Clash Royale is a real-time multiplayer strategy game where players collect cards, build decks and fight other players. The objective is to either kill the opposing king or to have more points/crowns at the end of the time limit. You can also use powerful spells in combination with the units you’ll summon to devastate your opponents.

These Clash Royale Tips will help beginners get a leg up on the competition and get a better understanding of the game. Check out our Clash Royale Gem Farming Guide as well!

1. Don’t Let Elixir Fill Completely

Elixir fills at the same time for both you and your opponent. You can see when you’re fixing to regenerate another elixir as indicated by a semitransparent white bar that fills up to a line and turns pink. Once your elixir hits 10 you will stop generating elixir, meaning the next elixir point will only start once your current elixir total drops. Absolutely do not wait and let your elixir stagnate at 10.

2. Balance Out Your Decks

Don’t build decks that are made up of only melee, tanks or squishy ranged units. Ensure that your deck has various units that can counter what the enemy will throw at you. Also make sure that the elixir costs of the cards are spread out as well to prevent having to wait for elixir refills just to play/counter a push.

3. Don’t Activate the King

The “king” is the middle tower on your opponents side. Until he is attacked, either by a unit or spell, he will not attack your units. However, once he is activated, he will start firing a cannon at nearby units which will make destroying a tower a lot more difficult and can cost you the match.

4. Don’t Drop Troops Carelessly

Don’t just attack by placing a unit at the bridge and expect it to do anything, at the best you’ve just wasted some elixir. Instead, build up an attack behind your king. For example, you could place a slow-moving high elixir cost tank and as it walks forward, place more units behind to build a nice attack wave. Learn which units pair well together, like placing a giant in front of a balloon to defend it. Of course if you’re being attacked and enemy units are pushing towards you, you’ll want to make sure you have elixir/units on the way to defend your tower.

5. Learn Effective Elixir Trades

Elixir trading/trades just means that you want to get the most value out of your units while spending the smallest amount of elixir possible. Whether you’re defending against a push or attacking a tower, you want to spend as little elixir as possible. So say the enemy sends something that costs 5-7 elixir, you wait and counter it with something that costs 1-3 elixir and defend successfully. You’re now up 2-6 elixir over your opponent.

6. Defend on Your Side of the Arena

This is a big deal and it’s basically common sense. On your side of the arena is YOUR towers. Towers deal a lot of damage and not making use of that damage when defending against a push is a very bad mistake. When a push is approaching, you’ll want to wait until the unit is in tower range before sending your units to counter the push.

7. Attack and Defend Equally

Try to avoid overcommitting resources to just attacking or defending. If you’re busy building up a push and your opponent starts to push you on the other side, you’ll want to defend yourself appropriately. Always try and defend while spending the lowest amount of elixir as possible. This will take practice and experience to learn the minimum amount of units you’ll have to use to counter a specific attack. Don’t forget to make use of spells too.

8. Use Spells Effectively

Spells are a super useful tool in Clash Royale and how you use them can easily win you the match. Of course this means you’ll need to read the spells beforehand and get comfortable with the mechanics of using them. If the spell freezes the enemy units, you can use that to let a rushing unit like Hog rider to get a couple hits in on the towers. If it’s aoe (area-of-effect) damage, make sure you only use it when there’s a group of enemy units. Don’t waste them and the elixir they cost or you’ll regret it later when your screen is filled with enemies later on.

9. Distract Enemy Troops

Some units are designed to head straight for towers/buildings only, while the rest will go for any nearby units first. You can use this to your advantage by placing a unit near the middle on your side to lure over enemy units crossing the bridge. This way your tower will get some free shots in allowing you to win the trade without your units taking as much damage. If you’re really good, you can place Skeletons(1) which will walk towards the opposite bridge, luring the enemy forces even further and/or splitting them up entirely so that both towers are firing.

10. Pay Attention to the Clock

Matches are three minutes long and during the final 60 seconds, elixir will regenerate a double the normal rate. You can use this to time your attacks with this increase in regeneration to get in a lot of damage. If your scores are evenly matches but your opponent’s tower is weak you can use a projectile spell to finish it off at the last few seconds to win.