GoWiPe, GoWiWiPe, GoWiWi, GoVaPe: The Golem Based Attacks

The GoWiPe Gang

The GoWiPe strategy and it's variations have been around in Clash of Clans for quite some time.  Throughout every change and every update, they somehow find their way back into the attack rotations of players all over the world in wars and higher league trophy pushing.  The greatness and longevity of this attack centers around the fact that the golems, even at low levels, can take massive damage and keep on going, even forming 2 golemites upon their demise.  They also target defenses, which makes the golems very easy to funnel into a base and guide them exactly where you need them to go.  This strategy is full of strong and powerful units no matter which variation you are using.  Using powerful troops means that this attack can stand up to the strongest bases, but it also means the attack is a little expensive and takes quite a while to make.


GoWiPe, GoWiWiPe Strategies

 Army Composition:           


Golems:                     2-3             
Wizards:                    10-20
Wall Breakers:           5-15
PEKKA:                   1-3
Witches:                    2-6
Barbarians/Archers:  10-15


Spell Composition: 
 
Jump:      1 (essential)
Rage:      1-2
Heal:       1-2
Poison:    1-2
Freeze:    1-2 (optional, more used in TH-10/11)

Typical GoWiPe Army Composition

Typical GoWiWiPe Army Composition

The Gowipe version has wizards but no witches, while the Gowiwipe has both wizards and witches.  Players like different things about both armies, and it is very difficult to say for sure which one is better.  If you don't take any witches, you can take many more wizards so you have the added fire power, but if you do take witches, they give your army more longevity because they constantly raise skeletons that help distract defenses, trip traps, and deal extra damage.  So which is best really comes down to someone's play style, and the base they are attacking.  Before TH-9 you don't have access to witches except in your CC anyway, so you will only be using Gowipe until then, unless you use your CC for witches (at TH-8 your CC can hold 25 spaces, so you can hold 2 witches).

This army has one other downside; this is that it often only results in a 2-star attack.  While many players will always shoot for a 3-star victory, it can be helpful when first learning these more advanced strategies and getting your troops and heroes upgraded to use a strategy such as this to ensure you at least get a 2-star, instead of failing a more complex attack and getting 1 or even no stars.  If you can master this strategy, it can be a 3-star attack as well.

 You are taking your golems of course to use as tanks for your army.  They will be released first and will grab the attention of the defenses while you are releasing the rest of your army.

The GoWiPe/GoWiWiPe/GoWiWi attack sequence:

• As with any attack, you need to address the CC before doing anything else.  Golem based attacks are rare in that they are one of the few attacks that do not require you to pull the CC before the main attack.  Golems are so tough that they can tank through CC troops and still survive, but if at all possible you should still pull the CC just like any other attack. With the advent of poison spells, you can easily wipe out pretty much anything that might be in the CC by using 2 poison spells in succession on the CC troops.  Using this strategy, you draw out the CC troops, then drop a poison spell on top of them making sure to affect all the CC troops.  Once the poison spell starts to disappear, you will drop the second poison and it will finish off any other left-over troops or strong troops that survive the first poison spell.  You can also go with the strategy of using 1 poison, it will take care of most CC troops except for dragons and other high hit point units.
• First, drop the golems on the same side of the base, but put some distance between them so that if one gets off track and goes the wrong way, you will at least have the others to keep the attack on track.  This also lets the golems attract the attention of a greater portion of the defenses, and it splits up the damage taken between all the golems instead of all the defenses focusing on one golem and killing it off quickly.  
• The next step will be to drop your wall breakers after the defenses are distracted by the golems.  A tip; don't send the wall breakers directly behind the golems, you want them to go to a section of wall far enough away from the golems so that wizard towers and mortars that are targeting the golems will not catch the wall breakers in their blast as well.  Also check to make sure that the golems have all the defenses in range of the spot you plan on sending the wall breakers to, so you aren't surprised by your wall breakers getting targeted by defenses.  
• After you have opened a hole to let the golems enter the base, you will release 1-2 wizards on the outside edge of each golem, to create your funnel into the base.  As soon as they destroy enough buffer buildings to ensure a good funnel, drop your main army, including heroes (king first, followed by queen).  
• If you chose not to take out the CC initially, you will have to face them at this point, possibly at the same time as you face the enemy hero(es).  This will make a great opportunity to use your rage and heal, if you have them, as well as a poison if you took one but forgot to use it on the CC at the start of the battle.  This heavyweight encounter will usually occur just before the army reaches the center of the base where the TH is or just as they reach the center.  In either case, you should drop your spells ahead of the army so that they get the most out of each spells, and drop the poison spell (if you didn't use it at the beginning of the fight) where the CC troops are going to meet your army, not wherever they happen to be when you decide to drop the spell, because they will just walk out of it as they head out to meet your troops.
• This will happen along side the last step, but sometimes before or after it as well.  The jump spell will be used once your army reaches the 2nd or 3rd layer of walls, depending on how far your wall breakers were able to break through.  Try to drop the jump in a spot that will let you get into multiple compartments, and you usually want one of those compartments to be the center compartment or the one holding the TH.  
• If you have inferno towers to contend with, you will use your freeze spell(s) to stop the infernos from destroying your army.  If you can reach them both with one freeze, then you can only take 1, but if you have to use 2 separate spells make sure to take 2 freezes so you can stop both infernos.  Also make note of whether the infernos are set to single target or multiple targets.  Single target infernos will have a ring on the top while multiple target infernos will have a ball on top that kind of looks like a soccer ball with red tiles instead of black.  For single target infernos, use the freeze spell when they target your PEKKA or golems and don't worry about when it targets the smaller troops like wizards and archers since it actually works to your advantage for it to waste time building up damage on the units you have plenty of.  For the multi-target inferno, you need to freeze it when it targets the wizards because it can quickly destroy all your wizards.  (If you want to see an image showing active and inactive infernos, as well as single and multi-target infernos, refer to my guide on abandoned bases here: http://soyouwannaclash.blogspot.com/2016/01/guide-to-abandoned-bases-fastestbest.html)
• Once your troops have destroyed the TH and gotten the second star for 50% damage, you can release any clean-up troops you saved to go around the outside of the base and clean up the buffers and other buildings.  Wizards and archers are a good choice for clean up troops because they can clear the outside buildings quickly and from a distance, keeping them safe from defenses most of the time.  The other advantage to these troops is that they are able to shoot over the outside wall and clear the outer compartments of the base, which sometimes turns the attack into a 3-star.
• You can use any other spells you have left using your best judgement to keep your most vital troops alive or power them through tough areas of the base.  You should at least be able to pull off a 2-star attack following this strategy.  If you get really good and adapt this strategy to your play style you should be able to start pulling off 3-star victories more often. 

 GoVaPe Attack Strategy

Army Composition:

Golems:            2-3
Wizards:           10-20
Valkyries:          5-12
Wall Breakers:  4-10
PEKKAs:         1-2

Spell Composition:

Heal:     2-3
Rage:    1-2
Jump:    1-2
Poison:  1-2
Freeze:  1-2

Typical GoVaPe Army Composition

The Govape army has become more popular in recent months, and is similar to the other golem based attacks in most respects, but also has some differences.  The valkyries add their unique attack style (AoE) and small level of tankablility to the army, but it decreases the number of troops in the army which allows the defenses to concentrate their fire better.  With this army, you will take more heals because the heals can be very effective at keeping the valkyries alive, which is extremely important in this strategy because they are the key to victory, and if they go down early the attack will not turn out well.  This attack has a better chance at 3-starring an opponent when used correctly, mainly due to the longevity the valkyries provide to the attack.  The valkyries can be great in certain areas of the base because of their ability to damage multiple buildings at once with their whirlwind AoE attack swing.  They have been known to damage as many as 4 buildings at the same time, and can damage several pieces of wall at the same time, sometimes causing them to open up multiple compartments at once.

The spells when using this strategy will focus more on the healing and jump.  You can even take 2 jump spells if you prefer.  You will focus your healing spells on the valkyries since they (and your attack) will gain the most from them.  You will still use poison on the CC troops to dispose of them before starting your main attack, if you use 2 poisons make sure not to simply drop them at the same time because that doesn't cause any extra damage; instead, wait until the first poison is about to disappear then drop the second one.  This will effectively double the amount of damage done to the CC troops, and can even kill dragons and other tough troops.  This double poison strategy only really became viable since the update that gave us an extra 30 seconds in battles.  This should allow you enough time to use both poisons and still have time to run your full attack with enough time to destroy the whole base. 

GoVaPe Attack Sequence:

• Take out the CC troops; use a balloon, giant, hog or wall breaker to pull depending on whether the CC radius extends outside the base or not.  Once lured out of the CC, drop your poison spell(s) as stated above, one after the other begins to disappear.  Once the CC troops are dead, begin your main attack.
• Release the golems, similarly to the other golem attacks drop them some distance apart and once they have the attention of the defenses, drop your wall breakers in groups of 2 at a time about 1 second apart.  Don't release them too close to the golems or you will risk them being caught in the cross-fire of the mortars or wizard towers.
• Release 1-2 wizards on the outside ends of where you have released the golems to make a funnel.  After the funnel has been formed, release the rest of your main army (save a few wizards for clean-up).  
• Once your troops clear the enclosure(s) opened by the wall breakers, drop your jump spell in a spot that will give you access to the center compartments (or TH compartment) and as many other compartments as possible.  
• Around this time, you will trigger the heroes and CC.  Use your rage spell and/or heal spell to help your troops push through the enemy heroes (and CC troops if you didn't deal with them at the start).  This is also a good time to drop any poison spells you may have left.  
• Once the heroes (and CC troops if not already dealt with) are defeated, use your remaining heal/rage spells to help speed the army through the TH/center compartment, because they will most likely have the highest number of defenses targeting them at this point.  If you are facing inferno towers you should take 1-2 freeze spells with you to stop them from taking out a good chunk of your army.  Use the same strategy as the other golem attacks for single or multiple target inferno towers.
• Once the main army is in the center compartment and begins clearing it, you can start dropping your clean-up wizards to finish off the outside buildings and outer-most compartments, as well as any buildings that may be in the corners.

Building, Defenses, and Structures - Upgrade Priorities

     We have all had that moment, you know the one...its one of those moments when you look back and say "If I could go back, I would have done this this way or done that that way".  Most of us never heard or even thought about using forums, guides and blogs back when we were a low Town Hall, and because of that we probably made quite a few questionable choices in our upgrades hierarchy.       We probably upgraded our goblins before any other troop; thinking that since it helps us get the loot, it must be the most important troop...well now we know better, but unfortunately we can't go back in time and change those choices.  On the other hand, if you are actually playing through your first account with Clash of Clans and somehow found your way here, congratulations!  You are about to learn what to upgrade when, and why you should do it that way, so that you will never look back and have that moment of regret.


Defenses

     Your defenses will always be a priority when looking at what to upgrade next.  In general, you want to have your defenses upgraded as high as possible as early as possible when you upgrade your TH level, and you don't want to upgrade your TH until your defenses are upgraded to max level or at the very least within one level of maximum.  There are exceptions to this strategy though, most of which have to do with war (which we will talk more about later in this post).

Early in the Game (Low TH Levels):

     When you are early in the game and your TH is still low level, your upgrade priorities are a little different from later on in the game.  At lower levels, your mines and elixir collectors (and later, your dark elixir drills) will contribute the majority (or at least a large portion) of the resources you gain in the game.  Because of this, you will want to upgrade them as high as you can, as early as you can.  You will be glad you did after you see the difference it makes in the amount per hour they can produce, it makes a significant improvement in how much you can gain in a day's time.
     Once you get your heroes, you will want to begin upgrading them as soon as possible, and try to keep one of them upgrading at all times.  You're probably thinking this sounds nuts because the heroes are so expensive, and it is difficult to save up when you first become able to raid for it, but the reason I say its good to begin upgrading them as soon as possible is that in total it will take 227 days to reach the max level of 40 on each of your dark elixir heroes.  So the way I see it, the sooner you start, the better, not to mention this can give you a leg-up on the competition since most players put off upgrading  their heroes until later on when they can acquire and save up dark elixir more easily.  This will really shine in wars, when you will be expected to attack the member on the opposing clan that is supposed to be your equal, and upgrading heroes is not weighted nearly as heavy as upgraded defenses are, so you will not be moved up the war ranks by upgrading heroes, making your war targets much easier to defeat. 

* For more on the heroes, read the posts about the Barb King and Archer Queen.    
(Also refer to the * at the bottom of the page for information about upgrading spell factories and laboratories)    

     Next, you will want to upgrade your defenses, and I recommend splash damage defenses first, since they are the most effective at taking out hordes of barbs, archers, and goblins, and this is what you will face most of the time.  So upgrade your mortars first, then your wizard towers, then any traps that do splash damage (like bombs and big bombs).  After all that, you can upgrade point defenses like cannons, archer towers, and air defenses.  Once you start being able to build and upgrade hidden teslas, you can include them with the other point defenses in your upgrade priority hierarchy. 
     After the defenses are upgraded, you will want to upgrade your walls.  The level of your walls makes a huge difference in how hard it is for attackers to get to everything in your base.  Early on they won't even have wallbreakers, but even when they do have them, they will only be able to break through 2-3 layers of walls max (if they know how to deploy the wallbreakers properly).  After that it will be up to their troops to fight through each layer of walls to get to each enclosure, and higher level walls equals much more time spent hitting walls and likely getting wiped out by defenses before they can get to too much of your base.
     When you have upgraded your other structures, you can upgrade the air sweeper and any barracks you still need to upgrade.  When you are still working on upgrading your barracks and dark barracks to get new types of troops, you will move them up the priority list so that they are one of the first things you upgrade.  But after you have at least one of them maxed out, your barracks can be moved down on your priorities list unless you need more to be able to make the armies you want faster, but that decision is all up to you. 

Later in the game (later TH levels):

     At later TH levels, your heroes should still take priority but the mines, collectors and drills should be maxed out.  If they are not, go ahead and get them all maxed out (the drills especially may need upgraded because they cannot get maxed out until TH-10).  Keep in mind that your heroes can only be leveled up to 10 at TH-8, but at TH-9 you can upgrade them all the way to level 30.  This will take quite some time, so get to work on them as soon as possible, because if you can get them to level 30 you will have a huge advantage over other TH-9's because very few of them will wait, and will go to TH-10 with level 15-20 heroes or even lower.  (Also refer to the * at the bottom of this post for more information pertaining to upgrading spell factories and laboratories)
     Your splash damage defenses will still be high on the priority list, but will now fall behind upgrading your heavy defenses, such as your X-bows and Inferno Towers.  These defenses have high damage output, and also have high hit points, so they really add a great deal to the difficulty level of 3-starring your base or stealing your resources.  They are expensive and take a long time to get upgraded, so get to work on them early on.  Once you get them upgraded however, your base will look much more imposing, and the site of fully upgraded inferno towers and x-bows will send many would-be attackers running for the hills! 
     Once your heavy defenses have been upgraded, your next project will be to work on your mortars and wizard towers.  Since these cause splash damage (and wiz towers are very useful for protecting your resources from large numbers of smaller troops), they will be more useful in most cases than the point defenses.  You can also take on a strategy of upgrading 1-2 splash damage defenses and 1-2 point defenses at a time, so that you are upgrading them simultaneously.  This will make it take longer to finish both kinds of defenses, but it allows them to both be upgraded at the same time. 
     If you choose to focus on your splash defenses, finish them off then begin upgrading your point defenses.  These defenses are great at working down giants and other high hit point troops because while they can only focus on one target, they have a higher damage output than splash defenses.  Upgrading all of your cannons, archer towers and air defenses (all your point defenses), will significantly increase your base's ability to deal with giants, golems, and PEKKAs.  The air defenses will be able to quickly take down any level air troops, even dragons and lava hounds when they are maxed out, and players with these kinds of armies will notice this when they are deciding whether or not to attack you.  When you add in the fact that your infernos and x-bows are already upgraded (or should be), your base will be very hard for players to have any success against, no matter how strong they are. 
     The rest is basically the same as with lower THs, and a lot of it is left up to your preference.  If you want to be able to make dragons, PEKKAs, witches and lava hounds in all your barracks and dark barracks instead of just being able to make them in one of each type of barracks, you can work on upgrading them next.  If you would rather get those air sweepers and your traps upgraded, go for that next.  It really all depends on what you feel will help you the most at that time. 
     Now it comes time to start on those walls.  They should already have been at the max level for the TH level below you, so you should only have to upgrade each wall 1-2 levels to once again max them out.  At these later levels, the walls get extremely expensive and it can take a very long time to upgrade them all completely.  To help with this, the game begins allowing you to choose to use gold or elixir to upgrade each wall starting at level 8 walls (the black walls with white skulls).  Since it will take so long, you may be best served to go ahead and start upgrading your walls as soon as you run out of other critical upgrades that cost elixir (like troop upgrades and any essential barracks or storage, lab, or spell factory upgrades).  This way, you won't be sitting there upgrading walls and have everything else already finished. 

* It should be noted that at both low and high TH levels, you will include your Laboratory and Spell Factory in the top of your upgrade priority list.  These should preferably be upgraded as soon as you can afford to do so, because upgrading these buildings will give you access to new spells and upgrades for your spells and troops.  Since upgrading troops and spells in your laboratory will not take up a builder, you can do the troop and spell upgrades without slowing your progress in upgrading your defenses and other buildings.  There is much more information about this in the post titled "Spell Factory and Dark Spell Factory - Upgrade Priorities". 

Spell Factory and Dark Spell Factory - Upgrade Priorities

     Your spell factory is where you create the spells you will take to battle.  Elixir and dark elixir spells can change the tide of any battle, and will become an integral part of your attack strategy.  In most cases, you should wait to upgrade spells until you get the troops that you use the most upgraded.  This post will focus on where your spell factories and laboratory fit into your overall upgrade priorities, as well as which spells should be upgraded first and why.


Spell Factory and Dark Spell Factory



Spell Factory

Dark Spell Factory

Upgrade Priority:

     The spell factory should be upgraded as soon as possible each time you upgrade your TH.  Once you initially get your spell factory, you will be able to upgrade it once each time you upgrade your TH level. 

Why you should upgrade them ASAP:

     The reason you want to upgrade it ASAP is because each time you upgrade your spell factory, you gain a new kind of spell.  Each new spell brings a whole new set of strategies you can use once you have acquired it.  For example, when you hit TH-9 you can upgrade your spell factory to get the jump spell, and the dark factory for the haste spell.  With the jump spell, you can now start using all the variations of GoWiPe attacks with much more success than you would have at TH-8.  With the haste spell, you gain a huge boost to the speed of your balloons in Lavaloonion and Balloonion attacks, making them much more effective.
     They are fairly expensive and time-consuming to upgrade, but it is well worth it to get such a big improvement to your current attacks, while also getting the chance to use new attacks that were impossible to succeed with before. 


Laboratory and Spell Upgrades

Laboratory

Lab Upgrade Priority:

     Your lab should also be upgraded as soon as you can afford it each time you upgrade your TH level.  Once you initially get the laboratory, you will be able to upgrade it once each time you level up your TH.  Each upgrade will give you access to upgrades for new troops and spells, as well as higher level upgrades for your old troops and spells.  It is highly recommended that you always complete all the available upgrades for all your troops and spells before moving on to a new TH level, because you will get way behind if not. 
     Remember that the game is designed to only make it worth while to attack players with the same TH as you or 1 TH level lower.  At 1 TH lower, you can still get 90% of the total loot from that player, but at 2 TH levels below you, you can only get up to 50% of the total loot for that opponent.  This is made as a balancing measure so that higher THs don't always pick on the smaller THs.  So each time you upgrade your TH, you have to attack higher THs than before to get good loot, and higher level THs will be able to get more loot from you.  So it is extremely important to have everything in your village (including troops and spell, as well as defenses and other structures) upgraded as much as possible before upgrading the TH in order to avoid being an easy target for stronger players.

Why you Should Upgrade it ASAP:

     The reason you should upgrade your lab ASAP is because until you do, you will not be able to begin working on new upgrades for you troops and spells.  If you make sure to upgrade each troop/spell to max before upgrading your TH (like you should be doing), you will have to upgrade the lab to start being able to begin doing upgrades again, and since it is so expensive and time consuming to upgrade everything available to you in your laboratory, you will want to get started right away and try to keep it going all the time without letting it sit idle for very long. 
     By performing all the possible upgrades at each TH level, you will really boost the ability of your troops to deal damage and survive longer.  It will also allow your spells to last longer and have more potent effects.  You will need both of these advantages when you are facing the more difficult opponents that will you will be matched with at each new TH level.  This applies to both war and farming, since you will have to face tougher opponents in both forms of gameplay when you upgrade your TH. 
     Upgrading your troops will also help your entire clan out, because you will be able to give them better donation troops.  The combination of increasing your attack strength as well as increasing the strength of your clan mate's CC troops means that your upgrades can make significant differences in how tough your clan thinks you are as well as how useful they think you are.  Trust me when I say, I know of no clans that like to see members upgrade too early and never upgrade their troops.  In all likelihood, most clans will eventually ask you to either start working on your upgrades and threaten to kick you from wars or from the clan itself if you do not start them.

Upgrading Elixir Spells:

     When upgrading spells, there isn't one sure way to do it right.  It is really up to you how to prioritize your spell upgrades, but do keep in mind that in most cases it will be more beneficial to upgrade your troops first since you can only upgrade one thing at a time.  I recommend that you upgrade the spells that you use most often, but I will list some benefits to having each spell upgraded for convenience.

Lightning Spell

     The lightning spell is useful when upgraded because it does increased damage.  This is the biggest help with destroying air defenses, as in some dragon and balloonion/lavaloonion strategies.  It usually takes 3 of these spells to take out an air defense if they are upgraded, 4 if not so it will save you a whole spell once you have it upgraded.  Since the lightning spell no longer does any damage to any storages, the lightning spell has lost much of it's utility unfortunately, so it will likely be low on the list of spells you want to upgrade.

Healing Spell

     The healing spell obviously heals more when upgraded, which is always useful.  This spell can be used in a multitude of attacks, so it is definitely recommended that you upgrade it when you can.  It is also a little cheaper than the rage and jump spell upgrades, so it can be more tempting to want to upgrade this spell first because you will be able to afford it sooner. 

Rage Spell

     The rage spell is also useful in many different attack styles.  It also affects more than one statistic, so it is sometimes thought of as a more useful spell in that regard.  Upgrading this spell will boost the damage and speed increases the spell provides, so troops affected by the spell move faster and hit harder the higher the spell level is.

Jump Spell

     The jump spell is a critical part of GoWiPe style attacks and variations of it.  It allows you to jump right over walls without having to destroy them, and good placement in conjunction with wallbreakers can allow you to almost instantly gain access to the heart of an enemy base.  Upgrading this spell is critical and should be done as soon as possible because it gains a significant boost to it's duration with each level.  This allows your troops more time to get to and use the jump spell, and can allow your troops to use it multiple times as they clear out different enclosures if it has an upgraded duration and lasts long enough.  The first upgrade actually doubles the amount of time the spell will last, giving it a huge boost to it's effectiveness.

Freeze Spell

     Similar to upgrading the jump spell, upgrading the freeze spell will increase the amount of time the spells effects last.  This makes a huge difference in higher TH battles, when heavy defenses like infernos and x-bows can quickly wipe out large portions of an attacking army if not stopped.  This spell is especially effective against inferno towers, since it can break the inferno tower's build-up damage and force it to start over with decreased damage once in un-freezes.  This will allow your troops more time to get to the infernos and destroy them before they are able to take out all of your tanking units and dash any hopes of a 3-star victory.  The freeze spell should also be upgraded as soon as you can afford it, for reasons stated above.
    
Upgrading Dark Elixir Spells:

     The dark elixir spells are a relatively new addition to the game, and they have impacted almost every facet of how we wage war, pull CCs, and farm.  These dark spells cost only 1 spell space as opposed to the 2 spaces taken by regular elixir spells.  They also don't take as long as the elixir spells, usually taking around only 15 minutes to make.  These spells are extremely specialized, and their uses are not quite as wide as a heal or rage spell, but they offer huge advantages in their area of use.  As with the elixir spells, upgrades on the dark spells can be done more or less by which ones you tend to use most often, since those will be the most useful to you.  Many people have questioned whether it is even important enough to bother upgrading some of these spells, and my recommendation is to do so, and I will explain why.


Poison Spell

     The poison spell is the first dark spell you will get, it comes with the dark spell factory when you first build it.  When the poison spell was first introduced, it did a moderate amount of damage per second that remained the same throughout the course of the spell.  It would quickly kill off smaller troops, even wizards and some moderate troops like giants, hogs, and balloons, but was not very effective against tougher troops like dragons, lava hounds, and PEKKAs.  Now it has been altered so that when it does greater damage the longer a troop stands inside it's radius.  It starts out for a few seconds doing very little damage, but after that the DPS quickly builds up to massive amounts before the spell dissipates.  It makes it take longer to kill the smaller troops, but it also allows it to do much more damage to the larger troops.  Dragons will now lose between 1/2 and 3/4 of their life depending on the level of the dragon and the spell.  Upgrading the poison spell is helpful because it increases the maximum DPS it can produce as well as the amount it slows attack speed.  This allows the spell to kill smaller troops faster and do more damage to the larger troops.

Earthquake Spell

 

     The earthquake spell has 2 main uses; it can be used to destroy walls, and it can be used to weaken high hit point buildings to make them easier for your troops to destroy.  The quake spell does damage differently to walls than it does to buildings, and storages are immune to it's effects.  The reason it is so useful against high hit point structures is that is deals damage according to the hit points of the things it hits, taking a certain percentage of it's life away rather than just taking a certain number of hit points.  For buildings, using consecutive spells causes less and less damage, but for walls, it has the opposite effect and does more damage with each consecutive spell dropped on the same walls.  4 earthquake spells on the same wall, no matter the level or the spell or the wall, will destroy the wall.  Upgrading the quake spell increases the percentage of hit points that it takes, which doesn't affect how many it will take to destroy walls, leading some to question why it is worth upgrading.  The biggest reason you should still upgrade the quake spell is that it will cause more damage to buildings like the CC and TH if you use it on them, or air defenses if you use the strategy of 2 lightning spells and a quake to take down an air defense.  Sometimes this spell can save a raid by finishing off the TH if your troops are able to take more than 85% (if the quake is lvl 1), if it is the first time the TH has been hit with a quake during the raid.  All in all, the quake spell won't be the first on your list of dark spell upgrades, but it should definitely be on the list somewhere. 

Haste Spell

     The haste spell is similar to the elixir rage spell, it speeds up the movement speed of troops a great deal.  However, the haste spell does not affect the attack damage of troops, only the movement speed.  Because of this, it is best used in air attacks with very slow troops like balloons and dragons, since they don't really need much of a damage boost anyway.  Haste spells can really improve your dragon, dragoon, balloonion, lavaloonion and mass balloon attacks, because the achilles heel of balloons are their extremely slow movement speed.  With the haste spell, balloons and dragons can quickly move from target to target, and the fact that it only takes up 1 spell space allows you to take several into battle with you, so you can cover a huge chunk of the base with haste spells.  Upgrading the haste spell allows it to speed up your troops even more, making it even more effective.  If you use a lot of air attacks, especially balloons, this spell should definitely be a priority.

Making Multiple Clash of Clans Accounts

     I was asked just the other day if there was a way to have multiple accounts on Clash of Clans, and how to go about doing it, and I thought that this would make a good post since I'm sure there are plenty of us that have considered a second account but were unsure exactly how it works.  I haven't seen much information about this online either, so here I'll give you a detailed explanation about the various advantages, problems, and other issues with using multiple accounts. 
    

Can you Create a Second Account?

     Yes, and no.  Yes, you can certainly make other accounts on Clash of Clans, but there are only certain ways in which SuperCell will allow this to happen.  First, to maintain multiple accounts, you will need a separate device for each account you wish to have.  It doesn't matter what kind of device it is, or even if it is the same provider as your other accounts.  So you can have accounts on iPads, iPhones, Android versions of these devices, and any other kind of device that supports Clash of Clans, and it won't affect your ability to use and maintain multiple accounts. 
     All you have to do to start another account is simply download and open Clash of Clans on any device you own, other than a device you already have a Clash of Clans account on.  The game will start up just like it did when you started out on your original account, taking you through the tutorial and eventually asking you what you want to be called.  Just put in any name that you want, it doesn't make a difference what you choose even if it is the same name as your other account (not really recommended since it would probably get confusing for you). 
     It will also ask you if you want to link your device to your Game Center (or other provider's equivalent to this) and your Facebook accounts.  Decline this for now, we will talk about that in a moment, but for now you have a brand new Clash of Clans account and you can now play through the game doing everything the way you wish you had done it in your original account (that's what I did). 


Can I Link Multiple Clash of Clans Accounts to my Game Center and Facebook Accounts?

     This time the answer is a resounding no.  You can have as many CoC accounts as you have devices, but only 1 of those CoC accounts can be linked to your Game Center or Facebook accounts.  The game will allow you to continue to play the other accounts without needing to link them to anything, but not being linked means that your alternate accounts will be missing a few of the features you would see on a normal account.
     You will not be able to check your Facebook list of friends that play Clash of Clans from your alternate accounts, because you won't be linked to Facebook on any of the alternate accounts.  You will also not be able to compare achievements with friends and challenge them like you can on your main account, because you are not linked to Game Center on the alternate account. 
     Apart from these two minor differences, there really isn't any other major disadvantage to having multiple accounts.


What are the Benefits to Using Multiple Accounts?

     There are a few obvious advantages to using multiple accounts, and some not so obvious.  Obviously, you will never have to worry about waiting forever to get your troop requests filled again, because you can donate to yourself from your other accounts.  Now you can always get the best troops donated to you immediately upon requesting them!  Of course, at first you may not really want the low level troops your alternate accounts have, but they will grow quickly and in no time you will have good troops to donate to your main account.
     You will also have great troops to donate to your alternate accounts.  Because they will be such low levels, their multiplayer opponents will be low level as well, and you will have the great advantage of having a high level player (your main account) that is always willing to donate the best troops they have to you.  This should allow you to steal tons of resources from your fellow low level bronze and silver league players.
     Another fairly obvious advantage is that you can now play through the early levels of the game with all the knowledge you have gained while playing through the game on your main account.  Now you know to save those free gems you get at the beginning of the game and not waste half of them during the tutorial to instantly finish all your 1-minute constructions, and instead save as many as you can so you can get that third builder's hut without having to start from scratch.  You will know which defenses need to be upgraded first, and how to set up your walls to make raiders work for every penny they steal from you, and you will know the most efficient and effective farming armies to use when raiding others. 
     A less obvious advantage is the fact that you now have an extra (or several extra, depending on how many devices you have added CoC accounts on) clan member for wars, which can be wonderful if you have been having trouble keeping the required minimum of 10 members in your clan and as a result have had to miss out on having wars and leveling up your clan perks.  This is also helpful if your clan does have the required number of members, but many of the members of your clan have no interest or no aptitude for clan wars.  It can destroy your chances of victory when some of your members don't give it their all in wars, or don't have the necessary skills needed to succeed in war attacks and defense.  The problem comes when you have members like this, but have to include them to meet the minimum number to have a clan war, so it can be a godsend to have an extra account or two of your own that you can use to replace those kinds of clan mates. 
     Another less obvious benefit is that having a few secondary accounts can make your clan look that much bigger and therefore that much more appealing to potential new members.  When your clan is still small, it is easy for players to overlook you when they are searching for a new clan to join.  Adding 2-3 more members (even if they are all your alts) can really change the way a clan appears to potential members when there are only 10 or less members to begin with.  Then, all of the sudden, your clan jumps from barely being able to do 10 vs 10 wars to almost being capable of doing 15 vs 15 wars.  This makes your clan that much more appealing to potential applicants. 
     One last benefit to having multiple accounts is that if your secondary accounts have completely different names than your main account, you can pose as a completely different person when using your other accounts.  This has been used by players that try to spy in on the clans they are facing in wars to see what their war strategy will be, where their traps are set, and what they have in their defensive clan castles.  While I definitely look down on this, I wanted to include this for completeness and because I want this blog to be useful to all players, regardless of whether or not I agree with how they play the game. 
     You can also pose as another player to see how your clan mates act when they don't think you are around.  This is very useful as a clan leader or co-leader, because it can give you insight into how your clan mates truly feel about you and the job you are doing, and can help you figure out the things you need to change to make the clan work better for everyone.  It can also help you identify troublemakers that are trying to tear the good clan members apart and turn them on one another.  It sounds crazy, but apparently this happens rather often.  The way you go about this is to allow your alternate character to join the clan but never actually reveal that it is your alt.  Then, at some point make up a reason for your main character to leave the clan for a brief period, which will give your clan mates a chance to talk while they think you are gone. 
     I know this sounds kind of shady, but if you have noble intentions you shouldn't let that bother you.  Don't use this to get dirt on other players or do any underhanded things like that, this tactic should only be used to try to improve your clan and improve your leadership capabilities.  If a member of the clan says derogatory things about your main account or something of that nature, keep your cool and understand that they are just trying to express their frustration about how they feel that their leaders may need to improve in certain areas.  Use it as constructive criticism, and try to learn from it as best you can.

* Afterwards, you can choose to reveal your alternate account as yourself to your clan mates or decide to remain anonymous.  Think hard about it before you decide to tell your clan mates, as this could cause them to question how trustworthy you are, and there is not immediate benefit to revealing this information to them, unless you are doing so in order to confront someone that is causing trouble or was completely trashing you to your clan mates.  I hope this information is helpful, and remember that you should really think deeply about this before deciding to go undercover, as it is inherently shady and most clan mates would likely see it that way if you were to reveal it to them.  Keep in mind you could also find a way to let only the members you know and trust know that the alternate account is actually you; this way you don't betray the trust of your friends.


What if I Would Rather Link My Alternate Account Instead of My Main Account?

     If for some reason you really want to have one of your alternate accounts linked to your Facebook and Game Center accounts instead of your original account, it can be done. 

To switch the account that is linked to Facebook:

* Go to your settings (the button on the lower right of your home base screen that contains an image of gears, it is just above the button for the shop) and go to the tab that says "settings". 

* Here you will click the button below the word "Facebook" that says "Disconnected". 

* Most likely a window will pop-up that says "This Facebook account is already linked to another Clash of Clans game.  Link it to your current game instead?", and you will click "Okay"

* You will then go through the process of switching accounts by entering your Facebook information and confirming that you wish to do this.  Now your alternate account will be able to access your Facebook friends that play CoC list.

* You should also now be able to compare your achievements and challenge your friends.

* Note that your main account will no longer have access to these features, and will not be able to use this on this account again unless you switch your accounts back to their original state.

Pulling the Clan Castle - The Golden Rule for Wars

     If you have ever been in a war or even been part of a clan during a war, you have most likely seen clan mates talking or even been told yourself about the importance of pulling the Clan Castle in war attacks.  This is one of the most critical (arguably the most critical) parts of any successful attack.  In all ground attacks and almost all air attacks, proper pulling of the CC can (and often will) mean the difference between a 100% 3-star victory and a 2, 1, or no-star defeat.  The CC pull is really a simple step in most attacks, but it can easily be overlooked or done improperly, resulting in not only troop losses and wasted spells, but also lost time which can cause the battle to end just as you reach the TH or just before you destroy the last building in the village.


Always Check the CC Range Before an Attack

     It is always a good idea to scout your intended war target before launching an attack so that you can plan out the details of your attack, like which side you will approach from, where the best spots are for dropping your funneling troops, where and when you want to deploy your wallbreakers, are there any buildings hiding in the corners, and many other things.  Unfortunately, one of the most overlooked and forgotten parts of a good scout is checking the range of the enemy CC and having a precise plan for getting the full CC pull, as well as defeating the troops inside once they are pulled.
     As a leader, co-leader or elder, it may be helpful to yourself and the rest of the clan to send out a clan mail during the prep day of each war reminding everyone of all the biggest things to look for when scouting their opponents.  This would include such things as CC radius, whether TH is located in center of off-center of base, how many walls to get to the TH from each direction, locations/levels of air defenses (for air attacks), locations of high hit point structures (like storages) and ways to avoid or bypass them, level of CC, level of defenses (making note of abnormally low or high level defenses), checking for hidden corner buildings (usually builder's huts in each corner), whether or not the enemy CC is full (clicking on the CC will show the number of troops it contains over the max capacity), level and location of hero (or heroes), level of walls, and layout of walls looking for weak points and points that if breached will allow access to multiple enclosures at once and looking for the path of least resistance to the TH.
     Reminding everyone of these things on prep day when most of them will be scouting and making their battle plans will ensure the best chance that everyone remembers to check all these important things, especially the CC and how best to pull it.  Another way of keeping people from forgetting about the CC as a clan officer is to ask that everyone participating in the war presents their battle plan, including how they plan to pull the CC, to the rest of the clan for review during the prep day or at least 12 hours before they plan to attack.  This way, everyone will be forced to check the CC or risk being left out of wars for failure to follow the rules.  The upside is that most of the time everyone will comply and the war will go much smoother with less attacks flopping, but the downside is that it is very tedious to search the clan chat for every member's battle plan and then going to the intended target to check that the plans make sense. 
    As a regular clan member, you should make it your responsibility to remember to always check the CC radius and make a plan for pulling and dealing with the CC troops.  Try to get into the habit of doing the same set of things each time you scout.  If you always use the same process and do things in the same order when scouting bases, you will quickly begin to get into a rhythm and before long you won't even have to think about it, it will just come naturally.  Since pulling the CC will be the first thing you do in most of your attacks, just make it the first thing you check when you scout a base.  That will make you much less likely to forget about it while you're planning out the rest of your attack.


Check the Number of Troops in the Clan Castle

     It sounds crazy at first, but it happens far more often than you'd think.  Clan either forget to finish topping off someone's defensive CC or are just trying to get by as cheap as possible and are warring more for clan perk experience than to actually win.  Since you are already going to have to click their CC anyway when you scout to check the range of the CC, go ahead and take an extra second to see if it is full.  This can be done by looking at the top of the CC when you have it highlighted (when the radius is being shown).  It will show something like "25/25" if the CC is full.  If it is not full however, the top number will be smaller than the bottom number, such as "22/25" or "15/25". 
     Checking this really pays off when you notice that the CC is actually empty.  There have been multiple occasions in my clan where someone noticed that their target had an empty CC while scouting, which prompted others to re-check their targets' CC which led to us noticing that the entire clan had no CC troops.  This was a huge bit of information to know, since we were then able to ignore pulling or worrying about any of their CC troops, and we could focus simply on attacking. 
     Getting used to doing this will also result in you becoming adept at making educated guesses at the kinds of troops the enemy may have in their CC.  When there are numerous smaller troops in the CC, you will need to use a stronger troop to pull them so it can stay alive long enough to get the full CC pull.  When there is just one or two larger troops in the CC you only need a troop to get into the range of the CC for a moment to get the full pull.  By checking the number you will have a better idea of whether there are smaller troops in the CC or not.  For instance, if you see that the CC has 23 units, there is a good chance that some of those units are small units that take a single space (like archers or barbarians), and if a CC is filled to less than 20 you can immediately rule out a dragon, PEKKA, or any larger troops like that. 


Planning the CC Pull

 Depending on the TH level of your opponent, their base layout and the position of their CC, it can be fairly easy, or very difficult to actually draw out the CC troops.  The difficulty of the pull can also be affected by the number of troops in the CC.  5 giants are much easier to pull than 25 archers!  If all you have to pull out of the CC is a dragon, you can use a weaker troop like a wallbreaker to pull it instead of something tougher that takes more space like a hog, balloon, or giant.  But if there is even the possibility that there are several archers or other single-space troop in the CC, it is always best to take a couple hogs or a giant or two and be over prepared rather than only getting a half pull.

Let's go over the most commonly used troops for pulling CCs and their advantages and disadvantages.

Giants - Upside: great troops for pulling CCs.  High hit points, and move past buffer buildings and walk right up to the outer walls (this can usually get them within range to pull the CC).  1 giant can pull a good number of troops, but if there are possibly many small troops you should probably take 2 to ensure a full pull.
Downside: Very slow, and will not be able to get past the outer wall without help, so if the CC range is within the walls or even on the walls and you're not sure, it may be best to use hogs or loons to pull.

Hogs -   Upside: very fast, moderate hit points, will move past the buffer buildings and jump right over the walls until they reach a defense.  Hogs can usually penetrate the furthest into the base, and can pull even the most protected CCs if they can survive long enough to get the full pull.  Taking 2-3 is usually a good idea if you can spare the space.
Downside: because they penetrate into the base so far, they get targeted by many defenses and die out before the CC is fully pulled, a group of 2-3 hogs can get the job done though if you have the space.

Wallbreakers - Upside: they are fast-moving, and can quickly close in on the CC range radius.  They also go right past the buffer buildings and head directly to the outer walls.
Downside: they are very easily killed.  Extremely low hit points can cause them to be killed before they can reach the edge of the CC range.  Wallbreakers will only go as far as the first (nearest) layer of wall, so make sure that will be enough to pull the CC; if the CC range is at or behind the wall, hogs or balloons may be a better choice to pull the CC.

Balloons - Upside: they are an air troop, so they don't have to worry about being targeted by mortars, cannons, or ground-only X-bows.  Have moderate hit points and will fly directly to the nearest defense, bypassing buffers and walls. 
Downside: they are extremely slow!  Although they don't get targeted by some of the defenses, they are vulnerable to the air defenses, and will only last a few seconds once they are targeted by one.  Best to use these when they can pull the CC from outside the range of the air defenses. Can also help to take 2-3 if you know they will have to deal with an air defense.


Poison Spell

     With the advent of the poison spell, dealing with CC troops has changed dramatically. In many cases, you no longer have to worry about pulling the CC troops out to the edge of the map out of range of the defenses and drop troops around them to despose of them.  Now the main concern is usually whether you got a full CC pull and making sure the CC troops are gathered  together close enough that they will all be affected by a properly deployed poison spell.
     The question now becomes this; which troops can be killed outright by a poison spell and which troops will need to be finished off in the traditional way? Now that the poison spell has been revamped and does increasing DPS the longer a troop remains inside it's area of effect, the poison spell is much more effective against heavier, tougher troops.  It still won't, however, outright kill troops like dragons, PEKKAs, lava hounds, golems, and heroes.  The poison spell will take down weaker troops just as it did before, the only difference is that now it takes a few more seconds to build up enough DPS to kill them off.  Archers, barbs, and goblins will die off after about 5 seconds or less depending on their level and the level of the poison spell, and wizards will go down in 5 to 10 seconds. 
     For those troops that are too tough to be killed by the poison spell, it is still worth it to use poison on them.  If you simply pull them and then drop the spell before deploying any of your troops, you should wait until the spell has ran for its entire duration before dropping any troops because if you start deploying troops, the enemy CC troops will move out of the area affected by the poison spell and will likely miss the most critical part of the spell; when it has had time to reach its maximum DPS.  This basically wastes the spell, so make sure not to drop any troops until the orange poison spell circle that appears when you initially drop the poison spell disappears.
     Another option is to first pull the CC troops, then begin your attack and allow the enemy CC troops to approach yours.  Once you see where your troops will meet the enemy CC troops, drop the poison spell right in the middle of that spot.  You can also just wait until they actually meet and start fighting to drop the spell if you are afraid of dropping it in the wrong spot and wasting it.  The main idea behind this strategy is to take advantage of the spell's effect on the enemy troop's attack and movement speed, allowing your troops to quickly defeat them without suffering heavy losses.  The problem with dropping the spell after deploying troops is that the actual damage of the spell is wasted because your troops will kill off the enemy CC troops before the poison spell has a chance to build up its DPS, so you waste that part of the spell.  So this strategy can work just fine, but it is essential to drop the spell so that it hits all the CC troops. 
    

Traditional Clan Castle Pull

     Sometimes an attack strategy may require that you use the space normally reserved for your poison spell in order to make room for another spell (such as using earthquake spells to punch a hole in the walls for a GoWiPe style attack).  In this case, you will have to pull the CC the traditional way. 
     The first thing to know about a traditional pull is that you will have to take extra troops besides your main army.  These troops will be picked specifically to help kill whatever is in the enemy CC.  One really good strategy is to use a couple barbs or archers to lure the CC troops to the edge of the base, then drop a witch immediately followed by the Archer Queen, so that the witch raises skeletons as a distraction to keep the CC troops occupied, while the Queen takes care of the CC troops.  Another good strategy is to use a few archers or barbs to lure the CC troops to the edge of the base, then surround them with barbs or archers and sprinkle in a couple of wizards to finish them off quickly while the barbs and archers act as a distraction.
     To do a traditional pull, you will start out the same; using a troop like giants, hogs, wallbreakers, or balloons to lure the CC troops out of the CC.  After that, instead of dropping a poison spell, you will drop a single barb or archer out in the nearest corner of the base (or the corner you choose based on your strategy) to lure the CC troops out to that area so they are out of range of the defenses.  Once they reach your chosen spot, you will deploy the troops you brought to kill the CC (often referred to as "the kill squad".  Depending on your specific strategy, you will surround the CC troops a certain way and proceed to dispose of them.  Once the CC troops have been taken care of, you can begin your main attack.  If you get good at it, you can even save a few seconds by deploying your main army just before the CC troops are defeated, once you know for sure your kill squad has their attention indefinitely. 
    
* The best troops to use as your kill squad and the best approach to pulling CC troops will depend on your play style, your TH level, your enemy's TH level, the enemy's base layout, and of course, the kind of troops the enemy has in their CC.  I will be creating more posts on CC troops and the best defensive troops as well as the best troops to counter various CC troops in your attacks.  Good luck, and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!  Thanks for reading!

Next Update: Loot Cart, Treasury, and Star Bonus!

     This is the latest on the upcoming update, quoted from a Super Cell employee:

"Hello Clashers,

As mentioned in our latest posts, we’re currently working on an update that we intend to roll out as soon as possible. In the meantime here is a preview of what’s coming:

Introducing the new Star Bonus! Win five stars in Multiplayer attacks in order to win a daily resource bonus! 

Housed in your Clan Castle, the Treasury is the safest place to store resources. Your daily Star Bonus and War Loot Bonus are automatically stored in the Treasury for safeguarding and only a very small percentage can be stolen. 

Last but not least, we’ll introduce the Loot Cart. After your village has been attacked, a percentage of the stolen resources will be added to a Loot Cart in your Village. Once you collect the resources from the Loot Cart, these will be transferred to your Treasury for safeguarding.

Besides these new features, the update will also include a few bug fixes and battle balancing tweaks. 

We’ll provide more details soon, stay tuned! 


- Clash of Clans Dev Team "

     So this update appears to be adding a few cool new features that should help balance out the changes that were made in the TH-11 update. It seems like many players are complaining of losing more resources and being attacked repeatedly without gaining a shield therefore losing even more resources. 

     It looks like this update is meant to at least partially remedy that by adding the Treasury which will safely store resources since only a very small percentage can be stolen from it.  The Star Bonus and Loot Cart feed into the treasury, so that you have resources being sent there from several places; war loot, star bonus (basically a reward for successfully attacking each day), and loot cart (a partial reimbursement from loot stolen by attackers) will all be sent to the treasury where it will be safer than presumably any other place in the game. Should this work as intended, it should stave off the slew of players that have been begging for Super Cell to revert the game to the pre-TH-11 version.

Heroes - Archer Queen

     The Archer Queen can be acquired at TH-9 for 40,000 dark elixir (yes, that is a ton of dark elixir!).  Upon saving up the required dark elixir, you can build the altar and begin using the Archer Queen instantly.  She adds a whole new dimension to your collection of heroes, as the Queen has a very long attack range, high attack rate and high damage output.  She has to be better protected than the King however, since her hit points are much lower than the King. 
     Like the King, the Queen is immortal and can only be knocked out during battle, at which time she will rest until completely healed.  Also like the King, the amount of time it takes for her to heal is directly proportional to the amount of damage she receives in battle and also her level, taking anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour 48 minutes to completely regenerate (just like the King). 
     As with the King, you can use 10 gems to quadruple the Queen's recovery rate for 2 hours.  You could also just use a variable number of gems to instantly heal her and be able to use her.  Of these choices, it is usually of higher gem value to boost the recovery rate by 4x than to simply gem for an instant heal.  The amount of gems you must pay to instantly recover is dependent on how long the Queen (and King) has left to completely heal, and it will be cheaper on you (and you'll get more use out of it) if you just use 10 gems to boost the healing rate for 2 hours, because it can take multiple times that many to instantly heal her. 
     The Archer Queen has her own ability called Royal Cloak.  The Royal Cloak ability allows the Queen to become invisible and break all defenses from targeting her for a time.  During this time, her arrows become flaming arrows and do much higher damage, while she instantly heals for a moderate portion of health and summoning a number of archers to her side.  Unlike the King, the Queen's Royal Cloak ability does not have an effect on other troops; this ability only affects the Queen herself.  This ability is first gained at level 5 and can be upgraded every 5 levels just like the King's Iron Fist ability.  The Queen can be upgraded to level 30 at TH-9, and can reach level 40 at TH-10 (max level for both of the dark elixir heroes).
     The biggest difference between the King and Queen is that the Queen can attack air troops as well as ground troops, while the King can only attack ground troops.  Like the King, however, the Queen only targets 1 enemy or structure at a time, but she does have a much faster attack rate.  The fact that she can hit air troops makes her very useful against dragons, balloons, and other air troops that may be used to attack her village.  She is very useful as a base defender as well, because of her ability to attack air troops and her high attack speed. 


Here is a table including the Archer Queen's training cost, training time, damage per second and per hit, recovery time, and hit points for each level she is upgraded to: 

Level	Damage Per Second	Damage Per Hit	Hit Points	Regeneration Time	Royal Cloak Level	Training Cost (DE)	Training Time
1	160	120	725	30m	0	40,000	Instant
2	164	123	740	32m	-	22,500	12h
3	168	126	755	34m	-	25,000	1d
4	172	129	771	36m	-	27,500	1d 12h
5	176	132	787	38m	1	30,000	2d
6	181	135.75	804	40m	-	32,500	2d 12h
7	185	138.75	821	42m	-	35,000	3d
8	190	142.5	838	44m	-	40,000	3d 12h
9	194	145.5	856	46m	-	45,000	4d
10	199	149.25	874	48m	2	50,000	4d 12h
11	204	153	892	50m	-	55,000	5d
12	209	156.75	911	52m	-	60,000	5d 12h
13	215	161.25	930	54m	-	65,000	6d
14	220	165	949	56m	-	70,000	6d 12h
15	226	169.5	969	58m	3	75,000	7d
16	231	173.25	990	1h	-	80,000	-
17	237	177.75	1,010	1h 2m	-	85,000	-
18	243	182.25	1,032	1h 4m	-	90,000	-
19	249	186.75	1,053	1h 6m	-	95,000	-
20	255	191.25	1,076	1h 8m	4	100,000	-
21	262	196.5	1,098	1h 10m	-	105,000	-
22	268	201	1,121	1h 12m	-	110,000	-
23	275	206.25	1,145	1h 14m	-	115,000	-
24	282	211.5	1,169	1h 16m	-	120,000	-
25	289	216.75	1,193	1h 18m	5	125,000	-
26	296	222	1,218	1h 20m	-	130,000	-
27	304	228	1,244	1h 22m	-	135,000	-
28	311	233.25	1,270	1h 24m	-	140,000	-
29	319	239.25	1,297	1h 26m	-	145,000	-
30	327	245.25	1,324	1h 28m	6	150,000	-
31	335	251.25	1,352	1h 30m	-	155,000	-
32	344	258	1,380	1h 32m	-	160,000	-
33	352	264	1,409	1h 34m	-	165,000	-
34	361	270.75	1,439	1h 36m	-	170,000	-
35	370	277.5	1,469	1h 38m	7	175,000	-
36	379	284.25	1,500	1h 40m	-	180,000	-
37	389	291.75	1,532	1h 42m	-	185,000	-
38	398	298.5	1,564	1h 44m	-	190,000	-
39	408	306	1,597	1h 46m	-	195,000	-
40	419	314.25	1,630	1h 48m	8	200,000	-

* Notice some trends here; each level increases the amount of time to recover from a knock out by 2 minutes, the amount of dark elixir required to initially build the Queen's altar is 40,000 while the amount needed to upgrade to level 2 is only 22,500, at which point each level will cost an extra 2,500 dark elixir until the Queen reaches level 7, at this point the required DE increases in 5,000 increments. 
* Also note that the training time starts at 12 hours for level 2, then increases by 12 hours each level until level 15 when it reaches 7 days to train; after this point, every level upgrade afterwards will take 7 days and will no longer increase. 
* The Queen gets her looks upgraded as she gains levels as well, although this has no effect other than making her look cooler.  First her crown changes from grey to gold, then her crossbow changes from grey to gold metal.


Here is another table showing the stats for the Archer Queen's Royal Cloak ability at each ability level including duration, damage increase, healing, and number of summoned units:

Royal Cloak Level	Added Damage Per Second	Hit Points Recovered	Number of Summoned Units	Royal Cloak Duration
1	300	150	5	3.6s
2	355	175	6	3.8s
3	416	200	7	4.0s
4	483	225	8	4.2s
5	557	250	9	4.4s
6	638	275	10	4.6s
7	725	300	11	4.8s
8	819	325	12	5s

* Notice that the damage increase goes up by a greater and greater amount as the ability level increases, with an increase of only 55 DPS from level 1 to 2, to an increase of 94 from level 7 to 8.  The ability duration increases by 1.4 seconds from level 1 to maximum level, and she gets an extra 7 summoned units at level 8 for a total of 12 units compared to level 1 with only 5 units
* Each level increases the amount of healing provided by the Royal Cloak ability by 25 hit points, and this is always the amount it will increase by.  Unlike stats like the damage increase, the healing increases by a set amount and doesn't increase by greater amounts at higher levels.


Offensive Strategy

     The Archer Queen is deadly because she can stand back behind other troops and still be able to target buildings and units from a safe distance.  Her range is significantly further than normal archers (she can shoot from 5 tiles away while normal archers can only shoot from 3.5 tiles away), which allows her to stand further back allowing her to be one of the last units of your army to be targeted. 
     This also allows her to shoot at buildings that seem well protected and deep within the base.  She can shoot structures like this without having to destroy the walls to get inside, and she can sometimes clear out an entire enclosure before the other troops can even break through the wall to get to the structures inside. 
     Because of her larger range, the Archer Queen works really well when used with a group of meat shields in front of her such as giants, PEKKAs, golems, or the Barbarian King, then having archers behind the meat shields with the Queen mixed in with or behind those archers.  This allows her to do exactly what I mentioned a moment ago; she can shoot from behind the army and take out structures from a safe distance and even clear out enclosures allowing the other troops to move on to other areas of the base instead of getting stuck hitting the walls while they all get picked off.  Placing her behind the tanks/meat shields minimizes the damage she takes during the raid or even allow her to avoid being hit altogether.  Remember that her taking less damage results in being able to use her more often when attacking multiple times in quick succession (as when farming). 
     A common use for the Archer Queen in farming and wars is to clear out enough structures to reach 50% destruction of the base by deploying her after the rest of the army has been defeated.  This is very useful in trophy pushing because in many raids you may be able to destroy the TH but not get 50%, or just miss destroying the TH and having 48-49%, both of which result in a much smaller amount of trophies or even no trophies being awarded.  The Queen can then be deployed, and with her range can safely take out several buildings without being targeted by defenses or even be able to destroy the TH while remaining outside the range of the remaining defenses.  Needless to say, this can truly save botched attacks, transforming a busted 0-star attack into a 1-star or even 2-star victory!  Even if she begins to be targeted by defenses, you can pop her Royal Cloak ability to go invisible and also heal so she can still be immediately used in the next battle while also giving herself
enough time to finish off a few more buildings or the TH.
     When facing an enemy's Archer Queen in battle, don't waste a poison spell on her if you are planning to use it strictly for damage purposes.  For one thing, heroes are all but unaffected by the poison spell; it doesn't do nearly as much damage to heroes as it does to normal troops, and you will see this when it barely puts a scratch in her health.  Also, the heroes seem to instinctively move away from the poison spell once it has been dropped.  If at all possible they will avoid standing in the area affected by a poison spell, unless they are actively engaging troops. 
     There is however a use for poison with heroes in certain situations.  When your troops engage the Queen, you can then drop your poison on top of her in order to slow her down significantly.  While the damage part of the poison spell has almost no effect on heroes, the slowing effect on their attack and movement speed seems to work just fine.  This allows your troops to quickly deal with the Queen without suffering heavy losses.
    

Defensive Strategy

     The Archer Queeen can be just as deadly defensively as she is offensively.  She is much more suited to defending than the Barbarian King, with her long range and fast attack speed she can fire shot after shot from behind the walls and wipe out the toughest of troops in a matter of seconds.  Just as with the King, the Archer Queen cannot use her ability on defense. 
     Some players like to place the King and Queen near one another to pack a double whammy when enemy troops approach them, while other players prefer placing them in separate areas to force the enemy to face one of the heroes regardless of how they approach the base.  Placed together, it can work wonderfully because the King can tank for the Queen while she picks off troops attacking the King, but sometimes a good player can avoid the heroes completely while they take out the TH and some storages and face them after they have destroyed many of the defenses to make it a more even fight. 
     The benefit to having the King and Queen separated is that they can cover a very large portion of the base so that no matter how an opponent chooses to attack, they will have to face one or both heroes before getting into the heart of the base and getting the storages and TH.  The downside to this strategy is that enemies can focus on taking out one hero at a time and they do much less damage than when they are placed together; the Queen has no one to tank for her, and the King has no DPS to back him up.  However, it does seem that with this strategy, whichever hero the opponent avoids at first seems to always start targeting the enemy troops right at the time they reach the center, so that they get turned from attacking the TH to attack the hero instead while also getting hit by almost all the remaining defenses, since most defenses will be in range of enemy troops when the troops are in the center enclosure.  The most effective placement of your heroes will depend on the layout of your base.
     As with the Barbarian King, you can choose to have the Archer Queen defend the village or sleep.  If she is set to sleep, just like the King she will not appear on the village map when an opponent attacks and she will not defend your village, but she will always be available when you decide to attack.  I would definitely recommend having your Queen set to defend the village, as she is much more adept at defending than the King.  Sometimes just seeing the Queen patrolling can be enough to deter a potential attacker.  If however, you really need to have your Queen available for your attacks and don't want to have to wait for her to heal if you are attacked, you can set her to sleep so you will always have her available for attacking when you need her.
     It is even more important to have the Queen in a protected position than the King.  Place within range of the TH, even in the center enclosure if you have room for her altar there.  If not, just get her as close as you can.  It is also beneficial to have her placed so that she is also in range of the King, so you cover more ground while also having the heroes in position to help one another fend off attackers.