I get a lot of messages from Clashers saying that they just upgraded their Town Hall and want to know what to upgrade first. I worked a long time on this guide to give you a complete overview what upgrades you should work on first when you enter a new Town Hall level and also give you a priority for all the new upgrades available.
Attention! This is the fastest way to max out your base – if you would like to see a priority that will go along with Clan War, please check out here…
New Town Hall Level Upgrades
In this first section I want to give you my thoughts on the first upgrades that are essential for any new Town Hall level you reach – the second part of this guide shows the Town Hall specific upgrades in a priority list.
Laboratory, Spell Factory, Barracks
If you’re able to upgrade your Lab you should do that right away. That’s always your priority number one! This will unlock new upgrades and you will be able to do them while you upgrade other buildings.
Coming a close second and third are the Barracks and Spell Factory. This will unlock new spells and troops you can also upgrade in your Laboratory.
Army Camps & Clan Castle
The Clan Castle and also the Army Camps are another top priority. You will get extra troop space so you should make sure that you get them done as soon as possible.
New Buildings
In general, it’s always better to build all the new buildings first instead of starting upgrades (except the above-mentioned upgrades) – new buildings are cheaper and faster to complete than an upgrade to a higher level (and most of the time the DPS you will get is at least the same you will get from upgrading a higher level defense for higher costs and longer upgrade time).
Laboratory Upgrades
There is a reason I haven’t put a priority line for Laboratory upgrades in here – the attacking strategies change from month to month, so it would also change all the time. Also I don’t know your personal preferences.
Always have your Lab doing upgrades and don’t let it sit idle. Work on the troops you use right now and also have a look at popular attacking strategies for the next Town Hall level to know what you might need.
Upgrade Organization
The upgrade priority is one thing, but it’s also important that you use your Builders effectively. Of course you want to to keep all your Builders busy with upgrades, but planning ahead will help you get the resources needed for the upgrades and separating your Builders helps you prevent creating a big weak spot in your base (e.g. if you send all 4 Builders to upgrade 4 Air Defenses at the same time you will have a problem getting all the Gold together and don’t use your Elixir properly and you will also make your base very vulnerable against air attacks).
With that being said, it’s time to take a look at all Town Hall level specific upgrade priorities.
One last word of advice – I hope you already got as many Builders as possible (3 Builders at least if you’re TH7 or lower and at least 4 Builders above). Otherwise, focus on pushing trophies to get the gem reward for purchasing the additional Builder.
Upgrade Priorities For Town Hall 5 to Town Hall 11
You might wonder why I start with Town Hall 5 and the reason is simple – all upgrades before level 5 are mandatory and fast to complete.
Town Hall 5 Upgrade Priority
First Priority! As mentioned above, upgrading your Laboratory and building the Spell Factory is the most important thing to do first.
Then you should build the additional Walls you get to 100 wall pieces. This will help you protect the most essential buildings in your base. Building them won’t take any time and the resources should also be no problem.
Now you can start building the new Army Camp (and upgrade it along with the others to max level right away) to take more troops into battle.
Then you should build and upgrade your new Elixir Collector and Gold Mine. The longer you have them the higher the profit will be because they will generate loot for every day.
Defense Upgrades. When you have done these upgrades you can start working on your defensive strength.
First of all, build the new Archer Tower and Cannon (these won’t take much time and will fill out your new base design) and then the Wizard Tower. The Wizard Tower is extremely helpful against attacks with Archers and Barbarians.
Now it’s time to upgrade your Barracks to get the Wizards and also your Mortar, Wizard Tower and Air Defense.
After that you should max your Cannons and Archer Towers.
In the last step make sure to upgrade and max out your Storages and Collectors and you’re ready to go to Town Hall 6
At a glance:
- Upgrade Laboratory & build the Spell Factory
- Build the new Wall pieces (upgrade them from time to time when you have some leftover resources)
- Build the new Army Camp & Upgrade it along with the other Army Camps to max level
- Get the new Mine & Collector and upgrade it
- Build the new Archer Tower & Cannon
- Build the Wizard Tower
- Upgrade the Wizard Tower, Mortar and the Air Defense to max level
- Max out your Cannons and Archer Towers
- Max out your Storages & Mines, Collectors
Also, don’t forget to use a base layout that works! Here are my frequently updated base designs for Town Hall 5.
Town Hall 6 Upgrade Priority
First of all it’s time to get a new base design and you can check some new base designs out here:
First Priority! As mentioned above upgrading your Laboratory and Spell Factory is the most important thing to do first.
After that it’s important to get additional troop space by upgrading your Army Camps.
In between you can build the additional wall pieces to get your new base design set up. That won’t take time and you won’t need to upgrade them right away.
The last high-priority upgrade is the Clan Castle. You will benefit greatly from this, but won’t be able to use it in the meantime. You’ll have to do it sooner or later so better do it as early as possible to benefit from it.
Now it’s also time to get the new Mine and the new Collector
Defense Upgrades. Now it’s time to build the new defenses – the new Mortar, the new Wizard Tower, the new Air Defense and also the Air Sweeper. The last two are extremely important to keep away air troops (also Healers are very popular at TH7) and the Barbarian/Archer kind of attacks.
Now it’s time to upgrade your Barracks – the best way is to always have one Barracks upgrading while building the new defenses to still be able to produce troops in a decent amount of time.
Don’t forget to upgrade your new defenses to the same level that your other defenses of that kind are.
Now you need to upgrade all defenses to max level. Focus on Air Defenses and Wizard Towers first and then on Mortars and Archer Towers. The Cannons and the Air Sweeper are the last in the priority of defense upgrades you should do.
In the last step you should max out your Mines, Collectors and also your Storages. That can also be done while your Town Hall upgrades to Level 8.
At a glance:
- Upgrade your Laboratory & Spell Factory
- Build the new Wall pieces and upgrade your Army Camps
- Build the new Mine & Collector and upgrade it a little bit (until the above upgrades are done)
- Build the new Wizard Tower, Mortar, Air Defense and Air Sweeper
- Upgrade your Barracks while upgrading the new defenses to the same level of the rest of your defenses of that kind
- Max out your Air Defenses & Wizard Towers
- Max out Mortars / Archer Towers
- Max out Cannons & Air Sweeper
- Max out Mines, Collectors & Storages
Town Hall 7 Upgrade Priority
First of all it’s time to get a new base design and you can check some new base designs for Town Hall 7 here:
First Priority! As mentioned above, upgrading your Laboratory and the Spell Factory is the most important thing to do first.
After that it’s important to get additional troop space by building the fourth Army Camp and the new Barracks. Also start upgrading them as soon as possible to get more troop space and make the new Barracks useful.
In between, you can build the additional wall pieces to get your new base design set up. That won’t take time and you won’t need to upgrade them right away.
You should focus 2 Builders on the above upgrades and with the third Builder start working on the Dark Elixir Storage and the Dark Elixir Drill to get the Barbarian King as soon as possible – without the Storage, you’ll not be able to store Dark Elixir!
In my opinion, you can also start upgrading the Dark Elixir Storage right away to have enough storage capacity for Dark Elixir upgrades.
Defense Upgrades. Now it’s time to build the new defenses. If you already have 4 Builders, you can start doing this with one of them along with the above mentioned upgrades.
First of all build the new defenses – this help fill the space for a TH7 Base Design and is quickly completed (compared to upgrading the others). Build the 2 new Cannons, the new Archer Tower, the new Air Defense, the new Mortar and also the Hidden Teslas.
I know the Hidden Teslas are quite expensive for what you get on the first level, but they are still a huge help! Here’s a guide I wrote how you can also benefit from low-level Hidden Teslas to defend by luring troops.
After you built the new ones it’s about time to upgrade the new defenses to the same level as the others. My tip is to start with the Air Defense to have something you can do against mass Dragon attacks, especially in Clan War.
Now it’s time to get the Dark Barracks. The reason that I have it this late in the priority is that you shouldn’t use Dark Elixir troops until you have built your Barbarian King, so there is plenty of other upgrades which are more important.
After that you can start upgrading your Barracks one at a time (prevent upgrading more than one, otherwise training time will rise a lot and cut your attacking profits).
By the way, here’s a cool technique to find out the perfect setup for training troops if you having upgrading Barracks.
Now you can start working on maxing out your defenses. Start with the Air Defense (one at a time to not completely expose your village) and the Wizard Tower, then the Archer Towers and Cannons and then at the end the Air Sweeper and the Mortar.
Also, don’t forget to upgrade your Spring Traps to level 2 so it can blow up 2 Valkyries or 4 Wizards.
Before upgrading to Town Hall 8! A very good tip from me before you leave Town Hall 7 is upgrading all Walls to Level 7 (Purple Walls) and also your Barbarian King to Level 5. Otherwise, you will face the threat of rushing and end up with a low-level Wall base or some Baby Heroes later!
At a glance:
- Upgrade your Laboratory & Spell Factory
- Build the new Army Camp & the new Barracks and upgrade it
- Build the new Wall pieces
- Build the Dark Elixir Storage & Dark Elixir Drill (and upgrade it)
- Get the Barbarian King as soon as possible
- Build the new Cannons, Air Defense, Archer Tower, Mortar & Hidden Teslas and upgrade them to the same level as the older defenses
- Build the Dark Barracks
- Upgrade your Barracks (one at a time)
- Max out your Air Defenses (one at a time) and your Wizard Towers
- Max out your Archer Towers and Cannons
- Max out the Air Sweeper and Mortars
- Start upgrading the Hidden Teslas
- Bring your Barbarian King to Level 5 and your Walls to Level 7
Town Hall 8 Upgrade Priority
First Priority! As mentioned above upgrading your Laboratory and the Clan Castle is the most important thing to do first.
While that is being worked on you should use the other Builder(s) to build and upgrade the new Dark Elixir Drill. Dark Elixir will be the rarest resource for you from now on until the end of the game, so this additional Dark Elixir from your Drill is much needed.
Also, now you will need to upgrade Dark Elixir troops so you should upgrade the Dark Elixir Storage to have enough capacity for these upgrades.
In between, you can build the additional wall pieces to get your new base design set up. That won’t take time and you won’t need to upgrade them right away.
The last step will be building the new Dark Spell Factory and the second Dark Barracks.
Defense Upgrades. Build the new Archer Tower, the new Air Defense, the new Wizard Tower and Mortar and upgrade it to the same level of the other defenses first. In between you should also build the new Gold and Elixir Storages and upgrade them. You will need that capacity later to get enough resources for the upgrades.
Now it’s time to upgrade your defenses and you should start with one Builder focus on maxing out the Air Defenses (one at a time to prevent an unprotected village from air attacks).
Your second Builder should start working on upgrading your Hidden Teslas. They are not very strong at lower level, but at Town Hall 8 you will be able to upgrade them to a decent level.
Your third Builder should focus on upgrading your Mortars and Wizard Towers.
These upgrades will take some time, but don’t rush. You will need to do them to have a good start at Town Hall 9.
In the last upgrade step you need to upgrade your Barracks (also one at a time to still have enough training capacity to attack frequently) and your Cannons and Archer Towers.
Now you can upgrade your Air Sweeper and also your Dark Barracks.
Before upgrading to Town Hall 9! Make sure to upgrade your Walls to Level 8 and also your Mines and Collectors should be maxed out. Also, upgrade your Barbarian King when you can and you should have him at least at Level 7 or Level 8 before you go to Town Hall 9.
At a glance:
- Upgrade your Laboratory & the Clan Castle
- Build the new Dark Elixir Drill and upgrade the Dark Elixir Storage
- Build the new Walls (in between)
- Build the new Dark Barrack and the Dark Spell Factory
- Build the new Archer Tower, Air Defense, Wizard Tower & Mortar and upgrade them to the same level as your other defenses
- Build the new Gold Storage and Elixir Storage and upgrade it
- Get a working and solid Town Hall 8 base layout
- Max out the Air Defenses, Hidden Teslas
- Max out the Mortars, Cannons and Archer Towers
- Upgrade your Barracks one at a time
- Max out the Air Sweeper and Dark Barracks
Town Hall 9 Upgrade Priority
First of all it’s time to get a new base design and you can check some new base designs out here:
First Priority! As mentioned above upgrading your Laboratory and the Spell Factory is the most important thing to do first.
In between you can build the additional wall pieces to get your new base design set up. That won’t take time and you won’t need to upgrade them right away.
Now try to get the Dark Elixir together for your Archer Queen. She will be one, if not the, most powerful unit you own.
Another high priority is getting your Dark Elixir Drills maxed as fast as possible to get the extra Dark Elixir.
The last step now is upgrading your Army Camps to get the additional troop space and also your Clan Castle.
Defense Upgrades. As always, build the new defenses you get first. That’s a Archer Tower, a second Air Sweeper, a Wizard Tower and also a Hidden Tesla.
The next step is getting the new X-Bows. They are very powerful due to their long range and will support your defenses a lot.
Then it’s time to upgrade your Storages to max out capacity of resources you can hold.
Then it’s time to max out the defenses – first in line are the Air Defenses (one by one), the Wizard Towers and also the Mortars along with your Barracks (also one at a time).
Now you can focus on Archer Towers and Cannons.
Before leaving Town Hall 9! Town Hall 9 is the most balanced and loot-rewarding Town Hall level. Every Clasher will tell you that getting loot will get a lot harder after Town Hall 9, so I strongly recommend you max out everything you have at Town Hall 9! I understand that you want to move up, but upgrading things you could have done at Town Hall 9 will take a lot longer at Town Hall 10 and you will see that you will get crushed as a fresh Town Hall 10 (also, because a lot of Town Hall 11 can attack your base).
I understand if you don’t want to wait, so here are the absolute minimum things you need to have before you upgrade to TH10:
- Walls Level 8
- Archer Queen Level 10 & Barbarian King Level 15
- Maxed Defenses for Town Hall 9
Remember, these are the absolute minimum requirements, and even they are quite low – if you do not have these, upgrading to Town Hall 10 is nothing else than suicide. You will regret going to Town Hall 10 when you didn’t max out everything. With upgrading Heroes, you’re able to win at Town Hall 9, but as a recently upgraded TH10, you will not be able to attack properly without decent Heroes – just one of the problems you will face.
I upgraded to Town Hall 10 too soon years ago and it cost me months to get back on track – month without a lot of fun getting crushed all the time! Learn from my mistakes.
At a glance:
- Upgrade your Laboratory & Spell Factory
- Build the new Walls
- Get the new Dark Elixir Drill and max it
- Build the Archer Queen
- Upgrade your Army Camps & Clan Castle
- Build the new Archer Tower, Wizard Tower, Air Sweeper and Hidden Tesla and upgrade it to the same level as your other defenses
- Get the X-Bows
- Get a well-tested and built Town Hall 9 base layout here
- Max out Air Defenses
- Max out Barracks
- Max out Wizard Towers & Mortars
- Max out Archer Towers & Cannons
- Always upgrade your Heroes when you can!
Town Hall 10 Upgrade Priority
First Priority! As mentioned above upgrading your Laboratory and the Spell Factory is the most important thing to do first.
After that, you can start upgrading your Army Camps and Barracks to get the additional troops.
In between you can build the additional wall pieces to get your new base design set up. That won’t take time and you won’t need to upgrade them right away. The last high-priority thing is building the new Mines and Collectors and also upgrade them to max level along with your Dark Elixir Drills.
Defense Upgrades. Build the new Archer Tower and Cannon and the new traps and then focus on getting the Inferno Towers done. They are so essential for Town Hall 10 that you will need them as soon as possible!
After that you should build your third X-Bow and then start upgrading your Inferno Towers and X-Bows as fast as possible. Why are X-Bows and Inferno Tower so essential? Well, the Inferno Tower will prevent Hog Rider attacks of any kind and also protect from attacking strategies with a few tank troops in front. Always set both of them to Multi-Mode (the reason for this is stated in the linked article above about the Inferno Tower modes)!
The X-Bows however will help protect against Queen Walks. A lot of Town Hall 10 do that in order to get to your Dark Elixir and the X-Bows prevent a lower level Archer Queen from performing that against your base.
Now it’s time to max out your defenses. Start with the Air Defenses and the Air Sweepers and then work your way through Hidden Teslas, Archer Towers and Cannons.
Mortars and Wizard Towers are last in line, because splash damage is not very effective at Town Hall 10 any more, compared to the lower Town Halls.
You should really max out everything before going to Town Hall 11. Town Hall 11 is the hardest Town Hall Level and you will need well-upgraded defenses and troops to stand a chance.
At a glance:
- Upgrade your Laboratory & Spell Factory
- Get the new Walls
- Upgrade your Army Camps & Clan Castle
- Get all Mines & Collectors and max them out
- Build the new Archer Tower and Cannon
- Get the Inferno Towers
- Get the new X-Bow
- Get a full TH10 base layout here
- Max out Inferno Towers & X-Bows
- Max out Air Defenses and Air Sweepers
- Max out Hidden Teslas
- Max out Archer Towers & Cannons
- Max out Mortars & Wizard Towers
Town Hall 11 Upgrade Priority
First of all it’s time to get a new base design and you can check some new base designs for TH11 out here:
First Priority! As mentioned above upgrading your Laboratory.
In the second step you will need to get the Eagle Artillery. Otherwise, you will see your base getting crushed all the time.
Then you can work on maxing out the defenses.
Town Hall 12 Upgrade Priority
With Town Hall 12 things change a bit since there are no new excusive defense you build, but the main priority is the same… Build all the new buildings and then right away work on getting your Giga Town Hall defense to Level 5, it’s super important! From there you can then work on your lab, factory and troops and gradually upgrade the other defenses.
Also, don’t forget to get a new base design for Town Hall 12 here!
Town Hall 13 Upgrade Priority
Same as Town Hall 12, build the new buildings and defenses at Level 1 and straight away work on your Giga Town Hall to Level 5. Then get a working TH13 base layout here and from there you can work on troops, spells, heroes and upgrading your defenses.
Town Hall 14 Upgrade Priority
Same as Town Hall 13, build the new buildings and defenses at Level 1 and straight away work on your Giga Town Hall to Level 5. Then get a working Town Hall 14 base layout here and from there you can work on troops, spells, heroes and upgrading your defenses.
Town Hall 15 Upgrade Priority
Same as Town Hall 14, build the new buildings and defenses at Level 1 and straight away work on your Giga Town Hall to Level 5. Then get a working TH15 base layout here and from there you can work on troops, spells, heroes and upgrading your defenses.
Town Hall 16 Upgrade Priority
Same as Town Hall 15, build the new buildings and defenses at Level 1 and straight away work on your Giga Town Hall to Level 5. Then get a good TH16 base layout here and from there you can work on troops, spells, heroes and upgrading your defenses.
Conclusion
I hope this upgrade priority helps you. Please keep in mind that I focused on having it all ordered so you can have a peek. In the end, you always need to prioritize one thing over this list – never have an idle Laboratory, never have an idle Builder. If that happens just go for upgrades instead of waiting, no matter what that upgrade is. Upgrading everything in Clash of Clans takes years and having idle Builders won’t help you get that done faster.
