Newbie's Guide: The Basics

The basic starter 'kit' of Clash of Clans.

What is this page about?
This page is a little guide for newbies. My newbie rule number one: only spend Gems for Builders Huts, nothing else. This is quite long, so please be patient and read it all.

So, starting...
You will start and be asked to follow instuctions. Sometimes the game will take a while to laod so be patient. It shouldn't take more than a minute, and if it does, it is either re-calibrating or your connection was reset while loading.

When it has loaded, you should listen to what it tells you to do. Do not, under any circumstances, spend Gems to quicken production, even though it says. You should wait as the Cannon only takes a minute to build, and later in the game you will realise the value of Gems.

The first builder hut will cost 250 Gems, but the second and third will cost 500 Gems. The Builders Hut's price will increase when you have 4 (costing 1,000Gems) and 5 (2000 Gems). This is the only thing that you should spend Gems on. There are only three ways to get Gems, and apart from one, they all take a long time.

Remember, that your Defence can only fire a certain distance. When you touch a Defence, it's range will be shown in a white circle around it. For Mortars, a red circle will be shown showing where it cannot target.

Many newbies make the silly mistake of using decorations or obstacles (such as rocks and trees) to fill gaps in walls. This doesn't work and Troops can just skip these and breach the walls easily. Make sure to fill all wall agps, unless you are funelling. It is advised not to funnel yet though, as you Mortars and Wizard Towers are best used for funelling. Do not put Barracks, Army Camps inside walls. If there are any spare walls, you can put Collectors and Mines inside as you will lose a little bit of Resource if they are destroyed. Make sure that there are no 3x3 (or bigger) gaps in walls as then your opponent can easily deploy troops inside. Traps can be placed to fool the enemy, but the enemy could place one Golbin to activate the Traps then deploy the other units.

These are the things you should put in walls:

Town Hall (not always, depending on if you are farming or not, but farming isn't important at lower levels)

Elixir and Gold Storages (same as above)

Defences (Mainly Mortars and Archer Towers at your level, Wizard Towers X-Bows and Inferno Towers also)

Collectors and Mines (Sometimes, only if there are spare walls. You should complete above ones first)

Heroes (Won't concern people with TH6- as they won't have them)

Dark Elixir Storage (Same as above, but some poeple don't put them in walls)

Do not cover half the building thinking troops won't be able to destroy it without breaking the walls. The troops AI will sense this and always find gaps in walls. It is also a common mistake for newbies to put things in the corner, therefore not wasting walls. This is also bad as units can deploy on the slightly rougher, darker grass around the outside, and you can't place anything there to stop them. You should also upgrade walls as much as you can, as many people don't until they have a higher Town Hall Level, which means that they waste Gold at that level. Personally, I don't like to level up my Town Hall until everything is fully upgraded. for its TH Level.

For now, that's it. Visit Advancing In Clash of Clans: Intermidiate Guide for more.