Clash of Clans October 2018 Update Has Finally Arrived!

The annual Clash of Clans fall update has finally arrived and it has something for everyone. Major Update & New Game Mode? Check. New Trap & Defensive Building Additions? Check. Goblin Maps? Check. Amazing new rewards? Check. All of that, plus balancing, quality of life improvements, a Builder Base change, and much more. Let’s break it all down.

Clan War Leagues

For the past few years top war clans around the world have been coming together to organize clan war tournaments using the friendly war option. SuperCell promoted these competitions, holding YouTube streams of the finals for the past three seasons. Now they are finally bringing the action to the entire war community.

Clan War Leagues will take place once a month, here’s a breakdown of the timeline:

• Clan War League enrollment opens and runs for two days. During that time your clan can opt into the competition and be placed in a group with 7 other clans. Your initial matchup is based on the top 15 bases in your clan.
• Once the league starts, there is one day of prep, followed by 7 straight days of war, one against each of the other clans in your group. You can only take 15 members into each war, but you can swap bases out each day. During each war day, you will need to fill the war castles for the following day’s war.
• Once the 7^th war concludes clans are ranked based on the total number of stars they accumulated across all 7 wars. The top two clans are promoted to the war league tier above them, while the bottom two are relegated to the tier below them.
• After that point normal clan wars resume until the league resumes the next month.

There is a lot to Clan War Leagues, and so much will be discovered after the first competition completes and the dev team makes adjustments. However, here are a few key things to keep in mind:

• Every member only gets 1 attack, unless regular wars where everyone has 2.
• Members who are selected for the roster but do not end up participating in wars will still receive the rewards.
• You can’t see what level of Town Halls your opponent is bringing into war until the battle begins, but assume it is their highest. This will cause wild mismatches at the start, as one clan may have six Town Hall 12s, while their opponent only has three.

By participating, earning stars in war attacks and winning wars, players earn League Medals. They are a new type of currency to use in the League Shop on new magical items. The main attraction here are the Magical Hammers. These Hammers that account for both the resources needed to start an update and the time it takes to complete the update. For example, the Hammer of Heroes will instantly upgrade a Hero without costing you any resources. There are hammers for heroes, buildings, spells and troop research. In the League shop you can also use medals to purchase resources, wall rings, potions, and new statues.

Expect some challenges, unless your clan is already at the top of the leaderboard and while the game learns from the first few rounds of Clan War League action. Enjoy the new competition mode and magical items and remember that just like in clan wars there will be leagues featuring clans below and above your current competitiveness level.

Tornado Trap

The only truly new element being added to the base during this update is a single Tornado trap. But don’t doubt this addition, even if it is just one. Once triggered it pulls in enemy troops, sending them into a cyclone, and disrupting their movement and attack. The trap is available at Town Hall 11 and has three levels. Here are the specifications of the Tornado Trap via the Clash of Clans blog:

• Activates on a three tile radius, delivering 8 damage per second to all units within the range, similar to splash damage from a bomb
• Targets both air and ground units, and can impact all unit types

Once fully leveled up the duration extends to 10 seconds, which is a ton of time having a max TH12 or Inferno targeting the enemy’s units. The idea is that you want to place the trap somewhere that you would want your opponent’s troops to get stuck for 6 to 10 seconds, taking maximum damage. On the flip side, as the attacker, you may need to use a Heal Spell or the Warden’s ability if you run into the Tornado Trap at the wrong time and it puts your entire attack at risk.

Goblin Maps

Since the game debuted over six years ago Goblin maps have been a feature in Clash of Clans. But they have been updated since those early days. After many requests the dev team delivered and have offered up some extremely challenging and spurring bases. There are 25 new Goblin bases in total. To unlock the next one on the map you must earn at least 1 star on the previous one. These attacks have no time limit and can be retried as many times as needed to get the full three stars and resource rewards.

Let’s talk about those resources, because they are massive. They start in the several hundred thousand gold and elixir range, and rise to an eye-popping haul for the map’s final base ‘Dragon’s Lair’. Dragon’s Lair offers up 2.5 million gold, 2.5 million elixir and 25k dark elixir for beating just that one base. But there’s a catch, the Giant Dragon. This massive, golden dragon is like nothing we’ve seen in the game before. Want to know how powerful it is? It can kill a level 60 Archer Queen in two hits. Even getting there will be difficult as bases feature a myriad of traps and troll designs, such as 8 Eagle Artilleries, or 11 Single Targeting Infernos. Good luck!

Balancing:

• Training costs have been reduced for Wall Breakers, Golems, Baby Dragons, Witches and Bowlers. Farming for gold or elixir, check out the BoHeWi attack.
• Gem donations have been reduced for almost every troop except the Giant, who gets a 1 gem increase. Here’s a breakdown of the amounts:
  • 3 gems: Balloons, Wizards, Hog Riders, and Giants
  • 5 gems: Bowlers
  • 6 gems: Valkyries
  • 8 gems: Baby Dragons
  • 10 gems: Witches
  • 15 gems: Dragons & P.E.K.K.A.
  • 20 gems: Golem, Lava Hound & Electro Dragon
• Siege Machines are great for war attacks, but extremely costly. That’s been addressed (slightly) in this update. They now count as 30 donated troops instead of 1, take 20 minutes to make instead of 30, and cost 100k gold, down from 150k. I’d have preferred 50k and 10 minutes, especially in clans that only have a few TH12s to make the battle units.
• Level 1 and 2 Witches have received a hit point reduction and a damage-per-second at level 2.
• The top three levels of air defenses have received hit point increases.
• The Eagle gets a big boost, increasing both its hit damage and the shockwave damage dealt to the troops nearby the target. If you are a TH12, time to push this unit to max.
• X-bows damage was reduced slightly.
• The red air bombs and regular ground bombs both got a new level, at Town Hall 12 and 11 respectively.
• To further separate Town Hall 12 from 11, the top level now has a third Inferno Tower.
• Town Halls 10-12 can now upgrade all 17 resource collectors to an additional level, level 13 for gold mines and elixir pumps, and level 7 for dark elixir drills.
• You can now upgrade another 100 walls pieces can be to level 13 at Town Hall 12, making the total now 200. Expect another 100 in the winter update.

Quality of Life Improvements & Misc:

• You can now watch battle replays at half-speed to see detailed tactical placements or how traps are being utilized or bypassed.
• During raids the first unit on the screen is no longer selected by default and thus accidently dropped onto a base before you start.
• Over on your Builder Base you can now upgrade walls using Builder Elixir for the final two levels (7 and 8).
• There are six new tasks in the game to complete for gems featuring destroying buildings on each base, taking out walls in both bases, and quickly getting stars within the first 60 seconds of an attack.

Enjoy battling it out in the new Clan War Leagues and braving the treacherous Goblin Maps!