Total beginner's guide to Clash of Clans

Welcome, fellow Clasher. If you seek the expert knowledge on Supercell's strategy supremo, Clash of Clans, you've walked into the right tavern.

For this is where we serve up everything you need to know in order to become a CoC master. As it were.

The concept at the core of Clash of Clans is to build a village, and continually evolve it in order to generate more resources and unlock new elements that help you defend against raiding enemies. Simultaneously, you must create an ever-more-powerful army with which to go raiding for resources yourself.

The currency in CoC takes the form of Gold, Elixir, Dark Elixir, and Gems. These are the elements you need to unlock and upgrade any item in the game, which in turn enables you to progress onto higher CoC heights.

Upgrading

All of your defenses and offenses require upgrading to improve their effectiveness. In most cases this will cost you Gold or Elixir, as well as time - both of these aspects increase significantly the higher the level you're upgrading to.

If you want to momentarily increase the production rate of your Collectors, Spells, or your Barracks, then you have the option to boost them in exchange for a handful of Gems.

Supercell occasionally runs promotions which vastly reduce the cost of boosting for a limited time, which is a great way to up your resources with minimal Gem spending.

XP or Experience Points are what you earn when you donate troops (see Clan Castle below), or clear obstacles such as rocks, trees, shrubs & co, from your playfield. Your current level is displayed in the top-left corner (a number within a blue star) and while it serves no direct purpose in terms of the gameplay it’s another way to compare your CoC activity against that of fellow Clan members and other Clashers.

Your status within CoC is determined by the number of Trophies you hold. You earn these by successfully attacking enemy villages or defending your own. (Conversely, you lose them should you prove unsuccessful in either of those scenarios.)

The number of Trophies earned / lost is determined by the difference in Trophy count between the two players - so a player with a higher number of Trophies unsuccessfully raiding a lower Trophy level player will lose more Trophies than if the situation were reversed.

Clan members are ranked according to the number of Trophies, which promotes friendly rivalry, and it's also what the game uses to match players for multiplayer battles.

Obstacles

Everyone loves a tidy garden. But in CoC you start off with a village area littered with rocks, trees and bushes that will cost you Gold and Elixir (and a Builder's time) to clear.

And just when you've got everything neat and uncluttered, you return to the game to find another obstacle has popped up - the pesky things appear randomly.

Then again, you get rewarded with XP and the occasional Gem bonus for clearing them so it’s not all bad. Get into the habit of removing obstacles regularly.

Other than filling up gaps where enemies might spawn during raids, Decorations serve no real play purpose other than make your village look pretty. And affluent - ostentatiousness is so underrated these days...