I figure I would make a new guide for TH7 and TH8. I am currently just got TH9 and am at the begining of it. I am following my upgrade guide found here (
http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...grade-Strategy) Please post if you like that one to.
Hopefully this is in the correct section, if not I expect somebody to move it.
NOTE: This guide will not work for everybody. If you read this guide it should help you understand what to do a little better.
My dark elixir upgrades are as follows:
At th7 I maxed barb king level 5, minions level 2
At th8 I maxed barb king level 10, minions level 4
Just got th9, got archer queen, and upgraded to level 2.
I skipped hog riders for a while as they were bad, and I did not use them. In retrospect if I had more time playing I would have maxed hog riders, valks, and golems at th8. It is a playtime decision that I did not, and moved on to th9. I made sure to max my barb king and minions at each th level. Before I go to th10 my dark elixir troops/heros will be maxed.
I am now TH9 so if you visit me at Reddit Juliet: Strikeninja4787 if you might be wondering what is going on.
Ok so you might be wondering now, what did I use, what trophy count, etc...
Kinda long read, but I tried to make it as detailed as possible with what I did. Sorry in advance about spelling and grammar.
I will try and keep this updated as much as possible with any questions asked. I currently work full time, and studying for CPA exams. (google it). Best way to get your base looked at by me or any questions is to post and pm me.
A lot of people asked me if I can make videos of this. I can not make them.
EVERY SECTION HAS BEEN UPDATED EVEN IF YOU HAVE READ MY GUIDE BEFORE
CONTENTS:
1. Trophy Count
2. Base setup
3. Army Composition
4. Upgrades
5. Actually getting all the dark elixir available
6. GOALS OF Dark Elixir Raiding
7. WHY only TH8-TH10 bases?
8. Why not TH8 bases for TH7?
9. Oh a TH8-TH10 attacked me and owned my base
10. I can't find a good base to raid
11. The resource graphics bug
12. Picture of my base with traps/teslas
13. Keeping your Dark elixir
14. Maintaining Trophies
15. Facing the new defenses with updates
16. Does this guide work for TH9-10 as well?
17. People who have gave input for ideas to improve the guide
18. If I had to do everything again, what would I do differently?
18. Questions people ask
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1. Trophy Count
TH7: I have found that many th9s with dark elixir worth raiding reside at 1500+ cups. I would ONLY raid th9 people. I do this for good reason. That reason is because if a TH9 decides oh I want to revenge raid me, they get a 50% resource penalty. I would also attack TH10 bases WITHOUT INFERNO TOWERS (this will be explained in much detail later)
TH8: While I tried the same trophy range as TH7, it did not do so well. I have found 1650+ cups is a good range for bases with constant 1000 or more dark elixir. I would attack Other th8, th9, and TH10 people WITHOUT INFERNO TOWERS.
2. Base setup
TH 7: You need to have maxed defenses (I do mean everything!!) and at least level 6 walls (pink walls). This is because while you will be raiding th9, there also many th8s and th9 that will raid you regularly. They all have/should have level 5 wall breakers which can 1 shot gold walls. Many revenge raids I have been hit with everything and the base still holds up. It makes me laugh when people dont break even on my base. My town hall 7 base is shown below.
Also maxed mortars can 1 shot level 5 archers, but most town hall 9s have level 6 archers which will take 2 shots.
You can view my base at reddit juliet name is strikeninja4787. Only thing that i switched was my dark elixir storage and barb king. I have found that people come in from the right or left mostly. The goal here is to protect your dark elixir storage by as many defenses as possible while not neglecting your other things.
Barracks:
I highly HIGHLY recommend you get all barracks to level 9 as this makes things a lot easier and you can raid more.
Spells:
Need spell factory to level 3, and AT LEAST level 4 lighting. Rage spells also do come in handy, but I will explain this later in the guide.
TH8: For best results you should have all defenses maxed. I started dark elixir hunting without maxed teslas as they just took so long. Teslas higher than level 4 are like another cannon you can use. Level 6 teslas are just amazing, and can do big damage to enemy raids.
Barracks: I would recommend at least 1 barracks is level 10 to unlock pekkas in lab, and other 3 are level 9 at least.
Spells: You NEED at least level 4 lighting spell and rage spells. For best results maxing out your spells is good. I started hunting for dark elixir when I maxed my lighting spell.
Town hall outside or inside?
I like my town hall outside because it gives me a free shield, and time for my army/spells/upgrades to finish. Yes you lose trophies, but the goal is here to stay above 1500 trophies. While this is true, I also made a hybrid base for th8 when I was putting all my gold into walls. This kept my trophy range up, and made for some entertaining defenses. I would not do this if I was defending 3 different resources (Gold/Elixir/Dark Elixir)
3. Army Composition
There are many armies i used while getting all this dark elixir.
Main and primary army
8 dragons level 1, 2, or 3. (all my dragons during this were level 1-3), 40 archers (level 4-5), 3 lighting spell or 3 rage, barb king.
For this army comp. I would destroy 1 air defense with my lighting spells, then deploy heavily near another air d allowing me to destroy half their base. (if I can take out air defenses with archers and barb king I would)
With Rage spells I would use my archers/clan castle/barb king to clear outer buildings. Then I drop a my dragons near a air defense then drop a rage spell on them. This would ensure my dragons would take downthe air defense then rush to the dark elixir storage. Note: a second or third rage spell might be needed if base is heavily upgraded. There is a video in my old thread showing this.
Secondary army
15-20 giants, barb king, 3 lighting or rage spells, 15-20 wall breakers, rest goblins. Basically you this army comp to get deep into their base for goblins to get to their dark elixir storage. NOTE: This falls a lot when their DE storage is centered in their base as your giants/barb king die quickly to defenses.
Goal for this army is to use rage spells on initial push, then rage spell in middle, then rage spell at the end. Timing of this takes some practice.
Tertiary army:
Classic barb/archer combo. I would have 80-100 barbs, and 80-100 archers, 5-10 minions, rest wall breakers, 2 lighting spell, 1 rage spell. or 3 lighting spell.
The goal of this army is NOT to bust into their center. But to find th9 bases which have their dark elixir storage outside, or near the side. This army also allows you get their collectors/mines and other things which are near by. using this is is basically like the goblin giant, but using barbs as meat shields.
Quantermary army:
I used GoWiPe with good success. This army is a huge cost and down time. This army would consist of 1-3 golems, and some combination of pekkas/archers/wizards/wall breakers. I watched youtube videos to get the hang of it as you should as well. I would drop anywhere from 1-3 rage spells per raid, and push towards the center with golems, then all your dps behind. This works for TH8 only.
Quinary army
I called this army GiWiz for TH7, or GiWiPe for TH8
This is similar to GoWiPe, except Gi is giants. I used a a ton of giants in this, but did not work so well for TH7 as level 4 ground troops suck verse upgraded defenses (sorry). This is pretty fun for TH8 because level 5 troops are good. The strategy is similar to go GoWiPe, but does not cost dark elixir.
Senary Army
This is only for TH8 sadly. It was 1-3 golems then rest archers/wall breakers, 2 lighting spells, 1 rage. Basically your using your golems as meat shields, then just huge dps behind them. I would lighting spell and take out 1 of their mortars then just push in with golems and archers. Rage near the middle to get the Dark elixir storage.
Army when I had a ton of playing time:
I would mess around with the coring strategy and found some success, and failures with it. It takes a while to get used to and use. Unitysharp has a great guide on this and shows this army off in more detail found here.
http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...roes-don-t-you
THANKS UNITYSHARP FOR THE GREAT STRATEGY AND GUIDE
I would not lighting spell their de storage as it just waste spells, and can yield little dark elixir with the new de storage upgrade.
4. Upgrades (yes this is a section well because I see to many people rush to TH7 and TH8, and then complain they lose all the time on offense and defense)
First and foremost is max ALL your defense. As mentioned before these are key and should all be done before starting major dark elixir raiding.
Barracks you need all your barracks to at least level 5 because then all barracks can make wall breakers. (I highly recommend all barracks to level 9 for dragons)
Spell factory and spells. You NEED spell factory to level 3 for th7 and 8. As mentioned before AT LEAST level 4 lighting spells.
Giants/barbs/archers/gobs/wall breakers all to level 4-5, dragons can be level 1, 2, or 3. (I used level 1-3 all the time) Most success I had was when I had maxed troops.
Clan castle: Get this thing upgraded to level 3 for TH7, level 4 for TH8 as you can get 20-25 more archers, more giants, or even a dragon from nice clan mates.
Army camps: this should be a given. Higher level = more troops to raid with. All my army camps were maxe. (Not sure how this will work with lower level ones)
5. Actually getting all the dark elixir available
I hear a lot of people saying oh I used all my spells on their DE storage but only got 600. out of the possible 1500.
First you need to look at the level of the dark elixir storage and the drills. YES THE DRILLS COUNT TO. The other 900 might be stored in their drills which also contains a lot.
The key here is to recognize the levels of the drills and DE storage. You can google the pics of it. I this might be most important part of this guide as I forgot about the drills a lot when I would push into their base then realized they still have a lot of DE after the storage was destroyed.
Good bases will have their drills spread out, and a centralized DE storage. Take note of this as this will help your deployment.
6. GOALS OF Dark Elixir Raiding
Your goal here is to get ONE STAR, destroy the drills and dark elixir storage. The minimum you should look for is 500 dark elixir with the secondary and tertiary army. 1000 dark elixir with the primary army or the coring army. I would spend 8 dragons 40 archers just to get 1200 dark elixir.
It is ok if you do not get one star as TH9 bases are big, but you MUST stay above 1500 cups for TH7, and 1650 for TH8.
You do this because you can count the raids you need to do before you get your upgrade done, and also to not waste your time.
Picking of their town hall or extra buildings also works to your advantage.
7. WHY only TH8-10 bases
TH7: You will be raiding only TH9-10 bases. This is because of the loot penalty they get for revenge raids. The maximum they can get from all your storages at TH7 is 100k gold, 100k Elixir, 500 dark elixir. Now you will get revenged a lot because to a th9 you are easy with their maxed level troops.
You can take from them so much more and then get a shield when they revenge you. At times I could 100% a th9-10 base with my level 1 drags, and took 800k resources from them. But it is quite common to see they have 300k of each available and 1000+ dark elixir. (You must remember your goal is the dark elixir unless your running low on regular elixir)
TH8: While the concept is similar to th7 for loot bonus, revenge is not as much of a problem. When I was dark elixir hunting as a TH8, I would raid TH8-10 bases. I would not touch a TH7 base unless they had a stupid amount of gold/elixir Im talking 800k-1 million loot. I would attack other TH8 bases because if they had enough dark elixir, I can get at least 1000 dark elixir from them also and maybe not use all my spells/army.
8. Why not TH8 bases if you are TH7
This is quite simple, a th8 might have lower upgrades and less stuff, than th9, but they can take a lot more if they revenge raid you. To put it simply and using round numbers
Lets assume all your storages are maxed with resources.
a th7 can take 200k of each from your gold and elixir storages, and 1000 dark elixir
a th8 can take 180k of each from your storages, and 900 dark elixir.
While your base might stand up to th8 really well the loss on resources is just not worth it if they get your dark elixir storage or elixir storage. People just on principal will drop everything on you and your left with a big loss, even if they don't profit during their raids. (this will happen a lot)
Also most TH8 bases who will have at least 1000 dark elixir will have their defenses at very high levels and/or maxed. This will mean you will be using more than you need to, and if you attacked a th9-10 base you would get more dark elixir if you did.
INFERNO TOWERS: These things are the biggest pain in the butt to deal with. Long story short It took me many raids to realize that, these buildings wreck my dragons and I can not kill them quick enough. I would ONLY attack a TH10 base with these if I had my coring army or they were easily destroyed, or on first layer of defense, or out completely (learn what this looks like.)
9. Oh a TH8-10 attacked me and owned my base
Now this is where it gets fun. For revenge raids you can plan out what army you want to use at least cost to you and then strike. I got my minion upgrade on a revenge raid. Got 3k dark elixir, 300k gold, and 250k elixir. I let this guy build up for a bit. (yes 3 out of his 4 air defenses were upgrading) If his air defenses were not upgrading I would have not gotten 100%
Yes I would act like a stalker at times and click revenge to see how much I could take.
You need to look at what army they used and how they deployed so see the weakness of your base. If your upgrading your air defenses and they attacked with you giant healer then your problem is solved. If they used everything and the kitchen sink on you (look up the phrase) do not feel bad. Just watch the good replay.
No base is perfect, some just work better than others.
10. I can't find a good base to raid
This might be because your trophy count is to low, or you just have bad luck. Do not worry, I at times would go through 50 bases before I would raid somebody. (always remember dark elixir is your goal)
During your searches you might find th9 who don't collect resources. I would raid this guys, just because of the profit and how easy it would be with any army.
11. The resource graphics bug
Many times you will see people with huge resource numbers, but their storages show empty. A good test for this is to use some troops to check our their mines/drills before you raid. The resources have to be somewhere if not in the mines/collectors/drills. Just learn to recognize this and you will be fine.
12. Picture of my base with traps/teslas
TH7: The air defense on the left has bombs near it like the wizard tower. I would use the air mine when I had spare dark elixir. It would go near one of the wizard towers. After I was done with dark elixir farming or was really low on dark elixir because of an upgrade, I would switch my dark elixir storage with barb king.
Attachment 7907
TH8: I used Pingfaos base for this all the time. It just worked really well, and I could not build a better one. (I have tried.) I just did not like the pokeball base just because I would spend each day moving stuff around. Below is a link to his bases. I would just move storages around depending on what I was protecting the most. THANKS PINFAOG FOR THE GREAT BASE, GUIDE, AND VIDEOS
http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...d-A-TH8-Design
I will post a pic when I get time to build it on my computer. For now just use the link
13. Keeping your Dark Elixir
TH7: This part is quite easy, think of your dark elixir as the most precious thing to you. Take note though that if you protect it to much you risk losing all your gold and elixir as well. If you look at the picture above you will see my Dark elixir storage is protected by 7 different defenses. Those defenses are 3 mortars, 1 wizard tower, 2 cannons, 2 archer towers. What this means is people will need to enter my base at a different spot, or commit most of their army to entering where my dark elixir storage is. The way I wanted to protect my dark elixir is that it was in range of 2-5 splash damage buildings, and some single target defenses.
TH8: My dark elixir was in the center always in pingfaos farming base protected by hero, splash damage. It was very rare that people got my storage after my defenses were maxed.
14. Maintaining trophies
Now you think, oh strike you have a farm base. How do you keep your trophies so high? This is another simple thing to do. First while skipping around bases looking for that that TH9 base I would attack other peoples town hall if they are out in open. Second if I see a lot of their buildings are out of range of their defenses I would go for the town hall and 50 percent. Third and most important though, any base I do attack fully with my army I try and make sure to get 1 star. This one star can be the Town hall, or 50 percent. Everything else after that is a bonus so you do not drop down.
Sniping town halls is also good, but It is not as productive. I would suggest if your just protecting dark elixir and elixir you should make a hybrid base. I did hybrid bases when I was dumping all my gold into walls and usually had no gold in my storage.
15. Facing the new defenses with updates
TH7: TH9-10 bases will have 4 air defenses if they are good. The best way to do this is to use archers or 1 drag to clear outer buildings then deploy your main army. I WOULD NOT ATTACK ANY BASE WITH AN ACTIVE INFERNO TOWER.
For any kind of ground attack it does not work so well as bases you are attacking have at least level 6 walls and decently upgraded defenses. You will see bases with 500k+ loot, but you need to remember that your after dark elixir, and If you can't get that the raid is not worth it.
TH8: Same as th7, except for the ground attack. You will find TH9-10 bases who lack upgrading their ground defenses. Take advantage of this, as you can push better into their center with level 5 troops/spells.
All TH: 4 air defenses is a problem, learn to recognize the levels of each air defense. Also learn to recognize when things are being upgraded, as this presents an opening for you.
16. Does this guide work for TH9 and TH10?
Yes this guide does work, but you need to be aware of the loot penalty verse TH7, and TH8. Your targets will be TH8-TH10.
17. People who gave ideas/suggestions to help improve my guide.
I would like to say thank you to the following:
Rain3an for Topic ideas
Pingfao for the great base design and guide on his base
Unitysharp for the great strategy guide for coring
(More to come if people post)
18. If I had to do everything again, what would I do differently?
This is a very good question, I got through a pm. I would definitely max out my hog riders as well with this strategy, even though I did not use them. I would also upgrade my dragons sooner then I did to level 2, so I can attack more heavily into better bases getting more dark elixir. (I did my dragons while my th7 was upgrading to th8). The last thing I would do differently is to make better base selections, and make sure I would get 50 percent more often. There were a lot of times I would get the dark elixir but forget about the th, lighting strike air defense, select maxed out th9 bases with out lighting striking a air d.
I would also learn quicker and just not attack th10 bases with inferno towers, even though I saw 5,000 dark elixir at times. (these raids did not end well)
If I had more playing time I would stay at TH8 longer and max out my dark elixir troops in my lab.
19. Questions People Ask
Q:
i am at Th 7 (maxed everything out) and have 200 troop capacity. i am at 1470 trophy range and i cant seem to find any easy bases to raid do u know why?
A: The best answer I can give you is raise your trophy over 1500. I also had trouble finding bases between 1400-1500 trophies.
Q: How can I view your base strikeninja?
A: First you need to search the clan I am in by clicking the trophy and search clans. The clan I am in is 5h-raiders. Click on the clan then search for my name. (NOTE: you won't be able to see my traps or teslasa unless you are friends with me on game center or in the same clan)
Q: I don't have my barbarian king yet, what should I do?
A: Well first thing I would do is do build that dark elixir storage, so you can start collecting dark elixir. Second I would get all my defenses maxed and lighting spells maxed. Third I would make sure that my troops were upgraded. Finally get all my walls to at least level 6. You need to also raise your trophy count to get a lot of dark elixir and a base with low defenses/walls will be easy targets for high th7-8s, and those th9 who revenge you.
Q: When do you recommend going up to the 1500 cups level to get the barbarian king?
A: I reccomend going up and gettng your start on the barbarian king when you have your farming troops maxed, all pink walls, mortars and wizard towers maxed, and lighting spells maxed with level 3 spell factory. On your way up you will find bases with dark elixir, don't be afraid to raid them. As your resources will be spent on your other upgrades/walls (usually) I went up and got my barb king this way, then went back down to upgrade my other stuff.
Q: You say stay over 1500 cups, but is there also a top, like don’t go over XX level? Is 1500 the level were there is a lot of not so strong TH9’s?
A: My highest trophies I ha went went to was 2100. I found above 1900 there were a lot more highly upgraded town hall 9s and maxed out th8. I decided to stay between 1500-1900 range simple because there were a lot of th9 who had low air defense. I also decided to stay in this range because th9 usually attack th8 for easy raids and a lot of more of the easier TH9 are around this trophy range also.
Q: Does my guide work on TH10 people?
A: The guide should work just the same, if not even better for TH7. It should work as a TH8 also vs TH10 also. Just be on the look out for the inferno tower, as the inferno tower seems to take down dragons quickly. Just be very careful of the inferno towers
Q: Is it worth Upgrading barb king to max at th7 and th8?
A: Yes it is very worth it, as your barb king helps on offense and defense. He is a distraction on defense, or meat shield/dps on offense. I have had attacks where people avoid my heros because they do not want to deal with them. I also had attacks where my barb king would be a meat shield on defense, letting my defenses do their work. I did attacks where barb king as mop up, major front line dps. They are very useful as DE is so easy to get.
Q: Why did you not upgrade hog riders or your other dark elixir troops?
A: As mentioned before, I did not upgrade hog riders at TH7 because I did not use them at all. When I was th7 hog riders were really bad. When I was TH8, I did not upgrade hog riders, valks, golems because I do not really use them, and I had limited playing time.
Hope this guide helps you, thank you for reading it. 
I figure I would make a new guide for TH7 and TH8. I am currently just got TH9 and am at the begining of it. I am following my upgrade guide found here (http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...grade-Strategy) Please post if you like that one to.