Hello, fellow forum readers. This is my first guide, and this is what works for me. If you have any comments, questions, or tips on my strategy, or even my guide, let me know. Let's get started, shall we?
In my opinion, the Balloon and Minion combination is the most fun for one reason, tearing up high level bases for high income. For each aspect of this combination, I'll break it down to 5 parts, being:
Range, Troop Combination and Queuing, Levels of Troops Preferred, Minimum Loot and/or Trophy Targets and Deployment.
Range: For farming with this combination, you can be anywhere between 2000-2800, but personally I prefer 2400-2600.
Troop Combination and Queuing: Queue all elixir barracks full of balloons, and split 70 minions between your dark barracks, the reasoning behind constantly cooking balloons is- as you raid, and search for the raid, troops train, thus training as you search results in the minimal cook-time. Request for a dragon in your CC, accompanied by other air troops. If not on spell boost, 1 Heal per raid works fine. If on spell boost, I recommend using 2 Rage, 1 Heal, and 1 Lightning.
Level of Troops preferred: For this combination, Level 6 Balloons are a MUST! As for your minion level, anything between 3-5 will do, they are merely support troops. The level of your Clan Castle Dragon depends on your clan. 3+ is preferred, but any level will do. Lastly, spell levels. When using heal, I believe 5+ is a must. Rage level doesn't really matter, it's for the speed increase, not the damage increase.
Minimum Loot: Firstly, I would like to say NEVER raid a base with level 3+ upwards X-Bows, unless the Dark Elixir is in the outer layer. Since I use this army for Dark Elixir farming, my minimum goal is 2800 Dark Elixir, or more. If I see a base with 300,000+ gold, I'll settle for 2,000+ Dark Elixir.
Deployment: Bear with me, this is the long part of the guide. So, you've found a target that meets all the criteria, scout out the base, is the queen awake? If so, lure her out and take her out with minions. Next, look at Clan Castle placement, is it easy to lure? Drop a minion or two, if nothing comes out, address your attention to the actual raid, not worth wasting the troops.
Okay, so now spend a few seconds, not too long. What side is the Dark Elixir most exposed to? Take upgrading defenses into account. From here on in, I will split the raiding dynamic into two parts, with and without spell boost.
With Spell Boost: Deploy two rages on the edge of the walls, separated so they're biased towards important defenses (Wizard Towers, Air Defenses) Next, deploy a line of balloons parallel to the rages, just drag your finger across the screen. If you encounter CC troops, let your lightning evaporate them. Next, deploy minions behind in waves, deploy heal as needed on balloons. Lastly, drop the Clan Castle Dragon when he has a straight path to the DE, but is till under cover by Balloons and Minions.
Without Spell Boost: Deploy a line of balloons, followed by your minions, just like I stated for with spell boost, but without the rages. Use your heal strategically, on your balloons when grouped on a level 7+ Wizard Tower, the quicker that goes down, the better chance your minions survive. Once the path is cleared, and the battle is waging on, deploy that ever so important Clan Castle Dragon to clean up the Dark Elixir alongside the minions!
Stay tuned for the Hybrid and Hunting installments, coming soon. -Chief Tuwnakawe.
Originally Posted by CaptainVentus
(Stopped playing) 
