Introduction to the Clash of Clans Royal Champion
The Royal Champion is the fifth Hero that becomes available in Clash of Clans. You can unlock her once your Hero Hall reaches Level 7, which requires you to be at Town Hall level 13.
Strengths
High Burst Damage:
She has fast attack speed and strong single-target damage, making her effective against defensive clusters or high-value defenses, especially when supported by healing or other heroes.
Excellent Cleanup Hero:
Due to her ability to jump over walls, she can reach isolated defenses and finish off remaining structures with ease. This makes her valuable in the late phase of attacks, especially during hybrid strategies like Hog Miner hybrid.
Weaknesses
Low Hitpoints Compared to Other Heroes:
Despite her offensive strength, she’s relatively fragile. She can be quickly taken down by Scattershots, X-Bows, or high DPS troops/defenses if left unprotected.
Prioritizes Defenses Only:
Her focus on defenses means she can ignore key cleanup buildings or Town Halls (if no defenses are nearby), which can lead to time failures or unpredictable pathing.
Vulnerable to Traps and Splash Damage:
Her pathing into heavily defended zones often leads her into Giant Bombs, Skeleton Traps, or multi-target Infernos, which can quickly overwhelm her if she’s not supported by Healers, spells, or other troops.
Stats and Attack Behavior
The Royal Champion is a unique Hero designed for targeting defenses, with a balanced mix of offensive power and mobility. She has moderately high damage per second and moderate health, although some may consider her health lower compared to other Heroes or high-hitpoint troops. Her offensive strength makes her similar in function to the Archer Queen, often serving as a reliable damage dealer capable of eliminating key defenses.
What sets the Royal Champion apart is her ability to bypass Walls. Like Hog Riders and Headhunters, she can jump over Walls to reach her targets, allowing her to move efficiently across the battlefield without being delayed by fortifications. She attacks by throwing a spear from a short range, making her effective at damaging enemy defenses, buildings, defending troops, and Heroes.
Her targeting behavior focuses exclusively on defensive structures. As long as any defense remains standing, she will ignore other buildings and prioritize getting to the nearest one. However, her targeting logic has important exceptions. She does not consider the Clan Castle a defense, even if it contains defending troops. On the other hand, an activated Town Hall weapon—such as the Giga Tesla or Giga Inferno—will be recognized as a defense and targeted accordingly.
The Royal Champion also shows reactive behavior in the presence of enemy troops or Heroes. If she is attacked or is near a friendly unit being attacked by defending Heroes, Clan Castle troops, or Skeleton Trap skeletons, she will break off her current target to engage those enemies. Once those threats are eliminated, she resumes targeting the nearest available defense or building. This makes her a flexible and responsive unit, capable of adapting to threats in the middle of an attack.
Her damage potential and intelligent targeting make her a crucial Hero for dismantling defensive cores and weakening enemy bases, especially when used in tandem with other specialized troops.
Defense Role
The Royal Champion plays a role in both offensive and defensive scenarios, contributing to your strategy in multiple ways.
On offense, she is a high-impact Hero who targets defenses and eliminates key threats quickly. Her ability to jump over Walls and her preference for defensive structures make her a valuable asset in breaking through an enemy’s defensive setup.
Defensively, she can be stationed in your village by assigning her to a Hero Banner. Once placed, she will patrol and protect the area around her banner. However, her defensive range is limited. If attackers attempt to lure her too far from this designated territory, she will retreat rather than chase them across the base. This behavior ensures she remains focused on protecting her assigned zone, but it also means her placement must be strategic to avoid her being easily distracted or neutralized.
Placing the Hero Banner centrally or near critical defenses helps ensure she remains effective, drawing enemy attention while delivering steady damage to attacking troops. Understanding her territorial limitations is key to maximizing her defensive value.
The Royal Champion’s Ability
The Royal Champion has a powerful ability that can be used once per battle: the Seeking Shield. This ability allows her to throw her shield at multiple targets, prioritizing defenses, and also grants her a burst of healing when activated. The amount of health she recovers increases at every fifth Hero level, making milestone upgrades especially valuable for her survivability.
Hero Equipment further enhances the effectiveness of her ability. Equipment can add special effects to the Seeking Shield, such as additional damage or utility, while also granting passive bonuses to stats like damage, health, or ability effectiveness. These upgrades can be used to tailor her role on the battlefield, making her either more durable or more aggressive depending on your attack style.
By default, her ability will automatically trigger if it hasn’t been manually activated and she is about to be defeated. This setting, called “Automatically use Hero Abilities on KO,” ensures that her shield is not wasted in the heat of battle. However, this feature can be disabled in the settings if players prefer to manually control her ability use for precise timing.
Before the Town Hall 16 update, there was a limitation where the Royal Champion could be defeated during the animation of her Seeking Shield, especially by high-damage, single-target defenses like the Inferno Tower. This could result in her being taken out before the shield was thrown, completely nullifying the ability. This issue has since been resolved—if the Royal Champion is about to be defeated during the activation of her ability, the Seeking Shield is now released instantly, ensuring that her final move is never wasted. This change greatly improves her reliability and value during high-pressure situations.
Hero Equipment
The Royal Champion starts with two pieces of Hero Equipment unlocked: the Royal Gem and Seeking Shield. Other equipment can be unlocked by upgrading the Blacksmith or purchased during certain events or from the Trader.
Here are the known Hero Equipment for the Royal Champion and their effects:
Royal Gem
The Royal Gem grants a significant boost to the Royal Champion’s health recovery when her ability is used. In addition to enhancing her survivability, it passively increases her damage and maximum health, making her more durable and deadly throughout the battle.
Seeking Shield
This equipment allows the Royal Champion to throw a shield that automatically targets up to four defenses, dealing heavy damage regardless of distance. It prioritizes defensive structures and can destroy weaker ones like Mortars and Hidden Teslas in a single hit. However, if Hidden Teslas have not yet appeared near the Town Hall when her ability is activated, they won’t be targeted. The equipment also passively boosts her maximum health.
Hog Rider Puppet
When equipped, this item causes the Royal Champion’s ability to summon Hog Riders, who aid in clearing defenses. It also briefly grants her invisibility and boosts the healing she receives from her ability. Additionally, it provides a passive increase to her maximum health, enhancing her frontline endurance.
Electro Boots
Electro Boots create a constant electric aura around the Royal Champion, similar to the Electro Titan’s effect, dealing passive damage to nearby enemy units and buildings. They also increase her maximum health and provide passive self-healing, improving her sustain during prolonged engagements.
Haste Vial
The Haste Vial dramatically increases the Royal Champion’s movement speed and attack speed for a short time when her ability is used, allowing her to quickly tear through key defenses. Passively, it increases both her damage and attack speed, making her more effective in fast-paced attacks or cleanup phases.
Rocket Spear
This powerful equipment gives the Royal Champion increased attack range and damage for a few strikes after her ability is activated, and adds a small splash effect to her attacks. It passively boosts her damage and maximum health. With Rocket Spear, she can outrange Skeleton Traps near Inferno Towers, but if defensive skeletons are spread apart, they may absorb multiple spear hits. Fortunately, the splash radius can eliminate tightly grouped skeletons in one blow.
Hero Equipment Combinations:
Haste Vial and Hog Rider Puppet:
Described as universally good for most strategies. Allows brief invisibility, Hog Riders to tank, and increases her total damage output due to increased attack speed and the summoned Hog Riders. This combo is weak to traps like Giant Bombs that destroy the Hog Riders, allowing the Royal Champion to be targeted and defeated.
Seeking Shield and Rocket Spear:
Allows her to clear nearby defenses and then use increased range to target defenses deep inside the base, making her functionally similar to a Flame Flinger temporarily.
Hog Rider Puppet and Royal Gem:
Useful for the Royal Champion Charge. Allows her to survive longer with Hog Riders tanking and massive health recovery from the ability, as both equipment pieces boost recovery.
Electro Boots and Hog Rider Puppet:
Useful for dealing with swarms. Hog Riders tank, she deals more damage, and gains some health recovery.
Electro Boots and Haste Vial:
Helpful for destroying defenses quickly in a Royal Charge, supported by Spirit Fox and Invisibility Spells. However, this leaves her with no extra healing, making her more vulnerable to major defenses.
Pet Synergies
Diggy
Diggy burrows underground and stuns defenses when emerging, which aligns perfectly with the Royal Champion’s role of taking out high-value defensive targets. The stun buys her extra seconds to survive and eliminate key defenses. Diggy provides crowd control and utility without slowing her down. It’s especially effective in Hybrid attacks (Hog Riders + Miners) and Surgical Strike strategies where timing is crucial.
Frosty
Frosty slows down nearby defenses and enemy troops, while also spawning Frostmites that help distract defenses and enemy heroes. The slow effect gives the Royal Champion more survivability, while the Frostmites absorb some hits. Great in ground-heavy attacks and cleanup phases, or when dealing with dense defenses near the core.
Poison Lizard
Poison Lizard targets and poisons defending Clan Castle troops and heroes. It deals continuous damage and slows them down, giving the Royal Champion the upper hand in close combat. If you’re sending your Royal Champion to fight off enemy Archer Queens, heroes, or CC troops, this pet is invaluable. It helps in anti-hero dive strategies.
Phoenix
When the Royal Champion is defeated, Phoenix revives her temporarily with a shield, allowing her to keep fighting for a few extra seconds. This can turn failed pushes into successful takedowns, especially when she dies with her Seeking Shield ability unused. Ideal in risky attacks or when you need her to break into the core and still survive.
Unicorn
The Unicorn heals her over time, which sounds useful but often isn’t fast enough to outpace incoming damage due to the Royal Champion’s forward, high-risk position. Only viable in cleanup roles or in easy base edges, but usually better assigned to Queen or King.
Electro Owl
Offers ranged chain lightning damage that can complement the Royal Champion’s ranged attack style. While not a strong synergy due to its lack of tankiness or defensive utility, it can be used if other pets are already assigned. Works better with Warden in most cases.
Spirit Fox
Grants brief invisibility after ability use, which can help her sneak deeper into a base. Can occasionally protect her during critical moments, but it’s hard to time and better suited to Grand Warden or Queen.
Offensive Strategies
Seeking Shield
The Royal Champion’s Seeking Shield is a versatile and destructive ability that can change the tide of battle when used strategically. It deals damage to up to four targets, prioritizing defenses, and is especially effective against lower-health buildings like Mortars and Hidden Teslas, which it can often destroy in a single hit.Sui Champion
One common offensive tactic is to use the Royal Champion as a “suicide” or “sui” Champion. In this strategy, she is deployed without much support to take down specific defenses or create a funnel by clearing outer buildings. This setup helps guide the rest of your troops into the core of the base.Royal Champion Walk
A more advanced technique is the Royal Champion Walk, similar in concept to the Archer Queen Walk. This involves sending Healers to support her as she picks off outer defenses. However, her shorter range compared to the Queen makes the Healers more vulnerable to nearby Air Defenses. Still, this strategy is useful for clearing portions of the base before the main push begins.Royal Champion Walk w/ Druid
An alternative is the Royal Champion Walk with Druids. While Druids are ground-based and have a limited healing duration, they provide a short-term survivability boost. This variation is situational and can be helpful in bases with exposed key structures early on.Invisibility Spell Use
For a high-risk, high-reward approach, the Royal Champion Charge uses Invisibility Spells instead of Healers to allow her to move into dangerous compartments and eliminate high-value targets like Scattershots or the Eagle Artillery. This method demands precise timing but can result in major structural damage early in the attack.Hybrid Attacks
In Hybrid attacks, the Royal Champion is deployed alongside troops like Hog Riders and Miners. These units tank for her while she focuses on clearing defenses. Her targeting logic also allows her to engage defending Heroes and air-based Clan Castle troops, providing protection for your main army. Timing is critical when deploying the Royal Champion. Often, it is more effective to send her in later during the attack—after some defenses are already engaged or destroyed. This reduces incoming damage and increases the value of her presence on the field. Sending her too early can lead to her being overwhelmed before her full potential is realized.Siege Barracks Use
When using Siege Barracks filled with Hog Riders, it’s smart to deploy the Royal Champion at the same time the Hog Riders emerge. This creates a powerful wave of pressure that can quickly dismantle the back end of a base.Rage Spell Use
If the Town Hall is left isolated or protected by only a few defenses, a high-level Royal Champion can destroy the Giga Tesla or Giga Inferno on her own. A well-timed Rage Spell can secure this outcome, especially for lower-level Royal Champions. Alternatively, Hero Equipment like the Haste Vial helps speed her up during this critical moment, while the Rocket Spear can strike the Town Hall from a safer distance.Hidden Tesla
Her Seeking Shield is also valuable for clearing Hidden Teslas around the Town Hall. These traps often spring up late in battle, so timing the ability after they appear is key to maximizing its impact.Inferno Tower
To eliminate single-target Inferno Towers, a calculated spell combo—one Earthquake and two Lightning Spells—can weaken it enough that the Seeking Shield can destroy it in one hit. This approach costs few spell slots and opens up critical parts of the base. If the battle ends before her ability is used, and she remains standing, the Royal Champion will still recover health equal to what her ability would have restored. This mechanic allows you to conserve the ability when not needed and ensures she’s in better shape for the next battle.Defensive Strategies Against the Royal Champion
High DPS Defenses:
Defend areas where she might be used with lots of high DPS defenses, as she has relatively lower health.
Splash Defenses and Traps:
Defend outer defenses with splash defenses and traps, as she is often used with Hog Riders from a Siege Barracks or the Hog Rider Puppet.
Sacrificial Defenses:
Use low-power defenses like Cannons, Mortars, or Archer Towers to absorb possible Seeking Shields. They can protect higher-value defenses and also stall her. This strategy only works if she has the Seeking Shield equipped.
Skeleton Traps:
She throws her spear slowly, so Skeleton Traps can distract her for a long time. Placing them near a single-target Inferno Tower is recommended. However, if she has the Rocket Spear, she may outrange the Inferno and not trigger the traps. If the skeletons are close enough to her explosive spear, they will be destroyed by its splash damage. If they are well-spread, they can waste multiple Rocket Spears.
Town Hall-Specific Strategies
The Royal Champion’s role and effectiveness can vary greatly depending on the Town Hall level, and adjusting your strategy to fit each stage of the game is essential for maximizing her potential.
Town Hall 11
At Town Hall 11, the focus is on learning how to use the Royal Champion’s abilities and how she integrates with your army. She can be used to clear a path for your main attack, especially against strong defenses like the Eagle Artillery.
Town Hall 12
At Town Hall 12, although not a favorite level for many, the Royal Champion’s ability to target the Giga Inferno and other high-value targets proves useful. It’s also important to ensure she is within range of the Grand Warden’s life aura to bolster her survivability and performance.
Town Hall 13
At Town Hall 13, the Royal Champion becomes available as a new hero, and getting her early is crucial. While her health may be low initially, her abilities, especially when upgraded, make her a valuable asset. Deploying her as a cleanup or flanking hero is effective, and she can also play a pivotal role in a Queen Charge LavaLoon attack strategy, helping eliminate key defenses like the Eagle Artillery and Inferno Tower. Additionally, pairing her with the Barbarian King in hybrid attacks or a Queen Charge can be particularly devastating.
Town Hall 14
At Town Hall 14, the Royal Champion is a strong contributor to Queen Charge Hybrid attacks. She can clear a path for Miners and Hog Riders, and her Seeking Shield is especially useful against single-target Inferno Towers. Additionally, upgrading your pet house and pairing her with the Unicorn can further increase her survivability when used alongside other heroes, particularly the Archer Queen.
Town Hall 15
At Town Hall 15, the Royal Champion benefits from Diggy, which can stun powerful defenses like single Inferno Towers, allowing her to remain active longer in battle. Skeleton Spells can be used to distract the Monolith while the Royal Champion clears out defenses, and pairing her with the Hog Rider Puppet is effective for forcing defenses to retarget.
Town Hall 16
By Town Hall 16, the Royal Champion gains access to her Royal Gem, which provides health regeneration, making her even more effective in prolonged engagements. She is especially powerful in Queen Charge Root Rider attacks, where the Spirit Fox pet can help rip through defenses while protecting the Root Riders. Utilizing Invisibility Spells along with her Haste Vial and Life Gem can further amplify her effectiveness.
Town Hall 17
At Town Hall 17, the main focus shifts toward upgrading the Clan Castle to carry more troops and siege machines, further enhancing the potential of your army, including the Royal Champion.
Across all Town Hall levels, prioritize upgrading the Royal Champion and her equipment at the Hero Hall. Always plan her deployment based on the base layout, as she is a defense-targeting hero. Pairing her with other heroes and troops is key to maximizing her damage output, and practicing different strategies will help you discover the best synergies for your play style. Understanding these specific strategies for each Town Hall level will ensure you optimize the Royal Champion’s impact in both attacks and defenses.
Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q)
❓What does the Royal Champion do in Clash of Clans?
The Royal Champion is a powerful hero unlocked at Town Hall 13. She targets defenses first and throws her spear from a distance, making her effective at cleaning up key structures deep inside enemy bases.
❓What upgrades should I prioritize for the Royal Champion?
Focus on increasing her level to boost her base stats and ability strength. When available, upgrade her gear (equipment) at the Blacksmith to improve passive and active bonuses.
❓Can the Royal Champion jump over walls?
Yes, like other heroes, she can jump over walls without needing Wall Breakers or Jump Spells, giving her excellent mobility when navigating enemy bases.
❓What troops work well with the Royal Champion?
She pairs well with Hybrid Armies (Hog Riders and Miners), Air Spam (Dragons or Balloons), and Ground Smasher comps, where she cleans up or finishes off distracted defenses.
❓Does the Royal Champion target heroes or Clan Castle troops?
No, her primary targeting is defenses. However, if no defenses remain, she will then attack other buildings and enemy units like any other troop or hero.
