“Clash of Clans” is a strategy-based mobile game released by Supercell on August 2, 2012. In it, players collect resources to build and upgrade their base. It has been eating up a lot of my free time over the last three years, and now I have decided that it will be next on my review list.
The centerpiece of every base is the Town Hall, which unlocks more buildings and upgrades for players to get with every level of its own. Starting at Town Hall twelve, the Town Hall itself becomes a weapon to fight against attacking troops. The current maximum Town Hall level is sixteen, with its weapon being the Giga Inferno.
Of course, the Town Hall is not the only building in the base. There are resource collectors, traps, defenses, barracks,
army camps, spell factories, the blacksmith, the pet house, heroes, builder huts, walls, and many more that make up the Home Village. These buildings each excel in their own unique ways, with the Builder Huts being the most valuable building. Builder Huts give players another Builder to build and upgrade buildings up to a maximum of five builders. There is the ability to get a sixth Builder, but I will get into how to do that later.
Attacking in the Home Village is quite simple. Players train an army and then pay an amount of gold to find a base they would like to attack. Attacking someone will steal a portion of their loot, and getting at least one of the three available stars counts as a victory and will award the attacking player with a number of trophies. The more trophies a player has, the more loot they will get on average from attacking.
Gaining stars also does two other things. The first one is contributing to the loot bonus that players get after attacking. The second one is counting towards the daily star bonus, which will put a significant amount of resources into the Clan Castle storage and put some Shiny and Glowy Ore into the Blacksmith to upgrade hero equipment. When attacking, players will lose a portion of their Shield, which is the amount of time that their base has before it is able to be attacked by other players. After being attacked, the Shield will replenish.
Hero equipment is a feature that was added to “Clash of Clans” in 2023 to allow players to customize the abilities of their heroes to suit their individual playstyles. There are currently two tiers of equipment in the game, with many equipment pieces in each tier. Common equipment is gained by upgrading the Blacksmith building to higher tiers, has a max level of eighteen, and uses both Shiny and Glowy Ore to upgrade. Epic equipment is obtained through seasonal events, has a max level of twenty-seven, and uses all types of Ore to upgrade. Epic equipment is usually much stronger than common equipment, but this doesn’t mean that common equipment is obsolete because common equipment still has really useful effects.
There are two other villages players can upgrade over time: the Builder Base and the Clan Capital. The Builder Base is available starting at Town Hall level four for absolutely free. It introduces many new mechanics such as new or reworked defenses, new troops, two bases in the village, and limiting players to a maximum of two builders. The current maximum Builder Hall level is level ten, but starting at Builder Hall level nine, players can start working towards unlocking the sixth builder for the Home Village. Through doing upgrades in the Builder Base and gearing up buildings in the Home Village, the B.O.B. Control Hut is unlocked, allowing players to have the sixth builder in the Home Village. This is the only real benefit of the Builder Base.
Attacking in the Builder Base is quite different from the Home Village. First of all, there is no stealing loot or Shield mechanic in the Builder Base. Instead of these, a player’s base is open to an attack the second they start their own attack, earning stars in an attack will grant the player with an amount of builder gold, and defending more effectively will grant the player with an amount of builder elixir. Another thing that is different in the Builder Base is that after Builder Hall level six, there are two stages of the Builder Base to attack. This allows players to get a max of six stars from one attack.
To explain Clan Capital, I must first explain Clans. With a name like “Clash of Clans,” players would expect there to be a
Clan feature. Luckily, there is such a feature. Joining a clan is one of the most important things to do in the game, as it provides a ton of benefits to players. One of these benefits is Clan Capital, which is basically a Home Village that allows clan members to work together to upgrade. It is made of multiple districts that each introduce their own unique buildings, defenses, and troops. Attacking is limited to the weekends, and each member only gets five attacks plus a bonus attack if they achieve a three-star on one of an enemy clan’s districts. Destroying a building during an attack gives the attacking player an amount of capital gold, which is the main currency of Clan Capital. In Clan Capital, clan members have to donate capital gold to an upgrade they want done. Once enough capital gold has been raised, the upgrade instantly finishes. After the weekend, players who attacked during the weekend gain Raid Medals equal to their contributions to attacking opposing Clan Capitals. Raid Medals can be used to fill Clan Castles or traded with the Trader for resources, magic items, and cosmetics.
Since “Clash of Clans” is a free mobile game that does not make money from advertisements, the developers have implemented the Gold Pass to make money while also giving players helpful boosts to their upgrading. There is a free track that gives rewards like resources and magic items, but the Gold pass gives so much more. It gives even more resources and magic items on top of providing players with a hero skin, lowering their upgrade cost and time, and upgrading players’ season banks. Season banks fill up with loot as a player attacks throughout the season and rewards them with all of the loot once the next season starts. Seasons last for exactly one month.
Another way that the developers of “Clash of Clans” make money is through seasonal events. As with the Gold Pass, there is a free track for these events that reward players with resources, tradable medals, magic items, and new limited-edition troops. The paid track gives more resources and medals to trade for more items. Almost every seasonal event so far has introduced themed epic hero equipment, with seven currently being in the game.
“Clash of Clans” is a great game that can easily be played even without spending any money at all. I will definitely be playing it for years to come, and am excited to see what they add next. The ranking for this game is five out of five Giga Inferno levels and its prize is my purchase of the Gold Pass for this season.
