Barracks Units
Barracks units cost elixir to produce and vary drastically in
strength. As a general rule, the units that cost the most elixir and
time to produce tend to be the most powerful based on their supply cost.
However, the extra elixir cost and time requirements for these
expensive units offsets their increase in strength. When farming,
generally it is best to stick to the cheaper units to save on elixir
costs and training time.
Barbarian
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Barbarian Unit Guide
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Barbarian Unit Guide
Training Time: 20 seconds
Supply Cost: 1
Movement Speed: 16
Targets: Ground
Preferred Target: Any
Barracks Required: Level 1
Supply Cost: 1
Movement Speed: 16
Targets: Ground
Preferred Target: Any
Barracks Required: Level 1
The Barbarian is the first unit you get access to in Clash of Clans.
This unit is a cheap melee unit that does well as the base of your army
for the first five Town Hall levels. A good strategy is to use only
Barbarians and overwhelm the opponent with a Barbarian swarm. Since
Barbarians are so cheap and train so quickly, you can easily go on 5-6
raids per hour when using a Barbarian army.
At higher levels, Barbarians still can be used as damage shields for
more fragile units, but mass-Barbarian armies do not work nearly as well
as they do at early levels. You will need something to break down walls
and shoot at high-threat targets like Wizard Towers and Mortar that are
behind walls.
Archer
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Archer Unit Guide
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Archer Unit Guide
Training Time: 25 seconds
Supply Cost: 1
Movement Speed: 24
Targets: Ground & Air
Preferred Target: Any
Barracks Required: Level 2
Supply Cost: 1
Movement Speed: 24
Targets: Ground & Air
Preferred Target: Any
Barracks Required: Level 2
The Archer is the basic ranged unit in the game. It does solid
damage, but has very, very low health. However, its low health is more
than made up for by its low cost and quick movement speed. The Archer’s
range allows it to shoot over walls and hit defensive towers and
resource storage buildings even with the walls around these structures
are intact.
Players are best served by using a line of Barbarians (initially) and
later Giants to tank for their Archers. These higher health troops will
absorb tower hits so that Archers can stay alive longer. The Archer’s
biggest weakness is clumping up with other Archers and having them all
get hit by Mortars or Wizard Towers. Keep them spread out and do not
drop them all in the same place to minimize this effect.
Archers also do very well in the Clan Castle when the Clan Castle is
placed in the center of a base layout. Archers in this position will
shoot over walls at melee units that will not be able to fight back
until the melee units break through the wall.
Goblin
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Goblin Unit Guide
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Goblin Unit Guide
Training Time: 30 seconds
Supply Cost: 1
Movement Speed: 32
Targets: Ground
Preferred Target: Resources (Damage x2)
Barracks Required: Level 3
Supply Cost: 1
Movement Speed: 32
Targets: Ground
Preferred Target: Resources (Damage x2)
Barracks Required: Level 3
Goblins are cheap, fast units that will focus entirely on collecting
resources. Goblins will not attack anything other than resource
collectors and storage units until every resource collector and storage
building have been destroyed. Goblins also do twice their normal damage
to collectors and resource storage structures. Their fast movement speed
allows them to frequently avoid traps. Goblins are fast enough to
trigger a spring trap without getting launched (as long as they do not
stop on top of it).
At low levels, Goblins are not very effective. Their low damage and
health does not give them enough survivability to be effective. However,
the Goblin unit gets generous damage increases with each level of
research, drastically increasing its effectiveness. By level 4, Goblins
will easily start tearing through even high-level walls and wiping out
storage buildings within a few seconds, making them very effective for
farming.
By level 5, 20 Goblins + healing spell + rage spell are practically
an unstoppable force, as they will tear through level 8-9 walls in just a
few seconds. Great for coring deep into a player’s base to snag a Dark
Elixir storage. Just make sure you take out the mines on the outside of
the base or Goblins may be reluctant to attack walls.
Giant
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Giant Unit Guide
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Giant Unit Guide
Training Time: 2 minutes
Supply Cost: 5
Movement Speed: 12
Targets: Ground
Preferred Target: Defenses
Barracks Required: Level 4
Supply Cost: 5
Movement Speed: 12
Targets: Ground
Preferred Target: Defenses
Barracks Required: Level 4
Giants are the first units that players get access to that will
specifically target defensive structures. Giants will not attack any
other structures until all defensive towers have been destroyed. Hidden
Tesla towers are considered defensive structures for the Giant.
Giants have three weaknesses: Spring Traps, their low damage, and
their slow movement speed. Giants are very susceptible to well-placed
Spring Traps since players have a good idea of how Giants will move. Be
sure to try and trigger obvious Spring Trap locations with Goblins,
Archers, or Barbarians before sending your Giants in to attack.
The Giant’s low damage can be best made up for by using Wall Breakers
and Archers. Giants normally take forever to destroy high-level walls,
so use a Wall Breaker or two to break down the walls and let the Giants
in faster. Archers can also shoot and take down towers behind walls,
limiting the number of walls that the Giants need to break down. Giants
slow speed can be improved immensely via the Rage spell, but the cost of
the spell prohibits its regular use.
Wall Breaker
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Wall Breaker Unit Guide
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Wall Breaker Unit Guide
Training Time: 2 minutes
Supply Cost: 2
Movement Speed: 24
Targets: Ground (area splash)
Preferred Target: Walls (40x Damage)
Barracks Required: Level 5
Supply Cost: 2
Movement Speed: 24
Targets: Ground (area splash)
Preferred Target: Walls (40x Damage)
Barracks Required: Level 5
Wall Breakers are an essential unit for most Clash of Clans armies.
These units can very quickly destroy walls that other units would take
ages to break down. Breaking down the first line or two of an enemy’s
walls can be the difference between clearing the entire base or getting
wiped without reaching 50%.
Wall Breakers are very fragile, so you will need to put down a few
distracting units like Giants or Barbarians to allow your Wall Breakers
to break down walls without getting hit. Be sure to time your Wall
Breakers in between Mortar Shots so that they do not get taken out by
splash damage.
Balloon
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Balloon Unit Guide
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Balloon Unit Guide
Training Time: 8 minutes
Supply Cost: 5
Movement Speed: 10
Targets: Ground
Preferred Target: Defenses
Barracks Required: Level 6
Supply Cost: 5
Movement Speed: 10
Targets: Ground
Preferred Target: Defenses
Barracks Required: Level 6
The Balloon is an interesting air unit that specifically targets
defenses first. As an air unit, it is strong versus Mortars and Cannons,
but weak versus Air Defense towers. The biggest weaknesses of the
Balloon are its very low movement speed, its low HP, and its tendency to
clump up with other Balloons. The low movement speed allows Air Defense
towers to pick off many Balloons before they ever get in range. Its low
HP and tendency to clump make the Balloon susceptible to Wizard Towers
and Air Bombs.
The Rage Spell makes the Balloon many times better, as it allows the
Balloon to quickly move between targets. A fleet of Balloons under the
effects of the Rage Spell will quickly take out all defensive structures
within the area of effect of that spell. Balloons also scale very well
with research; max level Balloons do quite a bit of damage.
Balloons are an atypical unit, as they do not scale like the normal
unit. Balloons are outright terrible outside of the campaign from levels
1-4. At level 5, they become pretty good, as the amount of damage and
health they gain with this upgrade is significant.
At level 6, Balloons become an excellent unit and are even one of the
strongest mid-tier (not cheap, but not overly expensive) units in the
game. The reason is the amount of damage and health they gain from
levels 5 to 6 is incredible. A level 6 balloon does twice the damage and
has about double the health and well over double the damage of a level 4
balloon. No other unit scales this well and has such a jump at this
level range.
Wizard
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Wizard Unit Guide
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Wizard Unit Guide
Training Time: 8 minutes
Supply Cost: 4
Movement Speed: 16
Targets: Ground & Air
Preferred Target: Any
Barracks Required: Level 7
Supply Cost: 4
Movement Speed: 16
Targets: Ground & Air
Preferred Target: Any
Barracks Required: Level 7
You can think of the Wizard like an upgraded Archer. However, the
Wizard does not always get used in place of the Archer simply because
one Wizard (a 4 supply unit) costs more Elixir than 4 Archers and the
Wizard takes significantly longer to train.
Like an Archer, the Wizard should be used with something to tank in
front of it, typically Giants or even Barbarians. This ensures that the
Wizard does not get taken down by towers and can stay alive long enough
to dish out its very high damage. The Wizard has a lot more health than
the Archer – making it less vulnerable to the Mortar and Wizard Tower.
Wizards are still weak against structures like the Archer Tower or
Cannon, particularly if the Wizard is attacking something else while
being fired upon by either of these two structures.
The Wizard scales very well with upgrades, getting a large damage
increase with every level of research. When fully upgraded, the Wizard
is the most powerful DPS unit in the game on the basis of the amount of
damage it can deal based on its supply cost. A max-level Wizard does 180
DPS; divided by its 4 supply cost, and that yields 42.5 DPS per housing
space – by far the highest of any unit.
Healer
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Healer Unit Guide
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Healer Unit Guide
Training Time: 15 minutes
Supply Cost: 14
Movement Speed: 16
Targets: Ground
Preferred Target: Any (your own units; heals with area splash)
Barracks Required: Level 8
Supply Cost: 14
Movement Speed: 16
Targets: Ground
Preferred Target: Any (your own units; heals with area splash)
Barracks Required: Level 8
Healers will issue steady area of effect healing to a group of nearby
units (radius of a few units on the heal), keeping approximate pace
with any AoE damage or damage from one single-target defensive tower.
Healers tend to work very well when paired with Giants, as Healers can
keep the Giants healed while the Giants slowly work down the enemy’s
defensive structures.
The Healer’s primary enemies are the Air Defense tower, Seeking Air
Mines, and to an extent the Inferno Tower. Air Defense structures will
take down Healers in less than 10 seconds, so taking down these
structures is a must. A common strategy is to use Wall Breakers and an
initial wave of Giants to destroy one air defense tower, then send in
the healer. This ensures that the Healer is able to follow the Giants
until coming into range of the next Air Defense tower. At higher levels,
sometimes a few Hog Riders can be used to take down exposed Air Defense
towers in similar fashion.
With Giants and a healer taking out about half of a base’s defensive
structures before coming into range of the next Air Defense, Goblins can
easily be used to steal much of a base’s resources. If enough
structures have been destroyed, it is possible that a follow-up wave of
Archers may be able to take down any remaining Air Defense structures.
Lightning spells can also be used to take down an Air Defense tower,
allowing the Giant and Healer combo to become more effective.
Note: Healers will not target air units.
Dragon
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Dragon Unit Guide
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Dragon Unit Guide
Training Time: 30 minutes
Supply Cost: 20
Movement Speed: 16
Targets: Ground & Air (area splash damage)
Preferred Target: Any
Barracks Required: Level 9
Supply Cost: 20
Movement Speed: 16
Targets: Ground & Air (area splash damage)
Preferred Target: Any
Barracks Required: Level 9
The Dragon is an extremely strong unit in Clash of Clans, dealing
high damage to both air and ground units while possessing a massive HP
pool. The Dragon also deals splash damage, allowing it to take out Clan
Castle troops with ease. Even though the Dragon is technically weak
against Air Defense structures, its large HP pool allows it to absorb
many hits even from upgraded Air Defense turrets.
A mass Dragon army is actually quite effective. By using Lightning
Spells to take down an Air Defense tower, a mass Dragon Army can get a
50% clear on even the best-designed, fully-upgraded base. Dragons are
also very effective at clearing many of the single-player campaign
missions.
The main problem with Dragons is the cost and time it takes to train
them. Each Dragon costs 25,000 Elixir; a 200-supply 10 Dragon army would
run 250,000 elixir in total! The cost of the Dragon also increases
significantly with level. Level 3 Dragons cost 36,000 elixir, making a
10 Dragon army of this level cost 360,000 elixir.
Dragons are quite useful in Clan Wars, as a Town Hall 7 player can
easily 3 star any other Town Hall 7 player by using 3x LIghtning Spell
to take out an enemy’s Air Defense and then using Dragons to take out
the rest of the base. A Town Hall 8 player can 3 star most Town Hall 8s
with 10 level 3 Dragons (along with an 11th Dragon in the Clan Castle). A
fully maxed Town Hall 8 with good base design and a loaded Clan Castle
will not be 3 starred by level 2 Dragons.
P.E.K.K.A
Full Guide: Clash of Clans P.E.K.K.A Unit Guide
Full Guide: Clash of Clans P.E.K.K.A Unit Guide
Training Time: 45 minutes
Supply Cost: 25
Movement Speed: 16
Targets: Ground
Preferred Target: Any
Barracks Required: Level 10
Supply Cost: 25
Movement Speed: 16
Targets: Ground
Preferred Target: Any
Barracks Required: Level 10
The P.E.K.K.A is the most powerful ground unit produced by the
Barracks. It takes out most buildings in just 1-2 hits and has a massive
HP pool. The only turret that is particularly effective against the
P.E.K.K.A is the Hidden Tesla, but it still takes a single Hidden Tesla
15-30+ seconds to take out a P.E.K.K.A (depending on upgrade level).
P.E.K.K.A’s may not necessarily be more effective than the Dragon
despite the fact that the P.E.K.K.A is a higher level unit. The Dragon
has a lower supply cost than the P.E.K.K.A, allowing players to create
more dragons than P.E.K.K.As. Dragons can also fly over walls,
increasing the Dragon’s tendency to attack defensive structures.
P.E.K.K.As have a habit of attacking the perimeter of an enemy’s
base, destroying all the structures typically left outside enemy walls –
good for trophies, not always efficient for farming. You may want to
clear the perimeter of structures with Archers and use a Wall Breaker to
break down the first set of enemy walls in order to steer your
P.E.K.K.A towards the center of the enemy’s base.
One great way to use the P.E.K.K.A. is for a strategy known as coring.
Coring involves driving a hole straight into an enemy’s base in order
to target their central storage (typically the Dark Elixir storage).
High level players with strong base designs usually put their Clan
Castle at the center of the base (at TH8 and beyond). P.E.K.K.A.s are
drawn towards Clan Castle units, so if you drop your P.E.K.K.A.s with a
rage spell when the enemy’s clan castle units pop, the P.E.K.K.A.s will
tear through the walls of the enemy base (i.e. coring), allowing your
other units easy access to an otherwise well-protected Dark Elixir
storage.
Dark Barracks Units
The following 5 units are produced from the Dark Barracks and all
require Dark Elixir for both production and their research upgrades. The
Dark Barracks is available at level 7.
Minion
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Minion Unit Guide
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Minion Unit Guide
Training Time: 45 seconds
Supply Cost: 2
Movement Speed: 32
Targets: Ground & Air
Preferred Target: Any
Dark Barracks Required: Level 1
Supply Cost: 2
Movement Speed: 32
Targets: Ground & Air
Preferred Target: Any
Dark Barracks Required: Level 1
The Minion is a light flying unit and the first available out of the
Dark Barracks. It is not particularly strong, but it is very mobile
since it is an extremely fast flying unit. Its fast training speed and
low cost make it quite popular as it allows the Dark Barracks to
contribute production power to farming runs. Minions are quite popular
for farming trophies as they can be deployed to attack buildings only
defended by Cannons or Mortars.
Despite being a flying unit, the Minion is actually decent against
Air Defense towers since the Air Defense tower can only attack one
target at a time. Minions tend to clump up, making them particularly
weak versus Wizard Towers and Air Bombs.
One of the best uses of the Minion is to kill the Barbarian King. You
can lure the Barbarian King away from defensive structures and then
drop a handful of Minions on it to take down the Barbarian King with
minimal losses.
At Town Hall 9, Minions also pair well with max level Balloons.
Balloons take out enemy air defenses, whereas the Minions come in and
provide DPS after the Balloons have killed most of the towers.
Hog Rider
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Hog Rider Unit Guide
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Hog Rider Unit Guide
Training Time: 2 minutes
Supply Cost: 5
Movement Speed: 24
Targets: Ground
Preferred Target: Defense
Dark Barracks Required: Level 2
Supply Cost: 5
Movement Speed: 24
Targets: Ground
Preferred Target: Defense
Dark Barracks Required: Level 2
The Hog Rider is a specialty unit that is capable of jumping over
walls. It also possesses high DPS and targets defensive structures
first. Due to their ability to jump over walls, they can be used to
quickly take out defensive structures. Unless you are making an army of
mass Hog Riders, it is likely best to use Wall Breakers and standard
units to take out the towers on the perimeter of the enemy’s base before
using Hog Riders to take down interior towers.
An army of maxed-out Hog Riders along with a few spells (i.e. the
Rage Spell and Heal Spell) can quickly destroy even fully maxed out
bases. As a result, Hog Riders recently had their unit cost increased by
30%, as they were deemed to be a bit too effective when used in large
quantities. While still effective when used in large number, the cost is
not efficient for farming – a fully-maxed Hog Rider army costs over
3,000 Dark Elixir.
With that said, people still use 20+ Hog Rider armies to routinely
wipe TH8 and TH9 players during Clan Wars. While the players spend more
Dark Elixir than they earn, it may be worth it to guarantee the 3 star
and propel your clan to victory.
Valkyrie
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Valkyrie Unit Guide
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Valkyrie Unit Guide
Training Time: 15 minutes
Supply Cost: 8
Movement Speed: 24
Targets: Ground (melee splash damage)
Preferred Target: Any
Dark Barracks Required: Level 3
Supply Cost: 8
Movement Speed: 24
Targets: Ground (melee splash damage)
Preferred Target: Any
Dark Barracks Required: Level 3
The Valkyrie is a high-powered Barbarian-like unit that deals
significantly more damage and possesses significantly more health.
However, due to its supply cost, the Valkyrie actually does less damage
per second per housing supply cost than the Barbarian. The Valkyrie does
have more health than a Barbarian on a supply basis, making it much
more survivable.
The Valkyrie’s high health makes it much more durable than a
Barbarian, allowing it to soak up a large amount of damage and rendering
Mortar and Wizard Towers ineffective in the process. Their splash
damage also makes them great at taking out Clan Castle reinforcements
(assuming they are ground units).
The biggest obstruction to using the Valkyrie is that it costs a
significant amount of Dark Elixir (160 per Valkyrie at max level) and
takes a long time to train (15 minutes for an 8 supply unit). The
Valkyrie’s health was recently increased to promote its use, but I am
not sure if it is enough. The cost for a maxed-out Valkyrie is just too
high and its target choice (Any) too poor to use regularly. Maybe a
single Valkyrie or two could be included for Clan Castle reinforcements
and to take out regular structures, but I would rather conserve my Dark
Elixir and use a P.E.K.K.A. instead for similar effect.
Golem
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Golem Unit Guide
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Golem Unit Guide
Training Time: 45 minutes
Supply Cost: 30
Movement Speed: 12
Targets: Ground
Preferred Target: Defenses
Dark Barracks Required: Level 4
Supply Cost: 30
Movement Speed: 12
Targets: Ground
Preferred Target: Defenses
Dark Barracks Required: Level 4
You can think of the Golem like a hero Giant. It is the only high
health, high supply unit in-game that specifically targets defenses. It
has an enormous HP pool that tops out at 6,300 health at max level.
Upon death, the Golem deals massive splash damage (550 at max level)
and splits into two Golemites, each unit possessing 1/5 the health of
the Golem. Given that the Golem at max level has 6,300 health, this
leaves its Golemites with 1260 health – quite beefy in their own right.
Golemites also do modest splash damage upon death.
The Golem’s downside is that it does very little damage on a
per-supply basis. The Golem barely hits harder than a Giant, despite the
fact that Giants do not do much damage and only cost 5 supplies to the
Golem’s housing cost of 30.
The Golem is considered by many to be the best unit for use within
the Clan Castle. It has so much health that it can distract enemy troops
for ages while your towers do damage. Also, its splash damage upon
death makes it difficult to take out, not to mention the Golemites that
spawn once the original Golem goes down. Note that Golems in the Clan
Castle only really works for TH9 and TH10 players, as at lower TH
levels, it is easy to lure out Clan Castle troops without committing
with an army.
Golems are expensive and take up a lot of supplies; it is typical for
high-level players to just use a single Golem and support it with
ranged DPS units such as Archers, Witches, or Wizards (depending upon
trophy range).
Witch
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Witch Unit Guide
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Witch Unit Guide
Training Time: 20 minutes
Supply Cost: 12
Movement Speed: 12
Targets: Ground & Air
Preferred Target: Any
Dark Barracks Required: Level 5
Supply Cost: 12
Movement Speed: 12
Targets: Ground & Air
Preferred Target: Any
Dark Barracks Required: Level 5
The Witch is the highest-level Dark Barracks troop (and for good
reason). An army of well-used Witches can take out a maxed out TH10
base. Witches themselves are not very strong units, but the wave after
wave of summoned Skeletons they bring to the battlefield can eventually
wear an opponent out. Witches are able to summon a new set of Skeletons
every six seconds (with a max of 6 at level 1 and 8 at level 2).
The Witch itself has extremely low health, so it needs to be
positioned well. It is very vulnerable to the Mortar, as Skeletons may
get in the Mortar’s minimum range and force the Mortar to fire at the
Witch. It is important to find ways to take out the Mortar when using
Witches. Use distracting units or Hog Riders to focus down any exposed
Mortars. Lightning Spells can be used to take out central Mortars.
With no Mortars left, the Float spell can be used on Skeletons to
send a steady stream of free units over walls and into the enemy’s base.
When the units are free and never-ending, even the best-designed base
does not stand a chance.
Lava Hound
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Lava Hound Guide
Full Guide: Clash of Clans Lava Hound Guide
Training Time: 45 minutes
Supply Cost: 30
Movement Speed: 20
Targets: Ground & Air
Preferred Target: Air Defense Towers
Dark Barracks Required: Level 6
Supply Cost: 30
Movement Speed: 20
Targets: Ground & Air
Preferred Target: Air Defense Towers
Dark Barracks Required: Level 6
The Lava Hound functions like a flying Golem. The Lava Hound does
very little damage, but has a very large health pool and specifically
seeks out enemy Air Defense towers. While the low damage dealt by this
unit is not likely to result in any tower kills, its high health pool
can distract enemy tower fire long enough to allow other air units to
take out the distracted towers.
