Should you take Giants or Golems?

Clash of the Big Guys, Golems vs. Giants

Many of us have probably wondered at some point when we were forming an army if it would make a difference whether we took giants with us on a raid or whether golems would be better.  The answer to this question is debatable, but many believe it depends upon the situation at hand and whether you are going for stars (as in a war attack or trophy push), or if you are just trying to get resources (as in farming).  Both giants and golems have their positive and negative attributes, but knowing some of the key differences will help you make a more informed decision that will best work for your situation, getting you more stars or resources.

To address this question, we should first take a look at the base stats for each of these units.  After that we can discuss what these stats mean and how they apply to the uses of each unit.  Let's take a look at the giants:

Favorite Target	Attack Type	Housing Space	Training Duration	Attack Speed	Movement Speed	Range	Required Barracks Level
Defenses	Melee	5	2m	2s	12	1	3

Level	Damage Per Second	Damage Per Strike	Hit Points	Training Cost	Research Cost	Research Time	Required Lab Level
1	11	22	300	250	None	None	None
2	14	28	360	750	100,000	1d	2
3	19	38	430	1,250	250,000	2d	4
4	24	48	520	1,750	750,000	3d	5
5	31	62	670	2,250	2,250,000	5d	6
6	43	86	940	3,000	6,000,000	10d	7
7	50	100	1,100	3,500	7,000,000	14d	8

Now, let's take a look at the base stats for the golems:

Favorite Target	Attack Type	Housing Space	Training Duration	Movement Speed	Attack Speed	Required Dark Barracks Level	Range	Death Explosion Radius
Defenses	Melee	30	45m	12	2.4s	4	1 tile	1.2 Tiles

Level	Damage Per Second	Damage Per Attack	Death Explosion Damage	Hit Points	Training Cost (Dark Elixir)	Research Cost	Research Time	Required Lab Level
1	38	91.2	350	4,500	450	None	None	None
2	42	100.8	400	5,000	525	60,000	10d	6
3	46	110.4	450	5,500	600	70,000	12d	7
4	50	120	500	6,000	675	80,000	14d	7
5	54	129.6	550	6,300	750	90,000	14d	8

And here are the stats for the golemites:

Preferred Target	Attack Type	Movement Speed	Attack Speed	Range	Death Explosion Damage Radius
Defenses	Melee	12	3s	0.5 Tiles	1.2 Tiles

Level	Damage Per Second	Damage Per Strike	Death Explosion Damage	Hit Points
1	7	21	70	900
2	8	24	80	1,000
3	9	27	90	1,100
4	10	30	100	1,200
5	11	33	110	1,260

So, now that we have all the information on these units, let's compare how they stack up.  Keep in mind that we will be comparing these units in terms of 6 giants to 1 golem, since it would take 6 giants to take the same amount of space as a single golem. 

Comparison:

Damage Dealt:

Both units do similar damage, however when you factor in the fact that 6 giants are equivalent to 1 golem, the amount of damage by giants is around 6x greater than the damage from golems.  While the single golem will do all of it's damage to only one target at a time, the 6 giants will be able to damage up to 6 different structures at once.  This allows the giants to spread out more and distract a greater number of defenses.  Also of note, the golem explodes upon death causing 550 damage in a 1.2 tile radius surrounding the spot where he died, and the golemites also explode upon death causing an additional 110 damage each.  This can sometimes be enough to destroy nearby buildings, and will heavily damage or even destroy any CC troops that might have been attacking them.  This explosion is enough to kill archers, barbs, goblins, wizards, and can even kill hogs, balloons, and giants level 4 and below!  The explosion will damage both ground and air units, as well as structures and walls.

Damage Received:

Sometimes having more units is a benefit, but sometimes it is not.  Having 6 giants in place of 1 golem also means that any splash damage (such as mortars, wizard towers, cc splash damage troops, and bombs) will potentially hit all the giants, causing up to 6x the damage it would have caused to a single golem.  This means that any and all splash damage will damage all of the giants in the area, while it would only cause that damage to a single golem.  For example, if a max level giant bomb explodes near a golem, it will cause 250 damage to that golem.  But if that golem were replaced with 6 giants, the bomb would cause 250 damage to each of them, effectively causing 1,500 total damage to your army as a whole! 

This applies to inferno towers and eagle artilleries as well.  The multiple giants can all be hit by a single strike from the eagle artillery and be heavily damaged or killed outright, but most of the time the bulk of your giants will only suffer partial damage from the eagle artillery since the radius for maximum damage is very small.  However, a single golem that is stuck at a wall or working on a defense may be instantly destroyed if it takes a direct hit from the eagle artillery.  With inferno towers, giants are at an advantage against single target infernos since there are more of them and inferno damage resets each time it targets a new unit, but a single golem will quickly fall once the inferno's damage builds up.  Golems are at an advantage against multi-target infernos since they have high hit points and can tank the lower damage of the multi-target inferno very well, whereas a group of giants will quickly be killed by it. 

Notice the ring for single target infernos (on left), and sphere for multi-target infernos (center), and black-looking inactive inferno tower (on right).

Longevity/Survivability:

A single max level golem will have 6,300 hit points, plus 2 golemites that form upon it's death, each with 1,260 hit points of their own.  Each max giant will have 1,100 hit points, so 6 giants will have 6,600 hit points, which is slightly more than the single golem, but much less than the golem once you add in the golemites, not to mention the splash damage from the explosion of the golem and golemites upon their deaths.  The giants are also susceptible to spring traps, and a single spring trap can instantly remove up to 3 giants from the battlefield.  Golems are not susceptible to spring traps, and will still trip them which helps protect your other troops from being thrown from the battlefield.  It should be noted, however, that the smaller golemites that spring up from the defeated golems are susceptible to spring traps, and both can be removed from battle by a single spring trap.  

So as said before, there are good and bad aspects to choosing each of these units for your army.  Overall, in practice it definitely seems like the golems survive for a much longer period of time.  On the other hand, using 2-3 golems also seems to leave more troops open to attack since the golems can only cover so much ground, whereas an equivalent number of giants (12-18 would be equal to 2-3 golems) are able to cover a much larger area of the base, which results in a much better chance of the giants being targeted instead of the other units.  With practice though, you can become skilled enough to deploy your golems and troops in such a way that the golems are able to keep the attention of the defenses and allow the other troops to live longer.

Golems and giants are affected by inferno towers, but since golems are a single troop they can be devastated by a single target inferno tower.  Once the inferno builds up to full damage, it will very quickly destroy a golem.  With giants, you have roughly the same amount of hit points spread across multiple units instead of all in a single unit, so giants are at an advantage against single target inferno towers because it will have to reset it's damage and start all over each time it kills one of the giants and targets a new one.  Multi-target infernos are a different story, because they can quickly take out multiple giants, but aren't much of a threat to a golem.  This is another reason why it is so important to be able to tell the difference between a single or multiple target inferno tower when scouting a base, either right before a farming attack or during the prep day of a war.    


Conclusions:

In conclusion, there are several things you should look for to help you decide whether to take golems or giants as your armies preferred meat shields for a given attack.  If you are facing a base with single target inferno towers, you should definitely take at least a few giants with your golem(s) to keep the inferno towers busy switching targets and keeping their dps low.  But, if you are facing multi-target infernos, or even one multi-target inferno, it is probably best to take golems, or at least take a couple golems with a group of giants if there is one of each type of inferno.  Another strategy many players now use is to take 1-2 freeze spells to stop the infernos and force them to reset their dps, allowing them to still take golems and not have to worry so much about the single target infernos taking out the only tanking units.

For high level defenses, it is almost always better to take golems than giants (except sometimes in cases of single target infernos as stated above).  Even with single target infernos, they can be neutralized with freeze spells with relative ease.  The golems will last much longer, especially considering their golemites will continue to fight after the death of the golem itself, making them live even longer and also adding a significant amount of splash damage upon death for both the golem and it's golemites.  So ultimately, not only does the golem last much longer than the giants would against tough defenses, it also adds a significant amount of damage with 3 separate explosions when the golem and it's 2 golemites die.

Finally, for farming purposes it is usually more cost and time efficient to take along giants.  While they cannot tank as well or last as long as golems, they are much cheaper and faster to make, allowing you to get more attacks in while also spending less of your hard earned resources.  To give the giants more tankability, you can also take a few heal spells to keep them going when they are targeted by many defenses.  Heal spells no longer take so long to make, and they are fairly cheap as far as elixir spells go, so these are a good choice for farming.  Heal spells will also keep your other units alive, which is an added bonus when your primary focus is healing the giants.  At only 3,000 or so elixir, the giants are much cheaper than the golems at a whopping 675 dark elixir!  So you should take giants especially when farming for dark elixir to upgrade your heroes, you will get more attacks in and save tons of dark elixir at the same time.