A free-to-play strategic game
Clash of Clans is a free mobile strategy game that requires defensive building placement and tactical deployment of troops. Your tribe is pitted against other players, where the units you place will slowly invade the enemy’s village and steal resources on your behalf. These commodities are used to build and upgrade your settlement.
Player vs. player
Clash of Clans is a great game to play that’s full of player-versus-player battles and invasions. Each player starts with a small town that is slowly expanded as new plots are built. The game has in-app purchases for premium currency but does not require you to buy anything to have fun while playing.
The application receives plenty of new updates, most notably the seasonal themes and additions that you’ll see during certain months of the year. The application is past its major popularity phase but still holds a large player base, with many players for you to tackle in PVP. Some seasonal items are available for real money as well.
The game itself is relatively low on resources. To succeed while playing, you will need to invest plenty of time or money into the app. Buildings and units take time to build unless you spend premium currency to complete the timer instantly.
Build a village
The Clash of Clans progression is reflected through your level and your village. The buildings you add to the area of land determine how much of each currency you can store. This includes how many resources you can produce. Units also have their own buildings and recruitment timer.
Some of the items you can build include warehouses, walls, and turrets. These all need to be placed carefully to ward off invaders spawned by other players seeking to claim your resources.
Troop variety
CoC has many units available for you to recruit. While you’re away, the troops will defend your base from invaders, killing the enemies that are deployed. If you engage an enemy village your units will rush to loot it from whatever location you spawn them in.
There is a good variety of units, each having their strengths and flaws. Flying troops can pass over walls but have low health, while ranged ones can attack the opposition from a distance. Through combining your barbarians, goblins, and other units, you’ll soon have a powerful army if you place them correctly.
Currency
The game has a total of five different resources that your buildings can generate and store. These include gold, elixir, dark elixir, builder elixir, and builder gold. These are all important in building your village and training troops.
As the sixth resource, Gems are the premium currency that cannot be earned through buildings in your village. This can only be bought with real money or rarely found within the game in small quantities. Due to this, there are many attempts to hack gold or gems into the game instead of paying for them.
Network connection
Clash of Clans requires a constant internet connection to play. This is because of the many online features that make CoC a multiplayer title. The application uses this to sync its clock for the building and recruiting timer as well as notify you if you’ve been invaded by other players and update your remaining resources.
Mobile-only
While the strategy genre flourishes on the computer platform, there is no Clash of Clans for PC unless you use an emulator like BlueStacks or Nox APP Player. This act is often done to allow players to run multiple accounts and join them all into a clan for maximum efficiency.
Paying to win
Clash is a pay-to-win game that requires a lot of money if you want to truly succeed in your battles. This system occurs due to the long waiting times on buildings that can span several days at high levels. This causes players to quickly get frustrated and spend money to rush the timer on an item.
With every new upgrade you’re forced to ask yourself if CoC is worth spending money on or if you should just be patient and wait three days for your building to reach completion.
Clans
Clash uses clans in a similar way to how many RPGs use guilds. You can join one of these to become part of a group and receive assistance from other players. Your clan will also have goals that need to be completed by its members.
Updates
There are new Clash of Clans updates frequently released for you to download. This is one of the biggest reasons as to why CoC is still a largely played title.
Alternatives
If Clash of Clans isn’t your style of game then you can look at one of the many alternatives available that feature player versus player game modes.
Boom Beach features a modern yet still cartoonish design. The game is still about strategic deployment and defensive but has different buildings and troops for you to discover.
Clash Royale is a real-time multiplayer game that’s developed by the same creators of Clash of Clans. The game uses fan-favorite characters from CoC to battle it out between 2 players in the attempt to knock down each other’s towers.
Star Wars Commander plays similarly to CoC except it uses your favorite Star Wars characters as allies and enemies. The game uses a fun art style that doesn’t affect how recognizable characters are.
New things to explore
Clash of Clans has breathed new life into the game, offering exciting features that are sure to captivate both new and veteran players. The Clan Capital District fosters collaboration among clan members, while the introduction of Mega Sparky, Endless Haste, and new defenses and traps inject fresh strategies into the game's dynamics. With this, the game continues to evolve, ensuring its place as a top-tier mobile strategy game for a lot of players.
Simple yet challenging
Clash of Clans is one of the most played mobile strategy games that sparked many to follow in its footsteps. Starting the title is easy, and it has clear, simple, instructions that quickly teach you the game mechanics.
The application has had many updates, including the addition of new units and buildings, but most noticeably is the seasonal themes that come and go during the year. Clash is a pay-to-win game as with money you can progress to the next level faster and attack more frequently.
