Clash of Clans Base Design 101

Building a strong base is key to protecting your resources in Clash of Clans. With so many defenses available, it can be overwhelming knowing where to start reinforcing your base – that’s why we’ve put together some key strategies to keep in mind while you’re building a base that will keep your Town Hall and storages safe and sound.

First and foremost, make sure that your base is strong enough to withstand frequent raids. Once you’ve played around with reinforcing your base’s defenses, walls, and traps it’s time to give them a spin. This is where your clan members come in handy. Not only can you ask them for advice in the initial building phase, but you can also request that they challenge your base instead of waiting to be raided by other players.

These challenges are friendly in nature and provide you with a wealth of valuable information after the fact. Your fellow clan member can point out the weaknesses in your base and any notable oversights in your defense strategy, along with suggestions on how to correct these issues and strengthen your base as a whole.

You can expect your attackers to throw everything in their arsenal at you, and that means you’ve got to diversify your defenses if you want to succeed. From Wizard Towers and Air Defenses to Hidden Teslas and Cannons, each defense targets different units with varying levels of damage and effective ranges. If you only have one type of defense, your opponents are bound to take advantage of that weakness when launching a raid on your base.

After making sure that you have enough defenses (both in quantity and variety), the next step is upgrading them. Remember that you’ll need multiple Builders to upgrade more than one defense at once, along with the necessary resources. And don’t forget about Heroes – they’re yet another weapon that you can station and upgrade to bolster your defenses!

Use the Defense Log to see all of the recent raids on your base and learn the strengths and weaknesses of your village. You can slow down and fast forward through the attack to see exactly how the battle progressed. Where did your opponent deploy their troops? Which spells did they use, and which buildings were they able to take down the quickest? If their raid wasn’t successful, which of your defense strategies was most effective in warding them off?

These are all questions that your defense replays can answer to make you a better raider and keep your resources safe.

You’ll want to keep in mind that it’s fairly common for your base to be raided successfully in the early stages. You may find yourself getting “3-starred” more often than not until you’re around Town Hall Level 10.

This is because experienced players will often skip bases until they know that they can win, meaning that they’ve likely identified key weaknesses in your base and know how to exploit them. This is even more common as you climb into higher ranks, but don’t despair. Once you get to more competitive Town Hall levels and unlock stronger defenses and upgrades, it’ll become increasingly more challenging for attackers to pull off a 3-star raid against your base.

Walls are a remarkably versatile defense, and yet, sometimes, commonly neglected in favor of what new players perceive to be more important defenses. Walls can be structured to layer and compartmentalize your base in a number of ways to guard the buildings you value most, like your Town Hall, Clan Castle, and resource storages.

Ground attackers are forced to break through the walls you put up, so you can use them to protect your resources, lead enemies into traps, and funnel opposing troops into positions where they’ll be destroyed by your defenses. Upgrading your walls will make them stronger so that they can also withstand more damage from opponents and significantly slow their progress.