Giants or balloons to lvl 6 for DE raiding (First TH9 upgrade)?

My lab will be upgraded in a day and after 4 days of raiding at TH9, I have come to the following conclusion:

- With lvl 5 barbarians and archers, I can raid enough gold and elixir. My elixir storage is full and my 25 new walls are already lvl 7.

- Getting enough DE to upgrade just the Archer Queen (AQ) is very painful, at least with lvl 5 troops. I can't get to most DE storages with 1000+ DE without using a couple of spells. And if I use them, then even with a boost I have to wait at least 15-20 minutes for the next attack.

In reality, I want to upgrade BOTH heroes simultaneously. I am not warring, and so I want to get both of them as high as I can. So please tell me which one would be better - Giants lvl 6 or Balloons lvl 6? I already have lvl 4 minions to support the loons.

Giant army is faster to train, but I have found that ground defences are much stronger as compared to air defences. In addition, the bottleneck for Giants are the spells. Without 1 or 2 healing spells, I can't get to the core reliably. How many spells will I need if I used balloons instead? I would rather do an attack every 30-40 mins and get 1-2k DE reliably for DE. For other resources, I will still barch.

Note: Please do not recommend lvl 6 barbs or archers as I have firmly decided to do them after getting this upgrade first.

They are both great upgrades. I would say it depends where you farm and who you target. If your farming th8-9 storages in gold league then use giants, you shouldn't need more than 1 heal per attack if you do it right.

If you want loads of de then go higher and use loons.

You do need to consider though whether you have the skill to consistently win at say masters 3 with both heroes sleeping. It's mostly th10's up there and even a near maxed th9 will not win defences above 2400 trophies so you need to win most of your attacks to avoid demotion, and for the juicy bonus.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by arunt

My lab will be upgraded in a day and after 4 days of raiding at TH9, I have come to the following conclusion:

- With lvl 5 barbarians and archers, I can raid enough gold and elixir. My elixir storage is full and my 25 new walls are already lvl 7.

- Getting enough DE to upgrade just the Archer Queen (AQ) is very painful, at least with lvl 5 troops. I can't get to most DE storages with 1000+ DE without using a couple of spells. And if I use them, then even with a boost I have to wait at least 15-20 minutes for the next attack.

In reality, I want to upgrade BOTH heroes simultaneously. I am not warring, and so I want to get both of them as high as I can. So please tell me which one would be better - Giants lvl 6 or Balloons lvl 6? I already have lvl 4 minions to support the loons.

Giant army is faster to train, but I have found that ground defences are much stronger as compared to air defences. In addition, the bottleneck for Giants are the spells. Without 1 or 2 healing spells, I can't get to the core reliably. How many spells will I need if I used balloons instead? I would rather do an attack every 30-40 mins and get 1-2k DE reliably for DE. For other resources, I will still barch.

Note: Please do not recommend lvl 6 barbs or archers as I have firmly decided to do them after getting this upgrade first.

---

Giants... add a poll next time. =)

Go for the balloons. They get extremely strong and it will be your first maxed troop :D

My order was balloons - barbarian - giant - arch

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by techcare

Giants... add a poll next time. =)

---

Poll added. Gold or Crystal leagues if Giants preferred?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Syr1nax

They are both great upgrades. I would say it depends where you farm and who you target. If your farming th8-9 storages in gold league then do giants. If you want loads of de then go higher and use loons.

You do need to consider though whether you have the skill to consistently win at say masters 3 with both heroes sleeping. It's mostly th10's up there and even a near maxed th9 will not win defences above 2500 trophies so you need to win most of your attacks to avoid demotion, and for the juicy bonus.

---

I am planning to go to Crystal I at most. Master leagues are beyond my skill and experience currently.

Thanks to both of you. Eagerly waiting for more responses.

It really depends on strategy and league most used/visited. I use Loonion in Crystal sometimes and the pay off is worth it, so Loons for me

I'm a new TH9 too , I have already done barbs . I'm doing giants next because I camp in lower leagues mostly

P.S. Hey I just noticed I'm a Troll Food 199 :p

had the same dilemma between giants and loons and went for loons.

loons then giants then archers then barbs

Meh, tbh it's not too big a decision. Do one and then the other and see which one you prefer. It is only 10 days.

I have been doing balloon farming for DE for the last 80 minutes with boosted barracks. It is just ridiculous that I can get to 1500-2000 DE centralised storages without much trouble as long as ADs are not lvl 6 or well placed level 5 ones. My minions will be lvl 4 only tomorrow.

Just how powerful will it be with lvl 6 loons and lvl 5 minions! I am seriously leaning towards the loons right now.

the loons seem better because its also a troop you can use in war. I cant wait till I get my lavoonions going.

If ur army is ground then giants, if air the balloons

If you are truly going after DE with gold and elix a bonus, then use Giants, why waste DE on building farming troops? Most people use Minions or Hounds with their Balloons.

Come on guys! Just 22 hours left till lab is ready, so please help me decide :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mrjeffwagner

If you are truly going after DE with gold and elix a bonus, then use Giants, why waste DE on building farming troops? Most people use Minions or Hounds with their Balloons.

---

40-45 minions cost around 350 DE, and I am able to get to 1500-2000 DE storages with lvl 5 loons and lvl 3 minions. Whereas with lvl 5 giants, I am usually not able to break through to the DE storage of stronger bases unless it is only 2 walls deep.

Will it be different with lvl 6 giants? I will have 1 hero available at max and many times none, so if a good number of my archers are taken out by a mortar shot, I am usually left with too little DPS to actually take down the DE storage in time. Any tips? Adding wizards or healers increase the viablility of this strategy by a lot, but they also increase the training time significantly. If I have to put up with longer training time, then why not use the stronger troops ie loons?

This poll suggested I should choose lvl 6 balloons, and so I have started balloon lvl 6 as my first TH9 upgrade.

I celebrated that by looting 2000 DE from the storages of a TH9 with lvl 9 walls and 4 lvl 6 ADs, destroying 60% of the base in the process. Imagine what lvl 6 balloons will do to it :D

If you boost a fair bit balloons are by far the best choice.

If not, go Giants. Because you'll be waiting 40 odd minutes between raids with unboosted loons.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by arunt

This poll suggested I should choose lvl 6 balloons, and so I have started balloon lvl 6 as my first TH9 upgrade.

I celebrated that by looting 2000 DE from the storages of a TH9 with lvl 9 walls and 4 lvl 6 ADs, destroying 60% of the base in the process. Imagine what lvl 6 balloons will do to it :D

---

Balloons have a training time of 8 minutes, compared to the 2 minutes it takes to cook a giant. Assuming that you also add at least 30 minions to the army that is another 300 do every raid. 5 Level6 giants, 4 wallbreakers, rest barch (1/3 barbs) and you can loot all the DE you want. While it is true that your loon army will grab bigger raids, you can do 3x as many raids using GiBarch. I usually go for bases with 1000-1.500 DE in Crystal 3 range. I succeed 90% of the raids without queen, and I have to use a rage spell from time to time, but never have to boost spell factory. Sometimes you can do kamikaze raids for 2k+ DE, and returning with half of your army, if you also have your queen that makes it a lot easier.

Balloons:cool:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by iErvin

Balloons have a training time of 8 minutes, compared to the 2 minutes it takes to cook a giant. Assuming that you also add at least 30 minions to the army that is another 300 do every raid. 5 Level6 giants, 4 wallbreakers, rest barch (1/3 barbs) and you can loot all the DE you want. While it is true that your loon army will grab more raids, you can do 3x as many raids using GiBarch. I usually go for bases with 1000-1.500 DE in Crystal 3 range. I succeed 90% of the raids without queen, and I have to use a rage spell from time to time, but never have to boost spell factory. Sometimes you can do kamikaze raids for 2k+ DE, and returning with half of your army, if you also have your queen that makes it a lot easier.

---

I understand that balloons are slow to train, but I usually do a 2 hour boost session any day I can play without interruption. The rest of the day, I can live with a 40 min training time of balloons instead of the 20-30 min time for giants. I expect my queen to be sleeping most of the time, so she won't be of much help. I find balloons to be a lot less dependant on heroes.

Giants lvl 6 backed by AQ will steal DE easily too, I agree. But it is time for me try what all the fuss is about this 'balloonian' ;)

I did giants first I have no issues in gold 2 getting 35 to 45k in a few hours boosting, whereas balloons can take too long and tend to require a rage spell in deploying appropriately. But I guess I'm too late. Btw I still haven't maxed my balloons for this acct yet (shhh don't tell anyone)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by andrew72900

I did giants first I have no issues in gold 2 getting 35 to 45k in a few hours boosting, whereas balloons can take too long and tend to require a rage spell in deploying appropriately. But I guess I'm too late. Btw I still haven't maxed my balloons for this acct yet (shhh don't tell anyone)

---

You are already making me regret my decision to go with the balloons :(

Remarkably, I am finding that the easiest method to get DE in the Gold 2 is to just barch for gold/elixir and I get DE naturally from the drills. Sure, it may not be the best method if I want 30k DE in one day, but who can deny that getting thousands of DE while also getting millions of gold and elixir is fantastic! Maybe I should have upgraded barch first!

just got to th9 and my first lab upgrade was giants.
biggest increase in the game imo

my theory on doing them first:

every day I broke a shield at max th8, i got rolled by giants.
lvl6 giants and archer queen would roll in and 2star me with regularity.

so, after upgrading them first, I can do the same to you puny th8s
muahahahahahah


also, my de farming army: giants/wbs/gobs/archers

Do balloons. won't have to worry about cannons and mortars or xbows pointing down and with giants you gotta worry about every defence

1) Giants if you use it for farming. OP doesn't use it.

2) Loon if you clan war. OP doesn't either.

3) So, based on that, my answer will be Giants. You can still keep 1-2x in your army for some tanking when barbs just don't cut it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CuteBoboi

1) Giants if you use it for farming. OP doesn't use it.

2) Loon if you clan war. OP doesn't either.

3) So, based on that, my answer will be Giants. You can still keep 1-2x in your army for some tanking when barbs just don't cut it.

---

Replies to your points:

1. I do use Giants, especially when hunting for DE and attacking quickly. But lvl 5 Giants aren't really capable of doing much themselves. I need to back them up with a spell or two or the AQ.

2. I am still participating in wars, just at the slow rate of 1 per week now because of real life stuff.

Thanks for your reply, but I already chose Loons. I will go for barbs and archers next and then Giants. However, if the lvl 6 loons don't impress me, I will go for Giants next. Lvl 5 barbs and archers are doing just fine in the Gold leagues :)