Starter guide for base design in Clash of Clans

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.

Generally, we recommend that new base-builders place their Town Hall in the center to make it harder on their opponents to 3-star. However, this will depend on the type of base you end up building. As the game has evolved, players have designated two play styles that can affect how you choose to design your base.

Raids are often conducted with one of two goals in mind. The first, “trophy pushing”, refers to raiding with the goal of earning trophies and climbing up the leagues. The second, “farming”, is an approach where you raid a base for its resources to upgrade your troops and defenses.

If you find yourself losing lots of trophies from devastating raids on your village, you’ll want to centralize and protect your Town Hall with more walls and defenses to make it more difficult for your opponents to get those extra stars. However, if you’re more worried about protecting your resources, you may actually want to put your Town Hall outside the walls and centralize your storages.

This will entice lower-level players, who wouldn’t normally raid your village, to attack your Town Hall. You may lose trophies, but you’ll be granted a shield afterwards that will protect you from new raids for a certain period of time. As you play, you’ll develop your own playstyle that could lean toward either of these, or even a hybrid of both strategies.

One of the most effective ways to get better at defending your base is to raid other bases as often as you can. Both successful and failed raids will teach you to identify vulnerabilities that may exist in your own base, pick up on defense strategies that are currently trending in the community, and clue you in on effective trap placements.

Once you have more experience with raids, you’ll be able to analyze your own base from an attacker’s point of view and patch up the weaknesses that are most likely to be targeted first. You’ll also see which resources and defenses are the most heavily guarded, which may influence your own decisions when choosing which upgrades to prioritize, or even which base-building playstyle to adopt.

Make sure that your defenses aren’t bunched up in one place, or you’ll make it easy for the enemy to wipe them out all at once. The last thing you want is for a well-placed lightning spell to destroy your best defenses. Spreading them out will also force opposing troops to scatter their firepower, rather than being able to take a straight path into the core of your base.

Your traps will also prove a lot more effective if you disperse them. You can think of it as another layer to your defense, adding an element of chaos and unpredictability and forcing your opponents to adapt on the spot. Once you have more experience in the game, you’ll learn that it can actually be helpful to group up some of your defenses for synergy and additional splash damage, but it doesn’t hurt to use caution and keep things spread out when you’re just starting out.

Another popular base-building strategy is “compartmentalizing”, which refers to the act of separating out your defenses, resources and other structures by using walls to divide up your base. This can make all the difference between a strong base and a weak base. Rather than your attackers only having to take down one wall surrounding your base, they’ll have to chip away at it one compartment at a time, costing them precious time and troops.

For example, one compartment might include your Barbarian King, a Mortar, Wizard Towers, and Elixir Storages – all confined within upgraded walls. You can also use compartments to manipulate the path that your attackers are most likely to take, luring them into traps and areas that’ve been optimized for defense.

Clash of Clans boasts an incredibly active community that’s overflowing with knowledge and experience. Many experienced builders have uploaded their bases online to inspire new and intermediate players looking to reconfigure their own.

Whether you’re seeking advice from your clan or the wider community at large, there’s no shortage of help available to you as a beginner. Don’t hesitate to track it down when you’re just starting out or any time the going gets tough!