There’s nothing more disheartening than discovering your Gold, Elixir, and Dark Elixir have been plundered by an attacker. It means, instead of making the next big upgrade, you’ll have to wait for days and even weeks to replenish your stash. Some players even quit the game after experiencing these situations, as they can no longer cope with the constant ups and downs.
Luckily, there are ways to minimize your losses. By introducing a farming base, you can stave off attackers and even prevent future incursions. Not to mention, creating a good farming base will put your mind at ease while you play.
In this article, we will explain the concept of the farming base and the best practices for creating one, so you can become one of the toughest players to beat.
What Exactly Is a Farming Base?
A farming base in Clash of Clans is a village layout built to protect your Gold, Elixir, and Dark Elixir, rather than trophies.
Instead of prioritizing Town Hall defense, a Farming base pushes attackers toward the Town Hall while making the storages the hardest to reach.
This design means that losing trophies is acceptable, since the main goal is to keep resources safe for upgrades.
How the Farming Base Meta Was Created
The concept of a farming base is as old as the game itself, but its evolution has undergone a significant transformation.
In the early days, the clever Farming base strategy was to place your Town Hall completely outside the base. This worked, as attackers would snipe it for an easy 1-star victory, get their trophies, and grant you a long, peaceful shield, while your resources remained untouched.
Then came the December 2015 update. Supercell changed the game by moving a significant portion of loot into the Town Hall itself, rewriting the previous shield mechanics. Suddenly, that exposed Town Hall was no longer a clever gambit; it was a liability. The meta shifted overnight, with modern farming base layouts then integrating the Town Hall within the defensive core.
The Features of a Perfect CoC Farming Base Layout
Crafting a great farming base layout in Clash of Clans is all about anticipating attackers’ every move, while leading their troops into orchestrated traps. Here are the core principles you’ll want to follow:
● Central Resources: Your Gold Storages, Elixir Storages, and especially your Dark Elixir Storage should be at the heart of your base, forcing attackers to punch through multiple layers of walls and defenses.
● Layered Defenses: Each layer that an attacker peels back should reveal a new set of difficulties. To achieve this, outer layers should contain trash buildings to slow the advance, while inner layers should contain your heavy-hitting defenses like X-Bows, Inferno Towers, and the Clan Castle.
● Compartmentalization: Your walls should be used to create a maze of smaller, well-defended pockets. Doing so separates troops, neutralizes the power of splash damage from a Wizard Tower, and makes it incredibly difficult for an attacker to rush your base from a single entry point.
● Trap Placement: Traps are your secret weapon; however, trap placement is equally important with this layout. For effective trap placement, you’ll want to place Giant Bombs and Spring Traps in pathways where you know farming troops, such as Giants or Hog Riders, will travel. Similarly, you also want to position Seeking Air Mines near your Air Defense to surprise Lava Hounds.
● Hero & Clan Castle Placement: Your Archer Queen, Barbarian King, and defending Clan Castle troops are the most essential guards, so position them near the core so they can attack enemy troops that breach the inner base.
Farming Base vs. War Base
Many Clash of Clans players confuse the two, but they serve very different purposes.
A farming base is all about protecting your resources and building wealth, while a trophy (or war) base is designed to defend your Town Hall and secure victories.
Mastering the difference is vital if you want to excel in every part of Clash, so here’s a quick breakdown:
Base Type | Goal | Resource Storage Placement | Town Hall Placement | Feature |
Farming Base | Protect Loot | Centralized, heavily defended | Centralized, alongside the storage | Sacrifices the trophy for protecting resources |
Trophy Base | Protect Trophies | Spread out, with resource placement less of a priority | The most heavily protected building in the core | Aims to prevent a 2-star or 3-star loss at all costs |
War Base | Prevent 3-Stars in Clan Wars | Often used to bait or disrupt attack paths | Heavily protected, anti-3-star core | Features tricky trap placements and troop pathing to distract common armies. |
Hybrid Base | Balanced Defense | Semi-centralized | Centralized and well-defended | Jack-of-all-trades base design for players who want to protect both loot and trophies, fairly well |
Types of Farming Base Layouts by Town Hall Level
Your farming base layout will change as you climb through the Town Hall levels, facing new defenses and attacking strategies:
● TH 7-8: At the lower Town Hall levels, your main focus is centralizing your Mortars and Wizard Towers to protect against armies, such as Barch (Barbarian and Archer). At TH 7-8, protecting your new Dark Elixir Storage becomes your top priority.
● TH 9-10: At TH9, the Archer Queen arrives, and protecting your Dark Elixir is essential. To do this, you’ll design your base around a strong core that protects your DE Storage and Town Hall.
● TH 11-13: Ring or island-style layouts are designed to annoy troop pathing and separate the attacker’s army, whereas the Eagle Artillery at TH11 and Scattershots at TH13 force you to create multi-layered bases against splash defense.
● TH 14 and Beyond: The best farming bases at high TH levels are designed to defend against complicated strategies, such as the Sneaky Goblin armies and Queen Charges. Here, compartments become smaller and plentiful, and trap placement is more critical than ever to chip away at strong offensive troops.
Clash of Clans Farming Strategies
After building an impregnable base, you’ll also need a strategy that will increase your gains. Many professionals achieve this by intentionally dropping to a lower league, allowing them to exploit underdeveloped bases. While this strategy of picking on weaker players might seem unethical, it is a strategy that many gamers use.
Alternatively, farming in a higher league like Master or Champion can yield a substantial loot bonus for every victory. While this is much harder to achieve, you can still secure numerous victories against more challenging opponents by refining your army composition and decision-making.
Your Blueprint for Riches
Building a great farming base is vital for your long-term progress in Clash of Clans. It completely changes the way you accumulate and spend your resources, as it prevents unexpected losses. By applying these principles of centralized protection, clever layering, and strategic trap placement, you can construct a base that will stave off the majority of attackers.
That said, we know not every player wants to spend hours grinding just to stay ahead. If your goal is to dominate without the endless effort, buying a top-tier Clash of Clans account at igitems is a great shortcut. These accounts come loaded with advantages, such as maxed-out upgrades, huge resource reserves, and all the tools you need to climb the ranks faster with a Farming base.
