How to Prepare for December 2015 Update

Clash of Clans always has a pickup in December and June. This is because many players have holiday time from school and work. Supercell plans their updates to encourage players to logon to check out the changes. Many idle gamers play for a couple weeks after a major upgrade, then go idle again after the holidays are over.

The December 2015 Update, combined with the holiday season, will result in a huge uptick. A lot of players will be active online. Loot will probably “dry up” in December as millions of clashers are looting and spending it on upgrades.

Redesign Your Base – Now!

• Design a new base today or tomorrow (Dec 8 or 9).
• Put the Town Hall inside. It now counts as an additional storage, holds 20% of your Gold and Elixir, and will hold 15% of your DE. It only gives loot if completely destroyed. Partial destruction yields no loot. Protect it.
• Arrange trash buildings outside of walls so an attacker can score an easy 30% destruction. This is the new way to get a shield.
• Put your mines and collectors interspersed among other trash buildings, so attackers will destroy more buildings during collector attacks.
• Create a strong core to protect your storages and Town Hall. The outer layer of trash buildings should be weakly defended.
• Over the next few days, spend your loot on some final upgrades. Try to have low loot when the update goes live on December 10.

What to expect

• Expect to be raided a lot over the new week as millions of users logon over the holidays to check out the new updates. Don’t assume the new shield system is not working. Instead, assume it is a surge of new and idle players logging in over the holidays. Wait until January to make your assessment of how the new shield system is working.
• Expect to see a lot more TH10 bases in your farming leagues (mostly in Gold). A lot of TH10 players are dropping down for the update.
• Expect to see TH9 players upgrading to TH10.
• Look for n00bs rushing to TH11. Try to attack the new Eagle defense.
• TH11 will have increased storages, therefore, more available loot!

Some Things to Try

• Take note of how often you are demolished (>70%) or collector raided (~30%). If you are demolished too often, consider a new base layout. You may ultimately need to add or upgrade defenses.
• Leave some loot in your collectors. Experiment with ways to attract attackers to destroy 30% of your base without losing too much loot. The new shield strategy might require you to trade some collector loot for 30% destruction. This is the new way to get a shield. Get it?
• Practice collector raids. Experiment with scoring percent base destruction against opponents. Can you loot bases with less than 30% destruction? Learn which base layouts can be looted without triggering a shield (>29%). Don’t make your base like that.
• Practice looting with Goblins, especially since Goblins now target the Town Hall. This might also affect your war tactics.