Ready for Th9/8.5 but how?

Hey y'all

So Im just about maxed Th8 prepping for th9.

I want to do the 8.5 thing for a while to keep my war weight down but have an upper offensive hand.

My clan leader gave me some advice but ultimately referred me here for further questions. All I know is that I should FIRST focus on maxing troops.

so...
First off is there a fairly recent and detailed up to date guide on this?
If not, What troops to upgrade first?
What new buildings should I build if any at all?
What current buildings should I focus on upgrading first?


Any and all advice is greatly appreciated guys, thanks!

So, first priority would be upgrading your cc, spell factory, lab and camps. You can drop your AQ and level her up.

There's some people who recommend, and others who do not, dropping the 4th ad. I don't think it affects war weight too much. I advised a new 8.5 in my clan against dropping any other defenses besides that. You can also add the new walls and traps since they don't affect weight too much.

As far as lab upgrades it would honestly depend on if you're in a war focused clan. If so, I would upgrade the troops you use the most in war first then work on farming troops. Or you can even alternate by doing one war, one farm, one war etc.

My mini just started the th upgrade and I plan to do 8.5 with that as well. Of course I'm going to do the priorities I listed above first. My plan after that is to finish the walls and the last tesla level I didn't do at th8 and then work on walls to lvl 9 while doing troops. For troops, I think I'm going to do hogs, heal, wizards first. Then maybe after that unlock hounds and do them along with loons. After my walls are lvl 9 I'll probably start upgrading my existing defenses before getting back to the wall grind.

I'm not an expert but I've been doing .5 on my mini since I started and am currently doing 9.5 on my main. The main focus of a .5 base is focusing on offense over defense. You're going to want to dump all your excess gold into traps and walls until you're comfortable attacking full th9s. A good rule of thumb that I've followed is not adding the defenses until you're being consistently matched up with a decent player that is same th with higher defenses and not rushed (so 8.5 consistently matched with th9 with xbows or 9.5 consistently matched with th10 with infernos). For example on my 9.5, I have a 27AQ/25BK, 42 lvl 11 walls (rest are lvl 10) and have upgraded almost all of my elixir upgrades and half of my dark elixir upgrades. I still haven't dropped my infernos because I'm getting matched against rushed th10s.

I feel like my thoughts are a bit scattered, lol. But if you have questions let me know!

Looks like you have a pretty good reply already, but I'll my 2 cents. I'm sure you already know that you are focusing on offense first, which means every building that boosts your offensive power and your lab upgrades.

First priorities: #0 All zero time builds walls\traps (if trying to keep lowest possible war weight skip this unti you have finished your war army upgrades), #1 Lab, #2, Spell Factory, #3 Archer Queen, #4 Clan Castle. This gets you 2 more spell space, the best hero, and 5 more off\def troops in the CC.
Second: All 4 camps, dark spell factory. Barracks only if you want baby dragons sooner than later. Dark Barracks to unlock Lava Hounds.
Defenses: Historically Air Defense and Sweeper have had low war weight. So I built those first.
Resources: New storages, upgrade DE Drills as soon as you have the elixir to spare.

I opted out of war for the first 2 weeks, and chose to have my dark spell factory down at that the same time as my spell factory, so I could get back into war sooner. Just be prepared for some boring farming with zero spells.

I'm an air attacker so, I went with balloons first while my dark barracks were upgrading. This let me get back into war with Level 3 dragons and level 6 loons. Then I caught up a couple things I had skipped as there are 2 D.Barrack levels to get to hounds. Then I was able to look at farming troops and hounds to level 2.

The important thing is to upgrade the troops you want to use, first. If you prefer ground go that route. You will need a lot of elixir and dark elixir at TH9 especially early on, so if you are in no rush to get back into wars, or are okay using your TH8 troops, then upgrade your favorite farming army early. That will make life easier in the long run.

Don't neglect your walls, try to do some every couple days. Your Queen is biggest DE priority. Get her to level 10 ASAP. Then I'd suggest her to 15 before taking the king to 11 unless you are doing them at the same time.

EDIT: I went to TH9 in early February (~7 weeks), and have been having a blast. If I had stayed to max TH8 I'd still be TH8. Instead I have a solid LavaLoon army that helps my clan and is fun for an air guy. Loons 6, Lava 2, Haste 1, AQ going to 11. Since I went early I have still been working on TH8 upgrades which has let me keep my war weight low. I clear max TH8s when my clan needs me to, or I clear low to mid th9s when allowed. I still haven't dropped my x-bows, as they will increase the clans war weight, even though I can 3* against them. But my 4th AD is at 6 and the sweeper is at 3. I dropped the 4th Tesla almost to 5 now. I still have enough TH8 stuff to keep me busy for a few more weeks before proceeding with TH9 levels and the other defenses that need built. Oh and 71 level 9 walls are done too.

Good replies, I would only add that getting the lava hound will increase your war weight as you first get the witch. She has lots of weight and might move you up a bit.

This meant I held off on getting her for quite some time, until I had xbows actually.

I moved to th8.5 in November 2016 and only have 6 lab upgrades and walls to do. Bk is going to 16 and aq is at 20.

For a long time I went against rushed th9 and max th8 in war. But as I slowly upgraded defenses eventually I started getting th9 with xbows. When this happened consistently I dropped my xbows.

Overall I have found it a great way to go. I will be going to th9.5 once my lab is done in about 45 days I think. It has been really fun at th9!!!