Arrows

“Arrows pepper a large area, damaging all enemies hit. Reduced damage to Crown Towers.”

The Arrows is a Common card that is unlocked in the Training Camp (Tutorial). It sends an area-damage air-targeting spell with a large radius, high speed, and low damage that deals damage in 3 sets of volleys. The Arrows take the appearance of arrows with a medium-sized shaft, red fletchings, and shiny metal points. An Arrows card costs 3 to deploy.

Strategy[]

For Battle Decks with this card, click here.

Arrows are extremely effective against large swarms of low health troops such as Bats, Skeleton Army, Goblin Gang, or Minion Horde. They cost 1 more Elixir than Zap, but they have a larger area of effect and also deal more damage, being able to fully defeat Minions up to 5 Levels higher than themselves.
Arrows can be used to finish off buildings that are extremely low on hitpoints. However, this is generally discouraged unless another vulnerable unit is played in the area, otherwise, Arrows will lose their potential to defeat swarms. This can be beneficial if the building is Goblin Hut, Tombstone, or even Barbarian Hut, since Arrows can defeat or weaken the waves of troops they've generated, as well as their death spawn if timed correctly.
Arrows' three volleys are able to take at most Archers and Firecracker without assistance from other spells. This means that it's able to shut down almost any swarm card, since almost every swarm has less health than those two troops, potentially giving a lot of spell value, leading to an advantage that could turn into victory. Swarms that can give massive value to Arrows involve Minions, Skeleton Army, Goblin Gang, and Minion Horde, with the latter also being a positive Elixir trade. Guards can also be countered this way, but since only their shields will be knocked out, the situations may vary.
- Archers are an ideal counter to an Evolved Skeleton Army because the General's shield does not have as much health as a Guard's shield, allowing 2 of the volleys to take out both the General and the nearby Skeletons.
- Although mostly for a negative Elixir trade and resulting in a pretty big investment, the Arrows can be played preemptively to take down low-health distraction cards, which will clear the path for cards like Mini P.E.K.K.A., P.E.K.K.A., Prince, Giant Skeleton, Elite Barbarians, Boss Bandit, and Mighty Miner to threaten the opponent's Crown Tower. This can apply to all of the troops with a health lower than Archers.
Even though Arrows have a short but noticeable travel time, its large area of effect means it is unlikely to completely miss any target. The separate volleys give the spell a slight area denial effect and allow the spell to be played preemptively to instantly destroy any swarms played, making it useful in supporting single-targeting units like Knight, Mini P.E.K.K.A., P.E.K.K.A., Prince, Giant Skeleton, Elite Barbarians, Inferno Dragon, Bandit, Lumberjack, Goblin Machine, Golden Knight, Boss Bandit, Mighty Miner, and Monk. However, if the prediction fails, the defender will be favored even more, having more Elixir to defend against the unit and then utilize said unit for a counterpush.
Arrows synergize well with Graveyard on offense. The damage of all three waves is able to defeat Archers or Minions by itself for 1 less Elixir than a Poison, which gives the player more Elixir to spare while allowing more Skeletons to stay alive and deal damage to the Crown Tower, at the cost of less duration. Generally, the player should deploy Arrows reactively to these units, as the opponent might take note of this and deploy their troops right after the three Arrows waves, as they don't last long enough to keep troops away compared to Poison.
- On the contrary, Arrows can also be a decent counter to the Graveyard if the player has no better options in their hand. It's best if the Skeletons slightly accumulate around the Crown Tower so that the Arrows can defeat the maximum number of Skeletons possible at the same time, resulting in less hits dealt to the Crown Tower.
Arrows are a neutral Elixir trade for countering Goblin Barrel, but also the most reliable counter. When the opponent throws the Goblin Barrel, the player should fire their Arrows right when or slightly before the Goblins spawn, so that they will be instantly destroyed. The Arrows are particularly useful versus opponents who like to mix up their Goblin Barrel placements in an attempt to make the defender miss the Goblin Barrel, as the Arrows' large radius denies all realistic fake-out attempts. However, the opponent might use other cards vulnerable to Arrows once the spell has been cast, like Goblin Gang, Minion Horde, or Princess.
An effective tactic is to deploy less valuable swarm cards to bait an opponent into using their Arrows on them, and then deploying more threatening swarm cards like Goblin Barrel, Goblin Gang, or Minion Horde when the spell is out of their hand. However, if the opponent has other area damage spells or troops, such as Fireball, Zap, Wizard, Witch, Poison, Ice Wizard, or Executioner, this may simply end up giving them several positive Elixir trades, so these counters should also be baited out or the player should only deploy their more threatening swarms when the opponent does not have enough Elixir to deploy a counter.
Since the Arrows can kill a lot of weak cards, they can be used to keep weak troops that can get a lot of value at bay. For example, Bomber and Firecracker deny swarms and severely cripple other troops, Archers, Minions, Bats, and Minion Horde deal a significant damage per second especially when ignored, Goblins, Spear Goblins, and Goblin Gang are great distraction units, Dart Goblin and Princess act as great defensive cards that can turn into powerful offensive units, and Wall Breakers can deal a lot of damage to the Crown Tower when unattended. These are all of the troops that Arrows can neutralize so that they don't get any value. However, Bomber, Bats, Wall Breakers, Goblins, and Spear Goblins are all a negative Elixir trade, so the player should only use Arrows on them if they can hit other troops nearby or if removing them instantly is a must.
- Consequently, the Arrows are great at keeping Evolved Archers, Evolved Bomber, Evolved Dart Goblin, Evolved Firecracker, and Evolved Wall Breakers at bay. However, in the case of the latter, the Runners will survive and will still be able to do some chip damage to the Crown Tower, or cause the player to spend more to deal with them.
- All 3 Arrows volleys eliminate Dart Goblins and Princesses up to 2 Levels higher and Archers, Bomber, Firecracker, and Wall Breakers up to 1 Level higher. 2 volleys eliminate Minions, Goblins, Spear Goblins, and all of Spirit cards, while a single volley is enough to take out Skeletons and the Bats.
- Arrows are able to destroy the shields of Guards, Evolved Wizard, Dark Prince, and Royal Recruits with only 2 of the 3 waves, while also dealing minor chip damage to those troops with the last wave.
Arrows are a hard counter against the Clone. Its multiple attacking waves will wipe out the cloned units as well as any possible death spawns from them, though certain cloned troops will avoid being defeated, such as Skeleton Barrel, which has a spawn delay after it is defeated, so the Skeletons will still need to be addressed.
Arrows can be used to defeat Phoenix's Egg, Lava Pups spawned from a Lava Hound, or Elixir Blobs spawned from an Elixir Golem. For Phoenix, it will prevent it from respawning; for Lava Hound, it will negate its value and make addressing its accompanying units much easier without the Lava Pups being tanked for; for the Elixir Golem, it will allow the user to immediately claim 2 Elixir back by defeating all of the Elixir Blobs at once. In the case of the Phoenix Egg and the Lava Pups, the first volley can be used on a low health Phoenix or Lava Hound, because the Arrows are strong enough to be able to defeat the Egg and the Lava Pups in 2 of the 3 volleys.
Arrows may cripple some other fragile units like Barbarians, Skeleton Dragons, Flying Machine, Skeleton Barrel, Zappies, Magic Archer, and Mother Witch. While the spell will not defeat them alone, it will bring them low enough so that using other spells like Zap or letting the Crown Tower address them will finish them off. However, using another spell usually results in a negative Elixir trade or some damage being dealt, so additional units must be hit alongside to get value from spell usage, while letting the Crown Tower finish those troops off may also risk the opponent putting a tank to let the weakened troop gain value for a bit longer. Magic Archer can still land a hit on the Crown Tower before being defeated due to his long range.
While normally, Arrows are unable to destroy a Tombstone and its death spawn Skeletons with its 3 volleys alone, using them when the Tombstone is at low enough health will take care of death spawns. This can be useful when allowing building targeting troops to continue proceeding towards the Crown Towers without having to worry about being pulled by the Tombstone and having its hitpoints chipped down by the spawned Skeletons.
Even though Arrows do little damage to the Inferno Dragon, it deals enough damage to enable the Tower Princess to eliminate the Inferno Dragon before it can deal its maximum damage. It can prove to be a handy alternative if the player does not have any better troopo or spells on their hand, possibly saving the Tower Princess from taking massive damage or even from being destroyed.
Arrows can be combined with Golden Knight's ability to fully eliminate all troops with health equal to or lower than Little Prince. This can be very useful for allowing the Golden Knight to dash towards and quickly chip down the Crown Tower without having to deal with with distraction troops and losing all of his health before chipping the Crown Tower.
Although a Monk can reflect the Arrows, he will not fully reflect the spell unless he is in or within 2 tiles of the exact center of the casting area for the spell; if this isn't the case, some of the Arrows may still damage or take down some of the troops he is nearby.
Depending on what the player wants in their deck, the Arrows can be substituted by similar spells.
- Fireball travels slower, has a smaller radius, and costs one more Elixir, however, it is able to deal more damage and all at once, destorying anything with health equal to or lower than the Barbarians. It is also able to knockback troops that are vulnerable to such effect, making certain units retarget and resetting Inferno Dragon's ramp up damage. The player should favor the Fireball over Arrows when desiring for higher damage, Crown Tower damage, and especially when the deck struggles with cards that are weak to Fireball, while Arrows should be favored when the player wants to hit their target more often and have more versatility.
- Zap deals a little over half of Arrows' full volley damage. however, it is able to do instant damage, defeating up to Spear Goblins, while also hurting Minions enough so that a Crown Tower could defeat them alone, and clearing half of Goblin Gang. It is also cheaper by one Elixir, while being able to reset cards that have a charge or ramp-up attack, like Battle Ram, Evolved Royal Recruits, Dark Prince, Prince, Ram Rider, Sparky, Inferno Dragon, and Mighty Miner. Zap should be favored when the player wants a quick and cheap way to deal low damage while resetting charging cards, while Arrows should be used to control the usage of troops like Archers, Bomber, and Firecracker. The Evolved Zap will be even better, as it's able to be cycled easily due to its cheap cost, with both discharges dealing slightly more damage than a full Arrows volley.
- Giant Snowball plays very similarly to Zap, dealing the same amount of damage and costing the same amount of Elixir, while having the travel speed around that of the Arrows' own. However, its knockback and slow effects will allow it to be more effective against certain troops than Zap, while also allowing the Crown Tower to finish the same troops that Arrows can. Plus, Giant Snowball can also counter the Goblin Barrel for a +1 Elixir trade, as well as reset Battle Ram, Ram Rider, Sparky, and Inferno Dragon. Evolved Giant Snowball has a slightly different functionality, as it clumps up troops and pushes them away.
- Vines costs the same as Arrows, while also being able to bring enemy air troops to the ground, freeze them in place like a Freeze, defeat troops with as much health as a Princess, affect buildings, and counter Evolved Wall Breakers more efficiently. Vines' drawback is that it only targets three troops, with healthier troops having priority as targets, meaning that Arrows deals with swarms better, while Vines is more efficient against a number of units, as well as Crown Tower and building invalidation.
- The Log is pretty similar to the Arrows: they deal nearly the same amount of damage, even taking out Guards' Shields, while both serve to deal with swarms. However, The Log is cheaper and can push back enemies at the cost of less damage and not being anti-air, while Arrows are more expensive, but can defeat more troops without assistance from Crown Towers and can defeat air troops.
- Earthquake has the same Elixir cost for less damage, slower hit speed, and lack of air defense. However, it is able to slow down troops by 50% of their movement speed when inside the Earthquake, and it deals far more damage to buildings, while still taking out up to Goblins with all of its three damage waves. The player should use Earthquake when the deck struggles with buildings or is centered around cheap building-targeting win conditions, while Arrows should be favored when focusing on taking out slightly stronger troops or air units.
- For the same Elixir cost, Royal Delivery can be used in the place of Arrows for defense against swarms. It has slightly higher damage, and also comes with a Royal Recruit to further assist on defense against bulkier troops, like Wizard or Witch. However, unlike Royal Delivery, Arrows can also be used for offensive purposes or for defeating enemy troops on the opponent's side, and they have a larger radius.

Statistics

Cost	Radius	Target	Type	Rarity
3	3.5	Air & Ground	Spell	Common

Level	Area Damage	Crown Tower Damage
1	48 x3 (144)	12 x3 (36)
2	52 x3 (156)	13 x3 (39)
3	58 x3 (174)	15 x3 (45)
4	63 x3 (189)	16 x3 (48)
5	70 x3 (210)	18 x3 (54)
6	76 x3 (228)	19 x3 (57)
7	84 x3 (252)	21 x3 (63)
8	92 x3 (276)	23 x3 (69)
9	101 x3 (303)	26 x3 (78)
10	111 x3 (333)	28 x3 (84)
11	122 x3 (366)	31 x3 (93)
12	134 x3 (402)	34 x3 (102)
13	148 x3 (444)	37 x3 (111)
14	162 x3 (486)	41 x3 (123)
15	178 x3 (534)	45 x3 (135)

Card Mastery

Type	Level/Tier	Objective	Rewards
Damage Dealer	1	Deal a total of 65,000 Damage to enemy Troops or buildings	200 Arrows cards 25
	2	Deal a total of 195,000 Damage to enemy Troops or buildings	2,000 25
	3	Deal a total of 325,000 Damage to enemy Troops or buildings	150 25
Troop Destroyer	1	Destroy 420 enemy Troops	3,000 100
	2	Destroy 1,200 enemy Troops	200 100
	3	Destroy 2,100 enemy Troops	5,000 100
No Escape	1	Hit 12 Troops with a single deploy a total of 50 times	6,000 150
	2	Hit 12 Troops with a single deploy a total of 150 times	8,000 150
	3	Hit 12 Troops with a single deploy a total of 300 times	10,000 150

History[]

2016

The Arrows card was added with Clash Royale's game launch on 4/1/2016.
On 2/2/2016, the February 2016 Update decreased the Arrows' Damage by 4%.
On 19/2/2016, a Balance Update decreased the Arrows’ Crown Tower Damage to 40% of their full Damage (from 50%).
On 3/5/2016, the May 2016 Update increased the Common card Level Cap to 13 (from 12).

2017

On 13/3/2017, the March 2017 Update, increased the Arrows' Projectile Speed to 800 (from 600).
On 12/12/2017, the Electrifying Update decreased the Arrows’ Crown Tower Damage to 35% of their full Damage (from 40%).

2018

On 25/4/2018, the Clan Wars Update allowed the Arrows to be played directly on the river.
On 1/10/2018, a Balance Update fixed a bug where troops that were spawned after their parent troops died would be immune to Spell Damage.
On 12/12/2018, an Optional Update fixed an issue where Arrows' Star Levels used the sound effects of Goblin Barrel.

2019

On 3/6/2019, a Balance Update increased the Arrows' Projectile Speed to 1100 (from 800).
On 26/11/2019, the End of November 2019 Update, decreased the Arrows' Damage by 58%, but made them damage troops in three volleys of Arrows instead of one, causing their Total Damage to be increased by 23%. It also added a card render to the Arrows' card info screen.

2020

On 4/8/2020, a Balance Update decreased the Arrows' Crown Tower Damage to 30% of their full Damage (from 35%).

2021

On 27/10/2021, the Champions Update increased the Level Cap of all cards to 14 (from 13).

2022

On 27/6/2022, the Summer 2022 Update added the No Escape Card Mastery task for the Arrows.
On 26/10/2022, the 2022 Quarter 3 Update changed the Arrows' behavior so that they deals damage in multiple 1.4-tiles areas instead of one 4-tiles area. This was done to prevent Monk from deflecting the entirety of Arrows. Its effective Attack Radius remained unchanged.
On 27/10/2022, a maintenance break re-added missing visual effects for Arrows' Star Levels.

2023

On 27/3/2023, the Losers Update fixed an issue where Arrows dealt double damage to Mega King Towers in 2v2.
On 19/6/2023, the Card Evolution Update increased the Level Cap of all cards to 15 (from 14).

2024

On 6/8/2024, a Balance Update decreased the Arrows' Crown Tower Damage to 25% of their full damage (from 30%).

2025

On 4/3/2025, a Balance Update decreased the Arrows' Attack Radius to 3.5 tiles (from 4 tiles).

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

The Arrows are 1 of 10 cards associated with archery, with the others being Archers, Tower Princess, X-Bow, Princess, Magic Archer, Super Magic Archer, Super Archers, Archer Queen, and the Little Prince.
- The Arrows, Archers, and the Tower Princess are the only cards associated with archery that are unlocked in Training Camp.
- In the Japanese and Vietnamese language settings of the game, the Arrows' name translates to "Rain of Arrows".
The Arrows are 1 of 7 cards that are already unlocked for the player when they start playing the game, the others being Minions, Archers, Knight, Tower Princess, Giant, and Fireball.
The Arrows are one of the first spell cards to be featured in a Trainer's deck, alongside the Zap, Fireball, and Rocket.
The Arrows are one of the first spells to be featured in a Loading Screen, alongside the Fireball and Rocket.
The Arrows are one of the first spells to receive a card render, alongside the Rocket and Barbarian Barrel.
The Arrows' card render is identical to its card image.
The Arrows are the subject of certain cosmetics in the game. More specifically:
- The Arrows are the subject of a few Clan badges.
- The Arrows are the subject of an Emote.
The Arrows were featured in the winning decks of multiple Clash Royale Tournaments. More specifically:
- The Arrows were featured in the winning deck of the Clash Royale Helsinki Tournament, by a player called Jason.
- The Arrows were featured in the winning deck of the Clash Royale League 2023 Tournament, by a player called Mugi.
- The Arrows were featured in the winning deck of the Clash Royale League 2024 Tournament, by a player called Mohamed Light.
The initial balance change for Arrows on the 4/3/2025 Balance Update was a Crown Tower Damage decrease to 10% (from 25%), but it was changed to an Area Radius decrease last minute.
Before the Arrows' card release, Arrows' Damage were increased by 9%.