Bowler

“This big blue dude digs the simple things in life - Dark Elixir drinks and throwing rocks. His massive boulders roll through their target, hitting everything behind for a strike!”

The Bowler is an Epic card that is unlocked from the Rascal's Hideout (Arena 13). It spawns a slow, area-damage, ground-targeting, medium-ranged, ground troop with high hitpoints and high damage. The Bowler launches an attack that travels up to its maximum range, and inflicts knockback, while piercing through enemies. He resembles a massive humanoid creature with blue eyes and indigo skin wearing a pale brown loincloth and team-colored bands on his arms, and carries a boulder. A Bowler card costs 5 Elixir to deploy.

Strategy[]

For Battle Decks with this card, click here.

The Bowler's knockback effect functions identically to a Fireball, Giant Snowball, or Rocket, pushing back small to medium sized ground troops, and minimally damaging heavy troops such as a Prince and Mighty Miner. Troops vulnerable to knockback will have their attack animations reset and they are knocked back, causing troops with slow attack animations or troops with charges to be incredibly less efficient.
The Bowler has a linear attack that passes through all troops, allowing him to damage support troops behind a tank and clear swarms with ease. Maximize his damage potential by lining up enemies with the Tornado.
The Bowler can hard counter the Goblin Barrel if he is played behind the Crown Tower. His deployment timer should finish just as the Goblins spawn.
His high health, linear attack, and knockback effect makes him a strong defense against pushes, damaging both a tank and the support units behind it. As an added bonus, his inability to knock back tanks means he can separate the tanks and the support units, making them easier to deal with individually. He is extremely effective when paired with an Ice Wizard and Electro Wizard as their slowing and stun effects coupled with the Bowler's knockback make for a near impenetrable wall.
The Bowler is one of the best counters against spawners. He can one-shot Spear Goblins, Goblins, Fire Spirits, and Skeletons. He can also take out Barbarians since he constantly delays them with his knockback, giving himself enough time to take them out. If he lands the final blow on a Tombstone, he will not only destroy it, but also destroy the Skeletons that would have spawned from it. This also makes him a very strong counter against the Witch since he can easily tank her attacks and will destroy any Skeletons she spawns.
Minions, Bats, Mega Minion, Flying Machine, Electro Dragon, and Inferno Dragon can take out a Bowler without facing retaliation due to his inability to attack air targets. Despite his splash damage, his slow attack-rate means that he can still be taken out by swarms like the Evolved Skeletons, Skeleton Army, Royal Recruits, or Barbarians if he is surrounded.
He has a slow hit speed and low damage per second, so he may need to be supported by troops with a faster attack and higher damage output such as the Musketeer, Wizard, Dart Goblin, Executioner, Bomber, Cannon Cart, Flying Machine, Magic Archer, and the Witch.
He can counter Elite Barbarians with the help of a Crown Tower due to his knockback ability and high hitpoints, preserving most of his health for a counterpush.
He is not very good at countering tanks due to their high health, their inability to be pushed back, his low fire rate, and his low damage per second.
The Executioner can be a reasonable substitute for him. Executioner can attack air troops, but has lower health and cannot counter ground mini tanks. Bowler's knockback effect allows him to counter many grounded units, but it is not very effective against large, heavy troops that ignore his knockback effect, as well as aerial foes whom he cannot target.
While a player is defending against the Bowler, they should try not to place troops between the Bowler and their Tower, as his boulder rolls for a long distance and could lead to unnecessary Tower damage.
Unlike most support troops, the Bowler has far higher health and a knockback effect. This means that the Bowler cannot be countered by most mini tanks such as the Knight, Valkyrie, or Golden Knight. He is also spell-resistant, being able to survive an equal level Rocket. These factors make him a powerful support troop. However, he also costs more than most support troops, and his slow attack rate makes him prone to being overwhelmed.
The Prince and Dark Prince are both excellent counters to an attacking Bowler. They have knockback immunities and can fight a Bowler head on without being constantly pushed backwards.
The Bowler will heavily slow the Ram Rider, Battle Ram, and Evolved Royal Recruits, as his knockback will repeatedly reset their charges.
The Bowler is a great counter to Royal Hogs and other ground troop cards that gets critically damaged by Fireball.
The Bowler has an unusually large hitbox, occupying as much space as a Mega Knight. This can can advantageous if he is surrounded by allied swarms and is attacked by melee area-damage troops such as the Royal Ghost, Skeleton King, or Valkyrie, as it would mean that the allied swarms would not be hit by them.

Statistics

Cost	Hit Speed	First Hit Speed	Speed	Deploy Time	Range	Projectile Range	Projectile Width	Projectile Speed	Target	Count	Transport	Type	Rarity
5	2.5 sec	0.5 sec	Slow (45)	1 sec	4	7.5	3.6	170	Ground	1x	Ground	Troop	Epic

Level	Hitpoints	Area Damage	Damage per second
6	1,300	180	72
7	1,430	198	79
8	1,569	218	87
9	1,723	239	95
10	1,894	263	105
11	2,081	289	115
12	2,284	317	126
13	2,512	349	139
14	2,756	383	153
15	3,024	420	168

Card Mastery

Type	Level/Tier	Objective	Reward
Damage Dealer	1	Deal a total of 185,000 Damage to enemy Troops or buildings	20 Bowler cards 75
	2	Deal a total of 560,000 Damage to enemy Troops or buildings	6,000 75
	3	Deal a total of 930,000 Damage to enemy Troops or buildings	150 75
Keep Your Distance	1	Knock back enemy Troops a total of 560 times	9,000 125
	2	Knock back enemy Troops a total of 1,600 times	20 125
	3	Knock back enemy Troops a total of 2,800 times	15,000 125
I'm Throwing Rocks Tonight!	1	Push back 10 or more units with a single deploy a total of 80 times	100 175
	2	Push back 10 or more units with a single deploy a total of 240 times	125 175
	3	Push back 10 or more units with a single deploy a total of 480 times	150 175

History[]

2016

The Bowler card was added to the game on 4/7/2016, in the Tournaments Update.
On 24/8/2016, a Balance Update, decreased the Bowler's cost to 5 Elixir (from 6 Elixir), decreased his hitpoints by 7%, and decreased his damage by 10%.
On 19/9/2016, the September 2016 Update, changed his description. The description used to say "This big blue dude digs the simple things in life - Dark Elixir drinks and throwing rocks. His massive boulders bounce off their target, landing behind for a double strike."
On 1/11/2016, the November 2016 Update, changed the Bowler's sound effects.

2018

On 5/9/2018, the September 2018 Update, changed it so that Epic cards start at Level 6 and end at Level 13 (from 1 to 8).
On 5/12/2018, the December 2018 Update, increased the Bowler's range to 5.5 tiles (from 5 tiles). This change was not mentioned in any change notes and was later said to be unintentional by Supercell, and as such it got reverted in 7/12/2018, in a maintenance break.

2019

On 26/11/2019, the End of November 2019 Update, added a card render to the Bowler's card info screen.

2020

On 4/8/2020, a Balance Update, decreased the Bowler's range to 4 tiles (from 5 tiles), increased his projectile range to 7.5 tiles (from 6 tiles), and increased his hitpoints by 8%.

2021

On 7/6/2021, the Summer 2021 Update, moved the Arena to unlock the Bowler from Frozen Peak to Rascal's Hideout.
On 27/10/2021, the Champions Update, increased the Level cap of all cards to 14 (from 13).

2022

On 26/10/2022, the 2022 Quarter 3 Update, added the I'm Throwing Rocks Tonight Card Mastery task for the Bowler.

2023

On 19/6/2023, the Card Evolution Update, increased the Level cap of all cards to 15 (from 14).

2025

On 31/3/2025, the 2025 Quarter 1 Update, increased the Bowler's hitpoints by 0.04% and his damage by 0.34%.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

The Bowler is 1 of 19 troops which first existed in Clash of Clans, the others being Minions, Archers, Goblins, Skeletons, Barbarians, Giant, Valkyrie, Wizard, Hog Rider, Witch, P.E.K.K.A, Balloon, Golem, Wall Breakers, Cannon Cart, Phoenix, Lava Hound, and the Archer Queen.
- The Bowler resembles the Level 1-2 Bowler from Clash of Clans.
- The Bowler was originally a troop idea for Clash Royale, but being scrapped, he was transferred to Clash of Clans. Ultimately, the Bowler was added in one of Clash Royale's updates.
- The Bowler's description is very similar to his description in Clash of Clans. Before the September 2016 Update, the description erroneously stated the Bowler's boulders bounce, which do in Clash of Clans, but not in Clash Royale.
  - There is also a Loading Screen Hint that is similar to its card description.
- In Clash Royale, the Bowler's bowling action resembles a more conventional underhand style of bowling, like that seen in ten-pin bowling, for example, as opposed to in Clash of Clans, where he hurls his boulder overhand, resembling that of a bowler in cricket.
- In Clash of Clans, the Bowler has glowing red eyes and yellow sclerae, however in Clash Royale, the Bowler has normal eyes and sclerae.
- The Bowler's card render is taken from his Clash of Clans counterpart's old render.
Among all troops that attack with projectiles, the Bowler has the lowest projectile speed of all troops, with a projectile speed of 170.
The Bowler is one of the first troop cards to receive a card render, alongside the Archers, Knight, Goblins, Bomber, Skeletons, Barbarians, Bats, Royal Recruits, Skeleton Barrel, Rascals, Musketeer, Giant, Valkyrie, Wizard, Flying Machine, Hog Rider, Royal Hogs, Dart Goblin, Zappies, Elixir Golem, Baby Dragon, Skeleton Army, Witch, P.E.K.K.A, Prince, Balloon, Giant Skeleton, Goblin Giant, Hunter, Electro Dragon, Wall Breakers, Cannon Cart, Mega Knight, Ram Rider, Miner, Royal Ghost, Ice Wizard, Magic Archer, Bandit, Lava Hound, Night Witch, and Fisherman.
In the Spanish, Turkish, Russian, Portuguese, Chinese, Persian, Malaysian, and Thai language settings of the game, the Bowler's name translates to "Rock Thrower", "Shooter", "Bouncer", "Launcher", "Boulder Pitcher", "Crusher", "Thrower", and "Stone Thrower" respectively.
The Bowler is 1 of 23 cards that has had its Elixir cost changed, the others being Bomber, Fire Spirit, Royal Recruits, Cannon, Mortar, Musketeer, Three Musketeers, Heal, Goblin Hut, Bomb Tower, Barbarian Hut, Furnace, Elixir Collector, Skeleton Army, P.E.K.K.A., Wall Breakers, Electro Giant, Goblin Barrel, Barbarian Barrel, Rage, Fisherman, and the Monk.
The Bowler has been confirmed to be a Goblin. Despite this, he does not belong to the Goblin class.
The Bowler is 1 of 14 troops which bring an excited reaction from the audience upon spawning and brings a collective groan from the audience when defeated, as well as a concerning gasp when the opponent plays him, the others include Royal Giant, Giant, P.E.K.K.A, Giant Skeleton, Goblin Giant, Golem, Electro Wizard, Inferno Dragon, Sparky, Lava Hound, Night Witch, Super Lava Hound, and the Monk.
The Bowler's rock can be seen can be seen on the Trophy Road as a decoration.
The Bowler says “Bowling!” upon spawn. He may also say “Buh-bye”, “He-he-hoor!”, "Strike", and/or “Rolling, rolling, rolling!” while attacking. He also passively hums while walking.
- The Bowler is voice acted by Lucas Schuneman.
- The Bowler is 1 of 23 troops that speak distinct words when on the field, the others being Mini P.E.K.K.A., Mega Minion, Wizard, Hog Rider, P.E.K.K.A., Dark Prince, Ram Rider, Electro Wizard, Princess, Ice Wizard, Magic Archer, Lumberjack, Mother Witch, Fisherman, Goblin Machine, Super Mini P.E.K.K.A., Santa Hog Rider, Super Magic Archer, Golden Knight, Boss Bandit, Archer Queen, Little Prince, and the Terry.
The Bowler, along with the Minions, Bomber, Skeletons, Skeleton Dragons, Ice Spirit, Mini P.E.K.K.A, Mega Minion, Ice Golem, Dart Goblin, Elixir Golem, Goblin Brawler, Guards, Baby Dragon, P.E.K.K.A, Giant Skeleton, Golem, Wall Breakers, Executioner, Mega Knight, Inferno Dragon, Royal Ghost, and Lava Hound, are featured as a monster in Squad Busters.
The Card Mastery task "I'm Throwing Rocks Tonight!" is a reference to a quote from The Big Lebowski.
According to Vlad Perge, the Community Manager of Clash Mini, the Bowler is his favorite troop, as stated on Pocket Gamer.
The Bowler is the subject of 4 Emotes.
The Bowler was featured in the winning deck of the Clash Royale League 2021 Tournament, by a player called Mugi.
On 3/1/2024, the Bowler was supposed to receive a first attack time interval increase to 0.6 seconds (from 0.5 seconds), but this change was pulled back last minute.