“Clash Royale” is a popular mobile multiplayer online battle game developed and published by Supercell. It has captured the hearts, sanity and money of millions. Its intuitive gameplay, paired with the charm of the troops players use to defeat one another, has led it to such popularity.
The core gameplay of “Clash Royale” is simple: build a deck when not in battle, find an opponent through quick play or the friends list, and place down troops and spells using varying amounts of elixir to destroy the opponent’s three towers for that sweet three crown victory. Two of the towers are the less powerful, always active Troop Towers. These towers have unlockable troops to replace the princess. The Tower Troops currently in the game are the Tower Princess, the Cannoneer, the Dagger Duchess and the Royal Chef. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses that allow players to use different tactics in combination with them.
The other tower in the game is the King Tower. This tower wields a powerful cannon and boasts more health than the Troop Towers. Of course, there always needs to be a balance for powerful things in any game. The King Tower in “Clash Royale” is quite brilliantly balanced as it is not active until it has taken any damage or a Troop Tower has been taken down. Of course, the players took this feature and ran with it, making a strategy in which troops are lured towards the King Tower to prematurely activate it so it can help defend the Troop Towers.
A semi-new feature in “Clash Royale” is a little thing called Evolutions. Evolutions are unlockable upgrades for troops that are unique. To get an Evolution for a card, players must collect six Evolution Shards for that card. To activate the evolution in a match, the player must place down that card as many times as stated by the crystals above it when in the card inventory. After it has been used that many times, it will automatically evolve when it is next used.
When evolved, the troop has improved stats and a special ability. For example, the first Evolution that was released was
the Evolution for the Barbarians troop. Their special ability causes them to gain the Rage buff when attacking another troop. The Rage buff is a temporary movement speed and damage per second boost, and it will replenish its length when the Barbarian attacks again.
One of the main staples of “Clash Royale” is the Clan feature. A maximum of 50 players can join a Clan, and once a player is in a Clan, they gain many boosts to their gameplay. First of all, they have a group of people to talk to in the Clan Chat whenever they need. They may also request and donate Troop cards to upgrade their cards faster or help their clanmates upgrade their cards. They may also make trade requests if they have a surplus of cards for a troop they do not want to upgrade and a deficit of cards for a troop they do want to upgrade.
Clans also participate in multiple events against other clans to gain prizes like chests. In these events, the different game modes of “Clash Royale,” such as 1v1, 2v2 and Touchdown, are all used.
There are also many events that happen during the year that players can participate in to get Season Tokens, which can be spent at the Season Shop to get cards, Magic Items and even Evolution Shards. These events usually introduce some sort of new mechanic to shake things up a little, such as February 2025’s Lumber Love event. The twist for this event is hearts that spawn on opposite sides of the arena that troops can pick up. When a heart is picked up, the troop will periodically send out brainwashing signals around them that can temporarily turn an opponent’s troops right back on them. This effect ends after a set time or after the troop with the heart is defeated.
Overall, “Clash Royale” is a wonderful game full of charm that does get a little tedious at times, especially when trying to upgrade cards to not lose so many matches. I give it 47/60 Pass Royale tiers and its prize is my reconsideration of my vow to not spend money on it.
