Looking for advice on TH9

Alright so before I get into this I'd just like to say I have no interest in doing TH 8.5 so yeah.. don't even suggest it.

I'm a casual player when it comes to CoC, I mean really casual.. I've been TH8 for almost a year now and I play less than 20 minutes a day. I'm maxed TH8 level 90, and starting to save up for the 3mil gold needed to upgrade my TH. I already have a general idea for my upgrades once I hit TH9.. But I'm really just looking for any helpful advice regarding life as a new TH9, or just advice for TH9 in general. I'd especially like to know about offense, since I'll be starting off TH9 with my TH8 level troops (obviously) is it difficult to hit TH9's when you first start? I should remember the transitional period from TH7-TH8 but like I said it's been almost a year, and I've sort of forgotten what it's like.

Any advice is appreciated, even just small tips & tricks may help, thanks in advanced! :thumbsup:

If your a casual player just upgrade whatever you want, not much strategy in casual play. whatever your attack style is, upgrade it first

This is not advice, but experience:

I built my xbows as quickly as possibly first, threw down the extra walls, got them to the gold (now cheese)/light purple stage (level 6?), started upgrading the DE drills, casually, and focused on getting my splash damage up while also saving DE for the queen.

In terms of offense: I upgraded my giants first, then my balloons (I really wanted to become an air-attacker), designed a farming base and just started farming with BARCH.

It's been about 5 months, and this is where I'm at: look me up Clan Tag: #YLVY0Q22/Name: Renaissance Man

What I did at the start of TH9 was that I upgraded my lab and built my xbows immediately.

I also converted to farming since my base was weak as a TH9 and my troops were basically TH8 troops.

I typically play a lot, but have slowed down from nearly constant collector raids and occasionally working on improved targeting of storages or war practice, to less frequent full army raiding. I am totally enjoying life as a new 9 atm. I can tell you what I did, whether it will fit your style is another question.

I got all the new stuff and upped it to max TH8 level.
AQ to 5, Camps, CC, lab, spell factory, dark barracks and drills next.
Then did one of each defense, not the best idea perhaps, just wanted one of all the new ones because I was getting tired of looking at the old, lol.
Upped raiding troops (except barbs, which I didn't use a lot), and Balloons and hogs...heading war-wise. Now started golems to 3.

Currently going for trophies just because I never have, yet, lol. (Thanks to some inspiration and tips from some clanmates and fellow forum-types.)
So to keep what little loot I get, am using a farming base, and putting gold into walls, keeping only enough for next-ing (a fair amount).
Still working on de drills, walls and heroes.
Will save for more defenses a little later. With one of everything upgraded I feel like I've done something, lol.
Some sleepy builders, but that's okay by me. In no hurry. :)

My advice would be a bit dated or may be just the thing. I went to th9 over a year ago on my second account back when 8.5 wasn't yet a thing. First thing Indid was time my raiding at th8 so that when I went to 9 I had full storage, full collectors and almost full castle so I had roughly 7.5 mil of each to spend right away. Did spell factory and lab...both xbows , the new walls and queen first then had to add the second dark drill...(as I said a bit dated). First troop upgrade I did was hogs level 5 since I did a lot of hog farming back then and level 5 hogs can cover up a lot of the deficiencies of level 5 troops. Heal 6 was the second upgrade as any hogger would....then worked on my barch.

Build the x-bows then upgrade your splash defences.