Attacking Guidelines

I'm not going to go into great detail here as I feel I still have a lot to learn about attacking.  Plus Flammy's Guide provides a pretty good foundation for attacking.  My intentions for this guide is more of a "what I've learned" type of guide.  I'll update this throughout my playing time as I discover more "tricks" to attacking.

What is the Goal?

The first thing you need to figure out is what your goal is going to be when attacking a base.  Trophies?  Resources? Farming?  You can't expect to succeed if you don't seek out these answers first.

Trophies?

If you're going for trophies it's pretty easy.  I would attack the first base that has 30+ trophies that looks easy to take out.  I'd still recommend attacking a base with at least enough elixer to pay for your army but this isn't as important if you're trying to go up in a league.

Resources?

There are two things you need to take into consideration when raiding for resources: How much does your army cost? And how much are you spending skipping bases?

Army and Spell Costs:

The first one is rather simple, though requires some math.  If your total army costs 80,000 Elixer then you have no reason attacking a base that only has 50,000 Elixer.  Always make sure you attack a base with at least 150% of what it costs to make your army.  That way if you don't get all of the Elixer you still probably stole enough to get a free army.

Another thing to factor in when attacking for Elixer is how much your spells cost.  I've seen time and time again someone use two or three lightnings on my storages trying to make up for the failed attempt at raiding my base. (I did this too...when I was still a noob)  The problem here is that a level 1 Lightning Spell costs 15,000 Elixer to make.  Let me break this down for you...

From the wiki:

Upgrading your Elixir Storage to a higher level than you require for storage purposes can potentially save Elixir in a raid. As an attacker receives an amount of Elixir proportional to the percentage of damage each hit causes, the higher health of the upgraded building results in less Elixir per hit. It also takes longer to destroy, giving you more time for your defenses to destroy the attacker before they can steal all the available Elixir.

 Let's assume the following:

• Level 1 Spell Factory (Town Hall 5 req)
• Level 1 Lightning
• Level 9 Elixer Storage @ Town Hall 5 (full)

So a level 9 Elixer Storage has 1,820 hit points and can store up to 500,000 Elixer. A Lightning Spell can do 300 total damage at level 1.  This damage is random but assume it all hits the Elixer Storage. Now for some basic algebra.

300/1820 = x/500000

x = 300*500000/1820 = 82,418 Elixer gained

WOW! You may say.  But wait there's more.  You can only get 20% of the Elixer stored there.  Dang.  Okay, let's look at those numbers again.

x = 300*500000*0.20/1820 = 16,484 Elixer gained

This, mind you, is in a perfect theoretical situation.  You've barely gained your Elixer back.  In actuality a lot of that damage is going to be dealt to surrounding buildings and the Elixer Storage will rarely be completely full.

My recommendation is that you never do this.  Instead use the Lightning Spell in a more strategic way.  Such as taking out an Air Defense or Mortar well inside the walls where your Giants can't get to.  I would still only even do this if there were more than one.  And most importantly, if doing so would guarantee a 100% base raid which garners you more resources than you would've spent using the spell.

Skipping Base Costs:

Next we look at how much skipping a base costs.  Your first reaction to skipping bases is, "Don't do it too long, I'll lost all my gold!!"  I have to admit I thought this way for a while too.  You have to look at the Gold spent skipping bases in the same way you do spending Elixer creating armies.  You have to spend some to gain some.

Calculating this is actually much simpler than keeping track of army costs.  Take note of how much gold you have when you start raiding.  When you've finally chosen a base to raid double check to make sure that there is more Gold available than that which you lost skipping bases.  Stick to the 150% rule.  You should still get profit!

The idea here is that you can't just settle for a base because it has a lot of resources.  It needs to meet certain aspects of your raid strategy.  I'll go through one example, farming, but ultimately you should know what your army composition works best against.  If the base is too hard, don't attack.  Skip it, there will be another one better.  I promise.

Farming?

Here is one strategy that is easy.

1. You're not looking to get trophies out of this.  A win here and there isn't bad.  Mainly you're looking for a huge payday!
2. You also shouldn't be attacking storages.  These are inside the base and will take a lot of Elixer in army costs to get to.
3. Goblins and Archers are key here.  Maybe a Giant or two for distraction.  You need low army costs.

In order to make this work you need a very specific base.  You're looking for a base with 200-300% resources than it took to make your army.  You're looking for someone who has ignored their Gold Mines and Elixer Collectors for several days. A base that has almost empty storages but full Gold Mines and Elixer Collectors.

How can you tell a collector or mine is full?  Below are pictures from the wiki.  On the left each of these are bone dry.  On the right, filled to the brim.

Now you know. You're welcome.  This is a key strategy to use when raiding for resources.  It's helpful even if you're not farming.

A basic army composition to use for farming is: Goblins to steal from Mines and Pumps.  Archers to shoot at them over the walls.  And Giants to distract the defenses to maximize other troops' efforts.

For more information check out Flammy's How to Raid for Resources guide.