Hey guys, so this will be my go to thread for anybody asking anything related to the .5 strategy. This thread will include upgrade order list, when is the best time to start going to the full TH, and why this is the best route to take when you are serious in war. Now this is all my opinion, I have had experience from 8.5-10.5.
Now the basic premise of a .5 upgrade system is to keep your offense in line with your defense. For example, don't build X-Bows/Infernos/EA until you can beat them. Now as a .5, you want to progress in war as much as possible without worrying about Multiplayer. When I went .5, I did not care if I was beat up in Multiplayer because the only thing that was important, was war.
8.5
As an 8.5 you main priority is getting your queen leveled up as quick as possible. The most popular attack for a TH 9 3* will be with hogs. So you need to focus your upgrades around these 2 things. Now when you first upgrade your TH you will want to start the first wave immediately. You may need to take a 1 week break for your spell factory, dark spell factory, and cc to upgrade(unless you want to gem them). This first 3 upgrades are very important to get the .5 edge.
First wave: This is when you will probably take your first break to wait for these to upgrade.
B(builder) 1: Queen
B 2: Spell Factory
B 3: Dark Spell Factory
B 4: Lab
B 5: CC
Second wave:
B 1: Queen(you will always want to have 1 free builder for queen upgrade)
B 2: Army Camp
B 3: Army Camp
B 4: Army Camp
B 5: Gold dumped into walls
Lab: Balloons(once you have these, TH 8s don't stand a chance) unless you are already proficient in 3* TH 8s, then go with hogs. Now, hoping you have level 4 hogs already this should be maxed by now.
Third Wave: We have now reached the point to where you should be able to 3* lower TH 9s fairly easily in war. You should also be able to stomp on any TH 8 with your max hogs.
B 1: Queen
B 2: Dark Barracks
B 3: Tesla(low weight for high damage)
B 4: Army Camp
B 5: Gold dumped into walls
Lab: Golems to level 4
Fourth Wave: As of now, we are just upgrading low weight defenses to defend against other TH 9s while keeping our weight low.
B 1: Queen
B 2: Dark Barracks
B 3: Tesla
B 4: Air defense(low weight for high damage against dragons)
B 5: Gold dumped into walls
Lab: Balloons if not upgraded already. If you already have balloons upgraded, go with your hound.
Fifth Wave: This is the final .5 wave. You can also throw in traps for quick few hour or 1 day upgrades. They are very low weight and pack a good punch if placed right.
B 1: Queen
B 2: X-Bow
B 3: X-Bow
B 4: Air defense
B 5: Gold dumped into walls
Lab: Now this is totally up to you. You can start upgrading your farming troops or continue with spells or Valkyries.
You can throw in storage upgrades wherever you would like. Now of course, these build times will not sync up to be perfect waves but this is what you want to be upgrade order. Make sure to always keep your offense in line with the defense. So when you can beat level 2 X-Bows, then upgrade to level 2 and so fourth. Depending on how avid a farmer you are, you should be able to finish level 9 and a few level 10 walls before you are ready for TH 9.5. Now since your elixir upgrades should be finished besides the lab, you can use the elixir for walls while you upgrade your defenses. Now me personally, I ended up gemming queen time once I got to the later levels so I never had to sit out. Some people liked to wait, but I didn't.
9.5
Base I used for 9.5:
http://i.imgur.com/CmQi6WG.jpg?1
This was personally my favorite .5. Majority of the time when I was 9.5 was spent doing 10v10 wars. I was the highest person so we got matched up quite frequently against maybe 1 TH 10 and the rest TH 9s. So I could easily take out the TH 10 and even easier, 3* the TH 9. Now when upgrading a 9.5, the goal of a TH 10 is to 2* the other TH 10, not 3*(that is down the line once you start to max heroes). So your main priority is golems, they will be used in every TH 10 attack. Those infernos are pesky as a 9.5 so also getting your freeze to max is also huge. As for a heads up, I have spent money on this game to gem hero times. So I was able to keep only 1 builder open for both walls and heroes. I was able to progress a little bit faster because of this and defiantly would recommend it. But, I know many people don't want to spend money, I will write the 9.5 guide as somebody who doesn't. Now, of course the whole point of being a 9.5 is so that you can stay in war while upgrading your TH so it would kind of defeat the purpose if you have your queen on constant upgrade.
Wave 1: Now like 8.5 you can take a break from war while all the essentials are upgrading or gem them.
B 1: Queen(I have always left a builder open for hero upgrades)
B 2: Spell Factory
B 3: CC
B 4: Army Camps
B 5: Lab
Wave 2: Now if you have decently high heroes you should already be able to 2* any TH 10, especially now with the 5 spell slots. I waited for a long time until I dropped my infernos, just because I wanted to upgrade my walls only(I loved zaps back then as you can tell by mys signature). Anyways, you can probably drop infernos pretty early as a 9.5 because of this. Now just a heads up, walls do weigh a bit more than they used to. So, as a maxed TH 9 along with pretty high walls, I got paired up with a lot of TH 10s with max defenses and weak walls. Now, I know that war matchmaking is clan based but you might have to drop them to just to get an even match up with defense. One person dropping infernos most likely won't make a difference with who you match up, especially if you do bigger wars.
B 1: Queen
B 2: Army Camp
B 3: Army Camp
B 4: Army Camp
B 5: Gold into walls
Lab: Golem(Valkyries to level 5 if you have them level 4)
Wave 3: Now you can honestly drop infernos by this point because mass golem is by far the easiest way to 2* any TH 10. But as this is a .5 guide, I will carry on.
B 1: Queen
B 2: Air Blower(if placed strategically, you can deter QW and mass air raids which are mostly done to TH 9s)
B 3: Air Blower
B 4: Inferno Tower
B 5: Elixir or excess gold into walls
Lab: Freeze
Wave 4: By now, you should be done with almost all the elixir upgrades for TH 10 apart from the troop upgrades. The rest can go into walls. Infernos can be built at this point and with the recent buff to Valkyrie, I would defiantly recommend setting them to multi.
B 1: Queen
B 2: Inferno Tower
B 3: You can carry on with any low weight items, such as the Air Blower, Tesla, Traps, or Air defenses.
B 4: Ditto
B 5: Elixir or excess gold into walls
Lab: Freeze(I would honestly upgrade this straight to level 5) Once you finish the freeze spell, you can go on and upgrade your farming troops or spells. Getting max jump was a very good option as well as the EQ.
You can throw in storage upgrades wherever you would like. You have now completed TH 9.5. I had a pretty decent amount of level 11 walls once I finished my 9.5 upgrades. I was a pretty avid farmer and loved upgrading walls. I ended up maxing out my walls before I even dropped infernos because I had so much fun being a 9.5. This was back when TH sniping was still a thing so I rarely ever got beat up on defense. Now the rest of the upgrades are up to you. I still have TH 9 defenses and I am now a weird TH(will explain in the 10.5 guide). I am slowly catching back up with the rest of my defenses.
not finished, accidentally posted it.
TH 8.5 and 9.5 version up, will finish 10.5 later.
