'Should I upgrade my town hall now - or later?'' - The definitive answer!
Updated 8-8-16 -Adding various account styles and tweaking with new info I've picked up over the past few months.
I see a lot of people asking 'Should I upgrade my town hall from _ to _ -- or wait?' -- Followed by a lot of uneducated replies - a lot of opinionated information - nothing stickied, nothing that is really truly all-inclusive of an answer for everyone at any town hall level...
I aim to fix that here. - If you know of a (good) discussion on this topic - please reply with a link and I'll add the information to the main thread here...
Generally speaking - the answer will be different for every player and every circumstance based on a few things. Your clan leaders can tell you what they feel you need to do to improve performance. Always seek their guidance when making an upgrade plan; until you fully understand it yourself... then keep them appraised as a courtesy.
Keep in mind - Every clan is different - some will not accept you if you do not have the type of account they are interested in. If you have a clan in mind that you want to join - be sure to make upgrade choices that those leaders will respect.
Upgrading your town hall does a few things.
1: your loot penalty is increased against players 1 town hall below.- make sure you dont need what they have (th9 has a lot of easy to get Dark; going to 10 early removes access to that easy dark)
2: your multiplayer matches will be 90% the same as your current town hall (post th11 update change) -so make sure you have high enough research to kill these bases
3: you unlock higher level research, heroes, attack power and all kinds of new buildings...
4:*There is NO ADDED WAR WEIGHT when upgrading a town hall. If you build zero new defenses your weight will remain the same for war matching reasons.
The answer will be different based on your account style. Each type of player needs a different style of base... different priorities and some may upgrade town halls faster than others to help benefit their play style... These are in order from BEST in war - to WORST in war.
1: Defenseless – Offense only - zero defense
2: Hybrids – Aims to defend vs mirrors and attack higher than mirror
3: Minimax – Town hall 6 base designs with th8 mirrors and th11 max defenses/offense
4: .5's– Almost identical to a Maxer but will keep offense one town hall higher than defense; some look at this like an upgrade method - some look at it like a permanent solution to their account
5: Maxers / Trophy pushing players. They quite simply max every last thing before going to the next town hall; even if it means wasting a two hundred million gold or elixer while farming walls or heroes.
6: Farming focused players. - want high level defenses since they spend a lot of time offline Hiding behind their defenses. They will defend well in war – but will have to attack 5 or 10 below mirror. often they will skip much of the war troop research and will probably have low level heroes.
7: Rushed. - You have all heard the term.. but any account that doesn't fully max at each level can technically be called rushed... since they 'rushed' the town hall before maxing. GENERALLY a rushed player is seen as someone who is OUT OF BALENCE in a negative way that will hurt the clan. Most common it is a player who has heavy defenses and low offense who can not perform in war.
8: Clueless. - They never read or go out of their way to see videos or learn anything about the game at all.. they just randomly mash buttons, upgrade haphazardly and expect everyone to agree that they are epic and awesome in the game. (usual names include *CR7*, *King* , *Awesome* or they tend to have random other adjectives in their name to imply how great they think they are....) =fun amusing fact that I've noticed over the past year and a half... If you have this kind of name and really are a smart player PLEASE join my clan and say Hi.. I've NEVER MET ONE.
In any and every upgrade path - the following buildings should be maxed out - every time - asap and in this priority.
1: Castle
2: Camps
3: Spell Factory
4: Dark Drills
5: Research *archers minimum - you can skip troops that you do not use; but you must max farm / money makers at a minimum.
6: Barracks *You can literally barch through war as a defenseless town hall 8 for the first few months of the game and still be 3 starring 15 above mirror. just keep Barch maxing at each level...
7: Walls - always and at all times buy and take them to max levels; you can choose to avoid maxing them but you should aim to max them; even defenseless bases... Walls take forever to upgrade, have really low impact on your war base and can really help slow down the enemy; or force them to use a spell slot to jump over them.
Things that could be left lower level, or skipped entirely for various reasons:
Defenses: War centered players can completely AVOID building the new ones at your level (if you want to do .5 upgrade styles) - you could leave them low level to keep a low war weight for easy war matches... You need to insure that you can always 3 star - not only your mirror - but higher ranked players in war as well before you increase your weight in war... If you can't get 3 stars in war - your defenses should NOT be upgrading at all...
On the other side of the coin -- if you’re a farmer who never goes to war -you will probably want to upgrade these things fast... since you get all your money from multiplayer battles you won't want to loose it...
Research has very low war weight - but if you never plan to use one unit - say Goblin; then there's no reason for you to spend money upgrading them... use that time to focus on the troops you actually want to use... Some research adds as no weight – some 1k – some higher.
For a quick fast easy answer - you upgrade your town hall when ONE of these three things has happened:
1: Your walls are completely max - you have nothing to spend your gold/elixer on.
2: Your research is complete -- Never let the research lab sit idle... always keep it moving along.
Town hall levels 3 to 6 research maxes out in days - or weeks... so you could end up 'rushing' your town hall a bit - Town hall 7 and 8 your research will take MONTHS... not days or weeks...
Town hall 9-11 your talking over a YEAR of waiting...
3: Your heroes are max level - Keep them upgrading, it takes a LONG time to get them completely finished...
Make a list of Pro's and Cons: Math will help you figure things out... Take this example:
Do the math..
1 How long until your walls are done:
2 How long until your heroes are done?
3 How long until your research is done?
4 How long until your money making ability is max? (storage / mines/ pumps/drills etc)
5 How long until your defenses are max?
6 If you Max out everything before upgrading - pro's and cons-
7 If you upgrade now, pro's and cons -
Example of my war centered th9.
With my current play schedule and income abilities, I bring in about 10k dark per day - and 15 million gold/elixer combined. Once you know how much money you earn with the time you have - you can start to calculate how long things will take to get completed - (there are websites that can help you do that if its too difficult to do it in your head)
*post th11 update means every 4 hours a big chunk of your money will be taken... so I'd remove 25% of your income out of the equation to compensate.
1 How long until your walls are done:
-I will have MAX th9 lava walls within 20 days-
2 How long until your heroes are done?
-My heroes are level 17 (13 upgrades remaining at 1 week each... plus a few days /week in between each upgrade to farm more dark -. so you can say 100 days if non stop - and a full YEAR if going slowly.
3 How long until your research is done?
My research has been moving non stop for 11 months now - and i have 17 more upgrades needed before I'm max for th9 - that is about 120 days.
4 How long until your money making ability is max? (storages / mines/ pumps/drills etc)
-all max
5 How long until your defenses are max?
-I'm not going to max them -- not for well over a year. I went from a th 7.5 in in design to a mid th9 and have not upgraded any defenses in 45 days; I do not want to upgrade them any more until my research and heroes are 100% complete so that I can remain productive in war... I want to keep my brand new th9 / max th8 mirrors for as long as possible.
6 If you Max out everything before upgrading - pro's and cons-
+ I will look like a solid player, I'll have access to the games best clans - no one will call me rushed.
-80 days worth of gold and elixer that I can't spend on anything... all I need now is DARK for hero upgrades - my walls are max, 'done' with my defenses - 1.2 billion in loot that goes into the void of 'cant fit into storages - have nothing to spend it on'
-I will get very hard mirrors in war and will struggle to get 3 stars below my mirror; making it impossible for me to be a successful top 5 player in a serious war clan.
7 If you upgrade now, pro's and cons -
- My defenses are not max, my heroes are low - None of the world class clans will want me (based on stats alone)
-I loot penalty against th8 (but th8 doesn't have much dark for me anyway - which is primarily what I want... I only seem to attack th9 and 10 anyway at this point)
+15 million a day times 80 days = 1.2 BILLION that I can put towards wall upgrades at Town hall 10. (aka 300 Max walls at 4 million each)
+1 more dark drill worth 1800 per day.
+Bigger camps
+bigger Castle
+Another Spell slot
+higher level research (that I can prioritize over things I dont care as much about)
-So in my case... upgrading to th10 is hands down - the best thing for ME to do... I will not be building any new defenses - will not increase my war weight at all.... I will in effect simply bump my town hall up and keep moving my walls along; but will be stronger because of it due to the added attack power I get...
So - for those who made it through this 7 step question / answer system.. you should be able to answer - for yourself - ''Should you upgrade your town hall now? -- or wait?"
I hope this helps some of you make up your mind.
Question: I can't 3 star my mirror in war because I have heavy war weight. Should I upgrade my town hall to fix this problem?
Answer:Three questions need asked.. if the answer to all three is YES then you can upgrade town hall.
A: Is this a question of war weight- are you being out matched - (not a problem with skill) -yes?:
B: Have upgraded your core money making troops? (moving to the next town hall means harder money making against harder bases) - yes?
C: Have you upgraded your full attack power; (castle, barraks, camps, spells?)-yes?
If yes to all 3.. then YES - you could consider moving town hall up to the next level.
DO NOT add any new weight upgrade - focus on new attack power (castle, barraks, camps spells) - and voila; you will now be a 3 star machine again vs your mirror; if not higher... now that you corrected the mistake -don't make the same one again... keep that attack power higher than your defensive power.
Q: Should I upgrade early to get that _____? (fill in the blank)
Potential reasons to upgrade early would be for the King - Queen - extra dark drills - warden or more attack power.
Answer: Maybe - understand the pro's and cons of the decision - different play styles dictate if this will help you or not. In some cases its a definite YES - in others its a maybe... Refer to the above list of questions to be sure you have -at least - full attack power before moving up.
To learn more about war weights see this post:
http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...88#post6280488
For detailed upgrade / rush guides for these various account styles - and Weight goals see the next page
http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...=1#post6596640
Post th11 update thoughts.
Going to TH10 prematurely shouldn't be that scary any more... there is more wiggle room up top - less of a penalty to those wanting the next tier of toys to play with...
TH11 prematurely could really hurt you - since now your loot penalty will be against th9... and th9 has the most dark available for easy pickings... nobody wants to farm against th10's and infernos for every last drop of dark...
BUT the new hero may be worth upgrading early - if you are pretty maxed on research for th10 already...
First time a hero is 100% elixer to upgrade... finally; Dark was already scarce enough...
extra Air defenses being unlocked early...
Supercell is trying to stop the all powerful DragLoon raids; this is easy to counter... simply keep th5 war weight.. and dont get matched up to any th6 players until you have unlocked lvl2 drags..
Dont get matched up against th7 players until you've rushed to 8 and unlocked level 3 drags...
Dont get matched up against th8 plauers until you are at th9 with level 4 drags...
(see a pattern here?)
Dont get matched up against th9 until you have MAX level 5 dragons...
Easy to achieve if you keep your weight low while upgrading.
Adding suggested upgrade paths for my clan mates to follow.
FIRST is a basic list of the EIGHT account styles -- Followed by a more in depth guide on how each is different / pros cons and upgrade suggestions. BE SURE TO READ THE FIRST POST in this thread.
If you dont understand war weight -- read here:
http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...r-2015-changes
Account styles - BEST in war to WORST in war.
From best in war -- to the worst in war:
1: Defenseless - just skip all defenses... do offense only... very easy to do this...
2: Hybrids - post update a unique highly researched build to hyper optimize your base... It would be a cross between a defenseless - a mini max and a maxer. This is complicated and requires actual though - planning and understanding of the impact each thing has on your account.
by my design it will
A: bring easy mirrors of that are 3 or 4 town halls weaker than you on offense
B: defend against every possible army that your mirror could try to send your way
C: easily 3 star players who are 3 or 4 town halls higher than your mirrors level.
3: Minimax (used to be the best for war.. a few updates back supercell modified the weight system to make these obsolete)
4: .5's (slightly optimized for war.. but they can defend and push with a little effort)
5: Maxers (ok at everything.. but great at nothing)
6: Farmers: (comparable to a Rushed - but this player has made a conscioius effort to skip offenses as they hastily upgrade defenses and hide behind shields. They don't attack in multiplayer, They don't do real wars... they likely participate in the Farm War Alliance / orange league type wars where they simply log in once a day for a few minutes - collect resources and loot 2x in war.
7: Rushed (most players rush defenses =skip offense and suck in war... its 300 days to do ALL defenses -- almost 900 days to finish all heroes and research)
8: Clueless - those button mashers who have no idea what they should upgrade, what they should skip completely - and what to save for later... plus they have no clue what order to do the upgrades in.
I suggest you start with account style 1 == if you dislike it convert to another style.
See my signature and read various topics that I communicate in... 95% of what I talk about in here is related to War optimization.
In any and every upgrade path - the following buildings should be maxed out - every time - asap and in this priority.
1: Castle
2: Camps
3: Spell Factory
4: Dark Drills
5: Research *archers minimum - you can skip troops that you do not use; but you must max farm / money makers at a minimum.
6: Barracks *You can literally barch through war as a defenseless town hall 8 for the first few months of the game and still be 3 starring 15 above mirror. just keep Barch maxing at each level...
7: Walls - always and at all times buy and take them to max levels; you can choose to avoid maxing them but you should aim to max them; even defenseless bases... Walls take forever to upgrade, have really low impact on your war base and can really help slow down the enemy; or force them to use a spell slot to jump over them.
----------=====UPGRADE PATH 1: Defenseless:=====----------
Great for war, funny to watch players fail on such an 'easy' looking base. If you find it too difficult to run this account- convert it into a Hidden Trap base - add teslas and other hidden things so that you REALLY get a good laugh every time someone hits you with an un suspecting weak army. (BEST for war - WORST for farming and impossible to push)
Pros:
1: By Town hall 11 you will be about 15k weight with a town hall 4 mirror and -if properly upgraded you will three star almost any player in the game.
2: Your presense in the clan will result in the enemy #1 player being skewed as weaker than your clans #1 player and as a result - give your clan an advantage in the war.
3: You are guaranteed easy wars where you will always perform very well even if you have little or no skill in the game.
Cons:
1: Impossible to get shields until you are town hall 9 with a level 1 king and level 1 queen.
2: Always going to get hit for 100% destruction every time in war and multiplayer
3: Some war clans will not accept you - some will love you...
Multiplayer vs WAR considerations:
1: This account is made SOLEY for war... it can never enjoy the other variious aspects of the game. - No farming - No pushing.
Upgrade Walkthrough / suggestions:
Generally you just do everything BUT defenses... the only defense you'll ever do is -maybe - walls-and only so that you dont waste all that gold... maybe one day you will convert to a normal base; and the most expensive part of it will be well established by that time...
*Warning! This account style will make it nearly impossible for you to play the game normally - you will loose all your money all the time - upgrading anything will be very very hard to do - everyone will call you rushed - nobody will want you in their clan - unless you know what your doing and you fully understand this -- DONT do this:
This is not something that you should do unless its a second account; being able to defend in war - is just as important as being able to attack... building a base like this - is a hybrid upgrade strategy that will guarantee that you will always 3 star your mirror - or 49 above your mirror if its a 50x50 war and you've completed this guide.
Defenseless accounts are rare - and highly discouraged by the latest update from supercell. it is very hard to upgrade a base that can not defend.. and it will not get proper shields so it will get attacked and loose 100% of loot 3x before you do get one shield... aka -- play until you have the cash to upgrade - spend all your cash - then log out... and hide down in the zero trophy range with all the day 1 players; lol
If you are considering a new account like this - START as a defenseless - and stay defenseless for at least 4 wars through th6 to see how you like it...
Once you reach th6 or 7 and you have gotten a taste of what this account style is all about - then maybe convert it into a Trap base... (defenseless with all hidden traps / teslas etc) Laugh your butt off as newbies in war attack you - and fail - when all the hidden traps spring up and kill their weak attempts... force higher enemy players to drop down to kill your base.
If you are still not enjoying the trap base- consider converting it into a MiniMax (Town hall 6 designs only) -- Buy one of everything - and max them out... once thats done give it a few wars... see what you think.. maybe add one more defense; or two... and if you still dont like this style ; convert it into one of the other styles listed.
----------=====UPGRADE PATH 2: Hybrid:=====----------
using various aspects of different build styles and merging them into something that is specific for the type of accounts you want to build. (Great for war - impossible to push / farm)
Pros:
1: You will look pretty good; people will notice some odd things about your base - but over all your account will look solid - you can easily conform to any clans requirements within a couple weeks.
2: Most clans will accept you; but a few will want you to upgrade things first...
3: the Hbrids have much lighter weight than a Minimax
4: Un lurable castle (best defense in war) =minimax can not have an un lurable castles since it is a town hall 9 design.. while my hybrids purchase almost all the defenses; at low levels
5: Always get shields, 2 star 80% average destruction.
6" Always defend vs mirror in war - always hit higher in war.
Cons:
1: More difficult to understand which defenses you should put at what levels; general understanding of War Weights - and attack styles - plus base design tricks will be needed to maintain your account with a hybrid build.
2: You will take a bigger hit on multiplayer defenses and will loose more money than the first method... enough to notice a difference.
3: You should get used to being called 'rushed' most times when you visit global.
4: Higher weight than a defenseless
5: Most war clans will have no clue what this account is and may think you are 'rushed'
Multiplayer vs WAR considerations:
1: You will probably see a lot of 60 to 75% destruction results as your base struggles to defend... you may loose 60-80% of your money every time you get attacked
2: In War Your base will defend against rookie attacks but will fall to a veteran who is smart enough to build an army to avoid the defenses you choose to upgrade; and attack the weaker defenses you choose to keep low.
3: Every war you will have low weight -bringing your clan an easier match and guaranteeing that you can perform very well to help them win.
Upgrade Walkthrough / suggestions:
This upgrade path focuses 100% on getting attack power - and DARK elixer asap - because you will have few -or no- defenses to worry about; all you need to be concerned with is research (elixer) -- walls (with gold ) - and Heroes (need dark)
I can't stress enough - get to Town hall 7 as fast as you can and get your dark drills maxed. Once those drills are max = go to 8 and max them agan.. then 9 and max them again - then wait at th9 until your core troops are researched then get to 10 asap and max them a third time... THEN at town hall 10 - sit there forever with three max dark drills - farming everything that you would have otherwise farmed at town hall 6 with NO dark drills... this one simple trick alone will get you so much farther in the game much faster...
*Never spend dark on anything other than heroes until your heroes are 10/10 - maybe 15/15.. during this time 100% of elixer goes into regular research and 100% of dark goes into heroes.. never use dark troops to farm.. never use dark armies in war... get those heroes up asap. Non stop upgrades = you are low weight and DO NOT NEED heroes in war at all during this upgrade phase... you can easily BARCH in every war - with both heroes down and still 3 star 10 above mirror.
Refer to the list of Weights to pick and choose light weighted defenses that you may want.
Some things you will want to keep 2 levels below max (archer towers, Teslas)
Other things you will keep really low on purpose (your existing Mortars and Wiz towers from the previous town hall)
You will completely skip some of the defenses; dont build them at all - You dont want brand new mortars - or wiz towers -you never want Xbows or infernos (but if you had to choose between a new Xbow and a mortar/wiz-- xbow hands down... lower weight and more use) -You can only build these defense AFTER you have 100% of your research and at least 50% of your heroes done... (20/20 heroes for xbow and 30/30/10 Heroes for infernos)
Once your attack power - (castle, camps, barraks, research -heroes ) - and the core defenses that you were relying on - and also walls) are almost max you will go to the next town hall.
At first your town hall upgrade speed will be fast- your research lab will not be able to keep up - so focus 100% of your initial research on keeping the Archers max - and Lightening. Skip the wallbreakers / or whatever you wont be using until later. Since unlocking dragons will add 1k weight - you should consider waiting until town hall 9 when you have e level 1 queen to bother with dragons; instead rely on Loons as your army- Lava Loon - Loonion = all easy cheap armies to use in war... especially if you have max archers to kill cc defender and max lightening to Zap air defenses away.
As long as you keep the BARCH at max for each level - you will be able to earn money.
Pick one war type troop to use - Giants or loons - and keep them upgrading as well = you will be able to use GiBarch in war (with higher camps and spells) to easily attack 10 or 15 above mirror... even as a town hall 9 - you can barch through wars... because your mirror will be a town hall 5 and you will have 240 camps with a 30 slot castle...
DO NOT UPGRADE ANY DEFENSES unless one of these things happens all the time:
1: You can always 3 star way above mirror without even using a full army. - 10k to 30k higher.
2: you're war base fails to defend against your mirror; EVERY war...
3: your farming base never gets a shield.
You can choose to rush the town hall if:
1: Walls are finished (dont throw away gold /elixir due to being max)
2: Research on the CORE troops that you use are finished (if you never use goblins - dont upgrade them.. move to the next level and upgrade what you actually play with)
3: Dark Drills are finished upgrading (*Nothing is more important than dark drills - always max them first - once they are max - go to the next town hall and max them again.. and again.. and again... unless your core research is not finished.. then wait)
----------=====UPGRADE PATH 3: MINIMAX:=====----------
: (Good for war - not ideal for farmers or pushers but possible)
-Good in war but higher weight than Hybrids and defenseless
-Un lurable castles are not possible with a town hall 6 layout
-suffers large weight penalties from supercell for buying end game defenses like xbows/infernos and eagles. = performance of these vs the hybrid design I've been using is difficult to compare but I think my hybrid builds are superior.
+will always get shields at every level
-Some war clans will not want them, but most will at least recognize them.
*Plenty of other guides on how to build a minimax.. Basically you go to town hall 6 maxing everything - then you never buy any other defenses again until town hall 9 xbow / 10 inferno and 11 eagle... Max the few things you bought at each level.. Don't buy new walls beyond town hall 6.. etc. See MiniMax Savage clan for examples.
----------=====UPGRADE PATH 4: .5 style:=====----------
(acceptable for war - ok for farmers and pushers)
Every semi educated player knows this is the standard for how to upgrade. Some players will remain as a .5 for the greater part of their lives - if not forever.
Pros:
1: Decent performance in war / able to defend and attack within a couple of your mirror most times.
2: Most clan will respect your account and allow you to join.
3: You can actually trophy push with this account - NONE of the earlier mentioned accounts can push at all.
Cons:
1: Fair Play clans will reject you because this gives an 'un fair advantage in war'
2: If you're a war minded player - doing a hybrid .5 upgrade method would be smarter and have no negative impact, the fact that you choose to max / or almost max the town hall before going to the next is going to hurt you in war making it hard for you to get 3 stars on mirrors. *Most players dont realize that .5 means = you FINISH the town hall offense COMPLETELY before doing ANY new defenses... So a th9 wil have 30/30 heroes and 100% max offense before it buys any new th9 defenses/ like the xbows... That means a good 6 months of idle builders at town hall 9 while research and heroes slowly go up; and you get town hall 8 mirrors in war...
----------=====UPGRADE PATH 5: MAXERS:=====----------
The most generic account style that is good- but not great at anything - requires a high level of playing skill to be able to perform in war, can defend very well so its BEST for farming - Very good for Pushing and - not good for war... its fair for war - but you are more of a handicap to the clan unless you're the #1 player in that war with some hybrids/minimax/defenseless under you who are much stronger on offense.
Pros:
1: You will look good - everyone will respect you.
2: Most clan will accept you.
3: Simple upgrade plan that requires little or No research or understanding of game mechanics...
Cons:
1: It will take 30% longer to progress (due to wasted resources that you farm - but dont need)
2: You will waste resources (often you will get to the point where you need zero of one resource and a LOT of another... ) Example - town hall 8 - max skull walls requires so much gold that you will likely have 100% full elixir every day of your life while still needing to farm about 100 million gold to finish all those skulls...
Multiplayer vs WAR considerations:
1: You will easily defend your loot; though you will still be attacked by stronger players... you will probably only loose 35-50% of your money every time you get attacked
2: Your base will deny the enemy that third star- a few times- each war.
3: Your attack ability in war will be limited; will be hard for you to get 3 stars unless you have high skills
Upgrade Walkthrough / suggestions:
No-brainer.. Max everything - then upgrade...
----------=====UPGRADE PATH 6: Farming Focused:=====----------
Farmers just collect resources and log out... they dont need to attack so why should they bother upgrading their offense? Some choose to do this by design. No guide needed.. just max all the defenses as you max the mines/pumps/drills
----------=====UPGRADE PATH 7: Rushed:=====----------
This describes the largest % of players in the game. It is about a 300 day wait to upgrade every possible defense to town hall 11 levels. YET its almost 900 days to finish all the research and heroes...
Many players will end up with a heavy defensive base - at town hall 9 or 10 with heroes and research that is way too weak to perform well in war... They have rushed their defenses too high too fast... - a select few others may choose to do offense only; and then move to the next town hall - skipping defenses entirely... (defenseless/ minimax / hybrids etc) -- they are technically rushing offense and skipping defense... so yes -- the other account styles are ALSO rushed.. but since they are carefully planned out - I personally consider Rushed to be generically UN PLANNED upgrading that is off balance.
----------=====UPGRADE PATH 8: Clueless:=====----------
Many players refuse to bother learning anything and have no idea how their upgrade choices will impact their gaming experience... You dont want these in your clan either...
----------=====Time Chart and upgrade Goals - Weight vs Offense / Rush guide for SUCCESS IN WAR=====----------
At each town hall level you are expected to have MAX research for both Farming and War armies.
TH3 1k -2 days total- you will get pounded every time anyone attacks you; just focus on attack power and move up to th4 for bigger cams asap. dont build anything - no walls - nothing.. just the level 1 cannon.
TH4 1k- 2 days total - again no need to upgrade anything other than castle - camps - barracks -storage's and move up to th5 for a third camp. if you leave just the one cannon you will mirror up against very easy th3/4 players still.
TH5 5k - 1 week - new barracks, new camps a few other attack related things them move to 6. - If you are sure you dont want to be defenseless and want to build some defenses - only build one archer tower - one air def and of course ALL the walls (little weight) to protect your 3 defenses... this will keep you matching against th4 players as you move to th6.
TH6 10k - 1 week - again focus on barracks - castle to 20 slots - camps - storage- keep research moving and go to th7; add new hidden bombs and maybe one mortar at the end of th6 as you transition to 7.. This will insure that you still match up against th5 players in war... one full th below your current level.
TH7 15k - 2 weeks - You can get up to 200 camps - unlock dragons -get your attack power really high up and stay matching in war against weak th 5 or 6 players... do not build any new defenses until the end of th7 - then - maybe- you can buy a pair of hidden teslas... (you will look really weak still - matching up against th6 players in war as you transition to th8) The th6 players will not be able to 3 star your th7 base - or your premature th8 base...
TH8 20k 6 weeks -If you manage to keep your weight this crazy low- you will match up against th 6 or 7 players who have zero chance to 3 star you. Meanwhile you can work on level 3 dragons - get hogs to level 4 - your hero up to level 10...
TH9 30k -4 to 6 months- This is where you really get into trouble; upgrades cost 2 to 7 million each and you can not hold any money ; can not save or store any money.. if you want to upgrade at th9 as a defenseless or hybrid you will have a very hard time doing it... But if you are committed you can manage. *do not go to th9 until the research is complete on th8 core troops. 100% of all collectors are upgraded - you can skip defenses but nothing else.
You will still have th7 mirrors in war - but will be working on th9 upgrades... you can max out your attack power at th9 easily - with lots of wiggle room for mistakes on upgrades... slowly start adding hidden defenses - bombs traps -upgrade teslas... anyone who attacks your weak little base will have to contend with high level heroes and powerful hidden stuff... - your th7 mirrors will have to use full dragon attacks after 2 or 3 ground attacks fail. *You can still use level 3 or 4 dragloon in EVERY WAR ATTACK - saving 100% of all dark elixer for upgrading royals.
*do not go to th10 until you are 100% upgraded on attack power. you can skip defenses -you should have at least 5/5 heroes and be insanely low war weight as listed above in this guide- you must be able to 3 star WAY above mirrors in war - going to th10 is going to hurt your money making ability big time.
You CAN rush directly to th9 with no care in the world as long as you max archers - level 1 king / level 1 queen and max lightening is all you really need *as a defenseless or low weight account - and at th9 you can easily catch up and enjoy the perks of two level 6 dark drills... why sit at th 4/5/6/7 for weeks or months with no - or a low level dark drill... big waste if you ask me. -dont go to ten prematurely though.
FINANCES: Town hall 9 is the SWEET spot for the best loot in game. You can fill your gold/elixer storages 3x in one day long farming session easily. your 200k dark storage will take about 3 days. You can farm with both heroes down just fine.
TH10 45k -6 to 12 months - You will start getting max th8 or rushed th9 mirrors - but you will have full th10 attack power and can easily handle them... Most times you can use normal troops - but sometimes you will have to use Dark elixir attacks in war - you must have a few MAX th9 armies ready to use before you get to th10. Plus if you manage 10/10 heroes you can successfully farm as a new th10 but I wouldnt go to 10 any sooner.. and only if your a light weight hybrid.- your funding to upgrade royals will be cut... *LEVEL 5 DRAGONS are only good against new th9's - Mid th9's cant be taken down by max dragons unless their base design stinks... so if you plan to use dragons in war- keep your weight low enough so that when you get to level 5 drags - they are still viable as an attack troop - Weight wise, 65k to 68k is about as high as a level 5 dragon attack can clear. Use a Lava Drag combo and clear up to 72k
FINANCES: Town hall 10 will be a 20% cut in profits from farming. extra cost of armies - clicking next- and lower loot available due to harder bases plus less easy bases to attack. Instead of filling storages 3x a day - you will barely get them filled once every 30 hours (not including Dark.. to get 200k dark you will be farming for about 6 or 7 long hard days) You can still farm with 1 hero down; but it is hard.
TH11 55k DO NOT go to town hall 11 unless your heroes are 30/30 and every last possible research is 100% max - every possible thing in your base that you want upgraded is also 100% max. Town hall 11 takes a serious hit to farming ability and upgrades will be insanely hard to fund. Unlock your warden and focus on getting it as high as you can. Focus research on whatever the current most powerful troop is.
FINANCES: Town hall 11 is yet again another giant cut in profits. You will BARELY earn ANY profit at all... you will struggle to fill your storages -once every 3 or 4 days... 200k Dark storage will take a full 10 days of hardcore farming to fill up... If you drop any of your three heroes - you will not earn any money and basically have to stop farming completely till they are up again.
