Ninjas Guide to Dark Elixir for TH7 and TH8

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.

Amazing guide mate! Keep up the fab work!

Thanks so much for making this ninja!!! It is very helpful to those who are having trouble gettin the barb king on th7.
I've tried to follow as much as I could from this, and ive gotten about 4000 de in the last day without having to use a single lightning spell. This is helping me save a lot of time and not to mention GOLD.!! Thanks!

Nice info, thanks!

glad you all are enjoying my guide. Please tell your friends about it.

As a master DE hunter, here's a couple tips that you may want to correct on the guide:

Just because a base has an inferno tower doesn't mean you shouldn't attack it. If the base has crappy splash damage and xbows anyway, you'll definitely get through that base no problem with a single rage. Never be intimidated by inferno bases, they aren't invincible.

TH8s are better off DE hunting with Rage Spells. Zapping people was never profitable way to DE hunt (pretty inefficient also...) and you only handicap yourself for the next raids and shoot yourself on the foot when you see those 2k-3k DE bases that have easy to reach DE storages that require a single Rage Spell to burst through and you have no spells to use.....

I wouldn't put too many towers protecting DE storages and centralizing it. This is a rather feeble way to protect DE. Centralizing your DE means your CC won't be centralized and it will be easily lureable for any decent raider. Also, like you said, if you make your DE storage too protected, you risk making your gold storages more vulnerable too....

I have been using 2 army set ups for my DE hunting. I'll customize it for TH7/TH8 also:

1st army set up:
For TH7s/TH8s: 45 barbs/40 arch/25 Goblin/10 giant/10 WB/10 Minion/2 Rage/1 Lightning/6 CC Wizards
For TH9s/TH10s: 60 Barbs/40 Arch/20 Goblin/10 Giant/10 WB/15 Minion/3 Rage/1 Lightning/7 CC Wizards

2nd army set up:
For TH7s/TH8s/TH9s/TH10s: 30-40 Barbs/20-30 Arch/20-30 Goblin/10 Giants/8 WB/2 Healers/Rest Minions/2-3 Rage/1 Lightning/6-7 CC Wizards

The first army is also good for collector hunting and very fast to make. The second army is much better for for DE Hunting and can also handle bases with Xbows with ease.

A few months ago, when i just got my DE storage, i camd across an abandoned TH9 with full storage and full drills , and i got my barb king. Waz it a glitch or was it legit?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RegaliaRemix

As a master DE hunter, here's a couple tips that you may want to correct on the guide:

Just because a base has an inferno tower doesn't mean you shouldn't attack it. If the base has crappy splash damage and xbows anyway, you'll definitely get through that base no problem with a single rage. Never be intimidated by inferno bases, they aren't invincible.

TH8s are better off DE hunting with Rage Spells. Zapping people was never profitable way to DE hunt (pretty inefficient also...) and you only handicap yourself for the next raids and shoot yourself on the foot when you see those 2k-3k DE bases that have easy to reach DE storages that require a single Rage Spell to burst through and you have no spells to use.....

I wouldn't put too many towers protecting DE storages and centralizing it. This is a rather feeble way to protect DE. Centralizing your DE means your CC won't be centralized and it will be easily lureable for any decent raider. Also, like you said, if you make your DE storage too protected, you risk making your gold storages more vulnerable too....

I have been using 2 army set ups for my DE hunting. I'll customize it for TH7/TH8 also:

1st army set up:
For TH7s/TH8s: 45 barbs/40 arch/25 Goblin/10 giant/10 WB/10 Minion/2 Rage/1 Lightning/6 CC Wizards
For TH9s/TH10s: 60 Barbs/40 Arch/20 Goblin/10 Giant/10 WB/15 Minion/3 Rage/1 Lightning/7 CC Wizards

2nd army set up:
For TH7s/TH8s/TH9s/TH10s: 30-40 Barbs/20-30 Arch/20-30 Goblin/10 Giants/8 WB/2 Healers/Rest Minions/2-3 Rage/1 Lightning/6-7 CC Wizards

The first army is also good for collector hunting and very fast to make. The second army is much better for for DE Hunting and can also handle bases with Xbows with ease.

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Abrennan has centralized de :)

He gets away with it because he has maxed out defenses and a TH9 and also has 7 CC Wizards all the time. If you're not, then Centralizing DE is a horrible way to protect DE.

Also, centralizing DE and protecting it with a ton of defenses usually brings out more of the lightning noobs. He also gets away with it because Abre plays a lot.

This would be a very rare glitch. The maximum possible DE loot is 6000+, so your iDevice must have something corrupted to show the 10k number, and miraculously nothing else was corrupted to crash the app.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alweert

A few months ago, when i just got my DE storage, i camd across an abandoned TH9 with full storage and full drills , and i got my barb king. Waz it a glitch or was it legit?

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wenyan

This would be a very rare glitch. The maximum possible DE loot is 6000+, so your iDevice must have something corrupted to show the 10k number, and miraculously nothing else was corrupted to crash the app.

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Max lootable DE for a th7 vs th9 is (1600*3)+(2000*150%)

This equates to 7.8k DE. For the th7 vs th10 max loot able is 8.8k
So it seems 10k is unreal

For one i am not lying, but i am very positive i saw 10k. It looked like a full Maxed storage, and maxed drills full. I mightve saw whrong, but i wish i had a screenshot.:( your calculations are right, i am sure, but...now im confused.:confused:

It was prolly a game glitch that you saw. I been raiding th10 bases at th7 for a while. I had max de at times, but never saw 10k.

3k from storage
4.8k more from drills
Is 7.8k

bump to the top!!

Nice guide bud! Keep searching for new strategies that you like, I change mine quite often and always try to improve.

It's good to see people prioritizing de upgrades at th7 and th8 like yourself. Now you're Th9 it's time to get lvl 30 heroes. Farming de is good fun at Th9, but its a long road. Good luck man!

Yeah maxing out TH9 will be a long while. This week and next week ill be caught on everything that was new to TH8 levels except for that tesla which will be a long long while. Think I count 28 days from its current level to level 6. Maxing heros in th9 will be long, but won't be as bad. 2 level 6 drills and being able to have 4 spells will make up for it in the end. Boosting said drills will also help heh. (my drills are level 3 and 4 currently btw if your checking, and archer queen is 3 )

Tell your friends/clan, others to read this guide. Lets keep this bumped up. PM or post any questions

I've been farming for Dark Elixir as a TH7 using 8 lvl 2 dragons and 40 lvl 4 archers, using the archers to clear buildings where I'll drop my dragons. I also carry 2 lvl 4 rage and 1 lvl 4 heal spell, using 1 rage when my dragons are within range of an Air Defense and a rage + heal in the core where DE storage is most of the time, but sometimes I still get killed before taking out their DE storage.

While this strategy has worked in most cases, I've noticed that my archers get killed pretty quickly by all the ground defenses, even TH8 ones, as lvl 4 is still pretty weak. I was wondering if anyone could comment on replacing the 40 archers with 20 minions (yeah, it would cost 120 DE, but the bases I attack have at least 1K DE)?

My hypothesis is that the minions would serve as a distraction to air defenses (as most air defenders are non-splash), allowing my dragons more time to get to the core. Is this true in people's experience or is this strategy less preferred to using archers?

This guide is very effective. I really find it helpful while playing Dark Elixir. Thank you so much!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lannister

I've been farming for Dark Elixir as a TH7 using 8 lvl 2 dragons and 40 lvl 4 archers, using the archers to clear buildings where I'll drop my dragons. I also carry 2 lvl 4 rage and 1 lvl 4 heal spell, using 1 rage when my dragons are within range of an Air Defense and a rage + heal in the core where DE storage is most of the time, but sometimes I still get killed before taking out their DE storage.

While this strategy has worked in most cases, I've noticed that my archers get killed pretty quickly by all the ground defenses, even TH8 ones, as lvl 4 is still pretty weak. I was wondering if anyone could comment on replacing the 40 archers with 20 minions (yeah, it would cost 120 DE, but the bases I attack have at least 1K DE)?

My hypothesis is that the minions would serve as a distraction to air defenses (as most air defenders are non-splash), allowing my dragons more time to get to the core. Is this true in people's experience or is this strategy less preferred to using archers?

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If anyone is interested, I've been using a dragon / minion strategy instead of dragon / archer at townhall 7. It's been working well. I believe it is superior to dragon / archers as the minions distract any live air defenses, as it gives time for the dragons to take out the air defense and get to the core of the base where the DE storage is. Only caveat is to make sure to spread the minions out, as one regular air mine that is triggered will destroy a whole clump of them. I take 2 rage spells and 1 heal spell and can usually 2 star th10 bases, and get all their DE.

Im glad so many people are enjoying my guide.

I dont use dark elixir troops usually while raiding for dark elixir because I want dark elixir. I might use golem at th8 but that is only if the base has 2,000 or more dark elixir, and a lot of other resources.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by InfinityBladeCOC

3k from storage
4.8k more from drills
Is 7.8k

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It's actually 7.2k from drills if it's from a TH10 and the attacker is a TH7.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by strikeninja4787

Im glad so many people are enjoying my guide.

I dont use dark elixir troops usually while raiding for dark elixir because I want dark elixir. I might use golem at th8 but that is only if the base has 2,000 or more dark elixir, and a lot of other resources.

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Yeah but minions are so cheap (120 DE for 20 at th7) and it is easy to get bases with 2-5k on every attack. Love mass dragons!

Strikeninja,

Thanks for the guide!
I am pointing my whole clan to this to read it.

R/
STSCS

P.S. Tell your brother to join my clan already before it fills up again!

very informative post.

thanks for this

Thanks Ninja Really helpful:cool:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zach0805

Thanks Ninja Really helpful:cool:

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Actually a bit outdated, but most of the basics are still good. Nice work.

Hey Strikeninja - it's been a while since you posted this, so wondered if everything still applied. I'm currently toward the end of TH7 and will be starting to raid DE consistently in the near future. Let me know if there's anything you would change about my base setup before I begin. (senorbolt in clan married men) Thanks!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Monarch

Actually a bit outdated, but most of the basics are still good. Nice work.

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how is it still outdated?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by strikeninja4787

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.

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i want an army that doesn't take long but does take tons of DE *TH8* what do you recommend.

I'm th7 and in great search of some DE to upgrade my barbking to lv5 to get the iron fist ability

I waited until I was mostly maxed out at TH7 to try the #1 army (dragons), and WOW does it ever work! Thoughts:

-I had a lot of elixir stockpiled after finishing all my troop and army upgrades, which is important because you lose elixir to gain DE.

-I avoid TH9s with air-targeted x-bows, super-tight centered air defenses, or an archer queen. Pretty much anything else is fair game.

-You really need the 8 dragons to ensure one gets to the DE. They loooooove to wander. But you also need 40 archers to pick off a decent amount of outside buildings. So the army composition is perfect.

-How I clear the outside: snipe some buildings outside range, then focus archers on an area of 4-5 buildings, then drop castle or barb king as needed. When dropping castle and king, I typically drop them to either side of where you're clearing out for the dragons to enter.

-Unless you're on the absolute verge of getting to an upgrade, it's best to wait for over 800DE available to attack, and because you can't count on getting it all, 1000DE is best, unless the DE isn't very far inside the base and you're able to hit it with only a couple dragons.

-Clan castle troops are not as deadly as they are to other armies, because the dragons have splash damage and will pause to attack the castle troops. A big plus when the castle is in the middle.

-I use one of each spell, all maxed for TH7. One rage spell to take out an air defense, a heal spell (which is quicker to cook and can help ensure that enough dragons survive when they're near the DE), and a lightning spell (for castle troops or to weaken an air defense). I can also see going with 2 rage/1 lightning, or 3 rage, but I just don't think 3 lightning makes sense when a rage spell typically is all you need to nuke the first air defense in short order.

-I averaged just under 1000DE per hour.

-My sole DE failure was due to the opposing base having a walled-in 'gap' space to divide the middle from the rest, which caused the dragons to go around the middle. There were gaps on the north and south side, but I suspect that the east or west (with no gap) might have worked... though the dragons still would have been tempted to go around.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by luisleal123

i want an army that doesn't take long but does take tons of DE *TH8* what do you recommend.

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Why did you have to quote the OP?

Jst saying..this threads a bit outdated ..a year old..check out Brandons De farming guide..a lot faster n Imo using mass drag fr de hunting is ridiculous..ballonion much betr option..cheers

Is balloonion really viable as a TH7 going against TH8/TH9?

Tried balloonion and it failed hard against TH8s with reasonably centralized air defenses. Balloons just aren't beefy enough at TH7.

Outdated but it sure sounds like the best way to get DE at th7!!!! I can't wait to get my army to level 4 to start hunting

Im having trouble getting to the DE storages, and i only use lightning when someone has 1.2k++ DE in the storages. I also try going for the drills, until i find myself with 40 DE from a level 3 drill. My biggest problem: Staying in 1500+. People keep raiding me and getting 25 or so trophies, but the good thing as that only one attacker has gotten to my storage and gotten 40 DE. They all attack at the bottom where all my collectors are, and my DE storage is near the middle but at the top side. Other than that, for the whole time i was in 1500+ i got 2.2k DE in less than 4h. Great guide man.

EDIT: it appears that even if i lose a bunch of trophies, i can still earn 1k++ DE on the way back. Just now i found a th9 who had 2k DE available to be raided, so i thundered his storage, and attacked his 2 exposed drills and town hall. Ended up with a 500 DE outcome, all just like a ninja.

Great guide will deff be using this

A bit old of a thread but very good pointers actually. Good guide man.

What's so bad about this thread being old? It still works very well.

Bookmarked. On my way to get Barb King.

Bookmarked and read twice will use when I max out defenses!

The best thread I've seen on Dark farming. I sort of figured out in my own playing that dragon-archer raids was the most effective way to get dark, since you rarely see people with exposed storages. Giant wallbreaker goblins work really well too at TH7. Great thread ninja

Could i also use the ballonion attack strategy or would it not be that good to use it? because of the dark elixir that i must use to produce the minions.

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Originally Posted by Chefimhaus

Could i also use the ballonion attack strategy or would it not be that good to use it? because of the dark elixir that i must use to produce the minions.

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Balloonion is viable vs same TH level, so at TH7 it isn't going to work because you need to hit TH8/TH9. However, it is somewhat viable at th8, since you can hit TH8, weak TH9, and the occasional TH7 that has a full level 2 storage.

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Originally Posted by ditch

Balloonion is viable vs same TH level, so at TH7 it isn't going to work because you need to hit TH8/TH9. However, it is somewhat viable at th8, since you can hit TH8, weak TH9, and the occasional TH7 that has a full level 2 storage.

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Ok thanks ditch

I'm currently at TH7 and want to MAX OUT EVERYTHING (BK, Hogs, Minions, etc.) before starting TH8.

My question is how you managed your ELIXIR while farming for DA? I mean, your Dragon/Archer DA farming looks good, and I'm sure that it will work, but that's a very elixir heavy combination.

Thanks.

I maxed out the DE purchases at TH7. More tips:

1. Maxed out elixir collectors.
2. Be patient enough to be willing to spend weeks farming DE.
3. Level 2 dragons.
4. Be very, very picky on who you attack. 200k+ regular elixir, 1k+ dark elixir available to start a battle, and typically more like 300k/1k or 200k/1.3k and up. At first I wasn't picky and blew through millions of elixir just to get the BK, but that wasn't remotely sustainable. Also, being above 1400 trophies is pretty crucial.
5. Be realistic and smart. If it's a TH9 with upward-pointing x-bows and four level 4+ air defenses and a centralized DE storage, that is not going to work. If it's TH10 with inferno tower(s), only try if you see full max-level DE drills near the outside. Even a TH8 with maxed air defenses clustered around the DE is tough. And there are other traps, for instance a moat of empty space around the DE storage, that can royally screw up a dragon raid. Selection is key!!

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Originally Posted by ditch

I maxed out the DE purchases at TH7. More tips:

1. Maxed out elixir collectors.
2. Be patient enough to be willing to spend weeks farming DE.
3. Level 2 dragons.
4. Be very, very picky on who you attack. 200k+ regular elixir, 1k+ dark elixir available to start a battle, and typically more like 300k/1k or 200k/1.3k and up. At first I wasn't picky and blew through millions of elixir just to get the BK, but that wasn't remotely sustainable. Also, being above 1400 trophies is pretty crucial.
5. Be realistic and smart. If it's a TH9 with upward-pointing x-bows and four level 4+ air defenses and a centralized DE storage, that is not going to work. If it's TH10 with inferno tower(s), only try if you see full max-level DE drills near the outside. Even a TH8 with maxed air defenses clustered around the DE is tough. And there are other traps, for instance a moat of empty space around the DE storage, that can royally screw up a dragon raid. Selection is key!!

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dragon raids are too long and expensive to train. just use normal troops and show these TH8/9 who the boss is

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Originally Posted by RazorWolf

I'm currently at TH7 and want to MAX OUT EVERYTHING (BK, Hogs, Minions, etc.) before starting TH8.

My question is how you managed your ELIXIR while farming for DA? I mean, your Dragon/Archer DA farming looks good, and I'm sure that it will work, but that's a very elixir heavy combination.

Thanks.

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This is my question as well, I'm trying the dragon army and my elixir count is plummeting. Would it best if I switched to barch to gain some more elixir before starting up the dragon raids again? 1650+ trophies and TH7 btw, so I don't know if I would be able to get much elixir from the TH8's and 9's.

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Originally Posted by Lolcrab

This is my question as well, I'm trying the dragon army and my elixir count is plummeting. Would it best if I switched to barch to gain some more elixir before starting up the dragon raids again? 1650+ trophies and TH7 btw, so I don't know if I would be able to get much elixir from the TH8's and 9's.

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what about training a army that cost 45k elixir and raid TH8 for half of their elixir (100-150k) and all of their DE?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ditch

I maxed out the DE purchases at TH7. More tips:

1. Maxed out elixir collectors.
2. Be patient enough to be willing to spend weeks farming DE.
3. Level 2 dragons.
4. Be very, very picky on who you attack. 200k+ regular elixir, 1k+ dark elixir available to start a battle, and typically more like 300k/1k or 200k/1.3k and up. At first I wasn't picky and blew through millions of elixir just to get the BK, but that wasn't remotely sustainable. Also, being above 1400 trophies is pretty crucial.
5. Be realistic and smart. If it's a TH9 with upward-pointing x-bows and four level 4+ air defenses and a centralized DE storage, that is not going to work. If it's TH10 with inferno tower(s), only try if you see full max-level DE drills near the outside. Even a TH8 with maxed air defenses clustered around the DE is tough. And there are other traps, for instance a moat of empty space around the DE storage, that can royally screw up a dragon raid. Selection is key!!

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Cool advise. Thanks man. I'll follow your advise and see how it works for me. I'll go for my DE push once I've maxed out my defenses.

BTW, my clan is SAINT MORRIS, username, RazorWolf. I'd love to see your base as well since we're on the same boat.

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Originally Posted by Lolcrab

This is my question as well, I'm trying the dragon army and my elixir count is plummeting. Would it best if I switched to barch to gain some more elixir before starting up the dragon raids again? 1650+ trophies and TH7 btw, so I don't know if I would be able to get much elixir from the TH8's and 9's.

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That's actually what I'm planning to do. :)

sheeptag, maybe you could actually go into detail about the magical TH7 army that can get at reasonably full TH8/TH9 DE storages? Like, be helpful, rather than hand-waving away a bunch of detailed posts? Crazy talk I'm sure.

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Originally Posted by Lolcrab

This is my question as well, I'm trying the dragon army and my elixir count is plummeting. Would it best if I switched to barch to gain some more elixir before starting up the dragon raids again? 1650+ trophies and TH7 btw, so I don't know if I would be able to get much elixir from the TH8's and 9's.

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I did have to occasionally switch to a more conventional farming army when my elixir dropped low enough. That's part of where having maxed collectors helps. Unless you're a hardcore player, you're only getting a handful of dragon raids in a day. Maxed collectors gets you 432k elixir a day, and that's a good cushion for the occasional bad or mediocre raid.

Besides that... be super-picky. It's worthwhile. I look at DE and elixir, and gold is almost an afterthought. It's gotta be 1500+ DE or a ton of both DE and elixir.

This is extremely helpful and detailed!

Whoops. I put this in the wrong thread. Had a couple of tabs open in my browser.

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Originally Posted by strikeninja4787

glad you all are enjoying my guide. Please tell your friends about it.

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What is your google+ name?

I'm no wiz like you are, but I typically like to use precisely 64 archers, 60 barbs, 12 giants, and 8 wall breakers, 2 rage and 1 heal. This works very well for me, especially against other town hall 8s with 1000+ dark elixir. It's very easy for me to choose a side and push to the middle to grab dark elixir. This army also splits perfectly into 4 barracks and is cheap and trains really fast. First I take care of any CC there might be. Secondly I use about 1/4 barbs and 1/3 archers to clear all the outside buildings on that side, so I can funnel my troops to the center. Next I place all my giants and a rage spell on the out most compartment. Next I place wall breakers slowly so that they are able to use the rage spell to move faster and break more walls. Then I place most of my barbs first and my king followed by archers, after i know that they will go to the center. I use the last barbs and archers to pick off any building or collectors I might need. Then I use my other spells where and when and if I need them, and nearly always get the oily dark stuff I came for.

Micheal Rosen lip smacking noise....NOICE

No necro-ing threads!

Pointless Necro.

Closed.