It’s-a-me Stuart, here again with another update on Builder Base 2.0!

One of the biggest problems we’ve heard with the current Builder Base is that it feels less fun as you upgrade through the later Builder Halls. Early on players really enjoy the more focused, tactical fun feeling of the Builder Base. Both base-building and attacking are approachable and there’s an almost puzzle-like feeling about planning how to take down a base.

Unfortunately as bases get bigger and bigger this feeling is lost and in the late game it gets really hard to play smartly and tactically. That leads to people spamming a ton of troops versus a big deathball of defenses. With Builder Base 2.0 we want to get back to that more fun early feeling where smart play is rewarded.

In an earlier post, I shared our ideas on how we’ll do this on the attacking side. TLDR: we’ll have fewer but much stronger troops, many with active abilities. Today let’s talk about how things are going to change on the defending and base building side.

Things are going to stay pretty much as is from Builder Halls 1 through 5. From Builder Hall 6 and beyond we’re going to add some more depth. You’ll have a second buildable area, it’ll have its own key building “O.T.T.O’s Outpost” and your buildings will be split across the two stages. Your Builder Base is still one connected space and you can swipe back and forth between stages at will. Master Builder and O.T.T.O can work on upgrades anywhere, they’re not limited to being only able to upgrade things in the stage where their buildings are located.

Non-defenses like the Clocktower can only be placed in a certain stage or, for buildings like Gold Storages (where there are multiple), you are only able to place a certain number in the first stage and the rest in the second. For defenses you’ll be able to swap defenses back and forth between stages, there’s a bit looser quota system. This will open up a lot of interesting base design potential as each person’s stages will have a different mix of defenses. Some might choose to create a very strong anti-air first stage and keep their strong ground defenses for the second stage, others might go for balanced stages.

Here’s how attacking works in these multiple stage Builder Bases. When you match against an opponent’s base you can only see the first stage. You have to pick an army and a plan of attack that will be able to wipe out this stage. If you get three stars in this first stage, great! But you’re only halfway done. The troops who survived in the first stage move back to your deployment bar and will receive some healing. You’ll also receive one or two extra camps of troops as reinforcements depending on your Builder Hall level.

You’ll then see the opponent’s second stage. You can swap your reinforcement camps, or any unused camp of troops from the initial army, to be whatever troop needed. Having to think about keeping as many troops as possible alive in the first stage adds a really interesting element. In the second stage you can earn an additional 3 stars. One for destroying O.T.T.O’s Outpost, one for crossing 150% destruction and one for reaching 200% destruction.

After playing Clash for years it feels incredibly satisfying to sail past 100% destruction. Getting four, five and even the rare sixth star feels awesome! Here’s a video from our designer Petri doing one of the world’s first ever six star attacks!

So now you’ve heard about these three ideas:

• More Heroic Troops

• Balanced, Rewarding Attacking and Defending

• Staying Small, Going Deeper

These are the big foundational ideas behind our Builder Base 2.0 rework. Of course there are many other things we’re working on, including Builder Hall 10, but these are the biggest ones. There are a bajillion details that go into making all of this and the team is hard at work on these right now. This is one of the toughest and biggest updates we’ve worked on. What’s keeping us going is how great and fun it already feels in our team playtests. We wish we could play the finished Builder Base 2.0 in the live game already. That’s a great sign and we are so excited to bring it to all of you when it’s ready and see what you think of it!

Clash on, stay awesome!

Stuart