Clash of Clans New Building Levels: Best Upgrade Order

When a new update adds building levels in Clash of Clans, your first priority is upgrading offensive buildings before committing builders to long defensive timers. Assign your initial builders to the Clan Castle, Laboratory, and Pet House. Upgrading offensive structures immediately expands your army capacity, raises troop and pet caps, and improves your hit rate in Clan War Leagues and regular multiplayer raids. Upgrading defenses only protects your village when attacked, so delaying offensive upgrades slows your overall progression across all game modes.

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Upgrade Priority Overview

Allocate your builders and Magic Items based on immediate offensive gain and timer length:

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Phase 1: Offensive Capacity

Commit your absolute first builder or instant Magic Item to the Clan Castle. Upgrading the Clan Castle often provides additional troop space, extra spell housing, or expanded Siege Machine options, directly improving every attack strategy you run.

Follow the Clan Castle by upgrading the Laboratory and Pet House:

• Laboratory: Start this upgrade immediately so your lab research does not stall. Use a Book of Building if available, or activate a Power Potion during wars to temporarily use maximum troop levels while research catches up.
• Pet House: Upgrading the Pet House unlocks new hero pets or lifts level caps on existing pets, keeping your heroes aligned with higher defensive stats on opposing bases.

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Phase 2: Core Anchors and Anti-Air Defenses

Once your offensive infrastructure is under construction, shift your focus to high-impact core defenses.

Eagle Artillery

The Eagle Artillery is your primary defensive anchor because its range covers the entire village and forces attackers to invest early spells or Hero Equipment abilities. Upgrading it increases its health pool and damage per volley, helping it survive Royal Champion charges and melt high-hitpoint troops such as Root Riders, Golems, and Electro Titans.

Because the Eagle Artillery carries one of the longest timers in the game, bypass its downtime with a Hammer of Building or Book of Building whenever possible. Leaving it disabled during Clan War Leagues severely compromises your layout.

Air Defenses

Aerial armies—including Mass Dragons, Hydra variants, Super Dragons, and LavaLoon—are common attack choices after major updates because players rely on them against unmaxed layouts. Upgrading Air Defenses increases their damage thresholds, letting them eliminate high-tier air units in fewer shots and pop Lava Hounds before they reach the core.

Stagger Air Defense upgrades across different quadrants of your base so you never have more than one Air Defense inactive in a single section.

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Phase 3: Builder Management and Timer Rotation

Managing builder availability prevents long construction bottlenecks and keeps your base defensible. Starting multiple long upgrades on the same day leaves your layout vulnerable and stalls resource spending.

Follow this rotation to keep builders moving efficiently:

1. Spend Dark Elixir first: Invest Dark Elixir into Hero levels or Pet upgrades immediately to prevent full storages from being raided.
2. Save instant finishers for maximum timers: Reserve Books and Hammers of Building strictly for upgrades that exceed 12 to 14 days, particularly the Clan Castle and Eagle Artillery.
3. Stagger defense categories: Never upgrade two identical defenses simultaneously. Keep at least three Air Defenses active while one is down.
4. Maintain a resource sink: If you farm actively and your Gold or Elixir storages frequently fill up, keep one builder on short timers or briefly free to dump excess resources into Wall segments.

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Phase 4: Point Defenses and Traps

After your core anchors and Air Defenses are upgraded, move builders onto point defenses and defensive traps:

• Hidden Teslas: Prioritize Teslas before other point defenses. Their hidden placement prevents pre-attack planning, and their high attack speed halts hero pushes and tank units.
• Cannons and Archer Towers: Upgrade these systematically to steadily increase single-target ground and air damage around the exterior perimeter.
• Traps: Upgrade Seeking Air Mines and Giant Bombs toward the end of your build cycle. Traps have short timers and low resource costs. Upgraded Seeking Air Mines eliminate Queen Charge Healers and heavily damage Dragon Riders, while Giant Bombs eliminate support troops without giving opponents visual scouting indicators before they deploy.