Clash of Clans

Clash of Clans
File:Clash Of Clans All In.png All the troops of Clash Of Clans
Developer(s)	Supercell
Publisher(s)	Supercell
Platform(s)	Android iOS
Release	iOS August 2, 2012 (2012-08-02) Android October 7, 2013 (2013-10-07)
Genre(s)	Strategy
Mode(s)	Massively multiplayer online game

Clash of Clans is a 2012 freemium mobile MMO strategy video game developed and published by Supercell, a video game company based in Helsinki, Finland.

The game was released for iOS platforms on August 2, 2012. For Android, it soft-launched in Canada and Finland on September 30, 2013. On October 7, 2013, it was released on Google Play internationally.

Gameplay

File:Clash of clans screenshot.png

Screenshots of Clashof Clans game loadings

Clash of Clans is an online multiplayer game in which players build a community, train troops, and attack other players to earn gold and elixir, and Dark Elixir, which can be used to build defenses that protect the player from other players' attacks, and to train and upgrade troops. The game also features a pseudo-single player campaign in which the player must attack a series of fortified goblin villages.

Troops

Troops are divided into Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, Dark Elixir Troops, and Heroes. All Tier 1–3 troops are created and upgraded with elixir; other troops and heroes require "dark elixir", a special type of elixir that is only available at higher levels. Troops in each group are listed in the order that they become available.

Tier #1

All take up a single housing space in the barracks and army camps.

• Barbarians

  File:Barbarians (Clash of Clans ).png

  Barbarians

  : Popularly known by serious players as "Barbs", they require the shortest training time of any troops (20 seconds). They travel at normal speed (16 units) and have moderate health and damage. Cannot attack airborne troops.
• Archers'

  File:Archers (clash of clans).png

  Archers

  : The first units that can attack air troops, they are relatively fast to create (25 seconds). Ranged attack troops that fire arrows at their targets, they are faster than Barbarians (1.5x), but have less health (comparing maximum-level troops, the lowest of all troops) and do slightly less damage per second.
• Goblins

  File:Goblins (clash of clans).png

  Goblins

  : Useful for looting bases at lower levels, Goblins take 30 seconds to create. They have the highest damage per second of Tier 1 troops, not including the double damage they cause to resource buildings (gold, elixir, and dark elixir storage; gold mines; elixir collectors; dark elixir drills), but cannot attack airborne targets. Goblins are also the fastest ground-based troops (2x Barbarian speed), but have low health comparable to that of Archers. Before the winter 2014 update, they were unlocked at barracks level 3, but they are now unlocked at level 4, with Giants now being unlocked at level 3.

Tier #2

• Giants

  File:Giants (clash of clans ).png

  Giants

  : Large (5 housing spaces) and slow troops (0.75x Barbarian speed) with robust health used mainly as "meat shields" for more fragile troops. Giants will attack defensive buildings until all of them are destroyed, and can only attack on the ground.
• Wall Breakers

  File:Wall Breakers (clash of clans ).png

  Wall Breakers

  : Skeletons that carry bombs, they require 2 housing spaces, travel at the same speed as Archers, attack only ground targets, and preferably target walls that guard buildings and their AI is trained such that they will only attack buildings surrounded completely by wall with no gaps for troops to enter. However this has been very controversial sparking debates on the Supercell Forums. Wallbreakers take 2 minutes to train. Once they reach a wall (or, if no walls are available, a building or enemy troop), they halt for 1 second and detonate, blowing themselves up and doing damage to the target (plus splash damage). They have fragile health similar to that of Archers, and only modestly damage buildings or troops, but their damage is multiplied by 40 against walls.
• Balloons

  File:Balloons (clash of clans ).png

  Balloons

  : The first airborne unit to become available, these are Wall Breakers that have been "promoted" to manning hot air balloons, dropping bombs on ground targets that cause splash damage (they cannot attack airborne units). The slowest troops in the game (0.625x Barbarian speed), requiring 5 housing spaces and 8 minutes to train, they preferentially target defensive buildings. While they have strong damage statistics, they are relatively fragile at low levels, making them most useful as cleanup troops (especially in single-player missions). However, at higher levels, they have enough health to be used in high-level attack strategies.
• Wizards

  File:Wizards (clash of clans ).png

  wizards

  : The first "premium" troops to become available, Wizards shoot fireballs or lightning bolts (depending on level) at both ground and air targets, doing splash damage. They take up 4 housing spaces, require 8 minutes to train, and travel at the speed of the Barbarian. They have moderate health (more than Barbarians, considerably less than Giants) and the highest damage per second of all troops on a per-housing-space basis.

Tier #3

• Healers

  File:Healers (clash of clans ).png

  Healers

  : The only units incapable of doing damage, Healers (flying human-like female creatures or are popularly known as angels particularly by people who do not have English as a first language) shoot healing rays at friendly troops (or, while defending a base she may heal the heroes such the Barbarian King and the Archer Queen or the defending ground based clan castle troops such as barbarians or wizards if they are available). Healers take up 14 housing spaces, move at Barbarian speed, require 15 minutes to train, and have health roughly comparable to that of a Giant. They cannot heal airborne troops or other healers.
• Dragons

  File:Dragons (clash of clans ).png

  Dragons

  : One of the strongest units in the game, the Dragon travels at Barbarian speed, has high health (equivalent to several Giants), and causes very high splash damage to both ground and air troops. These attributes are counterbalanced by its large housing space (20), long training time (30 minutes), and high elixir cost. Dragons based attacks such as "mass dragons" and "rage dragons" are considered to be the most clichéd attack strategies at town hall seven and eight due to the immense power; since it offers one of the highest chances of a three star and due the simplicity of the use.
• P.E.K.K.A.s

  File:P.E.K.K.A (clash of clans ).png

  P.E.K.K.A

  : A heavily armored sword-wielding warrior whose exact identity is unconfirmed (though the P.E.K.K.A is believed to be a female since the trivia at the loading screen mentions the P.E.K.K.A as a "her"), the P.E.K.K.A travels at Barbarian speed and has the highest health and damage per second of all elixir-based troops. Can only attack ground targets, but can usually "one-shot" lower-level troops, and can even do the same to some buildings. The high health and damage are counterbalanced by lack of ability to attack multiple targets, slow attack speed, high housing space (25 spaces), training time (45 minutes), and very high elixir cost. In addition, its metallic armor takes double damage from Hidden Teslas (a high-level defensive trap).

Dark Elixir Troops

These troops are created and upgraded with dark elixir, and are also trained in their own "dark barracks".

• Minions

  File:Minions ( clash of clans ).png

  Minions

  : Flying troops that resemble imps, they have the lowest housing requirements (2 spaces), shortest training time (45 seconds), and lowest cost of dark elixir troops. Minions attack both air and ground targets by spitting dark elixir. They are the fastest flying troops (same speed as Goblins), but have relatively low health.
• Hog Riders

  File:Hog Riders ( clash of clans ).png

  Hog Riders

  : Hammer-wielding warriors bearing a strong resemblance to Mr. T and mounted on tusked pigs that are capable of leaping over walls. Somewhat analogous to the Giant in that they require 5 housing spaces, train in 2 minutes, attack only on the ground, and preferentially target defensive buildings. However, compared to Giants, they travel much faster (same speed as Archers), have roughly half the health, and do several times the damage.
• Valkyries

  File:Valkyries ( clash of clans ).png

  Valkyries

  : Wielding a two-handed axe, Valkyries take up 8 spaces, train in 8 minutes, and travel at Archer speed. Their ground-only attack involves spinning their axe at high speed and every damaging swing leads to them gaining a very small fraction of their health back They preferentially attack groups of buildings adjacent to one another (or enemy troops), and their attacks have a small area of splash damage. Valkyries have very high health and damage, but are relatively expensive to train.

They are mostly used in the war clan castles of low lvl players as their high HP and area damage makes it hard to kill.

• Golems

  File:Golems ( clash of clans ).png

  Golems

  : Occupying 30 housing spaces, requiring 45 minutes to train, traveling at the same speed as a Giant, and having extremely high health (the highest of all ground troops), the Golem is a popular meat shield for high-level ground attacks. It attacks only on the ground, doing relatively little damage for its size, and preferentially targets defensive buildings. When killed, it splits into two smaller units called Golemites.
• Witches

  File:Witches ( clash of clans ).png

  Witches

  : Occupy 12 housing spaces, require 20 minutes to train, and travel at the same speed as a Giant. Shoot fireballs at both ground and air targets, and also summon a group of skeleton warriors at regular intervals. The summoned warriors travel at Archer speed and attack only on the ground. Unlike other troops they have only two levels in which their appearance remains unchanged.
• Lava Hounds

  File:Lava Hounds (clash of clans ).png

  Lava Hounds

  : Flying creatures, resembling a cross between a Golem and a dog, that travel slightly faster than Barbarians or Dragons (1.25x) and spit fireballs at their targets. Preferentially target Air Defenses, then other defensive buildings. Like Golems, require 30 housing spaces and 45 minutes to train, and also split into smaller units (8–12 Lava Pups) when killed. Cause relatively little damage for their size, but have the highest health of all troops, making them useful meat shields for airborne attacks.

Heroes

Consist of the Barbarian King and the Archer Queen. Heroes are immortal and are only trained once. They are summoned by an altar rather than being trained in the barracks (or dark barracks) like the other troops. They are trained and upgraded exclusively with dark elixir. If they lose any or all of their health in battle, the Heroes must rest or sleep on their altar for a set period to regenerate. After several upgrades, both gain special abilities in attacks.

• Barbarian King

  File:Barbarian King (clash of clans ).png

  Barbarian King

  - is basically a larger, more powerful Barbarian. He is automatically summoned once the Barbarian King Altar is constructed, which costs 10,000 Dark Elixir.The Barbarian King's "Iron Fist" restores a significant portion of health, temporarily increases attack speed and damage, and also summons a small group of Barbarians. The speed and damage increase also affects any friendly Barbarians near the King.
• Archer Queen'

  File:Archer Queen ( clash of clans ).png

  Archer Queen

  - is basically a stronger, more powerful version of the Archer. She is automatically summoned once the Archer Queen Altar is constructed, which costs 40,000 Dark Elixir. As in the January 29th 2014 update, the Archer Queen gained a new special ability: Royal Cloak. The Royal Cloak allows her to become "invisible" to enemy defenses for a short period of time, in addition to greatly increasing her damage, restoring some of her health and summoning up to 12 Archers to aid her in battle (although the Archers are summoned by Royal Cloak, they are otherwise unaffected by it unlike the Barbarian King, where barbarians are affected). The Archer Queen gains this ability at Level 5, and it becomes more powerful every five levels she gains. Unlike the Barbarian King, The Archer Queen can attack air units like Balloons, Dragons, or Minions, making her effective in guarding a village against players who utilize air raids.
• Grand Warden'

  File:Grand Warden ( clash of clans ).png

  Grand Warden

  - is a support hero like a wizard. He is automatically summoned once the Grand Warden Altar is constructed, which costs 6,000,000 Elixir at Town Hall 11. Offense: It has an aura of hitpoint buff and its ability is a 5 second invincibility aura. This hero upgrades 20 levels. Its range is extremely large, and its aura is ~10 spaces. It has a air and ground mode so that it only buffs air or ground troops; toggle-able by the army you are using.Defense: This turns into a statue. This statue has the same aura boosting the defending heroes, traps, and Clan Castle troops in its range.

The amount of time the hero sleeps to regenerate is directly proportional to the health the hero has left at the end of the battle. So if the hero is not damaged then the hero is ready to fight immediately; however, if the hero falls in battle or even gets hit, then he or she must sleep for some time to regenerate. You can temporarily quadruple the hero's healing rate for 1 hour by spending 5 Gems.

Spells

Spells play an essential role in offense. They are made in the spell factory. Currently, Clash of Clans features 5 spells which are created using elixir. They are:

• Lightning Spell - The Lightning Spell is the first spell unlocked in the Spell Factory, and is automatically unlocked once the Spell Factory has finished construction. When this spell is used, a number of lightning bolts drop from the sky, damaging all but resource Buildings and enemy Troops randomly within a circle 7 tiles wide. The only spot that receives the full damage of the spell is the one-tile area onto which it was targeted. As of the July 1, 2015 update, the lightning spell won't affect storages. The lightning spell has six levels, each one with a higher amount of damage.
• Heal Spell - It takes 30 minutes to create in the Spell Factory. When placed, the spell forms a stationary ring of healing on the ground. All friendly units within the ring will be healed (ground or air), which includes Healers. It lasts for a total of 12 seconds (40 healing 'pulses' every 0.3 seconds). Heroes can also be healed by the Healing Spell, although the rate of healing is reduced to half of that of normal troops.
• Rage Spell - The Rage Spell creates a translucent purple ring on the battlefield that boosts the movement speed and damage of any friendly units inside the ring. In the case of Healers, the Rage Spell increases their healing by a similar amount.
• Jump Spell - The level 1 Jump Spell allows all ground Troops (except for Hog Riders, which do not need the spell) and Heroes to jump Walls. Upgrading the spell will increase its duration on the battlefield (the level 3 Jump Spell lasts three times as long as the level 1 one).
• Freeze Spell - The Freeze Spell is used to temporarily disable defenses and/or ground troops from the enemy Clan Castle within a small radius. Until the spell's duration finishes, the affected enemy units will neither move nor attack. Enemy Troops that are not within its radius when the spell is cast are unaffected by the Freeze Spell, even if they move into the area of effect while it is still active. The Freeze Spell is currently the final spell unlocked in the Spell Factory. At its maximum level, it is the most expensive elixir spell in the game. The Freeze Spell cannot freeze any Air Troops.

As of the July 1, 2015 update, a new dark spell factory was made available. It featured 3 new spells:

• Poison Spell - It is the first spell available in the Dark Spell Factory. It does damage to all enemy Troops, Heroes, and Skeletons inside its area of effect as well as slow them down, but does not damage buildings whatsoever. The poison spell deals limited damage initially, but increases in damage over time.
• Earthquake Spell - This is the second dark spell. It deals a percentage of damage to all buildings within its area of effect, except for Gold Storages, Elixir Storages, and the Dark Elixir Storage. It has a preferential target which are walls and does more 4 times greater damage to walls than other buildings.
• Haste Spell - The Haste spell is the 3rd and currently last dark spell. Like a Rage Spell, it boosts the speed of troops in its area of effect; the Haste Spell, however, does not make them deal extra damage. The Haste Spell has a slightly smaller radius than a Rage Spell, but increases speed by a greater amount.

Buildings

Gameplay in Clash of Clans. A player is attacking another player's village. The amount of resources available for capture are on the top left. The troops available for deployment are along the bottom of the screen.

To earn and store gold and elixir, players must build gold mines and gold storages and elixir collectors and elixir storages, respectively. Elixir is used to train new troops, carry out research in the laboratory to upgrade troops and to build and upgrade certain buildings, mostly pertaining to buildings used in attacking another player's base. Gold is used to build defensive buildings and to upgrade the town hall, which allows access to more buildings and higher levels for existing buildings. At higher levels, dark elixir becomes available; this type of elixir is used to train and upgrade dark elixir troops and heroes, create dark spells, and fuel the "inferno tower", a defensive building that is available only at the highest level (Town Hall 10). To earn and store dark elixir, players must build dark elixir drills and dark elixir storages.

There are a number of buildings available to the player to defend their village, including cannons, mortars, bombs, traps, archer towers, and wizard towers. Players can also build walls, which can be upgraded as they increase in level.

Gems

Aside from gold and elixir, the game also uses gems as a currency. Gems are awarded for reaching certain milestones, completing achievements. One to six gems can be earned from clearing and obstacle such as a tree or a mushroom from your base though the algorithm for this is highly random. However, the main way to acquire gems is through in-app purchases using real world money. Gems can be used to "boost" building and heroes. Usually for a small sum 10 to 20 gems a player can boost and thus speed up their building to give a times faster output for roughly two hours. Barracks and spell factories are commonly boosted on higher levels of play

Players may also used gems to boost mines and collectors giving twice the output for 24 hours. Boost costs are reduced on special days such as on the anniversaries of Clash of Clans and on Christmas and Halloween. Players may directly purchase gold and other resources for a really high rate compared to boosting and fully finish a building.

Gems are also the only way to purchase new builders (up to a maximum of five).

Clan wars

Clans are groups of players who join together to support each other, either materially (donating troops) or verbally (giving advice). Players can join clans once they rebuild the special Clan Castle building early on. A major component of the gameplay of Clash of Clans is clans facing off against one another. Clan leaders and co-leaders can begin wars against other clans. Each clan is then given one "preparation day" and one "war day." When a player attacks a member of the opposing clan, they receive stars based upon the amount of destruction they cause to the opponent's community. Each player is limited to two attacks per war, and the team with the most stars at the end of the war day is declared victorious, with players receiving bonus war loot if he/she use their attacks in the war and a one more war win record in the clan description.

Matchmaking

• The matchmaking system in Clan Wars puts your clan against another clan of similar strength both offensively and defensively, and of the same size, rounded down to multiples of five eligible members.
• Once a Co-Leader or Leader starts a Clan war search, the clan is put into the matchmaking pool, and it may take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours for the matchmaking process to find a suitable clan in war. While the Clan War search is ongoing, Co-Leaders or Leaders can cancel the war search at any time, but once a match is found, canceling the war can no longer be done and the war enters its preparation day.
• Experience level of members and number of wars won by a clan will not influence the matchmaking process whatsoever.
• Strength calculations have been updated in Clan Wars matchmaking to compensate for high level walls and heroes, skeleton traps, etc.

Eligiblity of Members

• There are nine different sizes of Clan Wars, starting from 10 vs 10 and increasing by increments of 5 up to 50 vs 50. The members that will go to war are determined by the Clan Leader, the leader chooses the players that will participate among all those members who opt in for Clan Wars. A larger Clan War yields more Clan XP.
• If you wish to not participate in a Clan War you can Opt-Out. You can do this by visiting your Player Profile and clicking the "Clan Wars" button and it will ask you if you prefer to be in the war or not. Click "I'm Out" if you would like to be left out, click "I'm In" if you would like to be in the war. Note: Leaders can still choose players that have chosen to opt-out by default, and can always leave out players that have chosen to opt-in by default.
• Members are also not eligible for a war if they have left a clan with the member currently participating in a war; this status remains until that clan finishes their war (e.g. if Player A leaves Clan A that is currently in war with 1 day left and joins Clan B, Player A will not be eligible in Clan B's wars until 1 day has passed).
• Any members that join a clan that is in the midst of a war (regardless of whether the clan is in preparation day or battle day) will have to spectate regardless of trophy count.

Marketing

In February 2015, Supercell released their Clash of Clans Super Bowl XLIX commercial, featuring Liam Neeson parodying his character from Taken. On February 2, Business Insider reported the ad as the 5th most watched Super Bowl ad, though on February 6, VentureBeat reported the ad was the most viewed of those that appeared on the Super Bowl. YouTube users later voted the advertisement the second best Super Bowl ad, behind Nissan's "With Dad" ad.

On September 23, 2015, Taiwanese singers JJ Lin and Jimmy Lin released the game's theme song "全面开战" ("Start a war totally" in English) which sung in Mandarin.

Critical reception

Clash of Clans

(iOS version)

Aggregate scores

Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	80.00%
Metacritic	74/100

Review scores

Publication	Score
148 Apps
Gamezebo
Modojo	3/5
Pocket Gamer	9/10

Clash of Clans has received generally positive reviews. The iOS version holds an aggregate score of 74 out of 100 on Metacritic, and 80.00% on GameRankings.

Gamezebo's Leif Johnson was impressed, scoring the game 4.5 out of 5. Although he felt the gameplay was heavily skewed to encourage the player to purchase gems, he praised the addition of a single-player campaign. He concluded that "Clash of Clans is a simple game, but that's more of a strength than a weakness. It's simple enough to provide quick, painless matches on an iPhone in an idle moment, and there are enough different units to choose from in the battle mode to make playing against other players endlessly rewarding. Best of all, the option to fight against NPC goblins gives Clash of Clans a small edge over similar strategy games that rely almost entirely on player-versus-player combat."

Pocket Gamer's Peter Willington was equally impressed, scoring the game 9 out of 10 and giving it a "Gold Award". Reviewing the game several months after it was released for iOS devices, Willington praised the game for requiring real strategy to play. He wrote that the gameplay was built on the progression of "requiring more and more sophisticated units, asking you to strategise and really think about which elements you should focus on building within your camp." He concluded that "Clash of Clans is a superb game, freemium or otherwise, with more nuance than most give it credit for. That's why it's passed the test of time since its launch and still has an active community devotedly constructing elaborate fortresses in the hope of becoming invincible."

148App's Rob Rich scored the game 3.5 out of 5, writing "It's great to play an online freemium game that doesn't shy away from the single-player experience but also offers up some honest-to-goodness direct interaction, which is a very rare combination these days. It probably won't warm the hearts of any haters out there, but it does give genre fans something with a bit more action and strategy than they might be used to."

Modojo's John Bedford was less impressed, scoring the game 3 out of 5. He was critical of freemium gaming in general, writing "The novelty hasn't just worn off this particular style of greedy gaming, it's shriveled up and condensed itself into an infinitely dense singularity of self-loathing." Of the game itself, he concluded "This is a game that follows in the footsteps of no small number of titles that have made feverish demands on our wallets in exchange for just a slightly thicker slice of the gameplay. It's possible you have an unending appetite for these micromanagement titles, in which case we recommend getting heartily stuck into Supercell's latest game. While Clash of Clans brings something new to accompany its competent but unexceptional empire gameplay, for most of us it'll be a case of too little, too late."

Commercial reception

The game has been very successful for Supercell. By April 2013, Supercell had only two games on the App Store, Clash of Clans and Hay Day, which together had grossed $279 million. Daily revenue was at $2.4 million, with 8.5 million daily players, and Forbes projected a revenue of between $800 million and $1 billion by the end of 2013. They ultimately earned $892 million (compared to $101 million in 2012). The most recent fiscal year statistics show that Supercell earned $1.7 billion in 2014, led by its three primary games (Clash of Clans, Hay Day, and Boom Beach).

Clash of Clans became an App Store top 5 download between December 2012 and May 2013, and this success has been described as helping to usher in a new era in conjoint gaming on mobile devices. In 2013, Clash of Clans was the third highest game in revenue generated on the App Store and no 1 on Google Play.

ClashCon

Clash of Clans will hold a convention for the game (first annual), ClashCon, which was said to the public in the game. Supercell said, "join us soon in Helsinki, Finland, for this Hogriding, wall breaking, rabbit tossing spectacular." Tickets are on sale as of now, and the convention will be held on October 24, 2015. The convention will feature live clan wars, workshops and featured guests who are notable clash of clans players Chief Pat, Galadon and ClashWithAsh. The first winner of ClashCon Clan Tournament was Glory China 1 who defeated Sweden 1 Star 12 - 12 coming down to percentage 78.8% to 74.8%. Also, Town Hall 11, a mystery defense (eventually the Eagle Artillery), and a mystery elixir hero (eventually the Grand Warden) were announced with more sneak peaks to come. As of 12/12/15, ClashCon has been finished.

See also

• Boom Beach
• Hay Day

External links

• Official website