Tee’s Guide to Rushing
THIS IS AN OLD VERSION OF THE GUIDE, KEPT UP FOR HISTORICAL PURPOSES ONLY. DO NOT USE THIS ADVICE, IT IS NO LONGER UP TO DATE OR VALID!!!!!!!
For this, and several other reasons, I have written a NEW GUIDE as of December 2023:
CallMeTee's Rush Bible, ver 1.10
THERE IS A NEW VERSION OF THE GUIDE UP, UP TO DATE AS OF June 2025:
CallMeTee's Rush Bible, ver 1.5.1
This guide will remain up, because the points (mostly) stand in general, it’s just that the specifics have gotten a bit muddy over time. Also, I like going back to historical guides such as this, years later, to see how much (if any) things have changed.
Please use the new Rush Bible for all your rushing questions and needs, as that is where my updated and most current information will be.
AGAIN, ONE MORE TIME:
Hi there! I’m Tee. I assume if you’re reading this, you’re someone who’s either currently rushing, looking to rush, or “fixing” a rush. Welcome aboard! If you’re none of these things you’re also welcome but I question your habits.
A bit about me: I started my Clash account in August 2019, maxed AQ by November, hit 2b/2b resources by March, maxed walls by June and finished my last TH13 upgrade on February 5th 2021, about 18 months later. As of June 2023, I’m just working on the newly released content.
If you rush well, you will max faster than any other method of playing. When done right, it will even be easier. I hear maxers crying, “BUT HOW?!?!”. Read on, dear maxer, read on.
A few caveats, some general tips, and we’ll get right to it:
How was it possible to max your AQ less than five months after starting?
It was possible due to a combination of an extremely generous August 2019 Gold Pass (17 builder potions!) and level 65 being the max level at the time. For level 85, it would likely take around 7 to 8 months with Gold Pass and Hero Books.
How much $ do I have to spend to rush? (How much will this cost?)
$0 but there are a few things I consider to be extremely valuable purchases:
That’s pretty much it! Never, ever, use gems at the trader in-game on anything other than Training Potions or Book of Heroes (trader BOH is ~$5 worth of gems, for reference), and never, ever, ever gem/spend $ on resources. If you have full storages and busy builders, you could gem a timer, but I’d say just take a break.
What should I book/hammer, and when?
Generally, until you get to at least TH12, DO NOT USE BOOKS OR HAMMERS ON ANYTHING, unless they would otherwise be wasted.
See best use of CWL medals for what you should use medals on.
Pair books with runes, and try to use them only when you would otherwise overflow. In other words, after using a book, immediately use a rune so you can start another upgrade. Otherwise, you’ll end up with no loot and a free builder, which wastes the book’s value.
For most efficient use, always target your longest upgrade for books.
Should I rush or max?
I’ll do more explaining on this topic later, but the TL;DR is:
You should rush if;
You should max if;
Strategic rushing can be summed up for ~every~ town hall as follows:
Priority 1: Heroes. AQ = GW > RC > > BK – As many and as often as you can.
Priority 2: Offensive Buildings
Priority 3: Lab Priorities are always Farming Troops > Troops in a Specific Comp
Priority 4: New Buildings > Upgrade Existing
You may start your TH upgrade once Priority 2 and the Farming Troops (Priority 3) are done. You must start your TH any time one of your heroes is close to maxed. You are falling behind if you stay at any TH with a maxed hero.
Those are the general guiding principles. For more specifics, let’s continue!
I break the Clash journey down with these milestones:
In each section, I’ll talk about some overarching guidelines and some specifics you need to be aware of. The time estimates provided are the minimum (as of January 2023) amount of time required in each TH, assuming 5 builders, no gold pass. Adjust expectations accordingly if you have fewer than 5 builders or if you buy GP regularly. Starting in TH11, I assume 6 builders.
NOTE: Save your power potions for use during CWL. As a rusher with a maxed lab but often limited troop upgrades, we get the best value from using our Power Potions (and hero potions) during high impact moments. Make sure you practice in some FCs first before doing your hits live though!
The first goal of Strategic Rushing is to upgrade the Archer Queen ASAP. Since she’s unlocked at TH9, speed through here.
Upgrade your TH when the following things are maxed:
Helpful to upgrade:
That’s it. At TH7-8, you can consider putting your BK down 24/7 but don’t stress about it. Your DE income is pretty terrible, so don’t delay upgrading your TH. Plenty of time to grind later on. Once you’re TH6, find a clan that has an active Clan Capital. Raid medals are insane for Research Potions, as they can drastically increase how many lab upgrades you’re able to fit in while rushing. Make sure you research how to best hit capital raids (Youtuber Sen has the best I’ve seen as of January ‘23) and shoot for 2 tapping districts. Remember that even at TH6, you have full access to all the tools the clan has unlocked for capital raids.
Congrats! You’ve unlocked one of the most important (and “fun”) troops in the game - the Archer Queen. She is fundamental to all war strategies. Unfortunately, it will be a VERY LONG TIME before you get to use her.
Welcome to the hero grind, it never really ends.
Your goal at TH9 and 10 is to get the minimum done and upgrade to TH11 as soon as possible, so you can unlock the Grand Warden. That means your priorities are:
You’ll notice that nothing costs gold. So, dump excess gold into walls.
Continue to spend any extra builder time on your DE Drills and elixir collectors.
If possible, upgrade your dark barracks. You won’t farm with these troops, but you can use Power Potions for added war attack options once they’re unlocked.
If you have to upgrade a defense, the priorities are:
Inferno > Xbow > Air Defense / Wizard Tower > Hidden Tesla > everything else.
Upgrade your TH once camps, Barbarians, and CC are done.
This was my favorite town hall, due to how ridiculously strong the Barbarian 8 upgrade is. That, coupled with the GW, means your farming army is vastly improved. Between Barb 8, Super barbs, and Sneaky gobs, you can easily triple previous TH incomes.
TH11 is no longer a good spot to pause. You want to turbo upgrade your Grand Warden and get into TH12 ASAP. As of January 2023, you will not be able to meaningfully contribute in CWLs in Crystal league anymore, so you want to get your offensive power cooking much faster.
TH11 is where the hero grind becomes more serious. Keeping all 3 heroes down 24/7 can be a challenge. With the time/cost reductions, TH11 is no longer a spot to use medals/books, and should be accelerated through as quickly as possible. As long as you hit TH11 with full elixir storages, you’ll have an easy time keeping Warden down while upgrading all your camps, lab, and troops.
Day 1 priorities of TH11 are:
1 - AQ (always)
2 - Drop Warden, start 1st upgrade, keep him down (~few million elixir over a day)
3 - Lab (2m)
4 - DE Storage if AQ is close to lv40
5 - New Buildings -> Camps
After day 1, priorities at TH11 are the same as previously. Offense > Defense so:
1 - AQ
2 - GW
3 - BK (farming dependent)
4 - Camps
5 - CC , EA
6 - Prioritize Barracks if CWL is soon, EDrags
7 - DE drills > Elixir Collectors > Gold Mines
For Lab priorities, read here.
Minimum:
Optional (but recommended):
If your Archer Queen gets into the 40s, or your Grand Warden is maxed, upgrade ASAP.
TH12 is in the sweet spot for farming. You don’t need anything more than Barch to keep up with your upgrades, but judicious use of Super Barbs and Sneaky Gobs make farming a breeze.
By now, you know the drill. Keep going for elixir-based offensive upgrades, keep your AQ and GW down 24/7 and use walls/BK to control any overflow loot.
Something to consider for super active farmers:
If you’re consistently waiting for troops, you can consider hammering your barracks to TH12+ max. It represents a decent time/cost value, and it can avoid having to farm with the training penalty. If, however, you log on throughout the day and do 2 attacks at a time with pre-cooked armies, this value is lessened.
Day 1 of TH12 has been made significantly easier with time and cost reductions. As of January 2023, you’ll need to start assessing how many books/hammers you get per month and do some personal assessment to see if it’s worth using some here. Times and costs are low, so the value isn’t great, but speeding through TH12 and getting to TH13 is important.
Builder 1: AQ (always)
Builder 2: Lab -> BK
Builder 3: DE Storage
Builder 4: CC -> new buildings -> Camps
Builder 5: GW
If you have OTTO then start Giga Tesla 2, and keep Giga Tesla down until maxed, if you’re trying to participate in CWL. The giga bomb might cause a fail or two from another TH12. If you’re getting hit by TH13+, not as important - focus on camps instead. If you’re a monster farmer, consider keeping BK, AQ, and GW sleeping 24/7. Only consider putting down BK if it doesn’t affect your AQ upgrades, though.
If you can’t afford *anything* above:
Early on, you should have excess gold almost every time you have a free builder, since you’re focusing on heroes and offense. Use gold for walls. When you finish elixir upgrades, swap to elixir for walls, gold for upgrades. Don’t leave walls until the end; you’ll regret it.
At TH12+ it’s less awful to use some of your magic items. I still suggest holding off, but you might start to actually accumulate CWL medals, so you can consider buying hammers. The ideal strategy, is as follows:
Upgrade 1 building to 1 level before max, then use a hammer/book. Ideally, you will always have at least 1 building 1 off max, so you always have a magic item target. The target buildings are:
Clan Castle, Eagle Artillery (lv2->3), Inferno Towers (lv5->6), Xbows (lv5->6)
Same strategy for troops. Note that the total Lab Time is ~60% higher than building time, so you will want to spend the majority of your CWL medals on lab hammers if you want to upgrade in a balanced fashion. For more details on that, read Builder Pots vs Hammers.
Once you’ve done the key troops (Barb, Goblin, EDrag, Loon, Rage, Freeze, maybe Archer), it’s time to branch out your lab upgrades, and in TH12 you’ll have time to work on some others. Check the Lab Strategies section for more detail here.
Checklist for TH13:
Welcome to TH13! It represents ~20% of the total builder time from TH2->max, ~15% of the Wall Cost, and an insane percentage of hero time. Get here ASAP so you can start spending magic items efficiently. Shockingly, as of January 2023, TH15 is the second largest chunk of builder time of any Town Hall level.
TH13 used to be the most insane first week of farming of any TH to play optimally, but cost and time reductions have made it significantly easier. Still, be prepared to farm a serious amount of DE if you want to upgrade your AQ, drop your RC, and keep her upgrading.
TH13 is a solid spot to start using magic items. It’s still not optimal, as TH14/15 upgrades are longer, but without magic item use, it can take a significant amount of time to make it through the core upgrades in TH13.
You’ll want to go into Day 1 of TH13 with as many of the following as possible:
With the massive reductions in cost for the initial RC drop, what you’ll likely want to do is have overflowing DE storage, upgrade BK/AQ, DE rune, drop RC, drop some new buildings, and use builder pots to keep your RC upgrading consistently.
Additionally, you’ll want to keep your Grand Warden down, and prioritize your DE storage upgrade so you have more leeway between upgrades of your heroes. At this stage of the game, however, keeping all 4 heroes upgrading constantly will begin to be a challenge for all but the most serious of farmers. As always, priority will be AQ = GW > RC > BK.
Note that TH13 is a solid spot to hang out for a while and get your core defenses to a solid level, make sure your BK is caught up if he was lagging, and make sure you have some variety of upgrades done in your lab. TH14 is a pretty terrible value to get to, but once you’re in TH14, you will want to rush through it as fast as humanly possible to get to TH15, so building a solid foundation in TH13 means you’ll have an easier time finding clans later on.
TH14 is a bit of a conundrum. It consists of mostly miniscule upgrades. On its own, TH14 is terrible to rush to. However, getting through TH14 and getting to TH15 ASAP is an insane value. If you have max/near max TH13 heroes, go to TH14 at your earliest opportunity, but be aware that the goal is spend the least amount of time in TH14 as possible. See the ** note below for more details on how to accomplish this.
TH14 is a massive spike in DE income requirements, above the already large spike from TH13. Upgrading 3 DE heroes + a pet is a tall order for even the most diligent farmers. I’ve seen many players burn out from trying this, so unless you’re constantly overflowing DE, I would suggest focusing on AQ, RC, and maybe a pet, or just AQ+Pet until AQ is maxed, then RC+Pet until RC is maxed, and then finish with BK+Pet.
Breaking a 10 year streak, TH14 has no army camp upgrade. This means that the bulk of your offensive power increase comes from Pets. This demolishes the value of rushing to TH14 until your heroes are at least in decent shape for TH13, since if you have heroes sleeping, you can’t even use your upgraded pets. If your heroes are beefy, though, then adding on lv5 pets ASAP is a massive spike in offensive power, especially coupled with hero potions to give you lv10 pets. See Pet Strategy for more.
Additionally, for the first time in any TH, the “signature” defense of the TH is more or less irrelevant. The Battle Builders, while an interesting concept, do absolutely nothing to change the base ID or value propositions learned in TH13. They minimally increase the defensive power of a TH14, so, until a TH14 player has upgraded the actual core defenses (EA, Scatter, Xbow, Inferno), the defensive power of a TH14 is virtually identical to the defensive power of a TH13.
Couple that with the offensive power being locked behind 210 days of Pet Upgrades, and the Rush Value of TH14 is minimal.
Farming in TH14 has significantly improved since the TH15 release, so it’s only a small drop off from TH13.
As of January 2023, TH15 has taken over as the dominant CWL TH. So, once you’re actually in TH14, focus on your pets to level 5 ASAP, and then begin to consider going to TH15, as it represents a massive step up in Offensive and Defensive strength.
Consider upgrading:
-If you have at least 1 hero maxed for TH13, upgrade
-If you have a roster spot in at least Crystal 1, or into Masters, upgrade
Additional notes
-Focus hard on your lab upgrades
-Discuss with your clan leaders where you could fit in with your specific hero/defense/pet upgrade levels
TH14 has an insane DE requirement. Make sure that you are optimizing your farming strategy, with a massive focus on DE.
Day 1 Considerations:
First: If you have a stockpile of Hero magic items, focus them all into AQ. Having 1 hero completely done ASAP is a huge priority, because it lessens the overall burden on your DE farming. Since SC never released additional hero levels, you only have 5 levels per hero to do, so it’s pretty easy to stockpile books and get AQ done in the first week.
Second: Get your Warden down, your Lab down (bad book time value, OK QOL book value), Hammer CC.
Third: Priority is Pet House + Builder hut lv2 as your gold spend.
As always, you should prioritize NEW buildings over EXISTING upgrades. So, your defensive priorities become:
Builder Hut lv2 > EA > Inferno = Scatter > Xbow > Air D > Wizard Tower > Bomb Tower > Hidden Tesla > Cannon > Archer Tower > Builder Hut lv3 > Builder Hut lv4 > Mortar
Use traps to space your builders. Hammer any of the 19d+ upgrades you have available.
Since TH14 represents such terrible rush value (bad positioning for CWL, minimal offensive/defensive power upgrade, massive grind for offensive power, etc), and TH15 represents such insane rush value, upgrading to TH15 should be your first and most pressing concern. For serious farmers with heroes in solid shape (near max for TH13 or better), I’d suggest getting the new buildings down, your builder huts to lv2, your lab and barracks upgraded, pet hut to lv3-4, and then start to consider upgrading to TH15 almost immediately. Time it with season bank pay out, gold pass discount, or magic item stock piling.
For more casual farmers, here’s the checklist:
**Using just 2 books of building and ~4 Hammer of Buildings, we can cut this time down to ~2 months, the bulk of which is spent dropping new buildings, upgrading Builder Huts to lv2 (bad book/hammer value), and upgrading storages. If you regularly buy Gold Pass and have the 20% discount, you can consider skipping some or all of the storage upgrades until you get to TH15, which would cut the time in TH14 down to around ~3 weeks instead of 3 months. As I’ve alluded to numerous times, TH13-14-15 are when magic items start to drastically alter the time to max, and this is the compounding effect rushers utilize to end up with a maxed base much sooner than maxers.
Welcome to the maximum TH Level, as of January 2023! TH15 is an insane value for rushers, as there are some incredible value propositions to take advantage of. For the first time in a rusher’s career, however, these are (mostly) defensive in nature. Namely:
Getting to TH15 can mean a massive increase in your ability to place in CWL, increasing your hammer income, increasing your progress. TH14s will struggle to 3 star even an insanely rushed TH15, as long as the monolith and spell towers are down and the core defenses are finished. This requires a roster spot in higher CWLs, though, so YMMV.
The major goal in TH15 is to drop your Monolith, drop your spell towers, and then refocus back onto offense.
TH15 is a significant spike in offense, as getting +5 troop space in your CC and +20 troop space from camps are a bigger upgrade than almost everything given in TH14.
The rest of TH15 is almost identical to TH14. Your priorities should look something like:
As in TH14, get all pets to level 5, then look up the latest meta and see what pets are being used. Take 1 pet at a time and bring them to level 9, then use a Book to finish them to level 10. Don’t use books on pets before that. See Pet Strategy for more detail.
*Using a Hammer of Building on your Monolith lv2 upgrade is insane value. The Monolith has been nerfed once so far (as of January 2023), so the power value of upgrading the monolith may change. However, the time/resource value will remain high.
Eventually, you’ll have to upgrade some defenses. Use this general priority list to determine which one you’ll upgrade. For the most part, you want to upgrade individual defensive buildings to be one off max level, so that you can optimize magic item use.
Tier 1 Defenses:
Monolith, Giga Weapon, Eagle Artillery, Inferno Tower, Xbow, Scatter shot, lv1 Spell Tower
These defenses are your core defenses. They represent the majority of your base’s ability to defend in war. Any time you can fit in a longer defensive upgrade, these are all good picks. Note that Scatter shots, Giga 5*, and Eagle Artillery upgrades are all usually best in TH value for book/hammers. In TH15, the monolith is easily the best hammer value.
Tier 2 Defenses:
Spell Tower (upgrades), Wizard Tower, Bomb Tower, Air Defense, Hidden Tesla, Tornado Trap, Skeleton Trap, Seeking Air Mines
As a rushed base, you’ll get hit by EDrags constantly, so getting your ADs and SAMs upgraded can help a ton, once you’ve done your core defenses. The other defenses in this tier can help make your base harder to secure decent percentages on.
Tier 3 Defenses:
Giant Bombs, Red Air Bombs, Archer Tower, Cannon
Giant bombs and red air bombs can start to make your base harder to 3 star for even good attackers.
Tier 4 Defenses:
Mortars
Basically irrelevant on an individual upgrade level. Can sometimes cause a time fail.
One of the reasons rushing is so effective, and why it gets you a strong base so quickly, is due to the diminishing returns in each building upgrade. This is why dropping new defenses takes priority over upgrading your old buildings, with few specific exceptions. To illustrate this, let’s look at some levels of the Hidden Tesla:
TH14: lv12->13, 17 days
Gains +10 DPS, +150 HP, representing +7% damage and +12.5% hp
TH13: 2 levels, lv10->12, 24 days, 18 hours
Gains +20 DPS, +220 HP, or +16.6% damage and 22% HP
TH13 in particular is when the Tesla gets some huge improvements, but it also takes the better part of an entire month per Tesla before realizing these gains.
Compare this to dropping a brand new Tesla, spending ~17 total hours getting it to level 3:
+48 DPS, +660 HP, or roughly 2.4x more damage and 3x more HP than you’d have gotten upgrading a single tesla for 24 days and 18 hours.
This is not to say that I’m advocating you never upgrade your defenses. Far from it. Instead, the strength of a defense is front loaded into the first few fast upgrades.
Lv3 Tesla:
Build time: 17 hours – ~1% of the total build time to max a single tesla (!!)
DPS: 48 – ~33% of the DPS of a max tesla
HP: 660 – ~48% of the HP of a max tesla
Rushing is all about exploiting these differences to maximize progress in the shortest real life time elapsed possible. When dropping new buildings, my general guideline is to do ~24 hours worth of upgrades after dropping it, as you get a huge chunk of its power unlocked for ~1% of the total time investment.
In each Town Hall, you should be focusing on the following:
First, you need to get your farming comp maxed. You will perform hundreds of farming attacks over the course of every single month, so making sure those troops are maxed will pay dividends. Which troop you focus on will depend on your farming strategy, but I can give some general tips:
All you really need is to spam mass barbs, and supplement with random troops in your CC. Farming here is inconsistent and spotty, so power through as fast as you can. Supplement your income with Goblin Level and Practice Level loot, and just power through these THs as fast as possible.
Now, you’ll most likely need to add 2-4 wall breakers and Archers into your Barb spam, or it might be time to start thinking about doing Mass Baby Dragons. Personal preference. Note that Barch falls off temporarily in TH9.
See How To Farm, pick one of those strategies, and max that ASAP first.
In order to not get thrown out of every clan, and to be a considerate clan mate, upgrade at least one (preferably several) of the following troops:
Always consider your clanmates when requesting troops for farming. Do your best to tailor how many times you use your CC to how often you’re able to contribute. Remember to not be selfish with your lab upgrades, otherwise it might be hard to find a clan.
Don’t worry about wars until you’re at least TH12, when you can start contributing to Crystal League CWLs. Before that, only be in regular wars as a last resort for your clan, unless you’re in a hero-down friendly clan. At TH11, you can use EDrags to 2 star, which is ~ok~.
The most efficient “easy 2” army comp to max are EDrags, since you only need 1 level in EDrags per Town Hall to max your main troop, and Balloons are a great troop to max for donations and building out your LaLo comp down the road.
Once you’ve gotten the EDrag comp unlocked, you’ll have to do some research on the current meta at max TH. If you have excess Lab Time, work on troops in one meta comp at a time. Don’t spread your lab upgrades on random troops and spells. Instead, focus on getting each troop in a given comp to max (or one off max for Magic Item Usage).
Some options that are generally almost always viable:
Final Note on Lab Strategies: You can always supplement your available war comps with Power Potion war comps. Make sure you do some Friendly Challenges any time you attempt a new army, before unleashing it in CWL.
Power Potions, Hero Potions, and Rushing are a powerful combo to bypass some of the lengthy lab time requirements standing in the way of being maxed.
One of the most common things that will happen while rushing an account is that many, many, many (many), MANY people will ask you: Why are you rushing?
And the truth is, it can be tiring to answer. So, instead, you can point them here, to this very section. TL;DR: If you consider the Real Life Time that elapses from when you Start your account to when you’re Maxed (or able to contribute in a meaningful way), Rushing gets you there faster by a huge margin. Here’s how:
In clash, there are still major portions of the upgrade process that are imbalanced in certain Town Hall levels. For example, TH10 has ~45 more days of lab upgrades than buildings, so if you wait to max your lab, your builders will be massively behind. Rushing lets you bypass all of these things, so no resource (gold, elixir, de, or Builder time) goes to waste.
Every magic item used on a low TH level upgrade is a loss of base progression. Since TH13+ represents over 62% of the total upgrade time, each magic item that can be put into a TH13+ level upgrade is a massive decrease in total time to upgrade. Getting to TH13 significantly faster means all magic items you get are put to increasingly better use.
Heroes represent the longest 1-builder grind of any structure in the game. Your AQ alone will require 396 days to upgrade from level 1 to level 85. You could spend ~5 weeks getting from TH1 to TH9 just to start her, or you could spend ~1.5 weeks getting to TH9 and get a month head start. That same maxer won’t even start their Grand Warden for ~5 more months, but a rusher will already be working on TH14.
A rushed TH12 can contribute to Crystal 3 CWL by the 2nd month after creation. A maxer won’t get to TH12 for almost a year. Just that difference alone is ~10 months of Crystal 3 medals vs 10 months of little to no CWL medals. This difference only gets wider with more time.
Bottle neck skipping, more efficient magic item use, and more hammers gained from more CWL medals all compound, widening the gap with every passing day, week, month, and year.
The number one thing for improving performance at anything is practicing with specificity. Practicing an attack for months at TH9 is a waste of time when it comes to trying to perform at TH15. Getting to max, with maxed heroes, significantly earlier means you’ll have a much longer time practicing specifics than someone stuck in an earlier town hall.
A rusher will reach TH15 almost 1,000 real life days sooner than a maxer. There’s no argument you can make on this planet to convince me that having ~2 2/3rds years more experience at TH15 won’t make the rusher a better TH15 attacker than a maxer. Sorry, not possible.
Additionally, Friendly Challenge practice reduces the feedback loop for learning basics to virtually nothing, and with the help of a guide, can mean picking up the basics of attacks takes almost no time. After that, it’s just a matter of repetition. A rusher will have 3 full years (if we include the maxer’s time to max TH15 offense) worth of practice over the maxer. If you think the maxer will have some kind of advantage because they developed “fundamentals” in TH9, you’re crazy.
If you max everything at every Town Hall, your upgrade costs continually rise. Your upgrades are all (roughly) the same cost, so if you ever have 2 builders free at the same time, you will have to do a lot of emergency farming to keep them busy.
If you rush, however, you always have cheap upgrades sitting around. Never struggle with idle builders!
If you’re highly active and always have full storages regardless, this is less impactful. If, however, you have a variable schedule, this is a Quality of Life upgrade.
It wouldn’t be fair to sing the praises of rushing without addressing some of the potential downsides. So, some of the things that are nice about maxing:
Don’t underestimate this! When maxing, you never have to consider priorities, you never have to really plan anything, you never have to really think specifically about what your builders are doing, or why. Upgrade everything in your suggested building list, in whatever order you want, until only the Town Hall remains. Simple, easy.
For my first 11 months in clash, Lightning was a trash spell that nobody used. So, I never upgraded it. Supercell buffed it, and suddenly it was meta at every TH and many different comps. That can suck, as a rusher. Maxers won’t ever have to deal with it.
Rushers constantly get berated whenever they post base pictures. From being told you’ve ruined your base, to you’ll never get a clan, to you might as well give up and start over.
Maxing is still considered the default strategy, so you’ll always be accepted.
If you max your offense and heroes first, you’ll actually have periods of time where you can use max heroes for your town hall level. This is very rewarding, and very fun.
Honestly, one of the biggest downsides to rushing is that you can’t use just any base link you find. Bases are designed with maxed defenses in mind. If you throw a random Anti-2 star base into war, you will get smashed. Instead, you have to rely on troll bases and hope for weak attackers. Consider it a win if your base takes more than 1 hit, or if someone has to dip, to clear. So, with that in mind:
There are 4 strategies for farming efficiently. 1 is viable for almost the entire game, 1 becomes available at TH9, and 2 are available after you reach TH11.
If you farm with something not listed below, know that you are either wasting time or CC troops. Farming is a marathon, not a sprint, and doing everything you can to avoid burnout and minimize time spent nexting and waiting around is paramount. Therefore, you don’t want to rely on your Heroes or on CC Troops. Fundamental to good farming is one of two strategies:
Consistently doing the first throughout every day, while throwing in the second as often as needed will get you to 2 billion gold and elixir farmed in no time flat, and will keep your builders busy 24/7, and will keep your total time investment grind COC to a minimum.
When you reach TH14-15, if once your offensive buildings are maxed, you can consider going to low legends league (4900-5100) and hovering with safe 2 star attacks prioritizing loot gain and percentage. You can do 4 sets of 2 back to back attacks and the loot income is enough to keep builders busy.
Prerequisite: Max Barb, Max (or -1) Archer
Target Bases: Dead bases with full collectors on the exterior of the base
Composition: 3-4 Wall Breakers, ~40% camp capacity Barbarians, rest Archers
Strategy:
Spells: Lightning spells for buried DE Drills / extra %
Caveats: Barch can sometimes struggle to get 50%, so you will ~mostly~ maintain a given trophy level, or slowly push.
Special Notes: Extremely strong from TH2->TH13, falls off TH14/15. Additional Bonus: Maxing Barbs, Archers helps your hero abilities, and maxing wall breakers is important for war. Archers are also common filler defensive CC troops.
Prerequisite: lv7+ goblin, sneaky goblin boost, High Trophy Range (Master 3+)
Target Bases: Dead Bases, or bases with full storages in the outer or first layer
Composition: All sneaky goblins -- retrain after each partial raid
Strategy:
Spells: Jump+Haste for tricky storages, Zaps for buried DE drills
Caveats: Will cause a massive drop in trophies
Special Notes: Efficient use can enable 20-25 minutes of continuous farming without a training potion, giving you potentially massive loot gains in incredibly short time frames
Prerequisite: lv8+ Barb, Super Barb Boost
Target Bases: Dead Bases (any)
Composition: All super barbs, retrain after each raid
Strategy:
Spells: Any, personal preference (zaps if you struggle to hit 50%)
Caveats: Can push above optimal farming range
Special Notes: It’s Barch, but easier to get 50%. Incredible value with training potions
Prerequisite: Any lvl Baby Dragon
Target Bases: Dead Bases (any)
Composition: All baby drags, retrain after each raid
Strategy:
Spells: Freeze/Zap for exterior ADs can be useful
Caveats: None
Special Notes: Inferno Baby Drags are a niche war troop.
Additional Bonus: Common defensive CC troop (regular baby dragons)
Love it or hate it, Builder Base’s 6th builder is a huge boon. So, how do you unlock it efficiently? While there remains some debate between Maxing and Rushing in Main Village, in Builder Base, the argument is settled fact; Rushing is the only viable strategy.
The strategy for doing so is simple:
Once those things are done, save gold or use raid medals to afford a BH upgrade.
After you’ve unlocked Baby Dragons, you will have an awkward period where you need to transition from using All Barb armies, to using Mass Baby Dragons. It will be a bit rough while you transition, but it’s worth it. Once your baby dragons are caught up, you will fly up in trophies.
Some folk use mass cannon carts as their attack army, or Carts+Giants or Carts+Barbs. Personally, on my first account, I attempted that and found that whenever I was upgrading my battle machine, I would lose hundreds of cups and struggle to get my daily wins. Using Baby Dragons is far more time efficient, as you can maintain cups whether or not your BM is available, and you only have to upgrade 1 troop per BH. Later on, you can upgrade carts at your leisure with overflow / excess elixir, as the total time for Baby Dragons + Carts is less than the builder time to finish Battle Machine, Mega Tesla, and Multi Mortar.
Continue with this strategy (New buildings, Lab, Resource Buildings), and continue to upgrade your Baby Dragons. If your builder is ever free and you can’t start one of the above:
Only the first 4 are required for OTTO, but the others will help you maintain higher cup amounts, so they’re not bad to spend gold on.
Once new buildings are down, Baby Dragons maxed, and you can store enough gold for a BH upgrade, start saving. Spend Elixir on your Battle Machine and Cannon Carts. Upgrade the BH as soon as you’re able.
When you’re BH9 with level 18 baby dragons, focus directly on OTTO tasks:
For your builder:
Alternate between your OTTO Buildings, and your Battle Machine. You should be able to keep your builder down 24/7 this way once you get high enough in trophies. Supplement with raid medal resources whenever needed.
For your lab:
Any time you would overflow elixir, upgrade Cannon Carts. Battle Machine 1->30 takes so long you’ll have *plenty* of time to finish.
Note, with the release of the raid medal shop, until you have OTTO unlocked, use all of your raid medals to keep your Master Builder upgrading on OTTO tasks.
Congrats! Now you’ve got 6 builders.
AKA - Builder Pots vs Hammers of Fighting/Building vs Hammer of Heroes
#1 -- Save medals until TH12+, unless you would otherwise overflow.
#2 -- Your total lab upgrade time is ~440+ days longer than builder time, so definitely spend more hammers in the lab than on buildings. However, a ton of lab time is filler, so at some point adjust.
If you must spend your medals before TH12, a medium value option is Builder Potions. Their value isn’t connected to upgrade length, so they’re the same value whether you’re in TH8 or in TH14. However, their Medal/Hour efficiency is worse than Hammers of Fighting or Building (see below for math).
Hammer of Fighting on a 14-18d+ upgrade is best.
Hammer of Building on a 14-18d+ upgrade is the second best**
**Hammering your CC is actually best-value for TH12, TH13, and TH14 since it’s a permanent offensive upgrade. Hammers also bypass storage limits. Hitting TH12/13/14 with a building hammer for the CC is A++ value.
If you farm enough to keep all 4 heroes down in TH13+ (or all 3 heroes in TH11+), spamming builder pots is ok to get some hero & base progress together. See math below.
Builder potions on 0 heroes.
-- Most spells don’t ever get to the highest upgrade timers, and if you’re getting Gold Pass, you’ll often end up getting some book of spells from time to time. Use the books to finish the longest spell timers you have, and save your medals for better uses.
Don't buy hero hammers. Using excessive hero hammers will delay your overall time to max by more than a week for every given Hero Hammer you buy. If you really want hero progression, use Builder potions and farm for it.
5d14h Hero Upgrade = 0.81 hours per CWL medal (7d timer + 20% discount)
6d Hero Upgrade = 0.87 hours per CWL medal (7.5d timer + 20% discount)
6.4d Hero Upgrade = 0.93 hours per CWL medal (8d timer + 20% discount)
7d Hero Upgrade = 1.02 hours per CWL Medal (FTP upgrade)
7.5d Hero Upgrade = 1.09 hours per CWL Medal (FTP upgrade)
8d Hero Upgrade = 1.16 hours per CWL medal (FTP upgrade)
1 builder pot with 5 Builders = 1.5 total builder hours per medal, total
3 heroes, 2 buildings = 0.9 hero hours per medal + 0.6 building hours per medal
4 heroes, 1 building = 1.2 hero hours per medal + 0.3 building hours per medal
1 builder pot with 6 Builders = 1.8 total builder hours per medal.
3 heroes, 3 buildings = 0.9 hero hours per medal + 0.9 building hours per medal
4 heroes, 2 buildings = 1.2 hero hours per medal + 0.6 building hours per medal
14d timer = 2.8 hours per medal (more than 2x efficient as hammering an 8d hero timer)
16d timer = 3.2 hours per medal
18d timer = 3.6 hours per medal
19d timer = 3.8 hours per medal
20d timer = 4.0 hours per medal
Note: Fighting/Building hammers are actually less value if you have gold pass.
Any way you look at it, Hero Hammers are bad value. Note that if you use Gold Pass, Hero Hammer value plummets while Builder Potion value stays the same. Also note that Hero Books from the trader are actually decently priced (~$5 worth of gems).
So, if, over the course of a given year, you are able to earn an average of ~250 medals per month (easily achievable as a rusher, much more difficult as a maxer, as you’ll only just be starting mid TH11 after a year):
3000 medals spent on 165 medal Hero Hammers = 18 hero hammers
3000 medals spent on 120 medal Lab/Building Hammers = 25 building/lab hammers
Consider that you’ll hammer 14-18 day building/lab upgrades, and 7-8 day hero upgrades, we’ll be generous and split the difference and call it that you gain 8 extra days per hammer spent.
So, the first 18 building / lab hammers give you an extra 144 builder days, plus, you then have 7 extra hammers that you purchased that the Hero Hammerer couldn’t afford, giving you *another* 112 builder days.
So, the difference in overall time to max between someone using Hero Hammers vs someone using Lab/Building hammers is going to be ~256 builder days, or 42ish IRL days if both people unlocked 6 builders at the same point, or 51 days if both people only have 5 builders.
So, hopefully, at this point, you can see how just a small change in priority and strategy can end up making a huge difference in your eventual Time to Max. That is, a whole free 5-7 weeks that you’ll max faster just by using lab/building hammers instead of hero hammers. This value compounds with the fact that rushing gets you higher medal income faster, so the overall effect is drastic.
With the release of Clan Capital, we have a new resource to use for rushing. Luckily, it’s pretty simple to explain its value.
If you don’t have OTTO unlocked:
Use your raid medals on whichever builder resource is your current bottleneck (most likely elixir), and do OTTO tasks 24/7.
If you do have OTTO unlocked:
Use your raid medals on self-donations if your clan is slow donating, or DE if you’re struggling with DE requirements.
Additionally, if your lab progress is far behind, you can spam Research Potions. It can drastically cut down on your lab offset, but keep in mind that you never want to cause builders to sleep because your lab is too busy. Hammer of Fighting is also much better value than Hammer of Building, so don’t over-correct here!
That’s it!
First and foremost, you want to always prioritize getting pets evenly to level 5 among the pets you have available. This means that using a Hero potion will give you max pets, so that gives you the most options based on whatever the meta is at the time.
Once you have all pets to level 5, the ~rough~ priority looks something like:
Note that as of January 2023, Yak, Phoenix, and Poison Lizard values are variable and subject to your specific attack strategy. Owl is also a higher priority if you’re a LaLo god.
However:
AQ+Unicorn is used almost universally among all attackers / comps.
RC+Diggy is a ridiculous pairing, and is almost worth rushing to TH15 for on its own.
BK can be used well with Yak, Frosty, or Phoenix, so if you’re in TH14 for an extended period and need a 2nd pet to max after Unicorn, Yak is solid. Ideally, don’t stay in TH14 that long however.
GW is mostly used with Frosty or Poison Lizard, but Owl is also ok. In air comps, Owl or Frosty are usually used.