Gameplay of clash of Clans

Gameplay

A replay of gameplay, where a player is attacking another player's village

Clash of Clans is an online multiplayer game in which players form communities, called clans, train troops, and attack other players to earn resources. There are four currencies or resources in the game.^[3] Gold and elixir can be used to build and reload defenses that protect the player from other players' attacks. Elixir and dark elixir are also used to train and upgrade troops and spells. Gems are the premium currency.^[3] Attacks are rated on a three star scale and have a maximum timed length of three minutes.^[3]

The game also features a pseudo-single player campaign in which the player can attack a series of fortified goblin villages^[5] and earn gold and elixir. The game starts with two Builders, but the player can have up to five builders through buying them with gems.^[6]

Buildings

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, to re-load X-Bows (available from Town Hall 9), 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 Town Hall 7, dark elixir becomes available; this type of elixir is used to train and upgrade dark elixir troops and heroes, create dark spells (available from Town Hall 8), and fuel the Inferno Tower, a defensive building that is available only at Town Hall 10. The Eagle Artillery, a defensive building only available at Town Hall 11, is fueled by elixir. Town Hall 11 also provides access to a new hero - The Grand Warden. It is the only hero born out of elixir. To earn and store dark elixir, players must build dark elixir drills and dark elixir storages. Town Hall 12 gets a defensive upgrade Giga Tesla and also unlocks the workshop, a building which houses clan troops called the Siege Machine & Battle Blimp.^[7]

There are a number of buildings available to the player to defend their village, including cannons, mortars, bombs, teslas, traps, archer towers, wizard towers, inferno towers and eagle artilleries. Players can also build walls, which can be upgraded as a player's town hall level increases.^[7][8]

Troops and spells

The game has two kinds of barracks (barracks and dark barracks) and two kinds of spell factories (spell factory and dark spell factory). The barracks create troops using elixir whereas dark barracks create troops using dark elixir.

The spell factories follow the same pattern - the normal spell factory creates spells using elixir, and the dark spell factory using dark elixir. All troops and spells have different properties. As the player progresses, several new troops and spells are able to be unlocked.^{[9][10][11][12][13]}

Clans and 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 in the "clan wars". 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. If the two clans' number of stars are equal, then the victor is the one that has a greater percent of destruction. Players receive bonus war loot if he/she use their attacks in the war. This loot may be different on different bases and is decided by Supercell; the top base has the most war bonus loot and the last base has the least amount of bonus loot. If the clan wins the war, the bonus loot is fully delivered to the player but during a loss or draw one-third of the loot is delivered to the player. ^[14] In the March 2016 update, 35v35 and 45v45 were removed^[15][16][17]. The available war sizes are 50v50, 40v40, 30v30, 25v25, 20v20, 15v15, 10v10 and 5v5^[18][19][20]. In the May 2016 update, Friendly Challenges were introduced to allow clanmates to compete amongst other clanmates, however these challenges do not provide loot or trophies and do not affect a player's army.^[21]

Builder Base

A player is attacking another player's village in the builder base

A new update to the game on May 22, 2017 released a new game mode, known as the "Builder Base". Players can sail to a new island and create a new village, with a different set of buildings.^[22] In this mode, two players attack each other's bases simultaneously. The one with the most damage or getting more stars gets the gold, elixir, and trophies. You can only win loot from attacking three times in twelve or twenty-four hours, but can continue attacking for trophies afterwards. The player can spend gems for skip the period of time. The progress will be much faster in this base with the introduction of Clock Tower (temporarily speeds the process in the entire Builder Base) and Gem Mine (spawns gems at a very slow rate). The update also introduced a new hero, the Battle Machine. It is the only hero in the game with a reusable ability named Electric Hammer. In March 2018, Builder Hall level 8 was released, which is currently the highest Builder Hall level.

Clan Games and Magic Items

In December 2017, Supercell introduced the clan games, at first a one-off event where clan members could work together to complete tasks, which would then earn clan points, but there has been plans to make it a weekly event. When enough points are accumulated, a reward tier would be unlocked, and players can select one reward from each unlocked tier. This update also introduced Magic Items, which could be used to enhance certain aspects of the player's village. Magic items are only obtainable as rewards from clan games.