Complete TH8 research or upgrade to TH9 once all defences done?

Hello everyone, I am in a bit of a dilemma right now. In short, my defences will be done in about 25 days if I keep 4 builders busy, plus 10 days for the TH9 upgrade itself, so total 35 days. But my lab research still has about 60 days left to complete. So should I keep my builders idle while lab research completes, or just go to TH9 and leave out the upgrades I am least likely to use? I am keeping 1 builder free as I still need about 140 more skull walls.

The long version. These are the research left at TH8, ignoring Healer:

The upgrades that I will definitely do (39 days):
- Pekka Lvl 3
- Golem lvl 2
- Rage spell lvl 5
- Lightning spell lvl 5
- Wallbreaker lvl 5

The upgrades I will skip if I don't complete all TH8 research (25 days):
- Loon lvl 5
- Goblins lvl 5
- Minions lvl 3 and 4

I war seriously, but I also farm regularly. I want to progress fast, but also be good in wars. As a TH8, I have mostly used mass dragons with the occasional hog attack, even with lvl 4 hogs.

Keeping builders idle for a month seems criminal, but leaving out TH8 research will restrict my options at TH9. What do you recommend and why? I already gemmed a 12 day lab upgrade, but I am not sure if I will have enough gems to gem another one.

make sure you do the research for troops and spells that you use, which it looks like you have planned. Max all buildings, including walls. Then upgrade your TH.

At TH9 there are more buildings days than lab days so you will have time to catch up.

Make all you resreach and defence on the max level, before you upgrade your Town Hall.

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Originally Posted by Swam

Make all you resreach and defence on the max level, before you upgrade your Town Hall.

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Maxing out defs and walls is obvious, but maxing out research for troops you don't use makes no sense imho.

Especially if that means leaving builders inactive, it will create a huge delay for nothing...

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Originally Posted by Swam

Make all you resreach and defence on the max level, before you upgrade your Town Hall.

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no need if he is going to use those troops. However if he is then I agree

If your serious about war don't skip the balloons. They become decent at lv5 but are a beast at lv 6. pair them with minions and a lavahound and you can win a lot of battles. A lot of people here will tell you to max everything at th 8. Im in the same situation as you. Got 3-4 weeks left on defense and 75 walls left to get to skull so my walls will be done by the weekend then just cannons and at left. I'm gonna get as much research done as i can and probably gonna skip the remaining de research till th 9. Most here say De is easier to get at th 9 with 2 max drills. Other than that it sounds like a good plan.

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Originally Posted by Jayrock

If your serious about war don't skip the balloons. They become decent at lv5 but are a beast at lv 6. pair them with minions and a lavahound and you can win a lot of battles. A lot of people here will tell you to max everything at th 8. Im in the same situation as you. Got 3-4 weeks left on defense and 75 walls left to get to skull so my walls will be done by the weekend then just cannons and at left. I'm gonna get as much research done as i can and probably gonna skip the remaining de research till th 9. Most here say De is easier to get at th 9 with 2 max drills. Other than that it sounds like a good plan.

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I would leave the golem and lightning and do loons and minions. Then do golems from L1 to L4 at TH9, but all people attack differently.

maxing out troops at each level depends on a few things imo. if someday you want to be truely maxxed out at th10 then i would say do then before upgrading th. if you want to get as high as you can as quickly as you can then only max the ones you use, but do bare in mind that this will change as you progress and you will use other troops in different situations other than you do now. as far as maxxing out goes then loot becomes more scarse the higher you go esp th10.

i also have a theory about clan wars. you overall troop strength is taken into account during match making. so to eventually upgrade those troops to max that you do not use will match you up against higher lvl clans. i have never used hogs but i have maxxed hogs so that would put me in the higher categorie.

i do plan on being truely maxxed out but my troops alone will probably take another 120 days to complete without using gems. at th10 with all but AD maxxed out that is a long time. but still at least it will give plenty of time for walls and heors :)

Read sharonsyms thread

First of all, thanks for the replies especially those with detailed arguments.

Another point I should mention is that my first 3 upgrades at th9 are likely to be barbarians and archers for farming and then giants for DE farming. Then I will ficus on war troops.

I am leaning towards leaving out loons, minions and goblins. Hoping for more replies to takr a finsl decision :)

The question you have to ask yourself is what will be your target war army at TH9?

GoWiPe is good
GoWiWi is good
Loonion is good
hogs is still good

If you think about what you will need someday, you will have to upgrade everything now.

Loon and minions are far off, so maybe you should postpone those and work on your gowipe. Golem 2, wall breakers and pekka should be enough before going to TH9.

Like it was said before, you will get plenty of lab time at TH9. barb/archer/giants and then when you need for war.

Good luck

I jumped from TH8 to TH9 with my lab no where near completed. If you are done with all the structures (especially defenses) there is little point in letting your builders idle waiting for the lab. As long as your core farming offense is ready then you will have no problems at TH9.

Btw, the AQ is a huge bottleneck in this game, you want to get her started upgrading ASAP.

I plan on starting the upgrade to th9 in a week. I have maxed defenses and just a few more walls to go. During the upgrade I plan to have Giants and lions upgrading during the ten days.

By the time I get to th9 I will have not maxed goblins healers lightning and heal for elixir upgrades. Dark troops: minions are lvl three hogs are one valks are one golem is two.

Once I get to th9 I plan on using gowipe and loonian in wars. I feel that I will be in decent shape with the troop compositions I plan to use. I feel like i will be a bit behind with a few troops but I feel like I will be ahead with the troops I plan to use.

I suggest getting the troops you plan to use as high as you can and then upgrading town hall. I have five builders sitting idle and I don't like that.

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Originally Posted by arunt

The upgrades that I will definitely do (39 days):
- Pekka Lvl 3
- Golem lvl 2
- Rage spell lvl 5
- Lightning spell lvl 5
- Wallbreaker lvl 5

The upgrades I will skip if I don't complete all TH8 research (25 days):
- Loon lvl 5
- Goblins lvl 5
- Minions lvl 3 and 4

I war seriously, but I also farm regularly. I want to progress fast, but also be good in wars. As a TH8, I have mostly used mass dragons with the occasional hog attack, even with lvl 4 hogs.

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If you War Seriously - as a TH9 your game will need to change- your days of spamming dragons will soon be over- You will need your pekkas and golems up to par along with your spells.

Loons/Minions- If you ever want to trophy push someday- I would advise upgrading these as well- if I was to skip anything it would be goblin and healers.

level 6 Loons + level 3 dragons = great early TH9 war strat to 3 star early TH9s and max TH8s. It's a good hold over while you're working on all the other troop upgrades you need.

There are a LOT more builder days at TH9 (especially if you plan on getting heroes to a respectable level) than research days, so you have plenty of time to catch up.

I upgraded Minions to 3, Hogs to 2, but otherwise, left all my DE upgrades until TH9. DE is much, much easier to acquire here.

Upgrade, don't wait for lab upgrades.
You will have time to catch up your lab upgrades whilst doing your walls and hero's at the end of th9

Farm walls and complete your lab, that's what I'm doing. Your choice, though.

Go up when your builders get idle - it is such a grind at th9 and th10, and by the time you get there you might even have th11. But don't wait long on minions. There is still a lot of loot to be had BAMming at late th9 with lvl 5 minions. And I love my lvl 6 minions.
And I agree with those who said golems could probably wait. Valks can certainly wait. Balloons are nice as a th9 for sure for war/push, as are hogs.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by arunt

Hello everyone, I am in a bit of a dilemma right now. In short, my defences will be done in about 25 days if I keep 4 builders busy, plus 10 days for the TH9 upgrade itself, so total 35 days. But my lab research still has about 60 days left to complete. So should I keep my builders idle while lab research completes, or just go to TH9 and leave out the upgrades I am least likely to use? I am keeping 1 builder free as I still need about 140 more skull walls.

The long version. These are the research left at TH8, ignoring Healer:

The upgrades that I will definitely do (39 days):
- Pekka Lvl 3
- Golem lvl 2
- Rage spell lvl 5
- Lightning spell lvl 5
- Wallbreaker lvl 5

The upgrades I will skip if I don't complete all TH8 research (25 days):
- Loon lvl 5
- Goblins lvl 5
- Minions lvl 3 and 4

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Honestly, I would only worry about getting rage spell and maybe wbs max. If your defenses are even close to max (wiz towers, mortars, cannons max) go ahead and go TH9. There are way too many advantages for TH9 to max TH8 - I went 9 without even upgrading a barracks to 10 or having golem available (I still don't have Golem available as I haven't upgraded dark barracks to that point). TH9 is where you will spend the majority of this game - I have absolutely no regrets about upgrading a little early and don't see why anyone would want to fully max TH8 as there are so many advantages to 9.

My opinion on max for TH8:

Defense:
Mortars, Wiz Towers, Cannons, AD
AT and Teslas you can focus on at TH9 after you've started all your new defenses

Troops:
Dragons, wiz, barbs, arch, wbs, balloons should all be max

Spells:
All should be max especially if you war

Otherwise, go for the upgrade. AQ is the biggest offensive upgrade you could possibly have. I would focus on getting giants to 6 and balloons to 6 immediately. You can worry about maxing Golems, Pekkas, etc later - Balloons mixed with Dragons is a perfectly fine interim war strategy while you are starting to upgrade everything else at TH9.

Thanks for all the replies :)

It seems that most people recommend not keeping the builders idle and leave a few lab upgrades for later if needed, and I too am leaning towards that. But if you have anything more to say on this topic or some other recommendation for me, please do reply. I will be checking up on this thread regularly.