Learning from Others' Mistakes
Every experienced player made mistakes when starting out. Here are the most common ones so you can avoid them!
Mistake #1: Attacking Other Players Too Early
The Problem: New players often attack other players' cities, thinking it's an easy way to get resources.
Why It's Bad:
- Experienced players will retaliate - hard
- You'll lose troops you can't afford to lose
- You might get targeted by entire clans
- Monsters are much safer for beginners
What to Do Instead: Focus on PvE monsters and epics until you understand the game and have a strong army. Only attack players who are clearly inactive or weaker than yourself (your might level is a good indicator)
Mistake #2: Neglecting Defenses
The Problem: Players focus entirely on offense and forget about walls and defences.
Why It's Bad:
- Other players will attack you easily
- You'll lose hard-earned resources
- Rebuilding is expensive and time-consuming and you loose more troops when defending (you can only revive up to 75% of lost troops while defending)
What to Do Instead: Balance offense and defense. Upgrade your walls and keep troops at home to defend. But the best you can do is: Shield you city!
Mistake #3: Not Using Captains while offline
The Problem: Letting captains sit idle instead of gathering resources or maintain food production in your city
Why It's Bad:
- You need a positive food production to keep troop training costs low
- Idle captains = wasted potential
What to Do Instead: Send your captains to gather resources every day. Never let them sit idle!
Mistake #4: Attacking Far-Away Targets
The Problem: Sending troops to monsters on the other side of the map.
Why It's Bad:
- March time can be hours
- Troops are unavailable while marching
- Multiple short trips are better than one long trip
- You do not have enough speed ups in the beginning
What to Do Instead: Attack targets close to your city. Distance matters more than target quality for efficiency.
Mistake #5: Mismanaging Resources
The Problem: Running out of resources at critical moments or losing them to attacks.
Why It's Bad:
- Can't train troops when you need them
- Can't finish important upgrades
- Progress stalls completely
What to Do Instead:
- Upgrade your Warehouse to protect resources
- Shield your city!
- Spend resources before logging off (use them or lose them)
- Do NOT open chests until you need the resources
- Keep food production positive
- Balance spending between buildings, troops, and research
Mistake #6: Not Joining a Clan
The Problem: Trying to play solo without clan benefits.
Why It's Bad:
- No protection from larger players
- Missing out on help clicks for your research, construction and troop training
- No access to clan events and rewards
- Much harder to progress
What to Do Instead: Join a clan immediately! See our Joining a Clan guide.
Mistake #7: Ignoring Research
The Problem: Letting the Academy sit idle or not prioritizing research.
Why It's Bad:
- Research bonuses are permanent and you need them to progress
- Every minute without research running is wasted speed ups
What to Do Instead: Research 24/7 from day one. Start long researches before bed. Never let the Academy sit idle!
Mistake #8: Not Crypting Daily
The Problem: Forgetting to run crypts or not prioritizing them.
Why It's Bad:
- Major source of equipment and artifacts
- Essential for development
- Grants chests to entire clan: Building Resources, Silver, Gold, Revival Potions, Dragon Coins and much more
- Crypting is the life line of a clan
What to Do Instead: Make crypt runs part of your daily routine. Send captains to crypts every single day! Get Carter and level him up!
Summary: Daily Checklist for Beginners
- ✅ Check research is running (never idle!)
- ✅ Send captains to crypts
- ✅ Send troops to gather from nearby tiles
- ✅ Attack nearby monsters for VP
- ✅ Complete daily quests
- ✅ Help clan members by pressing help
- ✅ Spend excess resources before logging off