Mortar

"Defensive building with a long range. Shoots exploding boulders that deal area damage. Cannot shoot at targets that get very close!"

The Mortar is unlocked from the Builder's Workshop (Arena 6). It is an area damage, long-ranged offensive and defensive building with both moderate hitpoints and damage. It has a blind spot and can only attack ground troops. A Mortar card costs 4 Elixir to deploy. It fires explosive shells slowly, and like the X-Bow and Princess, is capable of reaching an Arena Tower from your side of the Arena.

Strategy

 * The Mortar can be placed to eliminate large swarms of troops or assist in eliminating medium or high hitpoint troops. Its low hit speed means that it is less effective on higher hitpoint troops, such as the Giant.
 * For effectiveness, the Mortar can be placed in the center of the player's territory, preferably closer to the King's Tower, so opposing troops cannot get to the Crown Towers without defensive resistance.
 * If the opponent deploys an Elixir Collector two or more tiles from their King's Tower, the Mortar can be used to get rid of it. Be cautious when doing this, however, as this will put the player at an Elixir disadvantage due to the Mortar's slow hit speed.
 * The Mortar is able to target the enemy's Crown Towers from the player's own side, making it an effective offensive building.
 * With its cheaper cost and ability to deal area damage to Crown Towers, the Mortar can be used as a cheaper and less risky alternative to the X-Bow.
 * However, the Mortar deals much less DPS (damage per second) than the X-Bow.
 * The area damage can also hurt enemy units that are close to the tower, maximizing damage output.
 * The Mortar is also able to damage enemy defensive buildings/troops from the player's side of the Arena to make way for a push.
 * It is effective to place a tank, splash unit, and/or splash building to protect it from troops in its blind spot.
 * It also will not get distracted by any troops like Giants that are placed near it while it's deploying due to its "blind spot".
 * The Mortar can fire up to 6 shots, which gives it a significantly lower damage output compared to the X-Bow.
 * While the Mortar is very powerful, it should be noted that fast troops such as the Hog Rider can get towards the Mortar quickly, making them untargetable due to the fact it cannot target troops that are very close to it.
 * It is possible for spawners to distract the Mortar, due to the quick spawning of troops that can be faster than the Mortar's fire rate and that the Mortar aims at the troop(s) that are spawned.
 * Due to its blind spot, long range and area damage, the Mortar is a good counter to spawners.

History

 * The Mortar was released with Clash Royale's soft launch on 4/1/16.
 * On 11/1/16, a Balance Update decreased the Mortar's lifetime to 40 seconds.
 * On 2/2/16, the February 2016 Update decreased the Mortar's cost to 4 (from 6), its damage by 40%, its lifetime to 20 sec (from 40 sec), and its range decreased to 12 (from 13).
 * On 9/2/16, the Chest Rewards &amp; Card Balance Update increased the Mortar's lifetime to 30 sec (from 20 sec).
 * On 3/5/16, the May 2016 Update increased the Mortar's deploy time to 5 (from 3) and decreased its damage by 10%. This update also fixed the "range bug" and decreased the Mortar's range to 4.5-11 (from 5-12) but its effective range is unchanged.
 * On 21/6/16, a Balance Update decreased the Mortar's deploy time to 4 sec (from 5 sec).
 * On 15/12/16, a Balance Update increased the Mortar's Area Damage radius by 11%. This changes the Mortar's Area Damage radius to 1.8 tiles to 2 tiles.
 * On 11/8/17, a Balance Update decreased the Mortar's deploy time to 3.5 sec (from 4 sec).

Trivia

 * The Mortar and the X-Bow have the longest deployment time of all cards in the game clocking in at 3.5 seconds.
 * The Mortar has the longest hit speed and lowest damage per second of all defensive building cards.
 * The Mortar has the highest health of all Common buildings.
 * It resembles the level 5 Mortar from Clash of Clans.
 * It is the only ranged card with a "blind spot" within its range.
 * The Mortar, X-Bow, and Princess are the only cards with the ability to target Arena Towers without being targeted by said Arena Towers.

Minenwerfer Mortero Mortier Mortaio Мортира