Basics of Battle

Summary

 * You win a battle by destroying a greater amount of Crown Towers, which award Crowns, than the enemy.
 * If you destroy your opponent's King Tower, you win immediately.
 * Winning battles earns Trophies, which allow you to unlock new Arenas.
 * Arenas unlock new Cards.

Battle

 * Players square off against live competition on tiny maps dotted by six buildings; three for each player: two Arena Towers and one King's Tower, respectively.
 * The objective of the battle is to destroy the other player’s King's Tower (central building) while protecting your own.
 * You’ll do this by deploying troops from a deck of cards (drawn from a Battle Deck that you’ve built) anywhere within an allowable area on the field - your territory.
 * Each card requires a certain amount of Elixir to deploy, but the player's Elixir regenerates quickly, so they're only ever moments away from deploying your next troop or spell.
 * More cards are collected by unlocking Chests won in battle or bought in the Shop, which in turn will unlock new cards that you can add to your Battle Deck and level up the cards you already have.
 * In the event of taking down an Arena Tower, spawn-able territory on the opponent's side is opened, available for the player to deploy their Troop Cards to have an upper hand on the opponent.

Battle Deck

 * Your battle deck is the rotation of cards you wish to have in battle.
 * To change these, you must tap the card you wish to add into your battle deck and tap, 'Use', before tapping the card that you would like removed from your battle deck.
 * Next to the Battle Deck title, it will display the Average Elixir cost of all your cards. Occasionally, this can come in handy when deciding if your deck is suitable. For example, a deck with an average of 3.5 Elixir that is semi-powerful, is better than a deck with an average of 4.7 that is slightly more powerful, as you will not be able to deploy cards as often to counter enemy offenses and proceed with your offensive strategy.
 * The battle deck consists of 8 cards, so choose only the ones you will be using, otherwise that is misuse of a valuable card space.
 * You can save up to three battle decks using the numbered buttons in the top right corner of the battle deck interface.
 * The selected deck is the one you will use so check it out before you start a match.

Combat and Damage

 * Troops will automatically engage the nearest enemy of their target category, if any such enemies are in its aggro range. The aggro range varies by troop, and is not revealed in the troop's official stats. Once engaged, the troop will automatically follow and attack that target as long as possible.
 * Defensive buildings work just like troops, but obviously they can't move.
 * Troops that are not attacking an enemy will keep moving towards the enemy side.
 * If a card does Area Damage, it can affect multiple targets at once. "Normal" damage is dealt to a single target.
 * Any damage you deal will not affect your own troops. Because of this, firing ranged weapons, bombs, and spells into a melee can be a very powerful strategy.
 * It is entirely possible that two opposing troops destroy each other simultaneously.
 * Some spells deal damage when they are played. These will have a reduced effect on crown towers.
 * When dealing damage with a spell, you must aim it correctly. The spells have a delay before they hit, so hitting moving targets can get tricky.
 * Arena Towers will also fire upon enemies, their range approximately reaches the river in the middle of the arena. This gives the defender an additional edge in the fighting.
 * Your King Tower will also fire at enemies, but only after it is damaged, or one of your arena towers is destroyed.

Winning

 * If you destroy the opponent's King's Tower, you win immediately.
 * It is entirely possible, but very rare, for the player and the opponent to destroy each other's King's Tower at exactly the same time, resulting in a 3 crown draw.
 * Unless a King Tower is destroyed, the game continues for three minutes, when the player who has destroyed more arena towers wins. Elixir generation is doubled after the first two minutes.
 * If both players have destroyed an equal number of Arena Towers at the 3 minute mark, a one minute overtime with sudden death starts. In overtime, the first player to destroy any tower immediately wins.
 * It sometimes (although extremely rarely) happens that both players destroy an Arena Tower at exactly the same moment in overtime. In this case, the overtime continues.
 * If the overtime also runs out, the game will end with a draw and neither players will gain or lose any of their Trophies, nor will they receive any Chests for the game.
 * The winner will receive Trophies and a Silver, Gold, Giant, Magical, or Super Magical Chest.
 * If you do not have an open Chest slot, you will not receive a Chest.

Trivia

 * On 29/2/16, the March Update introduced the Deck Slots allowing the players to save up to 3 Decks.
 * Theoretically, it is possible to take out the King's Tower before the other Crown Towers with spells, such as the Rocket, Lightning spell and Goblin Barrel - however, it is not recommended as it is not a viable strategy.
 * You can use taunt button to another player only 14 times.
 * The most expensive deck possible has an average Elixir cost of 6.9, while the cheapest deck possible has an average Elixir cost of 2.0.