Town Hall 8 is where farming starts getting interesting for Clash of Clans players. Prior to Town Hall 8, the most effective farming composition is all Barbarians (up until TH7) or Barbarians plus Archers (at TH7). These simple army compositions are so effective because they cost few resources, are able to easily 50% a similar TH-level enemy base, and allow players to snipe full resource collectors from an enemy.
However, Town Hall 8 brings with it two important developments that forever change farming: a massive increase in army strength in the form of level 5 upgrades for core troops (Barbarians, Archers, Giants, Goblins, Wall Breakers, and Wizards) and the need to gather an enormous amount of Dark Elixir.
Since players with a lot of Dark Elixir tend to protect it well, players need to leverage their sudden increase in strength (in the form of new unit upgrades) in order to crack deeper into opponent’s bases in order to gain access to the Dark Elixir they need to level their Barbarian King and start Dark Elixir-based research.
As a result of the need to both gather gold and elixir (for upgrades and research) as well as Dark Elixir (for hero upgrades and research), there are two very effective farming compositions available at Town Hall 8 which are good in their own right at their own times in the process of maxing out at TH8. This guide will present each of these options, as well as the top scenarios for using these particular army compositions and strategies.
Town Hall 8 Farming Option #1: Gold and Elixir – Archers and Barbarians
Town Hall 8 takes a long time to fully progress through given the amount of research and buildings available for upgrade (expect to spend 6-12 weeks here, depending on how much you play). During your first 2-3 weeks at Town Hall 8, you are likely going to want to focus primarily on gathering elixir (and to an extent gold) in order to start upgrading your troops from level 4 to level 5. This level jump represents one of the largest stat jumps in the game for common farming units like Barbarians, Archers, Giants, and Goblins. The gold can be used to upgrade your new walls to level 5-6 and start building new towers, so that you can set up an appropriate defense to protect your resources.
For just getting gold and elixir, the best army composition is Barbarians and Archers. Use two Barracks to train Archers and two to train Barbarians and do not worry too much about exact compositions. Just make sure you raid frequently, skipping around for bases with full collectors that you can loot in order to gather elixir without spending too much.
With just a Barbarian and Archer army, you only need to seek about 200k combined resources for it to be worthwhile to attack (100k gold and 100k elixir, 75k gold and 125k elixir, and so on). Typically the gold and elixir counts will be very close to one another, as you should be focusing on players who have full storage collectors.
The strategy itself is simple – just skip around looking for full resource collectors and snipe them as you see them. Snipe Town Halls as needed to keep up trophy count. You should be able to consistently attack many times in a row if you play this right. In my farming video below, I have included an example raid of how to use this army. It starts at the 9:17 mark (first part of the video focuses on Farming Option #2).
The video above outlines my preferred farming strategy at Town Hall 8. However, this strategy does not work well without level 5 Goblins, Archers, and Giants. Without these upgrades, the Goblins and Archers are far too weak to punch deep enough into the enemy’s base to get a well-defended Dark Elixir storage (level 5 Wall Breakers not necessary, but useful to get eventually). The main problem is that level 4 Archers and Goblins are too easily 1-shot by Mortars; they become much beefier with the extra health they get at level 5 (the extra damage does not hurt either).
Once you complete a few weeks of farming with Barbarians and Archers, you should have the research required to swap over to the Goblin/Archer/Giant/Wall Breaker army composition. This army composition is slightly inferior to Archers and Barbarians for farming just gold and elixir. While it does more readily access deeper storage units, it also costs significantly more (this army costs around 50,000-60,000 elixir) and takes significantly longer to train (about 20 minutes for a Barbarian/Archer army vs about 30 minutes for the Giant/Goblin/Archer/Wall Breaker army).
However, the reason we use this army composition is to get access to Dark Elixir while simultaneously gathering enough gold and elixir to continue upgrading our base. At TH8, Dark Elixir is by far the most limited resource. I have a video dedicated explicitly to farming DE at TH8 while using this particular army composition which can be found lower on this page.
Resource Goals.
This army composition is fairly expensive. As noted above, it runs 50,000-60,000 Elixir to build. If you throw in spells, you can easily spend 100,000 elixir on a raid. As a result, you need to be getting at least 400,000 combined resources or 800+ Dark Elixir if you want to use any spells. Spells are expensive and take a long time to create, so make sure you are getting big value out of them before casting.
As a side note, you typically will not get a base that is rich in gold, elixir, and dark elixir. Typically, most gold and elixir-rich bases are due to having full collectors. Players who let their collectors fill up all the way rarely have much Dark Elixir left (as they have likely taken a break from CoC and have already had their Dark Elixir looted). If you can get large amounts of all 3 resources, do not squander the opportunity; use your spells and your hero units appropriately.
If you do not use spells, you still should be seeking bases that offer at least 300k combined resources (150k gold and 150k elixir, 200k elixir and 100k gold, and so on).
The only exception to this is bases with full (or relatively full) resource collectors. On bases like this, you can just use your Goblins and Archers to nab a quick 100k/100k and then leave. If you only use Goblins and Archers, you do not have to go for such large targets, as these are cheap and train relatively quickly.
How to Use the Composition.
Using a Goblin/Archer/Giant/Wall Breaker army to crack an enemy’s Dark Elixir or deep storage building points requires much better unit control than the Barbarian/Archer storage unit sniping I have recommended earlier at Town Hall 8. However, mastery of this skill is essential for maxing out your Barbarian King and at least starting some of the Dark Elixir-based research.
The idea is to use the Giants as a distracting unit, the Archers as the primary source of DPS, the Wall Breakers to grant ground access to deep storage units, and then finally the Goblins to take down the storage structures (of all three types) after some of the defense has been destroyed and a pathway made for the Goblins.
The first step in attacking is to lure out Clan Castle units. This can typically be done with a well-placed Goblin, but if not, you may have to drop a Giant in order to lure out CC units. Once Clan Castle units are lured out, use your Archers to pull them far from the enemy’s base and then take them out in a safe corner of the map.
Once Clan Castle units are down, the objective then needs to be to pick the easiest walls to break down in order to get access to the Dark Elixir storage (or gold/elixir storage units, depending on who you are raiding).
After you have decided upon an attack route, you need to deploy your Wall Breakers. You cannot simply deploy your Wall Breakers alone or in a large clump – they will either be taken out by towers (in the first scenario), will get hit with traps, or will all explode on the same wall. All scenarios are unacceptable.
Instead, drop a single Giant, wait 1-2 seconds, then drop a pair of Wall Breakers. The Giant should proc any lurking Giant Bombs as well as take fire from perimeter towers to allow your Wall Breakers to get close. The first Wall Breaker pair should crack the outer wall and give your Giants direct access to some of the enemy’s towers (without being sucked into a funnel – always make your own entrance with Wall Breakers rather than attacking at a funnel).
By taking out the first wall, you can then drop the rest of your Giants, who will enter through the hole created by your Wall Breakers. After deploying all your Giants, you can drop your Wall Breakers in pairs, taking about a 2 second break in between deploying each pair. These Wall Breakers should be able to break through several layers of walls if deployed properly. If you are using spells, just use a single Wall Breaker at a time – the damage bonus of the Rage Spell will allow a single Wall Breaker to take down most walls.
From here, spread out your Archers to take down resource collectors, and to help take down some of the outside towers. This all needs to be done very quickly; you should still have some Giants alive by the time you place your Archers. Be careful about placing your Archers in a clump, as Giant Bombs are known to wipe out 20+ Archers if you place them poorly. Spread about 20 of them in an arc shape to check for traps, and after all traps have been set off, you can then drop the bulk of your Archers.
After you units do most of their damage, you can drop your Goblins. You may need to use a handful of Goblins to take out resource collectors on the perimeter of the base if your Archers did not finish these collectors off already. This will make sure the Goblins head towards the core of the base. Be sure to test to make sure your Goblins head towards the center of the base before dropping most of them.
If the Goblins head towards the center of the base where the storage units tend to be located, these Goblins can easily take down 1-2 walls if necessary. You may need to stack a Healing Spell and a Rage Spell on the Goblins once they cluster on the wall to prevent them from being taken out by a Wizard Tower or a Mortar. Goblins under the effect of a Rage Spell will burn through a level 8 wall in just 1-2 seconds, and the healing spell will keep them alive for the few seconds needed to take down multiple storage structures.
- Tip: 2x Rage Spells and 1x Healing Spell seems to be the most effective spell combo for cracking deep into enemy bases with this combination. The first Rage Spell can be used to help your Giants and Wall Breakers core deep into the enemy’s base, whereas the second Rage Spell and Healing Spell should be used to boost your Goblins as they burn down the Dark Elixir storage.
Try to save your spells for bases with Dark Elixir (as discussed below). Without using spells, you should be able to adequately farm exposed Dark Elixir storage structures, full drills, and gold/elixir rich bases. Do this while waiting for your spells and Barbarian King to recharge.
TH8 Farming Option #3: Focus on Dark Elixir
Once you get to the end-stages of Town Hall 8 and have completed most of your Elixir-based research, you may want to put a little more emphasis on Dark Elixir farming. The video guide above uses the same strategy and army composition as outlined in section #2, but offers some additional pointers in farming Dark Elixir.
The video guide above also shows how to farm the rare high-level base with full Dark Elixir drills. These bases are quite rare, but High level DE drills can contain even more resources than a Dark Elixir storage, but often contain 1500+ Dark Elixir that is easy to get. It is important to know not only how to recognize these drills but how to approach and farm them.
In general, I still used the same “go for everything” at once strategy, saving my spells and Barbarian King for bases rich in Dark Elixir while still attacking weak but gold/elixir rich bases as I find them. It is often very difficult to find suitable bases to farm for Dark Elixir, so attacking for Gold and Elixir often breaks up the monotony of constant skipping.
Town Hall 8 Loot Goals and Trophy Targets
As a new Town Hall 8 player using the Barbarian and Archer strategy, you should:
- Sit in the 1150 to 1400 trophy range;
- Seek to gain at least 200k combined resources per fight (100k gold and elixir) if it requires your full army.
- Tip: If there are a handful of exposed resource collectors that only require a few Archers to pick off, it is okay to drop a handful of Archers to loot 50k gold/elixir as long as you are not running too low on trophies. Think of Barbarian/Archer (Barcher) farming as an exercise in the amount of time spent on training per resource gained; if you only need to drop 10 Archers to get 30k elixir, it is worth it.
Seek to upgrade your Laboratory and research Archer level 5, Goblin level 5, and Giant level 5 before moving onto the Goblin/Archer/Giant/Wall Breaker strategy. Once you have moved onto this strategy, you should:
- Sit in the 1200 to 1450 trophy range;
- Seek to gain at least 300k combined resources per fight (150k gold and elixir). If you use spells, you should be gaining at least 800 Dark Elixir or at least 400k combined gold and elixir per raid.
- Try to save your Barbarian King and spells for bases rich in Dark elixir.
- Do not go above 1450 trophies. You might find bases rich in Dark Elixir a little more readily at those trophy ranges, but you will also get farmed yourself much more readily if you approach the 1500 trophy count. Losing 1,800-2,000 Dark Elixir as the result of an enemy’s raid is not fun, particularly when our goal for each attack is only 800.
