elixir Cost) - Archers are moderately slow, do a decent
amount of damage, and are quite beefy for a cheap ranged unit. They can
be taken out with a single Fireball, which may be worth it if you can take
out a few other troops or damage the tower at the same time, although
you probably dont want to waste your Fireball on Archers by themselves
unless absolutely necessary. Splash damage from Wizards, Baby Dragons,
and Bombers also destroy Archers with relative ease and should survive
with some health left.
Knight (3 Elixir Cost) - Knight is a cheap, relatively tanky, moderate
damage melee troop that is pretty easy to counter but can do quite a bit
of damage to your tower if left unchecked. Air troops do very well vs him
as he is melee and cannot damage them. I would not suggest using glass
cannon type troops such as Bomber or Wizard vs him unless there is a
troop or tower tanking for it.
Fireball (4 Elixir Cost) - Similar to Arrows but does quite a bit more
damage in a smaller radius, instantly killing every troop Arrows can, oneshotting Bombers (and sometimes Wizards and Musketeers), and being
able to bring Barbarians, Wizards, Witches, and Musketeers to a sliver of
health left. You can bait out the Fireball in the same way you bait out
Arrows, then play your swarm troops/Barbarians/Wizards without fear.
Mini PEKKA (4 Elixir Cost) - Glass cannon melee troop with low-ish HP
but massive damage. Mini PEKKA needs another troop to tank damage or
else it will die easily. To take out Mini PEKKA, distract it with cheap swarm
troops such as Goblins, Spear Goblins, Skeletons, etc.
Musketeer (4 Elixir Cost) - Glass cannon ranged troop that can deal a lot
of damage from afar if left alone. Always protect your Musketeer with a
troop or tower to tank for her. To counter someone playing Musketeer
behind their tower, use a Fireball on her and the tower and pray one of
your troops hits her once. To counter a Musketeer that has crossed over to
your side of the arena, simply drop something cheap such as Goblins or
Knight on top of her to quickly take her out.
Giant (5 Elixir Cost) - A massive meat shield that targets only buildings,
the Giant is often used to protect squishy ranged troops behind it. It is

rarely used on defense, but can also be used to distract your troops away
from the tower or defensive troops. To counter the Giant, simply drop
high-damage swarm troops such as Goblins or Barbarians on top of him. If
you want to buy more time, dropping some defensive buildings such as a
Cannon or Tesla will distract the giant away from your tower while doing
some damage to it. Giants are rarely played by themselves, however, and
it is much trickier to stop a Giant push than a lone Giant. If youre faced
with a Giant push, I recommend using Fireball/Arrows on the supporting
troops behind the Giant. If those are not available, wait till they cross the
river into your side of the arena, then drop troops on top of the supporting
troops (not the Giant). Be wary of dropping squishy swarm troops such as
Spear Goblins or Goblins if they have lots of splash damage such as
Wizards or Bombers behind the giant.
Prince (5 Elixir Cost) - The infamous Prince has brought more difficulty to
new players than any other card in the game, however, he is easily
countered. Hes relatively tanky, fast, and can become even faster and
gain 2x the damage on the next hit. Once a Prince is dropped, you have to
react quickly. The key to taking out prince is with cheap swarm troops.
Goblins, Spear Goblins, Skeletons all work great and should do enough
damage to the Prince/distract it long enough to the point where your
tower should easily clean him up. An element of countering Prince that a
lot of players overlook is distracting him from your tower. Drop your
troops towards the middle of your side of the arena so that the Prince has
to spend extra time travelling while taking tower shots. Never drop single
troops such as Musketeer to counter the Prince or they will be one-shot by
the charge. Additionally, Skeleton Army and Tombstone both stop him
dead in his tracks.
Baby Dragon (4 Elixir Cost) - One of the best cards in the game. A tanky,
flying troop that does splash damage and kills most cards that can attack
him in 1-2 hits, the Baby Dragon is simply too versatile. If available, the
Musketeer is the single best card to trade vs Baby Dragon. If not, you
HAVE to wait until the Baby Dragon is locked on to something tanky (troop
or tower) and drop your Spear Gobs/Arrows/Minions around the Baby
Dragon (but not in front of him or they could die to splash damage).
Teslas and Inferno Towers also tend to do pretty well vs. Baby Dragon,
although I do not think a lone Baby Dragon is worth reactively throwing
down a defensive building for. The one downside of Baby Dragon is that it
doesn't do very much tower damage and it sometimes may be worth just
sacrificing the tower damage in favor of saving elixir.
Skeleton Army (4 Elixir Cost) - A card that should almost always be
played reactively, Skeleton Army is great against big threats as the
skeletons quickly surround them and take it out. Skeleton Army however,
is easily countered by Arrows, Fireball, Baby Dragon, Wizard, Bomber basically anything that does splash damage, so you rarely see it on
offense.

Witch (5 Elixir Cost) - The summoned skeletons do most of the Witchs

damage but she does do a relatively low amount of splash damage. You
can Fireball her and leave her with a sliver of health for the tower to take
out, or you can simply drop something a bit beefier (like a Knight) behind
her and quickly take her out while sustaining minimal damage.

Goblin Stadium:
Spear Goblins (2 Elixir Cost) - One of the most versatile cards in the
game, spawning three fast and squishy Goblins with relatively highdamage ranged attacks, youll see this card getting played a LOT. If
theyve built up a swarm of Spear Goblins + other squishy swarm troops
such as Goblins and Minions, its usually worth an Arrows or maybe even a
Fireball if theyve got some Archers, Barbarians, or Wizards thrown in the
mix. Otherwise, any troop should easily take them out. Splash damage
from Wizards, Bombers, and Baby Dragons are especially effective vs
Spear Goblins as they can easily kill all 3 in a single attack. If its just 3
Spear Goblins attacking your tower by themselves, its usually best to play
nothing at all, as youll take minimal damage and the tower will quickly
take them out.
Goblins (2 Elixir Cost) - Goblins are similar to Spear Goblins, spawning 3
quick and squishy Goblins. However, left unchecked, Goblins will utterly
decimate troops/towers with their very high damage. Take Goblins out the
same way youd take out Spear Goblins - Arrows or Fireball if you can take
out other valuable cards at the same time. Otherwise, any troop should
work. Splash damage wrecks Goblins just as badly as Spear Goblins, and
a lone 3 Goblins vs your tower should be left alone as the tower will
quickly take them out.
Goblin Hut (5 Elixir Cost) - Goblin Huts can be used to apply small but
constant pressure to a lane and/or reinforce a push. If your opponent
plays a Goblin Hut on one lane, then troops in another, it may be worth it
to just ignore the Hut as your tower will only take a few hundred chip
damage throughout the Huts duration. If he is massing Huts on one side
to gear up for a big push, it may be worth using Fireball on the Hut, but
only if you can hit multiple Huts or you can hit the Hut and the tower.
Better yet, if you have Lightning or Poison, wait till he puts down 2 huts
and then hit both huts and the tower to deal massive damage. Otherwise,
Goblin Hut is a somewhat slow card, and an early push especially with the
support of splash damage from a Wizard, Bomber, or Baby Dragon can
punish Hut users.
Valkyrie (4 Elixir Cost) - This card is rarely used, however, it is good to
know that she does Splash damage in a circle around her. To kill her, you
do not want to use squishy swarm troops such as either Goblin or any
Skeletons. Air works well against her (minions and minion horde especially

since they do high damage), otherwise, something a bit tankier such as a

Knight should be able to take her out. Barbarians can also work in a pinch,
but they will sustain some heavy damage in the process.
Lightning (6 Elixir Cost) - This card is THE anti building card, great
against Hut decks, Xbow decks, and Defense/Rocket decks. Also good
against slow pushes that rely on getting a somewhat squishy damage
dealer such as a Wizard or Musketeer behind a big tank, as it can kill the
troops and damage the tower at the same time. The downside is that the
card is very expensive at 6 elixir and players usually wait for maximum
value before they use it. If youre running a slow push, try putting out
your tank troop before your damage troops to discourage them from using
it when your troop goes around your tower.
Goblin Barrel (4 Elixir Cost) - Another card that often stumps newer
players, an unchecked Goblin Barrel can do a ton of damage to your
tower. Players will most often throw it right on top of your tower, and a
preemptive Arrows on top of your tower right after the Barrel has crossed
the river should take care of the Goblins before they can get a stab in. Zap
also works well against Goblin Barrel but the timing is different as Zap
casts quicker. You also have to be more accurate using Zap as the radius
of the spell is smaller. Fireball works in a pinch for a zero net elixir
advantage and timing is similar to Arrows. If you dont have one of those
3 spells at your disposal, drop some cheap troops on top of your tower to
draw the Goblins attention away from the tower.

Bone Pit:
Skeleton (1 Elixir Cost) - 1 elixir Skeletons are rarely used, but can be
very powerful if used effectively. They are essentially used for only 1
purpose: to distract troops away from the tower. When playing 1 elixir
skeletons, you should almost always do so on defense in the middle of
your side of the arena. Watch out for splash damage from Wizards,
Bombers, and Baby Dragons as they will one-shot your skeletons.
Skeletons are also a great counter for Prince if played in the right place as
they will distract him for a while and deal enough damage for your tower
to take him out quickly. They can also be used in a pinch to deal damage
to a Hog Rider. Unless there are a lot of other juicy troops around the
Skeletons, its usually not worth it to waste an Arrows or Fireball on them.
Minions (3 Elixir Cost) - The Minion trio can be thought of as flying Spear
Goblins. Theyre easily countered by basically any ranged troop, and your
tower can make quick work of Minions by themselves. For this reason, you
mostly see Minions being played on defense. Unless there are a lot of
squishy swarm troops with the Minions, I recommend holding your Arrows
or Fireball and letting your tower take care of the Minions. Zap is a spell
worth considering as it should either kill the Minions in one hit or leave

them with a sliver of HP left, while putting you at an elixir advantage.

Tombstone (3 Elixir Cost) - Tombstone is very rarely used for offense, as
the Skeletons usually will never be able to reach a tower. It is, however, a
terrific counter to quick offensive troops such as Prince and Hog Rider, and
if placed correctly, a single Tombstone by itself should be enough to take
care of a Prince or a Hog Rider on defense. If your opponent is playing a
Tombstone to distract your push, it is usually not worth specifically
counterplaying. Instead, just reinforce your push with more troops to help
take out the Skeletons quicker.
Bomb Tower (5 Elixir Cost) - Bomb Tower is the beefiest defensive
structure in the game and does relatively high amounts of splash damage
to ground troops. However, its glaring weakness is that it only damage
ground troops, so air troops can easily take it out. If your opponent drops
a Bomb Tower, do not drop off Barbarians or any other ground troops with
less HP as the Bomb Tower will make quick work of them. Instead,
Minions, Minion Horde, or Baby Dragon should be able to do a signficant to
the Bomb Tower if it is close to the river. Alternatively, dropping a massive
tank such as a PEKKA, Golem, or Giant along with supporting ranged
troops makes a beefy push that can easily deal with the Bomb Tower and
then some.
Giant Skeleton (6 Elixir Cost) - Its not the Giant Skeletons attack that is
dangerous, its the bomb that he drops after he dies. The bomb detonates
3 seconds after his death and will effectively 1-shot the vast majority of
troops within its small radius. If the Giant Skeleton successfully locks on
to your tower, his death bomb will take out ~50% of that towers health.
Therefore, countering a Giant Skeleton has to do a lot less with killing it
off than it does with luring it away from your tower. In order to take out a
Giant Skeleton effectively, you should lure him into the middle of your side
of the arena (ideally where both towers can hit him) and keep him there
with cheap troops. Its more important to keep him away from your towers
than it is to kill him quickly, so its often worth it to just drop troops one at
a time as opposed to all at once and let your towers do the damage. Once
one set of cheap troops dies, drop the next and keep him in place until he
dies. If you overcommit to killing the Giant Skeleton, the bomb will often
wipe out your entire push, so be careful of that!
Balloon (5 Elixir Cost) - As a beefy flying unit that deals massive damage
to buildings, the Balloon can be tricky to deal with. There are two ways to
dealing with Balloons - luring and killing. To lure, use any structure in
front of your tower, to get the slow Balloon to waste time going out of its
way to kill it. While it is flying, drop down your ranged troops and hope
you have enough time to take it out before it one-shots your structure and
then attacks your tower. I prefer to straight up kill the Balloon, which
requires having a high damage troop that can hit air (basically Musketeer
or Minion Horde). Your opponent will most likely drop the Balloon as close

to the river as possible on the edge of the arena. You should drop your
Minion Horde/Musketeer close to the river as well, never behind the tower
if youre in arena 5 or up. The reason is many Balloon decks also run
Freeze and if your Minion Horde or Musketeer get frozen, then your tower
is dead. If done correctly, the Balloon should pop before it reaches your
tower. Be careful of a preemptive Arrows on your opponents second
Balloon attempt if you use Minion Horde to counter the Balloon the first
time.

Barbarian Bowl:
Cannon (3 Elixir Cost) - A cheap, relatively beefy defensive building, the
Cannon is great at luring and killing Hogs, Giants, and Golems, as well as
reinforcing your defenses. Its main weakness is its inability to hit air. I like
to play it reactively as a buffer against building targeting troops. It is
usually not necessary to proactively counter our opponents Cannon unless
youre running a Hog Deck, in which case you MAY want to consider
Fireballing it or Lightninging it if you can also hit their troops or the tower.
Barbarians (5 Elixir Cost) - A well-rounded card that is a staple in many
decks, the Barbarian spawns 4 relatively tanky, relatively high-damage
melee troops. Left unchecked, they will quickly take out your tower. The
trick to taking out Barbarians efficiently is splash damage. I almost always
Fireball a group of Barbarians marching down the lane - one fireball will
allow your tower to take them out in one or two shots. Bonus points if you
can hit the tower with the Fireball too. If you dont have a Fireball at your
disposal, a Wizard or Bomber behind the tower works really well too. Just
be wary of your opponents counter-Fireball that could kill your Wizard or
Bomber and damage your tower as well. Baby Dragons can also be used
to take out Barbarians, but seeing they take 5-6 hits to take out a group
of Barbs, it is best to drop it near the bridge to give it more time to hit the
Barbs as they move down your lane. If you do not have splash damage at
your disposal, your best bet is to use cheap swarm troops to lure the
Barbs into the middle of your side of the Arena, buying your towers more
time to hit them and potentially getting both towers to attack them.
Rocket (6 Elixir Cost) - The highest damage spell in the game, the Rocket
is the cornerstone of a Defensive siege deck. Most decks that run Rocket
will aim to establish an unstoppable defense on their side of the arena,
then start throwing out Rockets on your crown tower. The best way to
counter this is to play very aggressively and keep these decks from setting
up that infrastructure. Commit to taking down their defenses so they
cannot use the 6 elixir Rocket without putting themselves at a huge elixir
disadvantage. Also, do not give them efficient trades by placing troops
near your towers, as the Rocket will kill those and do significant tower
damage making that 6 elixir price tag more worth it.

Barbarian Hut (7 Elixir Cost) - The cornerstone of hut decks, Barbarian

Huts are expensive and beefy, and spawn 2 beefy Barbarians every few
seconds. Left alone, these Barbarians will do significant chip damage to
your tower throughout the Huts duration. Backed with some cheap swarm
troops for a push or a few Goblin Huts, the game can quickly get out of
control. If you dont have a good elixir advantage once double elixir hits
against a Hut deck (and they have a lot of Huts up) youll most likely be
overwhelmed by your opponents ability to double the number of Huts on
the board. However, Barbarian Huts are very expensive at 7 elixir and
leave your opponent wide open to counter attack. The trick to counter Hut
decks is to apply pressure early and keep the number of Huts in control. If
you can, Fireball a Hut (or better yet, multiple Huts and some troops) and
the tower, its almost always worth it. If youre running it, Lightning or
Poison are the end-all-be-all Hut counters, with the ability to take out a
significant chunk of the Huts duration/health and the ability to easily hit
multiple targets at once. Doing so against a Hut deck will put you at a big
advantage.
Rage (3 Elixir Cost) - Rage is pretty bad and rarely ever gets played. Best
way to counterplay it is to Fireball or Arrows whatever is being Raged and
attacking your tower. Not much else to say here.

Continued to next post...

Last edited by Eternal625; March 14th, 2016 at 06:33 PM.
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February 29th, 2016 #3
Eternal625

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X-Bow (6 Elixir Cost)- The original rage machine, the X-Bow gained an
infamous reputation during the soft launch as an infuriating card to play
against and counter. With the ability to hit a tower from across the map,
the X-Bow will slowly plink away at your tower while you watch helplessly.
Players that run X-Bow will build their entire deck around protecting it, so
countering X-Bow isnt as much about taking out the X-Bow as it is about
dealing with the entire deck. The first part to dealing with X-Bow is
recognizing when youre against an X-Bow deck. Theres a quick and easy
tell - if they play a defensive structure right up against the river, 99% of

the time theyre setting up for X-Bow. Once you recognize the X-Bow
deck, its time to deal with it. You have two options - counterpush it, or
split push the other lane. The X-Bow itself actually does very little DPS
(damage per second), but once it locks on to your tower it is relentless.
Having a defensive matrix of Teslas, Cannons, and Inferno Towers set up
makes it difficult for you to break and often forces players to panic and
overcommit to taking it out. Once an X-Bow player gets a defense down,
they will often play X-Bow in conjunction with a troop like Barbarians or
Minion Horde at the same time, making it difficult to take out the X-Bow.
Your best bet is to not panic and Lightning or Fireball the X-Bow and take
some chip damage on the tower, while taking out the troops and defenses
they put down to support the X-Bow. Then, since theyve just committed
11 elixir to X-Bow + support troops, theyre relatively open to being
counterpushed. Another weakness of X-Bow players is that they get tunnel
vision on one lane. Therefore, if you have a deck with hefty tank such as
Giant, Golem, or PEKKA, its actually really easy to split push the other
lane. The neat part is the X-Bow AI actually prioritizes troops in its range
over buildings (or at least I think it does) so instead of attacking your
tower, it will actually attack your tank. Since it does poor DPS, and theyve
committed heavily to one lane, its often easy to take the other tower with
very little contest. In summary, when facing an X-Bow deck, dont panic,
look at your hand, and make a smart play. Dont be afraid to take tower
damage, or even trade tower for tower.

PEKKAs Playhouse:
Tesla (4 Elixir Cost) - Tesla is a unique defense in that it cannot be
damaged when it is below ground. It only pops up above ground when
there are troops in its attack range, making it very tricky to take out with
Fireball or Lightning. Instead, its often best dealt with head on with a
push of troops. Alternatively, if it is placed near the river, its easy to throw
a Minion Horde near the Tesla and take it out quickly. The Tesla has
relatively low HP so it is easily dealt with.
Minion Horde (5 Elixir Cost)- One of the highest-damaging cards but also
one of the most easily countered, Minion Horde must be used intelligently
or else it will set you behind. That being said, if played correctly, Minion
Horde can easily win you the game. Many cards trade very well vs Minion
Horde - Arrows, Fireball, Wizard all one shot it. Baby Dragon two-shots
the individual Minions, however the splash damage may not hit them all at
once. Zap takes the Minions to a sliver of health. The key to playing
Minion Horde correctly is scouting your opponents deck and eliminating
counters from his hand. Most decks will run one spell (Arrows, Zap or
Fireball). Once you have a read on your opponents deck, only play Minion
Horde AFTER your opponent has burnt his spell on something else. If
youre facing a Minion Horde, do not use your counter if you dont have a
secondary counter available (e.g. dont Arrows a group of Spear Goblins if

you dont have a Wizard in your hand to deal with their Minion Horde). If
you dont have a counter available in your hand, your best bet will be to
use some cheap swarm troops to distract the Minion Horde and pull it to
the middle of your arena to let your towers deal with it.
Inferno Tower (3 Elixir Cost) - The bane of any Golem/Giant/PEKKA
players existence, the Inferno Tower does an insane amount of damage to
a single target after locking on for a few seconds. The key to taking down
Inferno Towers is to swarm it down with cheap swarm troops such as
Goblins, Skeletons, or Minions. Alternatively, Lightning will bring down an
Inferno Tower to a sliver of health, but might only be worth using if you
can hit the tower or a troop with the same spell.
Hog Rider (4 Elixir Cost) - Perhaps the best offensive card in the game,
Hog Rider is fast, relatively cheap, tanky, and does a ton of building
damage. If left uncontested, this card can win games by itself.
Fortunately, a lone Hog Rider is relatively easy to deal with. Unfortunately,
Hog Rider tends to be the centerpiece of decks, and Hog Rider
combinations can be difficult to counter. Therefore, Hog Rider is similar to
X-Bow in that its less about countering the Hog Rider as it is about
countering the entire deck. Lets start by talking about dealing with a lone
Hog Rider - two ways, either swarm him, or distract him. Swarming him
with cheap swarm troops that deal a lot of damage such as Goblins or
Barbarians is an easy task. Since the Hog Rider locks on to buildings, its
best to drop your melee troops directly in the front of the tower to block
the Hog Rider from attacking it and get in some damage while the Hog
redirects around the tower. To distract the Hog Rider, place a building
closer to the bridge than the tower is, and the Hog Rider should lock on to
that building first. Cannons, Tombstones, Teslas, Infernos all deal with Hog
Riders well. While they do no damage, Huts and Elixir Collectors are a bit
beefier and distract the Hog Rider long enough for the tower to whittle
him down. Hog Rider combinations are much more dangerous - the most
common of which are Hog + Freeze and Hog + Prince. Both decks can
quickly wipe out a tower if not counterplayed correctly. Hog + Freeze will
be covered in the next section on how to counter Freeze in general. Hog +
Prince can be countered with swarm troops. A Skeleton Army will
decimate a Hog + Prince duo and singlehandedly shut down the decks
offensive. Otherwise, distracting the Prince with cheap swarm troops and
taking out the Hog Rider with high DPS troops like Goblins or Minion Horde
is imperative. Using buildings to distract against Hog + Prince is difficult as
the buildings tend to get killed in one or two hits by a charging Prince +
Hog.
Freeze (3 Elixir Cost) - With the ability to keep troops and buildings from
attacking for a few seconds, Freeze is an incredibly powerful spell when
used correctly. When combined with troops that focus buildings like Hog
Rider or Balloon, Freeze is a very deadly offensive tool. It can even be
used in a pinch on defense, however, you should make sure you have a

high DPS troop like Minion Horde or Wizard to take the frozen troops out.
Like X-Bow, Freeze can be scouted out (but is a bit more difficult to do
so). If your opponent is playing a naked Hog Rider or Balloon and hasnt
invested in a big push recently, then they most likely have Freeze in their
hand. Once you know your opponent is playing Freeze, you need to take
very specific precautions to minimize its effectiveness. First off, never drop
your troops around/behind your tower. The best place to drop your troops
when your opponent is running Freeze is actually near the river, well in
front of your tower. This forces your opponent to choose between Freezing
your tower or your troops. If youre down one tower and your King Tower
is activated (cannon is out), NEVER put your troops in the area between
your King Tower and your remaining tower. In fact, always put it towards
the edge of the arena. This forces your opponent to choose between
Freezing your King Tower and your remaining tower or freezing your
troops. Second, use cheap troops to defend (such as Goblins, Spear
Goblins, Archers) and NEVER drop them all at once. Drop one troop to bait
out the Freeze, then once the Freeze is used, immediately drop the
others. Lastly, Freeze leaves your opponent open for a big counter play if
they dont take out your defensive troops (which they wont with Hog +
Freeze or Balloon + Freeze), as theyve invested 4 elixir into a spell that
doesnt damage troops, so gear up for a big counter push and punish
them.

Spell Valley:
Zap (2 Elixir Cost) - Zap is a very cheap spell that deals small amounts of
damage to a small area and stuns for one second. If you know your
opponent has Zap, try to take advantage of its small range and keep your
squishy troops spread out. Otherwise, try and push with tankier troops.
Wizard (5 Elixir Cost) - Wizard does a large amount of splash damage to
ground and air troops but is relatively squishy. He is fairly easy to counter
with a simple Fireball which will leave him with a sliver of health left. Its
almost always worth it to Fireball, Lightning, or Poison a Wizard if you can
hit the tower or take out some other troops near him. If your opponent is
playing a Wizard, make sure you not play Goblins, Spear Goblins, Minions,
or Minion Hordes near him if hes not already targetting something tanky,
or else he will turn around and one shot your troops before they can
attack. If the Wizard is on your side of the arena, dropping some tankier
troops such as Knight or Barbarian on top of him will quickly clear him
out.
Poison (4 Elixir Cost) - A new card that was introduced with the last big
update, Poison will slow and deal damage to all troops and buildings in a
large radius. It is particularly deadly against swarms of squishy troops like
Minions and Goblins and will straight up kill them if they remain in the
area for too long. The key to playing against Poison is to spread out your
troops, preferably deploying your air troops such as Minions over the river

instead of behind the tank.

Mirror - Mirror allows you to replay your last card played for +1 elixir. You
cant really counterplay it as it depends on what card is being mirrored, so
just counterplay what was just mirrored.
Ice Wizard (3 Elixir Cost) - I havent played with or against this troop
enough to have a good idea of how to deal with it effectively. Will update
soon.

Builders Workshop:
Mortar (4 Elixir Cost) - The Mortar is like a mini X-Bow. It can hit your
towers from the other side of the arena, but has a blind spot up close
where it cannot attack troops. However, it attacks very slowly and is fairly
vulnerable to counterattack, and unlike X-Bow, players do not have to
build their entire deck around it. Ive actually seen a lot of players use it to
put pressure on the one lane while they push down the other lane with
their troops. Generally, youll want to deal with Mortar the same way youd
deal with an X-Bow.
Elixir Collector (5 Elixir Cost) - The Elixir Collector is one of the most
popular cards and very powerful if used correctly. Playing it correctly will
give you a big advantage over your opponent, while playing it incorrectly
can straight up lose you the game. It costs 5 elixir and gives you 7 elixir
throughout its lifespan. While the 2 elixir profit over the course of a
minute does not seem like much, the Elixir Collector is powerful because it
allows you to cycle through your deck faster, and potentially even get
more Elixir Collectors onto the field. It is extremely dangerous in Double
Elixir, as it is easy to flood the board with Elixir Collectors putting you at
almost permanent max elixir. However, misplaying Elixir Collector
(especially Elixir Collector + Mirror) can be dangerous as it leaves you
open for a powerful counter for a period before the Elixir Collector pays for
itself. Many players will Fireball or Lightning an Elixir Collector that is
placed near a tower, however, Im not sure that is the best play. You are
taking out a chunk of potential elixir, but spending a good amount of elixir
yourself to do so, and more importantly, cycling one of your important
damage dealing cards out of your hand. Instead, I recommend playing
troops to quickly push down a lane instead and taking advantage of your
opponents vulnerability and immediate 5 elixir disadvantage. It is best to
play cards that are difficult to take out cheaply such as Barbarians or Baby
Dragon in these pushes. To be 100% honest, Im not sure what the best
play against an Elixir Collector is so if anybody has a better strategy,
please let me know and I will add it to this section.
Golem (8 Elixir Cost)- A massive beefy tank that explodes on death and
splits into two less-beefy Golemites, the Golem is the premier tank troop
in the game. It is extremely slow and expensive at 8 elixir, but even so,
can be difficult to deal with. A lone Golem can easily be swarmed down
with Skeletons, Spear Goblins, Goblins, etc., however, the most dangerous

part of a Golem push are the supporting troops behind it. Therefore, it is
often best to first deal with the supporting troops with Fireball or Arrows
and then taking out the Golem afterwards. A Golem deck is also extremely
slow and many players will not play their Golem without one or two Elixir
Collectors up, so a good way of dealing with a Golem deck is applying
pressure early, deal with the Elixir Collectors, and not allow them to play
the Golem at all. Once your opponent gets up 2 or 3 Elixir Collectors, it
will be difficult to deal with the incoming push without Elixir Collectors of
your own. Alternatively, Inferno Towers shred Golems.

Royal Arena
Royal Giant (6 Elixir Cost) - Royal Giants are not very good... they're
ranged Giants with less HP. I rarely see Royal Giants, but I deal with the
same way I deal with Giants. Take out whats behind them and swarm
them down with cheap troops.
Three Musketeers (10 Elixir Cost) - The most all-in card at a whopping
10 elixir. Fireball them and leave them with a sliver of health, then poke
em with Arrows, Zap, any troop and gain a massive elixir advantage.
Dark Prince (4 Elixir Cost) - The splash damage is only in front of the
Dark Prince, and while he one-shots Goblins and Spear Goblins, hes still
vulnerable to beefier troops such as the Barbarians, especially when hes
not charging. Hes also easily distracted by buildings, and isnt too big of a
threat by himself as his damage isnt too high.
Princess (3 Elixir Cost) - A cheap troop with the range of an X-Bow, the
Princess shreds cheap swarm troops, but is very squishy herself. Arrows
makes short work of her. If shes attacking your tower from the bridge,
dropping anything close to her will kill her quickly as she attacks very
slowly.
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