Ash's Journey to Level 40 Heroes and Dark Elixir Farming Guide

[chgasparoto]

Hi,

I just came across this thread and really got inspired. I am planning myself to follow this tough task of non-stop heroes upgrade. Lets see how far I will manage to go. I will be pasting my progress as well

As of 17-November-2014
Barb King: Lvl 8
Archer Queen: Lvl 6

I will record my progress also

As of 17-November-2014
Barb King: Lvl 11 (goingo to 12)
Archer Queen: Lvl 11 (goingo to 12)
HH: 910k

[sheds]

You prompted me to farm DE. I have 3 more weeks as a th8.
I pushed from 1700 cups to 2100 in 3 days.
I use 100 arch 25 barb 25 gobs 6 giants 6 wb and 4 minions
I carry 1 heal and 2 lightning spells
Sitting 0n 40k DE with my king going to 8 and my lab
upgrading minions

[perkunas]

Is crystal 3 good for looting gold and elixir as well?

Low-C3 has a decent amount of collector raids as well as the easy DE options. If you farm enough DE to keep heroes upgrading, you will have no problem keeping the 3 other builders busy, as well.

Remember the goal is to keep the C3 badge, but to stay more in the 1900s rather than up higher. I rarely go above 2030 cups, but I never go below 1900.

[Eternal625]

I will record my progress also

As of 17-November-2014
Barb King: Lvl 11 (goingo to 12)
Archer Queen: Lvl 11 (goingo to 12)
HH: 910k

Wow fast progress. Are you gemming the heroes' times?

Low-C3 has a decent amount of collector raids as well as the easy DE options. If you farm enough DE to keep heroes upgrading, you will have no problem keeping the 3 other builders busy, as well.

Remember the goal is to keep the C3 badge, but to stay more in the 1900s rather than up higher. I rarely go above 2030 cups, but I never go below 1900.

Yup. Low-C3 is excellent for farming every resource along with a sweet loot bonus.

[Eternal625]

You prompted me to farm DE. I have 3 more weeks as a th8.
I pushed from 1700 cups to 2100 in 3 days.
I use 100 arch 25 barb 25 gobs 6 giants 6 wb and 4 minions
I carry 1 heal and 2 lightning spells
Sitting 0n 40k DE with my king going to 8 and my lab
upgrading minions

You may want to throw out those Goblins and start incorporating more Minions. Goblins in my opinion are quite useless and only good for targeting storages with accuracy, which any expert in deploying Minions can easily do the same. Minions are just as fast as Goblins, but have the ability to fly over walls (avoids Mortar splash) and have great HP unlike Goblins who die quite fast due to splash damage. A combination of Minions and Archer with Barbs as meatshield will allow you to remove splash defenses much quicker than Giants as well, which basically means that you do not need Giants either. And removing those troops will also allow you have an army ready faster.

It takes a while for some people to truly master and understand the full potential of BAM. Most of this distaste or neglect of using BAM comes from players' inexperience. As you don't get Minions until you hit TH 7, as DE is a very valuable thing in TH 7 (and TH 8), that people get too stingy to use DE for farming. But once they realize how potent it is and how efficient it is for farming, they appreciate it a lot more.

[chgasparoto]

Wow fast progress. Are you gemming the heroes' times?



Yup. Low-C3 is excellent for farming every resource along with a sweet loot bonus.

No, those stats in quotes aren't mine, are Dimpu's

[Eternal625]

No, those stats in quotes aren't mine, are Dimpu's

Oh oops lol. I'm blindd

[sheds]

Thanks for the advice
I'll try dropping the gobs tonight and using
more minions

[spindlykiller]

My DE Farming Guide

Upgrade priorities:

• Upgrade Dark Elixir Storage to level 6. My goal will be to always keep the storage around 90% full before one of my heroes has completed training. Maximizing your DE Storage level will also guarantee that you lose less DE from zappers. For example, the most DE someone can steal from a TH 9 DE storage is 5% with a cap of 2500. This means that if your storage has over 50,000 DE, then the most someone can steal from your storage is 2500. Compare a level 4 DE storage that can hold 80,000 DE vs a level 6 DE storage that can hold 200,000 DE. Even if both storages are full, the most someone can take is 2500. But what if that person strikes you with four lv 5 Lightning Spells? In that case the person with the full level 4 DE Storage (2600 HP) will lose: 4*420/2600*2500 = 1615 DE. And the person with the level 6 DE Storage (3200 HP) will lose: 4*420/3200*2500 = 1312 DE. You save 18.8% DE. Sounds good to me.
• Upgrade both DE Drills to level 6. A lv 6 DE Drill produces 100 DE per hour. With two, that's 4800 DE per day. In a month that's about 144,000 DE. Sounds good to me.

The conditions I follow:

• Use efficient and quick-to-train army compositions. Means no Balloonions, mass Dragons, etc.
• & Reside in Gold 1 or Crystal 3 leagues (1900-2100 trophies). At the moment I am fluctuating around these two leagues while my main focus is farming for DE. I recommend hitting 2000 trophies to get the Crystal badge for that sweet 100 DE loot bonus. You can hold onto that badge as long as you don't fall under 1900 trophies.
• Keep your Town Hall outside. If you have loads of DE, then keep TH outside so you don't get constantly zapped without a shield. Stay high in the trophy leagues to lessen the rate of zappers.
• Know the value of Dark Elixir. The value of 1 DE = 140 Elixir/Gold or 280 of Gold + Elixir. This is the number I like to work with for a couple of reasons. One plausible reason I could give you is that the cap of how much DE you can raid from a fellow TH 9's DE storage is 2500, while the cap of the Elixir or Gold storage is 350,000. 350,000/2500 = 140. This allows to decide whether it's worth trying to break into the depths of the base for the DE storage if there's enough to interest me. There's always a chance of failure due to unforeseen circumstances especially when using weak army compositions. Thus, you will need to weigh your risk vs reward.
• Avoid using gems. No gemming heroes. No gems on barracks. The only exclusion is the factory. Only 10 gems for a 4x boost for 2 hours isn't a bad idea and will help you immensely in raids. If you wish to boost all your barracks, then be my guest! This is a rule I placed for myself just because I don't really need to spend gems to boost my performance.

My current army composition:

• 2 Barracks of all Barbarians + 2 Barracks of all Archers, 2 Dark Barracks of 6-8 Minions each. (Unboosted)
• 4 Lv 5 Lightning Spells (Boosted)
• This is a pretty simple and efficient method of raiding for DE that isn't too well protected in the center of the base. At the moment I am restrained to using this composition as I am a new TH 9 that has long ways to go until I'm able to get maxed level troops and spells. Expect my army composition to change as I progress and find my more efficient methods to raid DE per hour. This current method averages around 5000 DE per hour.
• Most people are casual farmers and can't have both of their heroes training at all times. And I understand that, so I recommend using one hero in your army composition, while always keeping the other one in training. This will of course also make it much easier for you to farm DE. I don't fit in this category, as I'll have both heroes training at all times.

My Rules of the Hunt:

(For Efficient Dark Elixir Farming)

• Always Town Hall snipe if the Town Hall is outside the base. Free trophies, so you want them to stay high in the trophy leagues and not fall below Gold 1.
• Always fill up barracks after every non-TH snipe raid.
• Your target DE per raid should be at least 800 DE. 800 DE * 140 = 112,000. When I farm for gold or elixir, I aim for at least a total of 200,000 per raid. 112,000*2 = 224,000 in theory if there were two DE storages. Thus, 800 DE is a good number to work with. Especially when you're using such a weak army composition to work with. Sometimes DE farming can be slow, so you can change you target to 600 DE if that's more comfortable. If you were to farm with something more potent like Balloonion, then you probably would want to target at least 1500 DE to make up for time consumption of the army.
• However, in the case of sniping a TH outside a base and there are DE Drills also easily accessible, then you should also take the easy DE that's available (unless if it's not worth it <100).
• If TH cannot be sniped, then at least 800 DE must be accessible and possible for you to raid to make it worth raiding and possibly lose trophies.
• Never be afraid to lose trophies. If I can obtain at least 800 DE with my simple army comp, then I'll be happy to trade a few trophies for the DE. Just make sure to stay 1900 trophies and hold onto that Crystal 3 league badge.
• You don't need a full army camp. If your army camp is 75% full, then you should not waste time searching for Town Halls to snipe and good DE to steal from collectors. I can hold up to 220 troops in my camp, so if my camp is 75% full (165 troops), then I will search for DE and THs to snipe while my Barracks are cooking a full army. 220-165 = 55, which will take about 4 mins to fill. Some people are against this method simply because they don't believe it's worth searching without a full army. What if I run into an inactive base with a boatload of loot? Well think about it logically. You wouldn't have ran into it if you weren't searching at that precise time anyway. The more you search, the greater the rate of finding good bases to raid. I know there are many times I regret not having a full army camp, but I move on.
• Never randomly spawn your Barbarians and Archers around without thought. Conserve them, know how many is necessary to obtain the DE. If you can get all the DE with just 50 Barbs and 50 Archers, then don't go wasting all of them. Time is the most crucial aspect of farming efficiently. This means you'll have to wait less to fill up your army camp for the next big raid.
• Be aware of Clan Castle and 2x2 empty tiles (possible indication of Giant Bombs and Teslas). Be sure to always try luring Clan Castle first, if it's lure-able. If it's unlure-able, then you can either avoid raiding or weigh your risk vs reward. Be sure to test out for Giant Bombs outside the base with a few Barbarians before spawning a horde of troops.
• My main focus is DE per hour. I'm not going to wait 15 mins for a full army and then 5 mins of searching for a good base to raid. I'm always going to be busy, busy searching. The above two methods will help keep you busy and maximize your DE per hour.
• Go for easy Gold/Elixir collector raids that you can also 1 star. You will find yourself nexting a lot, to a point where you will be losing a lot of gold. This means you should also farm for gold (for nexting) and elixir (for your spells) if you find an easy collector raid-able base with at least 300k+ total resource. If you fall under 300,000 gold, then you need to prioritize farming for gold over DE until you have at least 800,000 gold. This always works for me as I've never fell into a point where I've run out of enough gold or elixir to search for DE or create Lightning Spells.
• Avoid heavily guarded DE storage. If the DE storage is confined within more than 2 layers of walls, then I usually do not pursue raiding it. A simple army of Barch isn't enough to 'safely' break into the core of a good TH 8+ base with centralized DE storage. Again, you must weigh risk vs reward when attempting a raid into the core.
• BE CONFIDENT. When attempting to raid, be at least 90% confident that you can get the DE you want before attempting to use up all your troops. It's better to just skip the base if you're uncertain, then to risk losing your army and time.
• When should I use my Lightning Spells? I rarely waste a lightning spell on a storage under 2000 DE. 4 Lightning Spells on a level 4 DE storage carrying 2000 DE will net me 1292 DE. It takes 30 minutes to create the 4 spells (boosted), so 1,292*2 = 2584 DE per hour (solely from zapping) if I stay consistent with this method.
• Until I've upgraded my other spells like Jump Spell and tested it out, I will continue to zap. If I find that I can obtain DE at a higher rate with the other spells, then I will switch to them. This is just the start of my journey, and I have plans on maximizing my DE per hour as I progress. Stay tuned.
• Watch my YouTube video series to get some great ideas on how to effectively raid and farm Dark Elixir.

Some of My Thought Processes When Attempting to Raid DE Storage:

• Is the DE storage in range of the CC? If so, is the CC lure-able? If it's not lure-able, then can I still break into the base, lure it, and at the same time take the DE?
• What are all the defenses guarding the DE storage? (since my only goal is the DE storage, I don't have to worry about defenses that aren't within the range of DE storage)
• How many walls must I break before to get into position for my Archers or Barbarians to take the DE? Or what level are the walls? If the walls are of high level, are there also splash defense (Mortar/Wiz Tower) within this range? (Barbarians need to break through the walls fast if there are splash defenses within range, so it's often wise to avoid high level walls (lv 8+) with splash defenses on the outer edges of the base)
• Where are the splash defenses placed? Can I remove or distract the splash defenses in my way?
• Is the storage possibly guarded by Teslas or Giant Bombs? (2x2 tile radius)
• What is the best direction for me to attack from? (the best path is usually the shortest path, and the path that allows you avoid/distract/remove splash defense quickly)
• Are there Heros guarding the DE storage around the core of the base? (you should avoid Heroes around the storage and around more than 1 layer of wall because the Heroes have a magnetic ability to pull distract all your troops if they target you, which will allow other defenses (especially splash defense) to quickly wipe your troops. Especially the Archer Queen, she has the ability to not only attack you over walls, but also make your Barbarians and Archers attack the walls in front of her instead of her).
• Are there Inferno Towers guarding the DE storage inside the base? If so, is it a multi-targeting Inferno Tower or a single-targeting? (If it's a multi-targeting tower in range of the DE storage inside the base, then you should completely avoid it. Be sure to know how to identify whether it's single-targeting or multi-targeting)
• How powerful are the defenses? (If the DE storage is well-protected by high level splash defenses such as Lv 7+ Mortar and Lv 6+ Wiz Towers, then you should probably avoid it, unless if you can distract it)
• Is the Xbow set to ground only or ground + air?

Few tips:

• Make sure you know the ranges of all defenses.
• Know how to count tiles.
• Know the range of safety for your Archers and Minions. Archers have a 3.5 tile range and Minions have a 2.75 tile range.
• Know how many troops are necessary to destroy a certain defense, and for how long.
• Know how long your troops can last against different levels of splash defenses.
• Know how to quickly deploy your troops with 2-3 fingers at the same time.
• Know how to activate possible air bombs with 1 or a few Minions, then safely send in a swarm.
• Know how to spread out your troops against splash defenses. Cornering Wiz Towers is a great idea if you can. Archer + Minion combo is great for getting rid of Wiz Towers behind walls.
• Subscribe to my YouTube channel and watch my videos. You will learn a lot from them.

You will learn most of this from experience. Keep practicing, practice makes perfect!


Check these other helpful threads by forum members also on this journey:

9bigboss7 - http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...K-TO-LVL-30%21


Here are some other great Dark Elixir farming guides:

TimeForShady - http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...Farming-Guide)
UnitySharp - http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...t-without-Gems
strikeninja4787 - http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...or-TH7-and-TH8

Great post, thorough yet simple. I'll be following!

[Eternal625]

Did a pretty extensive testing on Goblins and the 'flying Goblins' strategy. Results are, Goblins are pretty unnecessary and kind of a waste when you have Minions. For the 'flying Goblins' strategy that enforces Goblins with Jump Spell, I found it to be quite unnecessary when you have Minions that can do the same and fly over walls. It's better to use a Rage or Heal Spell (on Minions) instead of wasting a slot on Jump and you will find better results that way. Minions are just as fast as Goblins, but are bulkier and can fly, meaning they can avoid Mortar and take a few hits from Wiz Towers. While you will also be able to deal more damage and maintain high trophy count using Minions. Most people use Goblins as insurance/last resort, but you can do the same more effectively with Minions. Goblins also work better in large groups, and the more Goblins you use, the less Barbs and Archers there are in your camp, which will make it harder for you to break inside. Goblins also take 50% longer to train compared to Barbarians. While Minions are trained by your Dark Barracks, 1 Minion = 2 Housing Space + 45 Seconds, meaning in theory, you will get 1 Housing Space completed every 22.5 Seconds when training Minions in your Dark Barracks. Remember, when farming DE you want to conserve Minions and not use too many. My recommended amount is 12-16 Minions, which is 6-8 Minions per Dark Barrack.