Clash of Clans is one of the most popular real-time strategy and base-building games to ever release on Android and iOS. Even after a decade since its initial launch in 2012, the game still gets regular updates and feature additions to keep its player base alive.
As is the case with everything else in the game, upgrading your troops is rather important. With a lot of troops having the ability to be upgraded to level nine, there’s a lot on the table should you decide to research and upgrade your strongest troops.
Also read: What are the best troops in Clash of Clans?
Upgrading troops in Clash of Clans
Before you get to upgrade your troops, there are several things that you need to keep in mind. First up, upgrading troops requires building a laboratory which is only unlocked at Town Hall level three, so if you’re a relatively new player to the game, you’re going to have to upgrade your Town Hall first. The level of your laboratory is also what determines what troops you’ll be able to upgrade and for how long. At the first level, the laboratory can only upgrade Barbarians, Archers and Goblins once.
Finally, upgrading troops and the laboratory itself requires an increasing amount of elixir as you move forward along the upgrade path, so make sure you’ve got enough elixir on hand before you start an upgrade. This also applies to dark elixir, which is unlocked at Town Hall level seven.
Once you have everything in place, here’s how you can upgrade your Clash of Clans troops.
Building a Laboratory
If you haven’t already, it’s time to build a laboratory first. Here’s how.
Step 1: Tap the shop icon in the bottom right. Make sure you’re at Town Hall level three before proceeding.
Step 2: Under Army, you’ll find the Laboratory building. It costs 5,000 elixir and requires a minute to build.
Step 3: Place the laboratory wherever you want and wait for the building to finish construction.
Upgrading troops
Once your laboratory is built, upgrading troops is a matter of a few taps.
Step 1: Tap the library and then the Research button.
Step 2: Select the troop you want to upgrade. You’ll see the upgrade time, level and cost right there.
Step 3: Tap on your troop of choice and then tap the upgrade cost button to start the upgrade.
Speeding up Clash of Clans troops upgrades
While initial upgrades don’t take long, as you progress in the game, upgrades will take significantly longer and will become almost impossibly expensive. You can speed up the process by using Gems, the premium in-game currency or either of the following methods.
- Research potions: Research potions cost Gems or League Medals to purchase and can speed up research by up to 24 times for an hour at a time. It’s recommended that you queue multiple shorter upgrades when using research potions to get more upgrades done while its effects last.
- Book of Fighting: Book of Fighting can be purchased using Gems and are quite expensive. However, they completely skip a troop’s upgrade cost and timer. Based on the level you’re upgrading at, the cost of the book of fighting in gems might be a better deal than spending the time and elixir to upgrade your troops the usual way.
- Hammer of Fighting: Hammer of Fighting can be bought using League Medals in the League Shop and each individual hammer can skip a troop’s upgrade cost and timer.
Also read: How to change the name in Clash of Clans?
