Introduction to Clash of Clans Archer Queen

The Archer Queen is the second Hero you can unlock in Clash of Clans. She becomes available at Hero Hall Level 2, which requires your Town Hall to be Level 8. Essentially, she is a larger and significantly more powerful version of the standard Archer unit.

Strengths

High Single-Target Damage

The Archer Queen deals strong, focused damage per shot, making her especially effective at sniping defensive structures, Heroes, and Clan Castle troops when properly protected.

Versatile Ability (Royal Cloak)

Her ability makes her temporarily invisible and summons extra archers, which can help her survive high-damage situations, escape tight spots, or take out critical defenses without being targeted.

Core Hero for Attack Strategies

The Queen is central to many attack strategies like Queen Walk or Queen Charge. With healers supporting her, she can carve a path deep into enemy bases, taking out key structures and creating effective funnels.

Weaknesses

Low Health Without Support

Despite her high damage, the Queen is relatively fragile. Without proper healing or tanking, she can go down quickly to splash defenses or concentrated fire.

Vulnerable to Traps and Defenses

Seeking Air Mines can take out her healers, and defenses like the X-Bow, Scattershot, or Inferno Tower can eliminate her quickly if she’s caught off guard or not managed well.

High Skill Requirement

Using the Queen effectively—especially in Queen Walks—requires precise timing, funneling, and spell usage. A small mistake in placement or delay in activating her ability can lead to failure.

Archer Queen in Attacking and Defending

As a Hero, the Archer Queen can participate in both attacking enemy villages and defending your own. However, she cannot be used in battle if she is currently being upgraded.

Defense:

When assigned to a Hero Banner, the Archer Queen will defend your village. She primarily defends the territory around her banner and will retreat if she is lured too far away from it. Unlike certain defenses, the Archer Queen does not necessarily need to be defeated for an attacker to achieve a 3-star victory.

The Archer Queen is generally considered more suitable for defense than the Barbarian King. This is due to her higher damage per second, longer range, and crucially, her ability to attack air units like Balloons, Dragons, and Minions, making her effective against air raid strategies. However, a key drawback is that she has significantly less health than the Barbarian King.

When setting up her defense, the sources suggest placing the Hero Banner 3-4 spaces away from the nearest wall. This placement helps prevent her from potentially jumping over the wall and becoming an easy target for melee attacker troops.

Offense:

When attacking, the Archer Queen is a formidable unit. She has an ability that can be used once per battle to recover some of her health, with the amount of health recovered increasing every fifth level.

As an attacking Hero, the Archer Queen utilizes Hero Equipment. She can equip two pieces of Hero Equipment at a time, which modify her abilities and provide additional stat bonuses. It is important to note that the Archer Queen does not use any Hero Equipment when defending.

Hero Equipment:

Upon unlocking, the Archer Queen starts with the Archer Puppet and the Invisibility Vial. Upgrading the Blacksmith building to level 2 and level 5 unlocks the Giant Arrow and Healer Puppet, respectively. There are also Epic rarity Hero Equipment, which can be obtained using event medals during specific events or purchased with gems from the Trader.

Archer Puppet

Allows the Archer Queen to summon a large number of invisible Archers. The level of the summoned Archers matches the player’s researched Archer level. This equipment provides an increase in health recovery for her ability and a passive increase to her damage.

Invisibility Vial

Turns the Archer Queen invisible for a duration and grants her significantly increased damage during this time. It provides a passive increase to her maximum health.

Giant Arrow

Launches a large arrow that travels across the entire village, dealing damage to anything in its path. It provides a passive increase to her damage and max health.

Healer Puppet

Summons Healers. The number of Healers summoned depends on the equipment level. It grants a passive increase to her maximum health and provides her with self-healing.

Frozen Arrow

A passive effect that causes her attacks to slow down defenses, defending Heroes, and troops. It provides a passive increase to her damage. This is an Epic rarity equipment.

Magic Mirror

Summons clone(s) of herself and provides a brief invisibility for the Queen. Defenses will target the clones instead. It grants increased health recovery with her ability. The clones deal extra damage and have some tanking capability. It provides a passive increase to her max health and extra health recovery. This is an Epic rarity equipment. The sources suggest this is usually an upgrade to the Invisibility Vial in most situations.

Leveling up Hero Equipment is beneficial, as the Archer Queen benefits from having higher-level equipment, which significantly improves her performance.

Hero Equipment Combinations

Combination Effect Notes Frozen Arrow + Invisibility Vial Reduces incoming damage and boosts Queen’s damage while invisible Pet does not turn invisible, may be defeated early Frozen Arrow + Healer Puppet Increases healing with extra Healers and grants self-healing Good for sustained survivability Invisibility Vial + Healer Puppet Provides guaranteed healing and retargeting insurance Solid pairing for sustainability Giant Arrow + Invisibility Vial or Magic Mirror Supports high burst damage, ideal for ZapQuake setups Used for specific attack strategies Healer Puppet + Giant Arrow / Frozen Arrow / Archer Puppet Immediate effect use with minimal conflicts More flexible than Invisibility Vial or Magic Mirror combos

Hero Pet Pairing

Unicorn

Heals the Archer Queen over time. Provides consistent healing, keeping her alive longer during Queen Charges or when she’s isolated from healers (e.g. after healer transfers or Black Mines hit). Best used in Queen Charge strategies like Queen Charge Hybrid, Queen Charge Lalo, and defensive bases with high DPS zones.

Frosty

Slows nearby defenses and spawns Frostmites. It gives the Queen more time to take out key defenses and survive longer under fire. Best used in Queen Charges through high-damage zones, or when facing scattershots or single-target Infernos early.

Phoenix

Revives the Queen temporarily after death, giving her a second chance. It acts like a backup ability—very helpful if you’re trying risky pathing or facing overwhelming damage. Best used in Lalo or Smash attacks, where Queen is meant to get key objectives and might die early.

Electro Owl

Shoots chain lightning along with the Queen. It adds ranged damage and is especially good when Queen is behind a tank (like the King or Golem). Best used in Smash or funneling, where Queen is clearing a section with support.

Offensive Strategies:

Given her range advantage, a common offensive strategy is to place tanks like Giants, P.E.K.K.As, Golems, or the Barbarian King ahead of her to absorb damage, followed by Archers, and then the Archer Queen. This minimizes the chance of her being targeted or defeated and can allow her to be used repeatedly without waiting for regeneration.

Queen Walk:

A very viable strategy, particularly for farming loot, involving the Archer Queen and Healers. She can clear large areas of the base, helping to create a funnel. This strategy is more effective with a high-level Queen, as a low-level Queen might not deal enough damage and could run out of time. Air Defenses can counter this by targeting Healers, but the Archer Queen’s and Healers’ ranges often keep the Healers out of range of most Air Defenses.

Queen Charge:

A variation of the Queen Walk focused on targeting the core of the base to destroy key defenses. This typically involves using Wall Breakers (including their super form) or Jump Spells along with funneling troops like Baby Dragons to help her breach the base. Her ability is then used to eliminate defenses inside the core.

Using Druids in Queen Walks/Charges:

An alternative to Healers. Druids do not have a reduced healing rate for Heroes, making them slightly more effective at healing the Queen. Their healing bounces between units, allowing support troops to also benefit. However, Druids only stay in their base healing form for 30 seconds before transforming into a Bear form that targets defenses instead of healing. While in Bear form, they can sometimes help tank for the Queen.

Spells with Queen Walk/Charge:

Rage Spells can boost both the Queen and her Healers/Druids, increasing healing speed if she takes heavy damage. Freeze Spells are useful against high-damage defenses like single-target Inferno Towers. The Overgrowth Spell can divert the Queen and prevent her from taking damage.

Counters to Queen Walk/Charge:

Seeking Air Mines can target Healers. Placing Balloons (“coco loons”) near the Healers can help trigger these traps. However, Seeking Air Mines do not affect Druids because they are ground units.

Using Unicorn in Queen Walk/Charge:

The Unicorn pet can be used in place of a Healer or Druid. Often, the Unicorn is used in addition to Healers or Druids for maximum healing and increased sustainability.

Hero Dive:

Putting the Archer Queen together with other heroes (Barbarian King to tank, Grand Warden for support, Royal Champion for defense destruction) to push a section into the base. Clan Castle troops also benefit from the Grand Warden and assistance. This can help with funneling, taking out major defenses, or just getting a percentage.

Sui Queen:

Sending the Archer Queen and other heroes with very limited troop support (up to about 25 housing space). This strategy is best used to destroy the outer parts of the base and a few key targets deeper in.

Interaction with Specific Defenses and Units:

Spring Traps:

The Archer Queen, like all other Heroes, is not affected by Spring Traps and can be used to activate them safely.

Invisibility Vial Use:

Prevents defenses from targeting the Archer Queen. However, she can still be damaged by splash damage from attacks targeting nearby units, such as Archers summoned by the Archer Puppet. The Invisibility Vial does not prevent her from triggering or being damaged by Bombs and Giant Bombs if she is in range when they explode.

Invisibility Vial vs. Inferno Towers:

Excellent against single-target Inferno Towers. Using the ability resets the Inferno’s damage and often redirects it to a summoned Archer if the Archer Puppet is equipped. The Queen can quickly destroy the Inferno while invisible, and summoned Archers can overwhelm it if splash defenses are weak. Paired with Giant Arrow or Frozen Arrow, Invisibility Vial significantly increases sustainability.

Invisibility Vial vs. Eagle Artillery

Activating the Invisibility Vial will not stop projectiles already in flight towards the Queen from hitting her. However, activating it just before the Eagle Artillery fires will prevent it from locking onto and firing at her, making her temporarily untargetable by it.

Invisibility Vial vs. Electro Dragon

The ability’s mechanic causes her to be considered a new target. Against a defending Electro Dragon, this can backfire, potentially causing her to be hit by its Chain Lightning ability twice.

Pets:

The Unicorn is the most common pet pairing, providing healing over time and greatly increasing her sustainability. The Phoenix can be used as a substitute if the Unicorn is upgrading. It extends her life and allows her to do extra damage. The Phoenix can also revive the Archer Queen if she is defeated while under her ability, allowing her to use most or all of her ability duration (especially useful with Invisibility Vial).

Dealing with the Enemy Barbarian King:

The Barbarian King can defeat the Archer Queen in a 1v1 if they are at similar levels (same level or the King is up to 5 levels higher). To counter a defending King, you can support the Queen with Healers/Druids or use high-damaging troops like Wizards. Headhunters are also effective against the King. If the King is near the edge of the base, your Barbarian King can often take him out, potentially requiring his ability if he’s low-leveled.

Strategies Against a Defending Archer Queen:

Opponents have several effective strategies for dealing with a defending Archer Queen. One of the most reliable methods is using an attacking Archer Queen, especially in a Queen Walk. When supported by healers and kept out of the range of multiple defenses, a Queen Walk can outlast and eliminate the defending Queen with precision. Alternatively, placing an Archer Queen behind a tanking troop can also ensure she reaches the defending Queen safely and with enough health to win the duel.

Tanking troops like Golems can absorb a significant amount of damage from the Queen, but even a max-level Golem will only survive about 10 to 11 seconds under fire from a high-level Queen if other defenses are not taken into account. Therefore, relying solely on a tank is usually not enough unless the Queen is dealt with quickly.

The Barbarian King can be used as a solid tank, especially if the defending Queen is near the edge of the base and not behind walls. Activating his ability gives him a burst of power and spawns Barbarians that can help overwhelm the Queen. This approach works best when the Queen is exposed and not supported by too many defenses.

Spells are often brought specifically to deal with the Archer Queen. A Poison Spell can reduce her attack speed, giving your troops more time to defeat her. A Skeleton Spell can distract her temporarily, drawing her attacks away from more valuable troops. A Freeze Spell can stop her from attacking entirely for a short duration, especially useful when combined with other troops to burst her down during the freeze window.

The Grand Warden‘s Eternal Tome ability provides a brief window of invincibility that is often enough to allow troops to defeat the Queen, given her relatively low hit points. Timing this ability correctly can ensure key troops survive long enough to finish her off.

High-level Lightning Spells can take down a lower-level Archer Queen, especially if paired with Earthquake Spells. However, this tactic becomes less reliable against higher-level Queens, unless additional buildings, such as the Eagle Artillery, can also be destroyed in the same spell drop to increase value.

Headhunters are specifically designed to take out heroes like the Archer Queen. Although they are fragile, they deal significant damage and can eliminate her quickly if they are supported. Using the Grand Warden’s Eternal Tome to protect them as they reach the Queen or sending them in behind tanking troops helps ensure their survival long enough to do their job.

To make it harder for an attacking Queen to reach your critical defenses, it’s important to place those defenses at least five tiles away from the nearest open space. This limits the Queen’s ability to snipe buildings from behind walls and forces attackers to commit more troops or spells to reach them. Eagle Artillery away from her banner placement area to avoid losing both to attacks like Electrone or Blizzard.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

❓What is the best level to start using Queen Charge with the Archer Queen?

You can start practicing Queen Charge once your Archer Queen is at level 25 or higher, but it becomes most effective at level 40+ when her damage and health allow her to survive longer and take down key defenses with fewer Rage Spells or support troops.

❓Which hero pet works best with the Archer Queen?

The best pet for the Archer Queen is usually the Unicorn, as it provides passive healing and keeps her alive during Queen Walks. However, Frosty, Phoenix, and Electro Owl are also strong choices depending on the attack strategy and base layout.

❓What is the best hero equipment for the Archer Queen?

Top hero equipment choices for the Archer Queen include:
🔹Frozen Arrow for slowing defenses.
🔹Invisibility Vial for temporary safety and retargeting.
🔹Healer Puppet for extra healing support. Combinations like Frozen Arrow + Invisibility Vial or Frozen Arrow + Healer Puppet are especially powerful.

❓How do I protect the Archer Queen during an attack?

To protect the Queen during an attack:
🔹Use Rage Spells and Freeze Spells to support her.
🔹Pair her with Healers in Queen Charge or Queen Walk strategies.
🔹Avoid areas with multiple point defenses or single-target Infernos without support.
🔹Choose pets or hero equipment that enhances her survivability.

❓What is the best way to use the Archer Queen in war attacks?

In war attacks, the Archer Queen excels in Queen Charge Lalo, Hybrid, and Super Bowler Smash strategies. She is often used to funnel, remove enemy Clan Castle troops, or take down key defenses like Eagle Artillery or Scattershots before the main army is deployed.