With World Finals coming up, we're looking to freshen up the meta and flush out the repetitive, oppressive decks that dominated the September season. For this reason, the October balance changes will be solely nerfs, with the goal of avoiding any power creeps and ensuring that this year's World Final is as competitive (and fun to watch!) as possible.

NERFS ⬇️

Berserker has become the best minitank option with a high damage output for only 2 Elixir. We're toning down her DPS to bring her in line with other low-cost, mid-hitpoint units.

Bomber is overly versatile, being played in both cycle and heavier decks as a cheap defensive option. We're slightly trimming his hitpoints to match troops like Firecracker and Archers.

Furnace has been flooding the Arena with Fire Spirits before even crossing the bridge, and players are often able to get 2 or 3 Furnaces down at once. Increasing its movement speed will make it a bit easier to play into, as it will spawn fewer Fire Spirits before crossing the bridge.

Goblin Drill has been dealing damage a little too quickly right after deployment—especially when paired with powerful spells. To give players a fairer chance to respond, we’re delaying its first spawn, so it’s less of an instant threat.

Goblin Hut is extremely difficult to break through without the right answers, so we're making it a little less spell-resistant and keeping the Goblins from partying too hard.

​​Over the past few months, Goblin Giant and Goblin Machine decks have crept into the spotlight, and in September, they reached peak dominance with their repetitive (and rocket-fueled) gameplay. So, we’re dialing back Goblin Giant’s offensive potential and defusing Goblin Machine’s rocket spam.

Guards are overshadowing similar swarm options, offering huge value with little downside. We're slowing down their first attack while retaining their resistance to spells to set them apart from squishy, high-damage swarm cards.

The slowing effects of Ice Wizard and Giant Snowball are too effective at shutting down big pushes. To cool down overly defensive gameplay, their slowing abilities will now be less severe.

We’re happy with Minions’ new range, but their DPS is a bit too high for a 3-Elixir troop, especially compared to other flying units. We’re bringing that DPS down just a bit to keep things fair in the air.

Prince and Royal Recruits have been charging into battle a little too quickly. Their short Charge distance makes them tough to defend efficiently, so we’re lengthening that distance by 0.5 tiles.

For the sake of consistency, Ram Rider is also getting the same tweak. Don’t worry though, we’ll be keeping a close eye on her power in case she needs a compensating buff in the future!

Rage has been sending troops darting around the Arena like they’ve had one too many Elixir drinks, occasionally making their movements a little too unpredictable. We’re dialing back its effects so it's not as devastating to face.

Skeletons have been the most versatile cycle card for a long time, with Graveyard, Witch, and Skeleton Barrel dominating recent metas. We're lowering their hit speed to reinforce them as a distraction card rather than damage dealers and avoid changing too many interactions.

Vines' entangling proved too powerful for the cost of only 3 Elixir. The main design goal of the card was to deal with low-hitpoint, ranged troops and bring flying troops crashing to the ground, so we're decreasing both the damage and stun effect to keep Vines from taking over the Arena.

While Evolved Baby Dragon’s speed-up mechanic adds a lot of fun and flair, its 1-cycle evolution gave it more influence over the course of a battle than we intended, with players abusing the ability too much during the 1x Elixir stage. We’re scaling that back to keep things balanced without sacrificing its awesomeness.

Evolved Cannon is proving a bit too effective at stopping big pushes in their tracks. We’re dialing back its barrage damage to make it less overwhelming.

The hitpoint boosts on these cards were inconsistent with other Evos, resulting in them being slightly overtuned. We're slicing off those extra hitpoints to bring them down to the same power level as other Evolutions.

We want offensive Evolutions to promote faster-paced, exciting gameplay, but Evolved Wall Breakers were often only used defensively to blow up big pushes.

Evolved Witch's healing mechanic is very challenging for even the most seasoned players, so we're reducing how many hitpoints she regenerates from each of her loyal Skellies.

Royal Chef has been cooking up a storm in some dominant decks lately, so we're trimming down his hitpoints.

See you in the Arena,

The Clash Royale Team