Clash of Clans has changed somewhat significantly recently, and IMO is a more fun game now than prior to the updates. The big changes that effected everyone was the reworking of how village shields work, and how you get loot from raids. Combined, these changes have resulted in normal farming attacks being far more interesting, and on the flip side this means having a solid setup to your village defenses is more important than ever (plus you get to see how it does vs full attacks, so you should always be tweaking weaknesses).

The village shield change works like this: prior to the change as soon as you attacked, you lost your full shield. Now when you attack you lose 3 hours off your shield, which means off a single shield you can get 2-3 attacks in if you are active (shield are typically 12-16 hours long). It also means you don’t feel a negative sting if you have time to attack and still have 5+ hours on your shield. Under the old system it might have been better not to attack, while under the new system attacking is almost always the correct option. A game improving to make playing the game NOT the wrong choice, imagine that!

The loot changes are also significant. There is now a ‘daily’ task (it’s not really daily, as the 24 hour timer starts when you finish the task, regardless of how long it takes to do so) that rewards you with bonus loot when you get five stars (a full base destruction is 3 stars, 50% and the town hall is 2 stars, and 50% destruction OR the town hall are 1 star). Additionally the bonus loot for a successful attack (based on your trophy count) also scales with destruction, maxing out at 80% destruction of the base. This means if you only destroy say 50% of the base, it will count as a successful attack, but you will only earn one star for the daily, and a reduced amount of league bonus loot.

The loot changes (along with a few other tweaks) have resulted in the elimination of “Town Hall sniping” (a base would have its town hall undefended, the attacker would kill just that. Defender got a shield and didn’t lose much loot, attacker got a win without using a lot of troops), meaning both attackers and defenders now contend with full attacks. In a way, normal Clash gameplay is now similar to Clan War attacks, in that you prepare fully for them and do your best, rather than relying on putting your town hall outside (for defense) and only hitting derpy bases (for offense) or sniping town halls.

The downstream effect of all of this is that Clash is now a ‘harder’ game as you progress. Since its more important now to protect your loot with a solid base, those who don’t design them suffer more, and those who can’t make proper attacks don’t earn as much loot, slowing progress. I think this is good because it pushes everyone to become a better player, and to explore the depths of Clash strategy, which are very deep indeed. Plus the lower town hall levels are still rather easy, so new players aren’t hit with the full depth right away. It’s just no longer possible to progress at a rapid pace in the upper TH8 and above space if you just derp it up.

Programing note: We have 2-3 spots open in our clan. Ideally you should have a near-maxed TH7 or above, are able to war twice a week, and have the capacity to learn and improve. Clan is “Supreme Cream!”, mention the blog when applying.