Multiplayer Guide - Trophies, Leagues, and Matchmaking

     I have noticed that many players commonly struggle with finding good opponents to attack.  Either they cannot seem to find anyone with high enough loot to be worth attacking, or when they find someone worth attacking they are much too difficult to be able to attack successfully.  This is a super common problem in Clash of Clans.  In this post, we are going to look at some of the biggest reasons this happens, and take a look at some convenient ways to avoid this situation. 


Trophies and Leagues

     The best place to start when looking to improve your multiplayer experience is to learn more about how the trophy and league system works, and how to use it to your advantage.  When you begin the game, you start out with 0 trophies and have to work your way up the ranks from there.  As your village grows, you will have no trouble gaining trophies and can quickly get up to Bronze I and even Silver leagues, but is this the best way to go?  Should you try to climb to as high a league as you can as early as you can?  Let's breakdown how trophies and leagues work in Clash of Clans, then come back to these questions. 

Trophies:

Trophies are part of each player's statistics in the game; they are awarded to a player when they win a battle, and are lost when a player is unable to get any stars in a battle.  The amount of trophies that can be won or lost in any particular battle are determined by several factors.  These factors include the TH levels of both the attacking and defending players, the amount of total trophies each player has, the league each player is in, the amount of stars the attacker is able to get in the attack, and of course whether or not the player even wins the fight in the first place.

The amount of trophies shown when you are looking at a possible base to raid is the number of trophies you will win if you 3-star their base.  If you win the battle, but only get 1 or 2 stars, you will get a much smaller amount of trophies, usually around half or less of what is displayed before starting the attack.  So, if you are looking for as many trophies as possible, you will want to always give it your all and use strategies that are aimed at 3-starring bases.  The amount also changes depending on the difference in trophies between you and your target.  If you both have an identical amount of trophies, a win will get you 30 trophies while a loss will cost you 20.  If there is a really large number of trophies between you and your target (for example, say they have around 600 more trophies than you), you will only lose 1 trophy if you don't get any stars while winning will net you up to around 60 trophies!

The amount of trophies you earn with each battle decreases each time you go to a higher league.  This amount is also affected by your current TH level.  If you are a low level TH and are in a higher league, you will get more trophies than someone in the same league that is a higher TH level.  For farming or when you are at a lower TH level, it is highly suggested that you stay in the lower leagues like bronze and silver to farm your resources.  We will talk more about which league is right for you later in the league section.

Leagues:

Leagues are groupings of players with similar trophy counts.  These leagues have seasons that last for one month, after which they reset and start over.  The seasons seem to reset the first Monday of each month at midnight EST (US - Eastern Standard Time).  According to how many trophies you have (provided you have over 400), you will be placed in a league upon your first attack of each new league season regardless of whether you won or lost the attack. 

Each league has 3 tiers, for example, there is a Bronze I, II, and III, with III being the lowest trophy group and I being the highest.  The new Legend League only has one tier, and at the end of each season all it's members have their trophies reset to 5000, although they do receive Legend Trophies for how many trophies over 5000 they had when the reset occurs.  Legend trophies are a prestige thing; they are placed on your profile permanently for everyone to see, and simply show that you consistently excel in Legend League. 

The members of each league will be grouped into smaller sub-groups of 100.  The league is still called by the same name, but just remember that the group you see when you check your league standing is simply a random 100 people you are grouped with when you joined that league, it does not represent the entire group of people in that league, and the rank it shows for you is just your rank within that group of 100.  If you are promoted or demoted into another league, you will be matched with a completely different set of people.  If you were to be promoted/demoted, and found your way back to your original trophy league, you would be placed in a completely different group of 100, not the same one you were with originally. 

The sub-leagues were always somewhat of a disappointment to me.  I always wished they had found some way to make it more interesting, like always grouping you with players that were within 100-200 miles of you or something like that, or group players by state or province, anything to make it more interesting by turning it into your local league somehow. 

While you are in any sub-league, the game will track your offensive and defensive wins, which will show up on your profile and by your name in the league screen.  Keep in mind that there are bonuses for winning attacks while in a league.  To get the full league loot bonus, you must get at least 70% destruction.  You get 80% of the league loot bonus with 50% destruction.  League loot bonus is not awarded if you lose; its also not awarded for revenge attacks, defensive wins, or single player missions.  The league bonuses have been improved since the TH-11 update, but they are still no comparison to the amount of loot you can get from attacking, therefore don't join a league because of the bonus, find the league that has good opponents for your TH level and skill, and stick to that league.

Each league and each tier in that league has a trophy requirement to join.  As soon as you reach the trophy requirement you are promoted to that league.  To be demoted, you have to drop over 100 trophies below the limit required to join that league.  The first 2 Bronze Leagues have a trophy range of 100, while the leagues from Bronze I to Master I have a range of 200 trophies, and any league higher than that (Champion League onward up to Legend which is the highest possible league) has a trophy range of 300.  Here is a table with the breakdown for each specific league including the league loot bonuses for each separate league tier, and the amount of trophies you must reach for promotion and demotion to the next league.

League	Trophy Range	Demotion at or Below	Promotion at or Below	Gold Bonus	Elixir Bonus	Dark Elixir Bonus
Bronze III	400-499	300	500	0	0	0
Bronze II	500-599	450	600	1,000	1,000	0
Bronze I	600-799	550	800	1,300	1,300	0
Silver III	800-999	700	1,000	2,600	2,600	0
Silver II	1,000-1,199	900	1,200	3,700	3,700	0
Silver I	1,200-1,399	1,100	1,400	4,800	4,800	0
Gold III	1,400-1,599	1,300	1,600	10,000	10,000	0
Gold II	1,600-1,799	1,500	1,800	13,500	13,500	0
Gold I	1,800-1,999	1,700	2,000	15,000	15,000	0
Crystal III	2,000-2,199	1,900	2,200	40,000	40,000	120
Crystal II	2,200-2,399	2,100	2,400	55,000	55,000	220
Crystal I	2,400-2,599	2,300	2,600	70,000	70,000	320
Master III	2,600-2,799	2,500	2,800	110,000	110,000	560
Master II	2,800-2,999	2,700	3,000	135,000	135,000	740
Master I	3,000-3,199	2,900	3,200	160,000	160,000	920
Champion III	3,200-3,499	3,100	3,500	200,000	200,000	1,220
Champion II	3,500-3,799	3,400	3,800	225,000	225,000	1,400
Champion I	3,800-4,099	3,700	4,100	250,000	250,000	1,580
Titan III	4,100-4,399	4,000	4,400	280,000	280,000	1,880
Titan II	4,400-4,699	4,300	4,700	300,000	300,000	2,060
Titan I	4,700-4,999	4,600	5,000	320,000	320,000	2,240
Legend	5,000+	4,900	No Limit	340,000	340,000	2,400

Bronze League

Silver League

Gold League

Crystal League

Master League

                                                                                  

Champion League

Titan League

Legend League

* As you can see, the loot bonus gets very significant in later leagues, but I wouldn't suggest trying to enter anything above Crystal until you are TH-9 or above, otherwise you will have a really tough time hanging on to any of your resources.  After you get to TH-9 and get your base mostly maxed out, you should be able to hold your own in the upper leagues for the most part, if you are a skilled attacker, actively play the game, and have a difficult base layout to defeat.

Also, note that there are achievements for reaching certain leagues.  These achievements yield a great deal of gems for reaching the higher leagues like Crystal, Master, and Champion.  We will discuss this in greater detail in the post on Achievements which will be released soon.  I only mention it now to let you know that it may be worthwhile at some point during your play through the game to farm trophies in order to get into these leagues.  You don't have to stay in them, only to reach them, so you can immediately drop your trophies again by intentionally losing attacks (by dropping a single cheap troop then quitting the battle).  It can be well worthwhile when you really need some gems to get the 3rd, 4th or 5th builder.

Matchmaking

To take advantage of the matchmaking system, you need to first know how it works.  For all leagues below Champion III, the matches you get when searching bases to attack are determined by both your trophies and your TH level.  Once you get to Champion III and beyond, it only matters how many trophies you have and your TH is not factored in at all, so you may face any strength of opponent as long as they are near you in trophies. 

If you have already read my post on Loot Calculation, you will know that there is a loot penalty for attacking a town hall that is lower than your own town hall level, but if you haven't read it yet, click the following link to learn more about loot calculation (http://soyouwannaclash.blogspot.com/2016/01/loot-calculation.html).  This loot penalty is meant to keep higher level THs from picking on lower level THs, because they won't get nearly as much loot for it, making lower THs much less appealing targets.  The most important thing to remember is that the penalty makes a huge jump when attacking players with THs that are 2 or more levels below yours.  It jumps from 90% of total loot at 1 TH level below yours to 50% loot at 2 TH levels below you!

You will typically be matched with players that are within 2 TH levels of you.  You will also typically be matched with players that are within + or - 200 trophies of you.  Since a player at any TH level can be placed in any league and have any amount of trophies, there is no set area you can find a certain strength of player at.  You will find some low level players in the higher leagues, and there are definitely higher level players in the lower leagues.  In general, however, the competition will become tougher as you go up in leagues, so try to find the league that fits you; find the one that you find the most players that are near your strength but you can also raid successfully and get loot from. 

For example, my TH-8 alternate account usually hangs around between Silver II and Gold II, and this seems to suit him pretty well for farming.  Generally the leagues I have found the most beneficial to different TH level players are:

TH-1-5 = Bronze I, II, III
TH-6    = Bronze II to Silver I
TH-7    = Bronze I to Gold III
TH-8    = Silver III to Gold II
TH-9    = Silver I to Crystal I
TH-10  = Gold I to Master I
TH-11  = Master III and up

* Bear in mind these figures are based on my experience and not in any way meant to be set in stone or thought of as the only, or even best, way to do it.  Also note that I was a little generous on the higher league figure in each of the THs, just because I wanted to emphasize that there is a wide range that can work for different players of different skill levels.  If you are a skilled player, it would likely benefit you more to move into the higher figures shown above.  But if you find that you struggle with attacking and want to get into a league that will allow you to farm good loot but also get in practice attacking easier opponents, try going for one of the lower league figures above.

Loot Calculation

     Have you ever been staring at a base that has full storages and collectors and wondered why the available loot is still so low?  There is a reason for that.  At times, it can seem like the game chooses random amounts for villages you see, but this is not the case.  With a little extra knowledge at your disposal, you will know exactly what to look for in a good raid.


Overall Loot Calculation

     The overall amount of loot available to you for a particular raid is determined by a few factors.  The factor with the biggest effect on loot is the level of your Town Hall.  When calculating the overall loot, the base amount will change depending on the number of levels between your TH and your opponent's TH.  Here is how it breaks down:

If your opponent's TH level is:

Equal to yours or higher than you - 100% base loot available
1 level lower than you --------------- 90% base loot available
2 levels lower than you -------------- 50% base loot available    
3 levels lower than you -------------- 25% base loot available
4+ levels lower than you ------------ 5% base loot available

* As you can probably tell, any TH that is more than 1 level below yours, there will be a significant drop in available loot.  The loot available drops from 90% to 50%, so unless it is an extreme circumstance, it is probably best to stick to raiding players that are no more than 1 TH level below you.  This has both offensive and defensive consequences, for instance, if you are a TH-7 your available loot will only be appealing to players at TH-8 or lower.  If however, you rush your base and upgrade to TH-8 long before you are truly ready, you will suddenly be suffering 3-star defeats from TH-9's regularly.  This is why it is so important (especially at later TH levels) not to rush your base.


Percent of Base Loot Available by Town Hall Level

     As most of you know (okay pretty much everyone knows this), not all of the loot you have collected is available to be stolen by attackers.  If that was the case, we would all rage quit from losing all our loot in no time!  The game only allows a small portion of your total resource savings to be stolen in any attack.  This portion decreases as your TH level increases because you are able to hold so much more loot at higher levels (especially dark elixir).  The percentage of your total loot that is available to attackers forms the base loot I spoke of above, and that base amount is calculated as follows:

TH-1-5 = 20% of your total loot
TH-6    = 18% of your total loot
TH-7    = 16% of your total loot
TH-8    = 14% of your total loot
TH-9    = 12% of your total loot
TH-10  = 10% of your total loot

* To make sure you understand what this means, here is an example.  If you are TH-7 and on your home base screen it says you have 1,000,000 gold, an attacker will see an available loot of 160,000 gold (which is 16% of 1,000,000).  If you were a TH-8 and had 1,000,000 gold, an attacker would be able to steal 140,000 of it (which is 14% of 1,000,000).

    There is also a cap placed on how much loot can be available for each TH level.  This means that once you reach and exceed a certain amount of loot, the loot available to an attacker will stop increasing.  This keeps people from losing too much loot from attacks. Unlike the base loot, the loot cap increases as your TH level increases.  Here is the loot cap for each TH level:

TH-1-5 = 200,000 gold/elixir
TH-6    = 200,000 gold/elixir
TH-7    = 250,000 gold/elixir
TH-8    = 300,000 gold/elixir
TH-9    = 350,000 gold/elixir
TH-10  = 400,000 gold/elixir

* The amount of loot you need to have to reach the cap is important because after you pass this point you will know that your cap has kicked in and you won't lose any extra loot for continuing to build up your resources. Here is the amount of loot you will need to reach to hit the cap, once you hit this point you can keep on farming and never risk losing more loot:

TH-1-5 = 1,000,000 gold/elixir
TH-6    = 1,111,111 gold/elixir
TH-7    = 1,562,500 gold/elixir
TH-8    = 2,142,857 gold/elixir
TH-9    = 2,916,667 gold/elixir
TH-10  = 4,000,000 gold/elixir


Mines and Elixir Collectors    

     Collecting your loot from the mines and elixir collectors is important because uncollected loot is like a freebie for possible raiders.  They can spam goblins or archers at all the resource collectors and grab a large amount of your loot using hardly any troops, then quit the fight which leaves you without a shield and open to another attack.  It also makes you much more likely to be attacked by someone looking to do a full on raid because uncollected mines and elixir collectors greatly increase the amount of loot available to your attacker.  This is because loot in the storages contributes differently to total loot than loot in the collectors (a much higher percentage of the collector loot is available to be stolen).  The percent of your collector's loot that can be stolen is a whopping 50%, regardless of TH level, as opposed to between 20%-10% in the storages (depending on your TH level).


Dark Elixir Loot Calculation

     Dark elixir is calculated completely differently from gold and normal elixir. It is calculated in the same manner (storage % is lower and decreases as your TH level increases), but the percentages are completely different. For dark elixir, the difference between what is able to be stolen from storages and the collectors is much greater. 75% of the dark elixir in your drills can be stolen, regardless of TH level. Here is the breakdown for the dark elixir storage based on TH level:

TH-7-8 = 6% of loot available
TH-9    = 5% of loot available
TH-10  = 4% of loot available

* The dark elixir also has a cap on how much can be stolen from the storages.  Just like the other resources, the amount increases along with your TH level. Here is the cap for dark elixir and the amount you have to get to hit each cap.

TH-7-8 = 2,000 and is reached when you have 33,333 or more storage DE
TH-9    = 2,500 and is reached when you have 50,000 or more storage DE
TH-10  = 3,000 and is reached when you have 75,000 or more storage DE

* The big thing to remember here is that only 4-6% of the DE in your storage can be looted while 75% of what is in your drill can be looted. So it is super important to collect from your drills often, otherwise your base will quickly become targeted by multiple consecutive attacks by people looking to loot your drills and quit the battle leaving you shield-less.
   
     That does it for now on loot calculation, hopefully you are now armed with the knowledge you need to make smart choices in how you choose opponents and how you collect and protect your resources. Good luck, and thanks for reading!