In this section, I will go over each town hall level up to 8. I will talk about the new buildings and upgrades at each level, and when to upgrade and how to raid.
Town Hall 1:
This is how you started! After first completing the tutorial, you should quickly upgrade, because there is not much unlocked at this level.
Town Hall 2:
Similar to level 1, you start with very basic defenses, the archer tower and cannon. At this level, simply destroying each defense with some barbarians will work in raids. Feel free to upgrade to level 3 quickly.
Town Hall 3:
This is when you unlock your first splash damage defense: the mortar! It can damage many enemies at once! However, beware of this defense when raiding other players. By the time the people in your trophy range get well-defended mortars that cannot immediately be taken out with barbarians, it's time to use giants and archers (mentioned later). Another important feature of town hall 3 is the laboratory. You use it to upgrade troops and increase their damage per second and hitpoints. Make sure to upgrade the troops you use the most!
Town Hall 4:
This is a good level to be at when your first 3-day shield runs out. By now, you should have unlocked giants, built the mortar, and have upgraded archer towers and cannons. As well as new upgrades, you unlock the air defense, which only targets air troops (such as balloons), but does a lot of damage to them. At town hall 4 people will not raid you with many air troops, so it is not absolutely necessary to worry about now, but do not forget it later!
At this level, a good attack strategy is giants + archers. First, deploy giants (high health), then put archers behind them (high damage). The defenses will lock onto the giants, while archers shoot at buildings behind them. You can make this strategy even better with wizards (town hall 5), healing spells (town hall 6), and healers (town hall 6).
Make it a habit to mostly max out defenses and walls before each town hall upgrade beyond this point, but don't forget those resource buildings!
Town Hall 5:
This is the level where you unlock the spell factory. It creates useful spells that you can use in battle. However, the only spell you can create at Town Hall 5 is the lightning spell, which damages enemy buildings. Use it on the area of the base you are about to attack.
Also, you unlock the wizard. Think of this troop as a super-charged archer. He has excellent damage, but he costs a lot and takes a while to train. Remember to use wizards behind strong troops like giants (or with healing support). The wizard tower, a splash damage defense, is also unlocked at this level. It attacks more often than the mortar and has no blind spot, but has less range. Put it near spots where weak troops usually go, such as near storages.
Finally, you get air bombs. These traps are only very useful against minions, which are unlocked at Town Hall 7, so they are not necessary at this level.
Town Hall 6:
Ever gotten upset when a raid using only weak troops wrecks your base? Town Hall 6 is when you get all sorts of things to slow down these huge swarms. First of all, you get a second mortar and another wizard tower, for better splash damage. Also, there's the giant bomb. This trap is extremely useful at killing troops with less health than a giant, such as hogs, goblins, archers, and barbarians. Place it strategically to obliterate as many troops as you can.
Town Hall 6 doesn't just increase your defensive power. You also unlock healing spells and healers, two very useful elements of raiding. For healing spells, drop one with the center over your giants' next target when their health drops below 1/2. Make sure to place it so that the giants can attack several defenses while staying inside the ring of healing (same idea for rage spells).
Healers are such a large topic that they require an extra large section. Healers are like moving healing spells that heal stuff until they die. Remember that archer towers, teslas, and wizard towers can shoot at air troops, but your meat shields (usually giants) will distract these towers. Your real enemy when using healers is the air defense, which is not distracted by those giants and will go right for the healer. You want to raid bases with air defenses on opposite sides. So basically, pick an air defense within one to two defenses of the outside. If this air defense is taken out, is at least 50% of the base undefended by the other air defenses? If the answer is yes, you can probably 2-star this base. Attack by spamming 10-20 giants as close as possible to the air defense you picked, then use wizards behind them and maybe heal the giants with a heal spell if necessary. When the air defense is destroyed, deploy a pair of healers. Later in the battle, use weak troops to destroy the buildings the giants left behind. Two healers is enough to keep your giants alive almost indefinitely, and getting hit by a seeking air mine (town hall 7) will not ruin your raid.
Town Hall 7
This is the best town hall upgrade in Clash of Clans. You unlock a huge amount of things that will increase your offensive strength and defensive strength significantly. Here are all the things you get:
DARK ELIXIR!!! This rare resource is used to build and upgrade heroes and train dark elixir troops. Since you don't have the drill at this level, you have to raid for dark elixir (or use gems or remove dark tombstones, but don't rely on these.) If you can get the barbarian king, he is definitely worth it. Otherwise, build the dark barracks and train some minions to add to your army. You can get hogs if you want, but using them in swarms like they're most effective in is hard for a town hall 7 to get enough dark elixir for.
MORE ARMY STUFF!!! At town hall 7 you get your final barracks and army camp. This lets you train better armies than ever before. You also unlock the dragon, a very strong air unit.
SEEKING AIR MINE!!! This deadly trap does enough damage to one-shot a healer and almost kill a dragon. Place it where your air defenses can't defend. Remember that it only hits one target and doesn't attack minions.
HIDDEN TESLAS!!! Note: THIS IS NOT A TRAP! It does not use itself up and does not need to be re-armed. The tesla is hidden at first, but comes up when a troop goes within 6 tiles of it and has 7 range. It puts out significant damage and can hit air units. Teslas also come up when the attacker gets 51% destruction, and they must be destroyed to get 3 stars.
ANOTHER AIR DEFENSE!!! Keep air attacks at bay with a second air defense! Put them on opposite sides of your town hall, and put each one at least behind one wall and one defense. Maybe two walls, possibly. Just remeber to keep upgrading it.
RAGE SPELLS!!! This is a very useful spell that increases the DPS and speed of your troops. This spell is best used on dragons and PEKKAS, but if you do not have those yet, I recommend dropping it on your giants. First drop your giants, deploy wall breakers after the mortar fires, and then drop a rage spell on the giants. Remember to place the rage spell over your unit(s) next target, so they stay in the ring of rage as long as possible.
Town Hall 8
Finally! The dark elixir drill! This building produces dark elixir for you. Upgrade it to level 3 and you'll get about 500 dark elixir during each 12-hour shield. If you do not have the barbarian king, get him now. I also recommend upgrading him to level 5 so you can get iron fist.
At this level, not many new buildings are unlocked, but you get more of the buildings you unlocked before, such as a third wizard tower, giant bomb, hidden tesla, and air defense.
However, you unlock lots of new troops and upgrades for your army. You get the level 6 laboratory, which let's you get the level 5 upgrades of many common troops such as barbarians, archers, and wizards. Valkyries, golems, and pekkas are unlocked at this level. Take advantage of these troops using a high level combo called GoWiPe, or golem wizard pekka. First, use the barbarian king and some wizards to lure out and kill clan castle troops and destroy outer buildings. Now send in a golem or two and some wall breakers. Then place wizards and pekkas (3-4 of them is good). If done correctly, the pekkas should follow the golem(s). Then, RAGE 'EM! Use three rage spells for this attack, and remember not to overlap them (rage effects do not stack) and put it a little in front of the pekkas. This attack almost always reaches the storages and town hall, giving you lots of resources and a win. However, this raid is expensive and should only be used for getting trophies or gold.
Another good raid at this level is the HOG RIDER RUSH!!! Hogs are technically unlocked at town hall 7, but you don't have enough dark elixir at that level to pull this off. Basically, you want to find a packed base (one with no 2x2 spaces inside where giant bombs could be lurking or even better, one with no spaces inside and no chance of hitting traps at all.) Now after luring out and killing clan castle troops (note: DO THIS FIRST IN ANY ATTACK!), place one hog to check for giant bombs on the outside and then spam the rest. Use healing spells when the hogs' health gets low, and always attack with a decent swarm (20+ for two stars and 30+ for three stars). Fill any remaining space with archers, barbarians, and goblins. That's it! Look at Wolfie's strategy guide/the art of hog spamming for more information.
There are two main weaknesses to the hog rider rush. First, multi-target inferno towers. These will burn right through your hog swarm and resist healing. As a town hall 8 though, it's easy to avoid raiding players with inferno towers. Second, there are giant bombs. These can be in almost any base you raid and will usually devastate your hogs due to their massive damage. Only raid bases with no 2x2 spaces inside and you can avoid giant bombs pretty well. Remember that spring traps can kill some hogs too, but they don't devestate your raid like the first two threats do.
Thank you for reading this strategy guide
