Q&A: Wall Breaker AI and how it works

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Originally Posted by Marika[Supercell]

A Wall Breaker’s ultimate goal in life is to liberate buildings that are trapped by walls :D

How does the Wall Breaker choose its target? Steps 1, 2, 3
1. It will look for the nearest building/turret that is trapped by walls
2. It will choose the shortest path towards that building and blow up walls that are in its way
3. After the wall is blown up, it will choose the next building that is still trapped by walls, run straight towards it, and blow up walls that are in its way

So Wall Breakers don’t target walls anymore?!?!!1!!!!?
No. Instead of targeting walls, they aim for the main prize, a building that is trapped by walls. The wall just happens to be in its way, and has to be blown up.
That building is the reason why you need that wall taken down, right?

Do Wall Breakers attack buildings?
No. They aim for the building and blow up the wall that is in their path.

Do Wall Breakers favorite junctions?
No. The Wall Breaker will run in a straight line towards the nearest building. When it encounters a wall, it blows it up.

What if the nearest building (still trapped by walls) is on the other edge of the village?
The Wall Breaker will run there.

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Originally Posted by Marika[Supercell]

They will walk through the gate, if that is the shortest way to the nearest building. Note that the nearest building has to be surrounded by an intact circle of wall, so that the building can be a valid target for the Wall Breaker.

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Hi Marika - I have a specific example I came across which I think needs some explaining.


I had six WBs to use on the base below. I deployed all six from location WB at different times throughout the battle.

The first 4 were successful - penetrating through all layers WWWWWWWWW
My army was happily destroying this village but became bunched up at location 'pppppppppp'

So I sent in my final two WB's to take out section 'pppppppppp' figuring the WB's would want to liberate 'Cannon2' (being the only building/turret trapped by walls...) and head for either 'pppppppppp' or 'ccccccccc' (as the shortest distance to 'ccccccccc' would be going through 'pppppppppp').


***However. both WB's headed straight for section Z!!!!!


I'm a bit confused as 'Cannon2' was the only building/turret trapped. What happened here? This is a very straight forward example where the AI did not act as expected.
I am a fan of the new AI - But the former AI would have gone straight through...


Sorry for the picture. I constructed it in comment but would not fit...


Attachment 4367

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Originally Posted by Cknife187

I just wanna say that I always use 5xWallbreakers to do work cause its most effective for the value you get. Lets not confuse them now they haven't changed they aren't "building breakers" they are Wall-breakers. The only things that have changed in reality are the AI which will now avoid "spikes" and target walls that are protecting buildings and or defenses, and the troop space required to house them. Before it used to be a 1space unit now it is valued at 2.

Basically take a look at the unveiling video Supercell put out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYx1tNbAXRU

You'll notice that around :24-:28seconds they aren't targeting junctions, they are taking the closest path to the next wall which defends a building. Conveniently here it happens to be next to a junction but it wasn't the target. Instead of the old version where they were basically tossed at a wall and hit the first wall piece they found now they seem more reliable and much more useful. This definitely made breaching walls far easier and for sure it made the whole process simpler.

Good Job fellas.

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Well put!! Thank you sir!

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Originally Posted by Marika[Supercell]

I was curious about that too, turns out that then they will go for the smaller groupings of wall :)

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In this video the small groupings of walls intermingled with buildings don't draw, although perhaps there's a different configuration that does.

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Originally Posted by Marika[Supercell]

Do Wall Breakers favorite junctions?
No. The Wall Breaker will run in a straight line towards the nearest building. When it encounters a wall, it blows it up.

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Here is a video to prove the above statement false.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9CxoOQ3WWc

There is no specific "shape" as of how the new WB will run.
Notice how the wall breaker did an awesome U turn in the vid haha.

They will simply pre-target the nearest and the shortest path of walls of a compartment that encloses a building/turret.

Then again, the above FAQ is meant to be generalized.
So yeah, if the community understands them, then so be it.

Good job stepping up and creating an FAQ as a Supercell Staff btw, its certainly different if this FAQ was posted by a community member.

I would like to hope that majority of the players understand the wall breaker AI, but then again, after the wall breaker AI is understood, defending will really be HELL.. haha..

Oh well, there is always the bell curve. :p

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Originally Posted by Hannibal

In this video the small groupings of walls intermingled with buildings don't draw, although perhaps there's a different configuration that does.

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Hannibal, take note that the initial question was

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Originally Posted by MINTFLEX

what if all the walls are just segments of 3 to 5 wall pieces intermingled around defenses and other buildings.
ie. a lot of small wall groupings of 3-5 walls max.

Then what would they hit?

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MINTFLEX was referring to "All the walls", and not just 5 walls being taken out of a "proper base"

All the walls. Got it.

Red line - Where I wanted it to go
Black line - Where it went instead

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Originally Posted by lol4657

Red line - Where I wanted it to go
Black line - Where it went instead

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I *think* that If that cannon was destroyed first, then they may have took the red path you wanted.

*Edit* Looking at it closer, I believe they would have just targeted the opposite cannon wall then...

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Originally Posted by RagEho

Hi Marika - I have a specific example I came across which I think needs some explaining.


I had six WBs to use on the base below. I deployed all six from location WB at different times throughout the battle.

The first 4 were successful - penetrating through all layers WWWWWWWWW
My army was happily destroying this village but became bunched up at location 'pppppppppp'

So I sent in my final two WB's to take out section 'pppppppppp' figuring the WB's would want to liberate 'Cannon2' (being the only building/turret trapped by walls...) and head for either 'pppppppppp' or 'ccccccccc' (as the shortest distance to 'ccccccccc' would be going through 'pppppppppp').


***However. both WB's headed straight for section Z!!!!!


I'm a bit confused as 'Cannon2' was the only building/turret trapped. What happened here? This is a very straight forward example where the AI did not act as expected.
I am a fan of the new AI - But the former AI would have gone straight through...


Sorry for the picture. I constructed it in comment but would not fit...


Attachment 4367

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Always remember one point.
If a wall breaker is unable to detect any "suitable wall" to boom(look up first page for criteria for "suitable wall"), the wall breaker will just go for the closest wall possible.

And in your case.
1) That scenario was really pushing the limits of the wall breaker, asking it to tunnel 90% of a base that undergo many variable changes(after a battle)
2) The gap between cccccccc and pppppp was too huge such that the wall breaker wasn't able to detect the cannon.

Then again, thats a really tricky tunneling motion lol.

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Originally Posted by lol4657

Red line - Where I wanted it to go
Black line - Where it went instead

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Nothing wrong.

The distance to the nearest wall for the Black line was smaller than the distance to the nearest wall for red line.

Don't believe me ? Take a ruler and measure yourself.
On my laptop screen, the black line was 2 cm whereas the red line was 3.5cm

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Originally Posted by lol4657

Red line - Where I wanted it to go
Black line - Where it went instead

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Same distance between each wall. Not a good example.