Welcome to the beginner’s guide for Super Cell’s newest and popular mobile game Clash Royale! I will be providing some tips to help you climb the arena!

Tip 1: Understanding Game Basics

The game play is simple. You and your opponent both have 3 towers, with one being the King’s Castle. The goal is to defeat your opponent by destroying more towers in 3 minutes. You automatically win if you destroy the King’s castle, even if your opponent destroyed two of your towers.

If both players can’t destroy anything by 3 minutes, the game goes into overtime for a minute. Anyone that destroys the next tower will be victorious.

With that being said, you are given 8 cards to try out beat your opponent. There are about 47 cards right now. I know Super Cell will add more cards in the future, but the card selection is decent at the moment.

Tip 2: Build Decks That Suit Your Playstyle

After playing for a while, you will start noticing you tend to favor a few cards over others. Now, there are plenty of play styles you can employ here:

Spawner Deck – Places emphasis on Goblin/Barbarian/Tombstone huts. This is to overwhelm your opponent with many small troops. This is countered by having bomb towers and cannons.
Tower Deck – Places defensive towers such as Tesla/Bomb Tower to stop enemy troops and use an offensive combo like Prince/Giant or Giant/Baby Dragon to start a strong push.
X-Bow Deck – Uses the X-Bow’s range to wreck havoc on enemy crown towers. Works wonders when paired with Tombstone to block incoming assault against the X-Bow. Inferno Tower is a great counter to this.
Spell Deck – Uses various spells such as fireball, rocket or lightning to gain an advantage.

There are more combos that you can try out and explore, but the decks mentioned above are quite common. The important part is to choose a deck that suits your style. Otherwise, you aren’t going to have too much fun playing.

Tip 3: Card Counters

Clash Royale Cards

Knowing specific card counters is extremely useful in making sure you are able to nullify incoming attacks or force a strong push against the enemy towers. Below are some common counters you can use to your advantage anytime your opponent uses it:

Giant – Skeleton Army takes care of it. Beware of backups like Prince or Witch. You are going to need cannon towers to help you out.
Prince – You can use just Tombstone, Skeletons, Skeleton Army or Goblins to stop him from charging your tower. Letting a prince attack your tower is bad.
Witch – Tesla/Cannon Tower is a great counter. It is very efficient as the Witch doesn’t do too much damage to towers.
Skeleton Army – A simple cast of Arrows will demolish all of them. Requires aiming though, so aim with precision!
Mini PEKKA – Tombstone is the most efficient counter.
Goblin/Barbarian Huts – Tesla/Bomb Tower are great at stopping the pushes. Bomb towers are very strong, so use that alongside some air defense just in case your enemy uses Balloons for sieging.
Baby Dragon – A simple Tesla tower will take care of it. You can also use Musketeer for it.
Musketeer – Drop Skeletons or Goblins on her right after she crosses the bridge when in your tower range.
Barbarians – Bomb tower or a Knight can help you out tremendously. Fireball is good at weakening them too.
X-Bow – Inferno tower hard counters it. However, you are going to need Arrows or Fireball as backup as your opponent will put small troops to stop your Inferno tower from attacking it.

These are just common cards played up to arena 4. You will see a huge variety of strategies used by players once you hit arena 5 and higher.

Tip 4: Join a Clan!

Joining a clan gives you a major benefit – getting free card points to upgrade your cards. You are able to request a card donation at least twice a day, so that will speed up your upgrades.

Tip 5: Don’t Upgrade Cards You Don’t Use

If you know you don’t like certain cards, don’t waste gold trying to upgrade them, especially if you are a free to play player. Gold is scarce due to the limited chest slots available in the game. Your top 8 cards that you use should be given 100% attention.

Tip 6: Watch Some Clash Royale Replay Videos

You can access this by watching the Clash TV in game. Try and see what the high level players are using. This will give you an insight on how to structure your deck and also learn a thing or two about advanced strategies and conserving your usage of elixir.

Conclusion

Clash Royale is a very fun game. The real time element really makes it work and Super Cell has done a great job creating a gem like this. They will be adding more cards in the future, so if you haven’t started this game, you should try it now!