The History of Clash of Clans (2012 -2023)

There's no doubt clash of clans keeps its old age hidden away because a boy is just as fun as it was in 2012. To celebrate its eight-year run feel free to join me on this trip down memory lane, now to keep this article shorter than a full feature article, we're gonna be skimming through every update ever but only mentioning the key features that make up the clash of clans we know today so that we may skip over balance changes and small fixes and you know stuff like that, so with that being said let's dive right into it.

On august 2nd 2012, clash of clans was globally released on IOS, the game was different, to say the least, the max town hall was eight, the graphics were what you'd expect for 2012 and overall it looked like a nice entry for the time, people were very excited to fire this bad boy up on their iphone 4. A few weeks later on the 30th of august in the first-ever update, we were introduced to some cool new goodies, the tesla new decorations, and graphical improvements to make the game look nice.

September 18 spells were finally added to the game, but at the time there were only three, the lightning, heal, and rage spell, also these spells used to cost gold, along with spells replays were added to battle so you could now watch them over, a new building, a wizard tower, and the time to build walls was finally removed, yes back then you had to wait for walls to build "2012 wow such a weird time".

On october 15 the kick message and clan trophy requirements were added to clans, two weeks later on october 27 the first seasonal update dropped for halloween, but that wasn't everything because we had a new town hall which was now the highest, town hall 9. So we got a lot of cool new stuff with it like the xbow, a jump spell, this was also the update in which supercell removed the ability to sell buildings, it was nice having that future but to be honest it was questionable as to why we had it in the first place, selling something wasn't really convenient if you wanted to level up and progress, so yeah trust me you're not missing out on this feature.

In the first winter update, the village was covered in snow for the first time, new tree obstacles and the santa spell, clan castle troops were now able to jump walls instead of just being confined to one small spot, also the ability to boost buildings such as a spell factory and collectors was finally added. The first update of 2013 on january 10th, this one was one of the biggest updates in history because heroes were added, which at the time was a big deal so yeah, but it was just the king and queen and they didn't have any abilities, so along with that, we also had the introduction to dark elixir because you kind of need it for the heroes you know, along with that we got a storage and some drills, the fifth of february we got two new traps, the air bomb, and the seeking air mine, and of course there were many other small changes and improvements.

March 12-2013, dark elixir troops were introduced, the minions, hog rider, valkyrie, and of course the barracks to train those troops, not only this was a very important update but these new troops would change the game forever, you can't deny the hog rider had a massive impact on the way we do attacks or at least in 2015 or somewhere around there, I'm getting horrible flashbacks here, about a month later on april 17th leagues were added to separate players from being in one massive league which was none, the golem was also added in this update, my personal favorite troop.

Moving on to may 23rd town hall 10 was introduced, we got to see cool new stuff like the inferno tower, a lot of balance changes as well, and a spoiler alert town hall 10 would be the last town hall for like a couple of years, well 14-year-old me kept waiting for a new town hall that wouldn't even happen for years, god I feel bad for that kid. Anyways the 17th of june a new spell was at it called the freeze, this update wasn't as huge but that's because it was more of a massive balance update rather than a content update, you know new levels, clan improvements, troop changes, we had a ton of these down the road so if I skip an update, you know why? I'll just try and mention the most notable things in that update, just about a week after that as well an extra mine and pump was added to town hall 10.

July 28th we got a new dark elixir troop, the witch, we also got the chance to now share replays to the clan chats and the ability to mute players in global if they got too annoying, on august 2nd their one-year anniversary, clash of clans was finally available for android, on the 27th of that same month, the player profile got a rework, new levels for troops and spells, and most importantly graphical changes that would make the game look more beautiful.

September 30 was a very important update because we got village edit mode meaning now you didn't have to move everything but the kitchen sink just to make a new base, so making bases was now an easier and enjoyable experience. November 6 we could now upgrade traps, previously traps were just traps there were no levels, a button was also added to re-arm all of them at the same time also spells were updated to cost elixir instead of gold, why'd they cost gold before? I have no idea.

December 5th the last update of 2013 brought back the christmas theme, a new multi-target ability was added to the inferno tower so it can now target a few troops at the same time, and also it got a level three so you know new level so 2013 ended off pretty good. Now we're in 2014 on january 29th heroes were given abilities, as I mentioned before heroes before didn't have anything special, they were just massive troops that would do a lot of damage, but now they had abilities, co-leaders were also added to clans and elders were nerfed to give co-leader more power, so now we have members, elders, co-leader and the leader.

On april 9th this was the day that made the clash of clans live up to its true name, why is it called clash of clans if there's no clashing of the clans, well yeah you guessed it, clan wars, okay no that was a joke supercell pulled on us for april fools, I'm not even kidding search it up clan wars, but they finally revealed that clan wars was coming and that was like mind-blowing, this was a massive update and to this day it's about mostly what the game is about, really. May 16 they added the ability to save war bases and also edit them, along with other clan war improvements and fixes they also made village edit mode available for you town hall 3s.

On july 3 this was a huge balance update, stat changes, graphical improvement, hero ai rework, and finally live battle spectating was added to clan wars to watch players as they attack, what kind of magic is that, yeah back in the day being able to do this was crazy, the 16th of september a new dark elixir troop was introduced, the lava hound. October 22nd we got a new trap called the skeleton trap, you could now upgrade walls with elixir, any level of walls, literally, don't worry though this didn't last long so you better take advantage of it, whoops sorry too late because on the 11th of December the walls needed to be a minimum of level 9 to be upgraded with elixir, yeah that kind of sucks because for a while we thought wow! we can upgrade walls so quick, but that was changed quickly so oh, anyways multiple layouts were added to village edit mode, the ability to also watch live battles of your base getting attacked was added, before this update you could not watch what was going on until the battle is over, so you'd log on and see this, the story's over 2015 is knocking on the door.

February 24th clans now have levels, this made clans able to level up and earn perks that all clan members could benefit from, april 30th a new defense was added, the air sweeper, which was given the name the leaf blower by the community, july 1 2015 the dark spell factory was added this meant dark spells were also introduced like the poison spell, earthquake, and haste spell, and finally more leagues were added, titan and legend league. Moving on to september 9th the main part of this update was a war tiebreaker, you guys all know what the war tiebreaker is so we don't have to explain it, aside from that though 25 new walls for town hall 10 was added.

October 22nd the usual halloween decorations, you know all that stuff, but the next update on december 10 was big, and this update changed the game in many ways like forever, this update brought clash of clans into a new era, town hall 11, with town hall 11 we got a new eagle artillery, grand warden, extra defenses, this was also the update that made shield a big part of the game so instead of leaving your town hall outside for a free cheap shield, guarding your town hall was your only choice, like farming bases were dead, they also added 30 seconds to the battle time since town hall 11 was such a huge base you obviously needed more time to finish your attack, it was really hard to three-star without that extra time, about a week later snow was added for christmas and a new yearly christmas tree, but forget about the tree because we're in 2016 now, if more resources was in your new year's resolutions then you have it because we got the loot cart, but it was broken, we also got the treasury in the clan castle and star bonuses, the eagle artillery was also given the ability to deal three times more damage to golems, no not the golems.

March 21st we got a new troop, the bowler, there were also a ton of war changes, new troop levels, and a lot of new defense levels. May 24, friendly challenges were added, we also got two new troops, the miner, and the baby dragon, and two new spells, the clone spell, and the skeleton spell, if all of this sounds similar to you clash royale players 2016 was the year of combining these two games together because they had a lot of ideas, I'm not complaining it's great to see that the games share a lot of common additions, but yeah just letting you know. Moving on to october 12 we got a new defense from clash royale again added over to clash of clans the bomb tower town hall 11 got 25 more walls and friendly wars were added and finally we're at the end of 2016.

On the 19th of december we got the christmas update which introduced a new temporary troop, the ice wizard from clash royale, the freeze trap, and a santa surprise, keep in mind this was all temporary though so you may not see it in the game anymore. May 22nd we got the biggest update in a while, the builders base was introduced with new defenses and just new everything it was a new base. June 27th the builder hall 6 was introduced, new troops like the night which came and new defenses were unlocked in the shop like the chicken roaster, there was also a ton of balance changes and nerfs.

On september 27 2017, builder hall 7 came along, we got the new giant cannon, the new drop ship, more level of troops for both the home village and the builder hall, and climb more improvements and many more balance changes. Heading on to october the 11th, you could now see who was online which is pretty good, friendly battles for the builder base which was previously just for the home village, and finally a ton of rework for clan wars, more levels, and clan restrictions and more. Flying all the way over to december 18, the last update of 2017 we got a new feature called clan games, basically a new feature that would allow players in the clan to earn more rewards, other than that though we got the usual balance changes seasonal stuff.

Now we're in 2018, on the 1st of February fireworks and fortune trees were added as an obstacle, a new loading screen, and true support for the iPhone X. On the 5th of march, this update was huge, along with the new builder hall 8 we also got the mega tesla, super pekka, extra buildings, traps, the battle machine got five more levels, and for the home village are more new cool features. On the 11th of june this update blew everyone out of their socks, where do I start? town hall 12. With telnet 12 we got a new siege machine, a siege workshop, the wall wrecker, the blimp, we got the electro dragon, you can now change your name multiple times with gems, clan improvements, and much much more.

On june 26 we also got a lot of upgrade times reduced so now the game was as fast as it ever was, until later on but let's not spoil anything. October 23rd we had a huge dank update, clan war leagues, we'll get into that in just a second but the game had even faster upgrades, new troops, new tornado trap, potions, magic items, and more, so clan war leagues, it was one week of the month where clans would battle to prove they're the best. On the 10th of december, supercell released the last update of 2018. New troop the ice golem, new bat spell, new stone hammer siege, a couple of new magic items, tons of levels for the buildings, the rest of the update was pretty much the builder hall and the main village, you know the quality of life changes. April 2nd 2019 we got seasonal challenges, clan worldly changes, new levels, and tons of balance changes, now this update may not seem like it was big but all these smart parts are what make it massive, a lot of levels, economic changes, quality of life improvements.

On the 18th of june 2019, we got builder hall 9. Along with the builder hall 9, with new levels for it of course, new buildings, new troops, new defenses, as for the main village though we got new hero levels, new troop levels, new buildings, magic items, practice mode was introduced, new legend league matchmaking patterns and a ton of bug fixes, and overall balance changes. On the 16th of october 2019, we got a new client recruitment feature where you can search for new members to join your own clan based on specific stats, along with that was a new look to profiles, clan profile, and some other quality of life changes.

Now we're at december, the 9th of that month we had a pretty massive update, so first off the elephant in the room we can't ignore, the town hall 13, this was also version 13 of the game so uh coincidence, ah I don't know could be, so with town hall 13 we got a few things but let's mention the biggest additions like the giga tesla, giga inferno, a new hero called the world champion, a new defensive, the scattershot, new siege machine, siege barracks, oh that's it? nope, we got a new troop the yeti new levels for literally everything in the game, like walls, defense, traps, buildings, heroes, spells, massive update I tell you, other than that we got a ton of quality of life changes I mean there's a lot nothing that drastically changed the game but yeah.

Let's move on to the year 2020. The first two updates of this year were just balance changes and fixes but on april 4th we got the big spring update, firstly there was something new called super troops, this was simply a beefy version of existing troops in the game, we got a lot of cost reductions throughout the update, a third dark elixir drill for town hall 9, and of course some other small changes for the main village, but heading over to the builder base there was now a tiebreaker for battles, the player with the most time remaining left would now be the winner, the main part of the update was indeed super troops so everything else or just minor changes that are always included with every update.

Alright so now finally we're at june 2020, yes, you've probably noticed that there hasn't been a lot of updates since last year, I noticed that too when researching for this post, I mean maybe supercell is planning something big for the fall or winter, we don't know yet but we'll have to see. Anyways june 22nd we had a new dark elixir troupe called the head hunter available at town hall 12. We got some more super troops, defense levels, troops levels, pretty much the same as the last update, just new levels throughout the entire game, one thing I did love about this update was the new addition of sceneries, it may not be a big feature but it gave my play experience that refreshing feel, those new graphics just are always exciting, the rest of the update is, in fact, smaller changes, but some of the most noticeable ones, where the loot cart now could accumulate loot for 90 days, upgrading your town hall would now trigger various boost, if you've been an active for more than 90 days you would be welcomed back as a returning player and get free level upgrades, overall this update was more than just a new troop, it was a rather well-needed refresh in the experience of the game, it felt good and it looked good you know.

I hope you enjoyed this long journey down memory lane, it's been a great one in 2020 maybe not for the world in general but for clash of clans, I give super so on a plus, with that being said I hope you guys enjoyed today's post, feel free to check out the other two history articles I have for clash royale and brawl stars, trust me they're definitely worth it if you want to catch up on these two so yeah as always thanks for reading.