Ice Hound

Lava Hound Explained

The Ice Hound is a powered-up version of the regular Lava Hound.

Compared to the regular troop, the Ice Hound has around 25% more Hit Points, uses 40 housing spaces instead of 30 and has the same movement speed.

Upon death, the Ice Hound also breaks, but instead of Lava Pups, the Ice Hound deploys several Ice Pups. Both Ice Pups and Lava Pups have the exact same stats, but the Ice Pups are affected by the Special Ability.

To balance this Super Troop, the Ice Hound releases fewer units when destroyed, 12 against 18, and makes slightly less damage per second, down to 15 from 20.

Special Ability: Best Served Cold

The Ice Hound Special Ability is what makes him very special and powerful, which as you can imagine, has some pretty cool freezing features.

The first thing you will notice is that the Ice Hound slows down the enemies and defenses it attacks.

Despite the fact of making slightly less damage per second, the Ice Hound can make more overall damage during its lifespan because of the freeze effect. As it slows down the Air Defenses, it has more time to destroy them.

Upon death, the Ice Hound also has a freezing effect of 4.25 seconds, and this is huge! This works similar to the Ice Golem effect: once it dies, a Freeze Spell is dropped on the map.

Upon death, the Ice Pups are also released. They don't have the death freeze effect, but they also slow down the defenses they are attacking. This is extremely useful as they don't have a preferred target of Air Defenses, so when released they will attack multiple defenses, slowing them down providing a huge offensive boost to your attack.

It's important to notice that the Ice Hound and the Ice Pups also slow down enemy troops, including Heroes. This is quite important on defense, however, with 40 housing spaces we're not sure if it has a great value as a Clan Castle troop.

Unlocking and Requirements

To unlock the Ice Hound you must have at least a level 5 Lava Hound, which requires a Town Hall 12.

The upgrade costs 25.000 Dark Elixir and lasts for 3 days.

Strategies and Usage

The most common uses of the Ice Hounds are similar to the Lava Hound: air attacks, especially the Lavaloon, an air attack that mixes Lava Hounds and Balloons.

With a preferred target of Air Defenses, the best use of the Ice Hound is to distract them. They will always fly directly towards them, protecting the Balloons or other air troops from your attack. With its huge amount of hitpoints and the freeze effect on the defenses it attacks, it can take even more time for the Air Defenses to break the Ice Hound.

Just as the Lava Hound, it works well with other air troops, such as the Electro Dragons and Dragons.

However, it is still a base-specific troop, as it depends on the layout you are attacking. You still must avoid single Inferno Towers or they will get instantly destroyed.

A slight difference from the Lava Hound is that you want them to be destroyed, more than ever, at the right time.

It's already important for the Lava Hound to be destroyed on the right spot on the map, but with the Ice Hound, it is even more important. If you are using 40 housing spaces on a single troop, you must get all possible value from it, therefore the Ice Hound must explode on the right spot on the base to drop its Freeze Spell and deploy the Ice Pups.

Stats

Attack Range	Attack Speed	Barrack Level	Donate Cost	Flying Unit	Ground Targets	Housing Space	Favorite Target	Speed	Training Time	Triggers Traps	Upgrade Resource
				-							-
25	2,000	6	20	1	1	40	Air Defense	250	400	1	DarkElixir

Upgrade Stats

Level	DPS	Hitpoints	Laboratory Level
1	10	9,500	1
2	15	10,000	1

Upgrade Images

Level 5 - 6