皇家野猪

“The King’s personal pets are loose! They love to chomp on apples and towers alike - who let the hogs out?!”

The Royal Hogs card is unlocked from Royal Arena (Arena 7). It spawns four very fast, building-targeting, melee hogs with helmets. They have moderate hitpoints and have moderately low damage and can jump over the river. A Royal Hogs card costs 5 Elixir to deploy.

Strategy[]

Since the Royal Hogs are a swarm card, some methods for countering a Hog Rider (like placing a Mini P.E.K.K.A) are less effective due to having to deal with more than one unit at a time. Area damage is the most effective way to quickly eliminate the Hogs; large swarms and buildings are also still effective.
The Royal Hogs are excellent rush units at the start of a game due to their fast movement speed and ability to jump over the river.
Royal Hogs can work in Three Musketeers decks very well, as they can be evenly split when placed in the middle of the river, setting you up for a deadly dual lane push.
Placing the Royal Hogs one tile off the center, allows them to split with 3 hogs in one lane and 1 in the other lane. This is useful to be done when pushing into both lanes and one of the two is weaker (example: after splitting Zappies, the 1 Royal Hog is in the 2 Zappies lane while the other 3 are in the 1 Zappy lane).
Due to their low individual damage, it is not recommended to split the Royal Hogs if they will not have any support with them, as they will deal much less damage overall due to each Hog tanking for less Hogs and both of the opponent's Princess Towers attacking at once.
Royal Hogs can also act as a Lightning rod for the Three Musketeers since each of them have higher health than a Musketeer.
Bomb Tower is a hard counter to the Royal Hogs due to having high health, a lower Elixir cost, having splash damage, and being able to distract the Royal Hogs. Earthquake will damage down the building considerably, but the Royal Hogs will still be fairly damaged before it dies.
Fireball will leave the Royal Hogs with a sliver of health while only getting minor damage on the Princess Tower. While this is a positive Elixir trade, the opponent may have other Fireball vulnerable troops that are more difficult to counter with troops, such as the Flying Machine, so try not to rely on it.
The Bowler is extremely effective against the Royal Hogs. His knockback and area damage eliminate the Hogs very quickly, and he can survive every damaging spell in the game.
Against area damage troops, it is usually more effective to split the Royal Hogs rather than placing them all in one lane. This reduces the amount of splash value the opponent gets from each attack, and can allow the swarm to get more damage across both towers.
Even though they deal low damage, it is not wise to ignore them, as their health pool allows them to effectively tank for each other and deal extremely high damage to a Crown Tower, if not completely destroy it.
If your opponent happens to be low in Elixir or you know that their cheap counter is out of rotation, you can rush a lane with Royal Hogs. Their high health and speed makes them hard to react to. However, be sure to have an area damage spell or a support troop ready, since swarms and high damage dealers can make short work of them.
When a tower is down, placing the Royal Hogs on the third tile from the pocket will allow them to deal the most overall damage to the remaining Princess Tower. Placing them as far forward as possible will make them harder to react to, but they will deal less damage overall as they will be in range of the King's Tower while deploying.
In an emergency, Royal Hogs can kite Very Fast melee troops into the opposite lane, as long as the opposing troop is staggered towards the inner side of the bridge (such as when it is placed in the middle of the arena). One should place them on the fourth tile away from the bridge, and on the third tile horizontally in the opposite lane. Fast moving air troops can help damage down the enemy troop safely while the Royal Hogs kite it.
Royal Hogs can be an effective counter to an Elixir Collector played in front of the King's Tower. Placing them in the middle will cause two to go in one lane, one to go to the other, and one to go to the Collector. This will get damage on both Princess Towers and also deny the Collector of some of its Elixir. This can also be an opportunity to get spell value on their Collector if they try to protect it with low health troops.
Royal Hogs synergize well with the Heal Spirit. Heal Spirits have the same move speed as Royal Hogs, and due to the former being a bulky swarm, the healing of the Spirit will restore more hitpoints overall. However, the combination is weak to spells like Arrows and the Heal Spirit can be easily lured by a mini tank such as an Ice Golem.
Rage can be effective with the Royal Hogs, allowing the entire swarm's damage to exponentially increase.
The Log will not counter the Royal Hogs on its own, but it can provide cheap and efficient support for the player's other defenders. It is cheap, only costing 2 Elixir, and deals a decent amount of damage to them for its costs and pushes them back, buying the Princess Tower time to defeat them.
Royal Hogs are a very effective win condition in Touchdown mode because of their Very Fast speed and combined hitpoints. Many single-targeting troops and even defensive buildings cannot stop them in time.

History[]

The Royal Hogs card was added to the game on 20/6/18.
On 6/8/18, a Balance Update made the Royal Hogs' first attack quicker.
On 3/9/18, a Balance Update decreased the Royal Hogs' hit speed to 1.2 seconds (from 1.1 seconds)
On 5/11/18, a Balance Update decreased the Royal Hogs' damage by 6%, and reduced their mass by 50%.
On 4/11/19, an update moved the Arena to unlock this card from Hog Mountain (Arena 10) to Royal Arena (Arena 7).
On 3/2/20, a Balance Update increased the Royal Hogs' damage by 6%.
On 6/9/21, a Balance Update increased the Royal Hogs' damage by 6%.
On 27/10/21, the 2021 Quarter 3 Update added the level 14 Royal Hogs.

Trivia[]

The Royal Hogs have the most individual hitpoints out of all the cards that spawn more than 3 troops.
The flavor text for the Royal Hogs, asking "Who let the hogs out?!" is a reference to the pop song, "Who Let the Dogs Out," by the Baha Men.
The Royal Hogs are the subject of some Emotes (1 regular set, 1 Chinese New Year set, 1 single Easter and pirate emote).
Royal Hogs were the first troops to be featured in the Troop Rush game mode to celebrate the Year of the Pig.