Gold and elixir are valuable resources in Clash of Clans, and if you want to upgrade your walls and build an unstoppable army, you’re going to need lots of both. Gold and Elixir are an endless resource — it’s all about how much you can earn in the shortest amount of time possible. Let’s not waste any time. Keep scrolling to get our four tips to help you earn plenty of gold and elixir the legit way.
If you’re curious about all those less-than-legit methods for earning lots of resources, check out how to cheat and earn free Gems in Clash of Clans.
3 Tips for Farming Gold & Elixir
The best way to earn fast gold and elixir is by raiding leagues you’ve already powered through. Gold and elixir don’t become an incredibly valuable resource until later in the game, after you’ve already established a large base and plenty of army stacks. Once you’ve upgraded to TH9 or TH10, you’ll need gold and elixir more than ever.
Before we can start farming for resources, you’ll want to lose trophies and drop down to a lower tier league than the one you’re meant for. Dropping down from the Gold league to Silver or Bronze is the best way to easily gather up tons of resources. Now let’s get started losing trophies.
Tip #1: Lower Your League Ranking
Your league represents the tier of play you’ve reached in Clash of Clans. Gold League players can only invade other Gold League players, and Silver League players can only invade Silver League players at each level. You’ll want to power-up your army (and your hero, if you have one) before attempting to farm. Once you’ve reached Gold League, which is a whole other guide, then drop into the lower leagues by following these methods:
- Attack enemy bases with only a unit or two — Archers, Barbarians, or any other cheap unit. Attack, then quickly surrender.
- Failing will lose you about 20~ trophies.
- Town Halls are at the core of your base, so make sure to place plenty of unimportant structures outside your walls. This way, invaders will focus on earning the League Bonus. You’ll have to sacrifice some of your buildings no matter what now.
- Place your preferred resources at the center or near-center of your base, surrounded by plenty of walls. Lots of your farmed resources should go back into walls to keep your collectors or mines well-protected.
Get demoted, and bring your high-level units with you to raid those lower-tiered bases.
Tip #2: Attack, Surrender, Repeat
Don’t waste resources paying upkeep on large armies, and especially avoid using certain high-upkeep units. You’ll want to keep your army manageable for your goals, and in most cases, you won’t need a powerful army (unless you’re going for the One Star League Bonus) — so make sure to make these choices, and avoid these missteps.
For Attacking Easy Storage:
This army composition is designed for attacking only easy-to-reach enemy base resources. Any resources outside the walls are fair game.
- Build only Archers and Barbarians (High-Level, although they can also be only Lvl. 3-4 and still got the job done, depending on your opponent.
- Attack the resources. Launch Barbarians and Archers.
- Wait until the resources are stolen and destroyed.
- Surrender!
You’ll lose trophies but gain lots of easy resources. Wait until you’re under the Shielded time to attack for the most benefits — even if you’re guaranteed to only earn about 10-15% destruction. You won’t earn the One Star League bonus, or the daily star bonus, but the easy resources should cover the loss.
For Attacking Walled Bases:
If you don’t attack often, or want to go big and hit Dark Elixir storage behind walls, you’ll need a more expensive (but still cheap) army composition.
- Build Giants, Wall Breakers, and Goblins. (Giants are expensive, so only build these units if you have plan to make-up the difference in resources.)
- Deploy the Giants and Wall Breakers to smash the walls, then send Goblins to the resources. Attack the wall with the resources closest to the exterior that you want.
- To speed up the attack, use the Jump Spell with the Goblins. Try to only use one Spell per raid — spells are too expensive!
- If you have a hero, or you’re close to the destruction rate required for earning One Star, then launch them to sweep up and smash anything you need for the last percentage points.
This army only requires 1-hour of training, so you can launch three attacks while the 3-hour Shield timer is ticking down.
Tip #3: Get the One Star League Bonus
Instead of lowering your League, you’ll want to increase it — up to Crystal or higher if you’re looking for awesome bonuses TH8 or higher. Your goal with these armies is to destroy as much as possible to earn the One Star bonus.
What does the One Star bonus do? You earn One Star for destroying the Town Hall. The Damage Percentage is the amount of damage you’ve done to the base — you’ll earn 50% of the massive League Bonus for destroying 50% of the enemy village.
NOTE: Going for the League Bonus is only useful for farming ELIXIR and DARK ELIXIR. You won’t earn enough gold to farm, just to cover your costs.
Here’s a quick way to bulldoze through a base and get as much destruction as possible;
- Build Archers and Lightning Spells. Train plenty, and keep the Lightning Spells in reserve — you’ll only need to use a few Lightning Spells per battle.
- Save the Lightning Spells to destroy Mortars and Wizard Towers.
- Before attacking, look for bases with plenty of buildings outside the walls, and defensive towers/ mortars only near the core of the base. Those are bases you’ll want to attack.
- Go for 50% destruction on the base, and reserve your heroes for a final push to earn the last percentage points you need.
- Only drop them if / when all your troops are already dead.
- Don’t bother launching a hero if you haven’t earned at least 40% destruction already.
If you can earn 5 individual Stars in one day, you’ll earn a Daily Star bonus with huge rewards at Crystal / Master tiers.
That’s everything you need to know about farming Clash of Clans in 2016. Have your own amazing methods for earning loot? Let us know in the comments!
