Released in 2012 by SuperCell, Clash of Clans is a freemium strategy game, focused on building and attacking cities. It’s been five years since the game was released but it still hasn’t come down from the top 100 on the app store. Let’s find out why the game is still loved by millions of people.

Gameplay

The game starts off with a tutorial where you get to learn the mechanics of the game. You have to build your village from scratch using resources such as elixir and gold. You can collect these resources using elixir collectors and gold mines. You can solely focus on building your base or attacking other players or a mix of both. Resources can also be obtained from other players by invading their bases. To attack the bases of other players, you need to build barracks and army camps. Read more about how to get unlimited gems in Clash of Clans.

I’ll start by saying that this handheld game is a well-designed strategy title. It’s fun and colorful. But if you boil the gaming action down to its simplest terms, you’re essentially building and defending your own goodies while trying to break down and steal everybody else’s stuff.

You start out with a tiny village-like place with a few tiny buildings, a tiny cannon and a tiny army. And then you work to make them all bigger. Much bigger. For this is a world of marauding hordes of goblins and vast attacking multiplayer clans. So tiny clearly doesn’t cut it here. You’ve got to build, my aspiring chieftain. And quickly. To do that, you’ll need two substances: virtual gold and elixir.

“All defensive walls, non-defensive buildings, heroes, everything, every last upgradable thing is complete,” Tyrael said. “Nothing you can click has a button that says upgrade anymore.”

“Clash of Clans” is a free app, but you can move along more quickly if you pay for features. This is a “freemium” model. It’s free to play, but you could end up paying a premium. Players are always tempted to pay real-world dollars for the virtual in-game currency, gems, to help get ahead in the game. For example, if a player wanted to upgrade their base to match Tyrael’s, it would cost them just shy of $12,000.

While Tyrael has purchased the occasional upgrade, he says the overall amount is minimal, around $50 and that he preferred to upgrade the old-fashioned way by playing the game. More info on gems for Clash of Clans.

If you win a battle you get at least one trophy, which advances you in the rankings. If you lose, you give up a portion of your trophies, depending on if your opponent was a higher or lower rank than you. If you’re fighting someone less experienced, an upset would mean you lose more trophies proportionally, as a win would expected. If you’re the underdog, you have an opportunity to earn more trophies if you’re willing to take more risks.

The new March Clash of Clans update arrived on March 5th, as expected. Supercell doesn’t release updates on the weekend, so they can actually fix any problems that surface. The March 2018 Clash of Clans update is available now on iTunes or the Google Play Store.