Introduction
Welcome to , a guide to raiding. This guide will be useful and applicable to players of all levels, from brand-new players who are about to lose their three day Newbie Shield, to higher level players looking to gain 750,000 gold for their next Town Hall upgrade… or more.
Raiding is Farming........
I consider the type of raiding I will be describing here to be a form of farming. Not all will agree with me on this point. Some people seem to believe that farming requires super-low trophy counts, and/or using massed goblin armies, exclusively.
I consider anything that is mostly intended to gain resources (rather than to win trophies) to be a form of farming - especially when you are looking for an easy match, rather than fighting someone of your own level or higher.
What does this matter? Well, this is also going to be my "Farming" guide as well. I really don't enjoy doing those other types of farming (the massed goblins, or the super-low trophy count). So don't look for any other farming guide out of me, unless the game changes in ways that significantly change existing methods, or create entirely new farming techniques.
Benefits of Raiding
Raiding has one main goal, and all I will discuss in this chapter is in that effort: to capture resources. We’ll discuss going after both Gold and Elixir in this guide, as they are nearly identical when trying to steal them. Generally gold is more valuable to players, as it is easier to spend (instantly on walls, or on defenses) than elixir (limited to offensive buildings and units).
Raiding lets you augment your income with quite literally limitless resources. The amount of gold and elixir that is available for you to steal is limited only by your skill, and your time investment. But just note that you lose about 20 trophies every time you fail to get the town hall.
The Ideal Raid
The ideal raid deploys as few troops as possible, and targets whatever resources that are easy to steal only, skipping better-protected storages or mines.
The ideal raid has two main success factors. First, and what I’m sure you already know, is the amount you can steal. That is what we’re here for, after all. Secondly, and just as important but often overlooked, is your investment to get those resources. This means both the actual cost of the units you deploy when raiding, and also the time it will take you to rebuild all of them.
Don’t believe that unit costs and build time matter?
Take these two raids as examples:
Example Raid 1 Example Raid 2
Gold Stolen 150,000 15,000
Elixir Stolen 150,000 15,000
Goblins deployed 20 2
Archers deployed 46 2
Barbarians deployed 20 -
Giants deployed 18 -
Healers Deployed 1 -
Wall Breakers Deployed 4 -
Notes An example of an all-out attack, using one of my favorite army compositions. An example of picking off just 1 full elixir collector and 1 gold mine, and ignoring the rest because they are protected.
Both are nice raids, right? Now…
Which attack was more effective as a raid?
Example 1’s army costs around 55,000 elixir (depending on exact unit levels), while Example 2’s army costs a maximum of 600 elixir. This means the net total profit (gold + elixir) was ~145,000 for Example 1 and ~29,400 for Example 2. Clearly, Example 1 gains more total resources… However:
Example 1’s army takes a total of 5990 seconds to train, or 1.3 hours total*. Example 2 army takes a total of only 110 seconds to train. This means that while the player who used Example 1 is sitting around waiting for their army to finish, a player using Example 2 will be out raiding again, and again, and... This does not just mean a player doing Example 2 is less bored, it means Example 2 will actually have a much higher income per hour.
Note: This is the total time to build; the actual elapsed time to build this army is that number divided by the number of available barracks, likely either 3 or 4.
I’ll prove that for you:
Assuming 3 minutes to find a match (for both players), Example 1 will attack once every 28 minutes. During the same 28 minute period, Example 2 can attack 9 times, gaining a total of 264,600, compared to the 145,000 stolen by Example 1. Example 1 gains 310,000 resources per hour, and Example 2 gains 567,000 resources per hour.
While I used made-up numbers for this example, this has been proven before by both myself and other players. Lots of little raids will be more profitable than a few large, all-out attacks. There is another factor at play as well: Little raids are less vulnerable to failure: your total investment is low, and you can just abandon the attack with little loss if needed. Finally, doing lots of little attacks is simply more interesting than sitting around for 25 or more minutes waiting for your army to finish training.
Picking the right Base to Raid
So, now that we know what the ideal raid is, how should we pick the bases we will be attacking? There are several factors that are important
Quickly reviewing a target
Here, in order, are a list of things you should quickly glance at when determining if a base is a good choice to raid.
Resources - Total
The first thing you should glance at is the total number of resources. If this number is terribly low, (<10,000 of each is a good cutoff probably, but it depends on your level and your situation) just immediately move onto the next match. But don’t just look for very high resource totals… because the difficulty of stealing the resources is also very important.
Resources - Determining Source: Storage vs Collectors/Mines
If a base's total resources are sufficiently high, the next thing to determine is where the resources are in the base. They will be in either the storages or the collectors/mines, but different bases will have different ratios in each. The skill of being able to tell how much is in each is quite important, and will be VERY beneficial to those who master it.
First thing to look for is back at the total resources: Are the total amounts of each resource nice round numbers? (such as 50,000 or 36,500 or 42,750 – These are all ‘round’ numbers.) If yes, this is great news! This is someone who has not logged in for a long time, their collectors and mines are full, AND they have nothing in their storages. This occurs after they've been attacked and 3-starred at least once (often more) in the recent past. Why is this important? It means you can simplify y raid their collectors/mines to steal 100% of their resources. Literally nothing will be in their (usually far-better protected) storages. You can simply raid their collectors, and walk away happy.
Determining if target has been online lately (and collected their resources)
Is the total amount not a
Example Gold Elixir
Example 1 57,028 3,102
Example 2 7,001 152,515
Example 3 1,234 40,808
Last Resort Method: Eyeballing
Not a nice round number, and both numbers are sufficiently high in count? Well, now we need to eyeball how much is in those collectors/min
WANT TO READ MORE...... GO HERE
Welcome to , a guide to raiding. This guide will be useful and applicable to players of all levels, from brand-new players who are about to lose their three day Newbie Shield, to higher level players looking to gain 750,000 gold for their next Town Hall upgrade… or more.
Raiding is Farming........
I consider the type of raiding I will be describing here to be a form of farming. Not all will agree with me on this point. Some people seem to believe that farming requires super-low trophy counts, and/or using massed goblin armies, exclusively.
I consider anything that is mostly intended to gain resources (rather than to win trophies) to be a form of farming - especially when you are looking for an easy match, rather than fighting someone of your own level or higher.
What does this matter? Well, this is also going to be my "Farming" guide as well. I really don't enjoy doing those other types of farming (the massed goblins, or the super-low trophy count). So don't look for any other farming guide out of me, unless the game changes in ways that significantly change existing methods, or create entirely new farming techniques.
Benefits of Raiding
Raiding has one main goal, and all I will discuss in this chapter is in that effort: to capture resources. We’ll discuss going after both Gold and Elixir in this guide, as they are nearly identical when trying to steal them. Generally gold is more valuable to players, as it is easier to spend (instantly on walls, or on defenses) than elixir (limited to offensive buildings and units).
Raiding lets you augment your income with quite literally limitless resources. The amount of gold and elixir that is available for you to steal is limited only by your skill, and your time investment. But just note that you lose about 20 trophies every time you fail to get the town hall.
The Ideal Raid
The ideal raid deploys as few troops as possible, and targets whatever resources that are easy to steal only, skipping better-protected storages or mines.
The ideal raid has two main success factors. First, and what I’m sure you already know, is the amount you can steal. That is what we’re here for, after all. Secondly, and just as important but often overlooked, is your investment to get those resources. This means both the actual cost of the units you deploy when raiding, and also the time it will take you to rebuild all of them.
Don’t believe that unit costs and build time matter?
Take these two raids as examples:
Example Raid 1 Example Raid 2
Gold Stolen 150,000 15,000
Elixir Stolen 150,000 15,000
Goblins deployed 20 2
Archers deployed 46 2
Barbarians deployed 20 -
Giants deployed 18 -
Healers Deployed 1 -
Wall Breakers Deployed 4 -
Notes An example of an all-out attack, using one of my favorite army compositions. An example of picking off just 1 full elixir collector and 1 gold mine, and ignoring the rest because they are protected.
Both are nice raids, right? Now…
Which attack was more effective as a raid?
Example 1’s army costs around 55,000 elixir (depending on exact unit levels), while Example 2’s army costs a maximum of 600 elixir. This means the net total profit (gold + elixir) was ~145,000 for Example 1 and ~29,400 for Example 2. Clearly, Example 1 gains more total resources… However:
Example 1’s army takes a total of 5990 seconds to train, or 1.3 hours total*. Example 2 army takes a total of only 110 seconds to train. This means that while the player who used Example 1 is sitting around waiting for their army to finish, a player using Example 2 will be out raiding again, and again, and... This does not just mean a player doing Example 2 is less bored, it means Example 2 will actually have a much higher income per hour.
Note: This is the total time to build; the actual elapsed time to build this army is that number divided by the number of available barracks, likely either 3 or 4.
I’ll prove that for you:
Assuming 3 minutes to find a match (for both players), Example 1 will attack once every 28 minutes. During the same 28 minute period, Example 2 can attack 9 times, gaining a total of 264,600, compared to the 145,000 stolen by Example 1. Example 1 gains 310,000 resources per hour, and Example 2 gains 567,000 resources per hour.
While I used made-up numbers for this example, this has been proven before by both myself and other players. Lots of little raids will be more profitable than a few large, all-out attacks. There is another factor at play as well: Little raids are less vulnerable to failure: your total investment is low, and you can just abandon the attack with little loss if needed. Finally, doing lots of little attacks is simply more interesting than sitting around for 25 or more minutes waiting for your army to finish training.
Picking the right Base to Raid
So, now that we know what the ideal raid is, how should we pick the bases we will be attacking? There are several factors that are important
Quickly reviewing a target
Here, in order, are a list of things you should quickly glance at when determining if a base is a good choice to raid.
Resources - Total
The first thing you should glance at is the total number of resources. If this number is terribly low, (<10,000 of each is a good cutoff probably, but it depends on your level and your situation) just immediately move onto the next match. But don’t just look for very high resource totals… because the difficulty of stealing the resources is also very important.
Resources - Determining Source: Storage vs Collectors/Mines
If a base's total resources are sufficiently high, the next thing to determine is where the resources are in the base. They will be in either the storages or the collectors/mines, but different bases will have different ratios in each. The skill of being able to tell how much is in each is quite important, and will be VERY beneficial to those who master it.
First thing to look for is back at the total resources: Are the total amounts of each resource nice round numbers? (such as 50,000 or 36,500 or 42,750 – These are all ‘round’ numbers.) If yes, this is great news! This is someone who has not logged in for a long time, their collectors and mines are full, AND they have nothing in their storages. This occurs after they've been attacked and 3-starred at least once (often more) in the recent past. Why is this important? It means you can simplify y raid their collectors/mines to steal 100% of their resources. Literally nothing will be in their (usually far-better protected) storages. You can simply raid their collectors, and walk away happy.
Determining if target has been online lately (and collected their resources)
Is the total amount not a
Example Gold Elixir
Example 1 57,028 3,102
Example 2 7,001 152,515
Example 3 1,234 40,808
Last Resort Method: Eyeballing
Not a nice round number, and both numbers are sufficiently high in count? Well, now we need to eyeball how much is in those collectors/min
WANT TO READ MORE...... GO HERE
