I have heard about “Clash of Clans” many times but not being a mobile gamer, I tend to pass over things that people tend to recommend or what is the latest cool mobile game that friends are talking about on social media.
But lately, I have had this small addiction to “Clash of Clans”, a freemium mobile strategy video game developed by Finnish game developer, Supercell.
I’ve always played strategy games but the concept was fascinating, you have this village in which you use resources to build. May it be building a town hall, wall for defense, barracks, builder’s hut, cannons, mortars and of course, a variety of heroes.
And at first, you start getting acquiring gold (you can build and level up mines and storage), elixir (to build your clan of up to 50 people and then more as you level up and then earn gems which seems to be the key to purchasing to finish certain projects.
It turned out all basic and as you start beating goblins, it was all good. Then you start competing in multiplayer and eventually joining a clan and donating soldiers and participating in wars.
But then you start to realize where Supercell makes its money.
Part of what is part of the game is managing your resources and upgrading them.
But then you start to realize how the game tests your patience as upgrading your resources takes money, elixir or green gems but also, they can take days to build. Upgrading a hero is expensive and to accumulate that much money is one thing but it’s about more waiting and the game testing your patience.
The game is very enjoyable but you have to either wait or just spend more money or gems in order to have things finish. A lot of gamers recommend to NEVER spend your gems to complete things.
For those who can do that and have kept to being frugal and not spend a time on this game for years and still enjoy playing this game, I give you a high five!
For those who can put the game away for several days, it’s all good. But for those who lack patience, like me, then you can finish a project by spending green gems.
Unfortunately, the main way to acquire them is by having a builder clear a tree, rock, logs, etc. but what you make per day is probably less than 20 gems and some are able to get up to 50. But each time I want to speed up the building process or free up a builder, to finish things up, it’s going to cost green gems.
And if you are nor producing or finding enough, your choice is to wait it out, use your green gems in your inventory or purchasing green gems.
While the hardcore purists have disdain for those who buy their green gems, those who could care less of what people have to say and want to level up their buildings, barracks, heroes, defense/offense in a quick manner, you’re going to end up purchasing gems.
Don’t have enough gold or elixirs? No problem, you can purchase more via your gems.
The goal is to use it to help build resources but then wait until your builder completes things and you just kick back for several days until its done or go to war and acquire more gold, elixir and dark elixir.
Unfortunately, I found myself investing in bags of coin….many bags of coin and in the beginning, using gems to complete archer towers, barracks, canons, mortars, air defense, defensive towers and more.
And for those who lack patience, this game will test that. Because you will want things to be completed, there are times where the waiting for days, starts to irk me. Sure, you can go and play another game, and revisit CoC days later, but I found myself enjoying the game so much that in the beginning, I couldn’t wait. I wanted the builders to complete their projects. And so it meant spending more real money.
And just when you think you are making progress on your main map, you then build your boat and headoff to another land which becomes your Builder’s Base. So, in a way, it’s another style of game.
And if you thought your main map was expensive, things in the Builder’s Base is even more expensive and you end up playing the waiting game, staying patient until your builder is done.
“Clash of Clans” is no doubt a fun, addictive game.
But for a person like me who have a difficult time waiting for things to be completed, I can see why people are tempted of purchasing more resources via real money in order to purchase/build quickly.
I found myself perusing YouTube and Supercell’s forums for the game. And you’ll realize there are a lot of awesome tips out there, how to make money, how to not level up your town hall quickly without leveling up your defensive structures and more.
I’m learning a lot from CoC community, now going at my own pace, using whatever I have as resources to slowly build my base. But making sure not level up past Town Hall 8 until EVERYTHING is maxed out.
But this game really tests my patience, waiting for things to complete, being tempted to purchase green gems, but seriously, I give credit to those with awesome patience, especially long time players who are at an outstanding level.
Gotta go! Back to farming!
