Farming Guide

Farm is when a player raid for resources and doesn’t care about Trophies. Usually these players lower their trophy count to battle in an easier environment and find easier villages to loot.

To be a great farmer, you MUST know two things about this game: how the matchmaking works and how the loot is calculated. If you are new to the game and have no idea about this, visit those pages first. “Beginner’s Guide” is also recommended to you.

As you probably know, as your trophy count falls you will find yourself in a progressively less competitive environment. Those who view your base will often be of lower level. Even if they are also a high level player, they will know there are easier matches out there, so they are more likely to skip you unless you have a ton of resources or some other reason to make it worth their attack.

AFTER THE TH 11 UPDATE

After the Town Hall 11 update (2015 Xmas) the gameplay to farmers changed completely. We can’t get free shields by keeping the Town Hall exposed, so what should we do? Drop Trophies to protect the resources?

First of all, we can easily notice that Supercell doesn’t like lazy farm and wants us to push and give real attacks, not lazy Barch all day. This is why they introduced League Bonus, to incentive all users to reach higher leagues.

So yes, it’s possible to push and accumulate resources. This is the HUGE diference after the TH 11 update, now we can accumulate resources in all leagues, even higher ones.

We no longer lose the shield directly when attacking, meaning we can give up to 4 attacks without being attacked, all this without worrying about going offline for a few minutes. This is the big change, this is what Supercell wanted. We all lose on defense, but we can easily get much more attacking.

Are you going to lose on defense? Yes, but the game is about attacking and defending. The point is: you will lose some on defense, but will get much more attacking.

SO, DROP TROPHIES OR NOT?

You can, but you no longer HAVE to. Before the TH 11 update, dropping trophies was mandatory to accumulate tons of resources, but now you can keep yourself on higher leagues, getting a big League Bonus and accumulating resources if you take advantage of the new Shield System / Village Guard.

If you are a TH 11 with great defenses, we really believe you should no longer ditch trophies and attack with a lazy armies. You don’t have to push hard to Legend, but you should keep yourself on the 4k+ trophy range. Why? Titan 3 is the first league that provides a good Village Guard shield, 2 hours. This is GREAT and will let you give an extra full attack before losing your shield completely. The League Bonus is also huge, meaning that you find a village with great loot, you can easily get over 600k of Gold in a single attack.

There are tons of players on higher leagues accumulating resources and keeping all builders busy. Give it a try!

Making real attacks with full army will also improve your attacking skills, meaning you will do better on Clan Wars.

And yes, it’s possible to push and accumulate resources. This is the HUGE diference after the Town Hall 11 update and the end of free shields/exposed Town Halls.

TROPHIES TO FARM

But we all have lazy days and all we want is to raid go after inactive bases using Archers + Barbarians combo. So what is the recommendation?

Considering how the loot available is calculated and the penalties (see the “Loot Calculation” tutorial), you can’t get too many or too few Trophies according to you Town Hall, so we suggest keeping the attacks on this range:

• TH 7: 900 1,700
• TH 8: 1,500 2,000
• TH 9: 1,700 3,000
• TH 10: 2,500 4,000
• TH 11: 3,300 4k+

Remember, the game wants you to battle against opponents with same Town Hall level as you. Forcing to lose too many Trophies might get you on a league without anyone with a great amount of loot available because of the loot penalties.

You should also take in consideration the League Bonus. If you are a high level player, you should really consider farming on higher leagues with a strong army. The bonus is huge, with the right attack you can get up to 800k of Gold on a single attack. Definitely a great idea instead of using cheat troops on lower leagues.

GIANTS + ARCHERS COMBO

This is probably the most popular troop combo on the game and there are some reasons for this.

Giants are not the fastest troop and don’t do much damage, but they can take a lot of damage. This makes them a great distraction to Mortars and Wizard Towers.

Archers on the other hand are weak, but have a great firepower.

What does that mean? Archers are awesome, but they need protection. This protection is called Giants!

First release the Giants. While they are distracting the defenses, release the Archers behind them and they will destroy everything without being targeted by the Mortars.

But that’s not all. This combo is also great because they are cheap and fast to make, so it’s definitely a great troop combination.

BARCH

Barbarians are not strong as the Giants and don’t have as much firepower as Archers. This makes them useless? No!

They are cheap, fast to make and great to go in front with the Giants or replace them completely, creating the Barch combo.

The problem of this combo is that it is very, very weak and can be used basically against abandoned villages. Although Giants take a bit longer to cook, they are my choice to lazy farm since you can make “real” attacks.

WALL BREAKERS

This is probably the most important troop on the game. It doesn’t matter if you are a Champion player or a beginner, you will always use them.

As the name says, they are great to destroy walls. They run pretty fast and aim for the first closed wall section on the map. Their weakness? They can’t take any damage. A single Mortar shot will kill dozens of Wall Breakers.

So how should I use it? The recipe of success is easy, but it is a tricky task to get it done: you must use them with caution and with other troops to create distraction. Releasing them with Giants, Barbarians and even with Golems is a great tactic, probably the best, but be careful with Mortars and Wizard Towers.

Never, NEVER release them alone. Releasing 4 or 5 at the same time is not recommended as well because a Mortar can make them disappear in a second. Usually 2 will get the job done. After they explode and break the first wall section, release another 2 or 3.

This is not an easy task, but with practice you will master them.

GOBLINS

Some people love them, some hate. Their problem is quite simple to understand: they are too weak!

Mortars can take dozens of Goblins in a single shoot, that’s the problem and why they are only recommended for beginners. Against low level defenses, the splash damage from Mortars and Wizard Towers might not be strong enough to kill all of them in a single shoot. On higher levels they usually die super fast.

You love Goblins? So use them! But as your village gets stronger you will eventually stop using them.

TIP: the Town Hall is considered a resource building, Goblins will target it!

HEALERS

Works great with strong troops. Not recommended to use with weak troops since a single shot will kill an Archer anyway, so there is no reason to heal them. But with Giants is a different situation, they are great and will do their job, as long as they don’t get killed really fast.

Honestly, this is not a bad troop. They are great with Giants, Bowlers, Miners, Queen (Queen Walk) and strong troops overall, but I’m not quite sure I would recommend the Healer to farm.

WIZARDS

What can we say? Simply the best and more versatile Elixir troop on the game. Maxed Wizard has a HUGE firepower and they are the perfect companions for top-notch attacks with Golems or even Giants.

But for farming? Not so much. It’s not the fastest troop to cook and a bit expensive. If you’re saving Elixir to upgrade your troops you shouldn’t use it. Honestly, you don’t need such strong firepower to destroy Mines and Collectors, so you can replace them for Archers while farming, or at least mix them with cheaper troops.

DARK TROOPS

If you are farming my tip is quite simple, don’t use them. Save for the Heroes.

Minions are great, aren’t they? Yes, they are, but if you are farming they can be easily replaced by regular Elixir troops.

Dark Elixir is really difficult to steal and strong Heroes are very important on the game, so we strongly recommend saving Dark Elixir for them.

DRAGONS AND P.E.K.K.As

Dragons and P.E.K.K.As are amazing, but we don’t recommend them for farming. They are too expensive and slow to make.

This takes me to my last recommendation:

FAST TROOPS, FAST ATTACKS

If you are bellow 2.000 trophies and don’t care about losing a battle, make small troops. Don’t waste your time making P.E.K.K.As and Dragons. They take a lonnng time to cook. Attack with Barbarians, Archers, Wall Breakers, Giants and Goblins.

They are weak so you might lose the battle, but you definitely can get the resources and will be able to make 4, 5 even 6 attacks in one hour. If you are farming/raiding for resources, that’s the way to go.

If you use P.E.K.K.As and Dragons you will make a better attack, of course, but you will make only 2 or 3 attacks in one hour and spend a lot of Elixir. You will win more battles, but steal less resources per hour.

OUR LAZY FARM FORMATION

Now that you know all about the basic troops you can decide by yourself your favorite troops combination. But if you are wondering what I use to farm, here is my combination for a 240 army camp:

• 10-12 Wall Breakers.
• 16-20 Giants.
• 30-60 Barbarians.
• 60-80 Archers.
• Some Wizards if you want a stronger attack.

Cheap, strong and fast to make. If your Army Camp is smaller don’t worry, remove some Giants, Archers and Barbarians, but try to keep the same ratio.

Remember, every one has its own favorite troop combination, so try, change, practice and try again! With time you will find out a great troop combination that you will like.