How to Play Clash of Clans

Written by Travis Boylls

Last Updated: August 28, 2024 Tested

Clash of Clans is an addictive game where you build a base, protect it, train troops, and attack others. As you get more and more gold and elixir resources, your base will get bigger and better! This wikiHow teaches you how to become an experienced Clash of Clans player.

Part 1

Part 1 of 4:

Getting Started

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1
Complete the tutorial. When you start a new game of Clash of Clans, you start with a Town Hall, Gold Mine, Army Camp, and Builder's Hut. The game has a tutorial that teaches you the basics of how to build your base, attack other bases, train troops, and get new resources. Read the on-screen instructions and tap the icons that have an arrow pointing to them to complete the tutorial. Ignore the game's insistence on using gems to upgrade buildings, you should save these for builder huts.
- When you are finished with the tutorial, you will have new cannon, elixir collector, elixir storage, builder's hut, and barracks with trained troops.
- Try to keep your town hall in the center of your town to keep it more secure. A marker will show the center of the base.
- The tutorial will offer you some basic information to get started.
2
Open the Shop. The Shop is the icon with gold and a hammer in the lower-right corner. This is where you purchase new buildings for your town. Some items can be purchased with gold or elixir, while others require gems to purchase. Some require experience or a leveled up town hall to purchase. Use the following steps to navigate the shop:
- Buildings and Traps: This section is under the tab that has an icon that resembles a saw and hammer. This is where you will purchase most of your items from. Tap the Army tab to purchase offensive buildings, such as Barracks, and Army camps. The Resources tab is where you purchase resource-specific buildings, such as Gold Mines, and Elixir collectors. The Defenses tab is where you purchase defensive buildings, such as walls, cannons, and archer towers. The Traps tab is where you purchase traps you can put in your town.
- Decorations: The Decorations tab has an icon that resembles a sword in a stone. This is where you can purchase decorative buildings for your town. This includes statues, torches, and flags.
- Treasures: This is the tab that has an icon that resembles an elixir bulb, gem, and stack of gold. This is where you can purchase gems using real money. You can then use the gems your purchase to buy more gold or elixir.
- Shield: This is the tab that has an icon that resembles a shield with arrows sticking out of it. This is where you can buy shields to protect your town for a certain amount of time.
- League shop: This has a tab with a league metal on it. You can earn league medals by competing in Clan War Leagues. You can use the league medals you earn to purchase items in the League Shop.
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3
Purchase walls for defense. Since you have limited resources at first, place the walls around the most important buildings only, such as the town hall, gold storage(s) and elixir storage(s). Place the builder's huts and army buildings outside the perimeter of the wall.
- To purchase items from the shop, open the shop and then tap the item you want to purchase. Tap where you want to place it on the map.
- To move buildings and items on your map, tap the object you want to move. Then tap and drag it to a new location.
4
Spend your gold, elixir, and gems wisely. Do not waste them, especially your gems as they come in short supply.
- Use your gems to build builder's huts. It is tempting to use them all right away, but you will need your gems later. The most efficient way to spend gems is to invest in three more builder's huts. This enables you to upgrade multiple towers and other defenses at once.
- In the tutorial, you are given 5 wizards to destroy the base. Only two wizards are needed to defeat the 1st goblin base. So if you only use two, you will have the other 3 in your army camp already. However, the wizards may be taken away from you without notice after the tutorial is complete.
- Don't upgrade the second gold or elixir storage at first. You will need them at level one to upgrade to Town Hall level 4, but that doesn't mean you need them upgraded further.
5
Decide if you want to use real money to get ahead in the game. You can buy more gems with real money in the shop. Gems can be used to purchase bonus items, or more gold and elixir.^{[1]
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- There are other ways of getting gems than spending money, so if you don't want to spend your money, don't worry. You can get gems when you remove trees and obstacles from the area around your base.
- Jump ahead to learn how to protect your town hall, attack other players, and earn bonuses.

Part 2

Part 2 of 4:

Protecting Your Town Hall

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Don't try to upgrade everything. Upgrade buildings you need the most first, such as your Laboratory or Barracks. Set up a good plan for upgrading your buildings, a well planed out upgrade scheme will allow your base to progress faster than haphazardly upgrading buildings.
You don't need to have your base spread out across the map. Many players agree that having most of your base concentrated in the middle is a good strategy.
Place your storages and town hall in the center of your base, behind the defenses and walls.
4
Put builders huts in the corners. This will prevent enemies from having time to attack your huts when they attack your town.
1. At Town Hall 14 and higher, stop placing them in the corners and instead treat your Builder Huts as defensive buildings, as they can be upgraded to defend your base.
After you have gained resources, make your base even stronger by upgrading walls and other defenses.
Traps do a lot of damage to attacking enemies and are worth upgrading. The one-time-hit damage can easily take out groups of smaller troops and seriously hurt larger types too. Put them in sneaky places that people wouldn't expect. Putting a trap in a wall compartment of its exact size can make it more obvious there's a trap there, so try putting them in gaps you leave in the base that aren't surrounded by adjacent walls.
Eventually, you can aspire to more advanced defenses, such as archer towers, and air defenses. Mortars do a lot of damage per shot but they shoot very slowly. Keep these in the center of your base because of their blind spot and their superb range. If you do not protect your air defenses your base will fall to healers.

Part 3

Part 3 of 4:

Attacking Others

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1
Attack whenever possible. Attacking is all good. There is no downside and you can get valuable items and trophies. You may want to lose trophies to get resources from easier defenders. You will not get as much per raid but it's easier and you don't have to spend as much on your army. It is easier to steal resources than mine for them. Use the following steps to attack:
- Tap the orange icon that says Attack in the lower-right corner.
- Tap Singleplayer or Multiplayer.
- On Singleplayer, tap one of the circles on the map to launch an attack. For multiplayer, tap Find a match. Multiplayer matches cost 50 or more gold depending on the current Town Hall level.
Skip bases that have low resources. If it has a large amount, then verify that the resources are not protected behind layers of walls. If it has a large amount and you can take it, go for it. Don't take unnecessary risks.
3
Deploy troops. To deploy troops during battle, tap one of the available troops at the bottom of the screen. Then tap where you want them to deploy on the map. You cannot deploy troops to the areas shaded in red.
- Tap and hold to deploy multiple troops at once.
4
Attack the treasures. Have your troops attack the storage areas for gold and elixir first.
- After a successful attack, you will bring back more gold and elixir, which you can then spend.
- If you are losing an attack, there is no shame in just surrendering. You can always train more troops later. Know when to quit. If you quit before deploying all troops the remaining troops will still be usable in the next battle.
- When you attack storages and resource collectors, the resources will go into your bank account immediately. Even if your troops are killed during the attack, the resources remain in your account.
- You get even more treasure/bonuses if you destroy the opponent's base or town hall which gets you one-star meaning victory.
To train more troops, tap the barracks and then tap Train Troops. Tap the troop type you want to train. Tap and hold to train multiple troops of the same type.

Update: Troop training costs have now been removed, allowing you to train whatever army you like without worrying about resources. This should encourage you to experiment with different troops and configurations.

Part 4

Part 4 of 4:

Earning Bonuses

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1
Build a laboratory. The laboratory lets you upgrade your troops so they have more offensive power and sustain more damage. Building it is required to upgrade to higher Town Hall levels as well.
- You can also build a spell factory after Town Hall 5. This can create many spells that add different advantages to your attacks.
Join a clan. Once you have 10,000 gold, you can repair the Clan Castle on your map. This allows you to join clans. Clans allow you to play with other players to pool trophies and battle clan wars to win more experience. You can also communicate with other clan members and donate troops and spells to other clan members.^{[2]
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When you compete in multiplayer matches while over 400 trophies, you will be placed in a trophy league. Each league has bonuses, such as extra gold and elixir for winning matches. The higher league, the higher the bonus becomes. Higher-level leagues also provide a dark elixir bonus.^{[3]
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After you join a clan, there is a two-day period once every month where your clan can sign-up for clan wars. This is where you earn league medals that can be used to purchase bonus items in the shop.^{[4]
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Community Q&A

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How do you change the direction your troop moves during an attack?

Community Answer

You can't actually. Once, they're deployed, they're deployed. However, with a jump spell, you can get them to jump over walls.

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How is the multiplayer loot calculated?

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It is calculated by Town Hall level and their actual loot. The lower loot count and Town Hall level, the lower the actual loot.

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How do I prepare for war in Clash of Clans?

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Ask for advice, train troops, brew spells, etc.

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Tips

Remember to be loyal and useful to your clan, or else you may be kicked out.

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It's important to have both a good defense and offense.

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Upgrade the troops you use the most first, doing so will make most of your attacks stronger quicker.

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Tips from our Readers

The advice in this section is based on the lived experiences of wikiHow readers like you. If you have a helpful tip you’d like to share on wikiHow, please submit it in the field below.

Don't feel too rushed to upgrade your town hall! If you upgrade it many times in a row without inproving much else, your base will overall be much weaker, and it will take a very long time to render it competent again.
Never throw away old defensives. You can use a laboratory to make them stronger, and they take up less space than the big guys.

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Warnings

The corners and edges of the base cannot be used as walls, troops can be placed on the edges of the map and still attack the unprotected buildings directly.

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Clash of Clans is an online multiplayer game and so frequent playing of this game would not be advised if you're using a device without an unlimited internet plan and Wi-Fi connection.

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Clash of Clans is an addictive game, and the gems used to boost collectors or speed up upgrades cost real money. It may cost you a lot. If you expect to spend money on a whim in this game, it may not be a good idea to play.

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