Going from Town Hall 6 to Town Hall 7 is one of the biggest upgrades in Clash of Clans. This Town Hall level brings with it a huge number of new towers and upgrades, often leading players to a lot of confusion and indecision over which building or upgrade to get first. In this guide, we will be discussing which upgrades should get priority and what exactly you should be focusing on first to maximize your advancement through this Town Hall level.
Builder #1: Laboratory –> Spell Factory
Your first free builder should be used to start the Laboratory upgrade. The level 5 Laboratory unlocked at Town Hall 7 is capable of researching level 4 upgrades for most of your core units, making it your most important upgrade at Town Hall 7.
Once this first builder is done upgrading the Laboratory, start level 4 Archer or Barbarians as your first priority for Elixir spending. Once you start that upgrade and have enough spare elixir, take this newly freed builder and start upgrading the Spell Factory.
Builder #2: Army Camp –> Barracks –> Barracks Level 2 –> Army Camp Upgrades
At Town Hall 7, you get a new Army Camp. This additional Army Camp is one of the easiest ways to increase your offensive firepower. Build this new Army Camp as your second order of business after starting your Laboratory.
This new Army Camp will only take a few minutes to build. Once it finishes, use the newly freed builder #2 to start your new Barracks. Upgrade this Barracks to level 2. This will not take very long. This Barracks will now be able to significantly boost production and pump out Archers or Barbarians to help you farm faster.
As soon as the level 2 Barracks finishes, take Builder #2 and go back to the new Army Camp. Do not stop upgrading the Army Camp with this builder until the Army Camp is maxed out.
Builder #3: Walls –> Dark Elixir Storage
Given that your builders will be working on elixir-based upgrades for awhile, you should start to build up a lot of gold. Before starting any structures with your third builder, go ahead and place all of your new walls at Town Hall 7. You get 50 new walls at TH7, so there should be plenty to spend your gold on here.
After placing your walls, use this builder to start your Dark Elixir Storage. While it may seem strange to place this non-offensive building as a top priority, understand that without it, you actually cannot collect or store Dark Elixir. You will want to start saving for your Barbarian King (and its upgrades) as soon as possible going into Town Hall 7, so it is important to get this storage structure down as soon as possible.
Town Hall 7 Upgrade Priority: The Next Tasks
If you have more than 3 builders, you can start on this section right away with your 4th builder. Otherwise, when the 3 builders above complete their most important tasks, they can move on to this section. Note that some builders will get here sooner than the others (namely builder #3). This is intentional; once the Dark Elixir storage structure is down, we need to work towards protecting it.
Task #1. Place all level 1 towers and traps aside from the Hidden Tesla.
At Town Hall 7, players get 2 new Cannons, 1 new Archer Tower, 1 new Mortar, 1 new Air Defense, and a number of new traps. Place all of these structures and traps. Do not worry about upgrades; just build the new structures. It only takes around 14 hours of build time to complete all of these towers. Hidden Tesla towers will come later; they take too long to build to start now.
Task #2. Rearrange your base to a great TH7 defense.
Now that you have all of your structures down (aside from the Hidden Tesla towers), it is time to rearrange your base to something more appropriate for a Town Hall 7 player. Check my Town Hall 7 Base Layout Guide for details.
We will not have a Barbarian King or the HIdden Tesla towers yet, but this is okay. Place a gold mine or storage structure in the Barbarian King’s slot and leave the Hidden Tesla’s slot open. Your would-be opponent has no idea whether or not you have Hidden Tesla towers yet, so no loss there.
Task #3. Upgrade all basic towers to their maximum level that requires less than 1 day of building time.
Next, work on getting all upgrades for your brand-new towers that require less than 1 day of building time. This will result in the fastest increase in your defensive capabilities versus upgrading old towers.
Task #4. Upgrade your Dark Elixir Storage.
While you will be no where near maxing out on your Dark Elixir Storage space this early into leveling up, upgrading your Dark Elixir Storage serves another purpose: it increases the health of this structure.
Consider that loot stolen is a percentage of damage dealt, and that the first 10%-20% of the damage dealt to a Dark Elixir Storage structure results in little loot for the attacker. Increasing the health of the Dark Elixir Storage means that 300 damage dealt to this structure will result in less loot being taken by the opponent.
When would just 300 damage be dealt to this structure? From a Lightning Spell of course! Upgrading your Dark Elixir storage structure actually offers a significant reduction in the amount of Dark Elixir stolen during Lightning Spell attacks – as much as 20-30% less loot stolen if you are not carrying much in the first place! This style of attack is extremely common – you will be surprised how much Dark Elixir you save in the long-run by maxing our your DE Storage.
Task #5. Place your Hidden Tesla Towers.
After placing all of your new towers, getting early upgrades on those towers, and setting up a TH7 defense, you are now ready to add your Hidden Tesla towers. Start building them as you save enough gold.
Task #6. Pull 1 Builder for Barracks & Dark Barracks Upgrade Duty
You should strive to upgrade all of your Barracks to level 9 during your time at Town Hall 7. However, if you upgrade too many Barracks at once, your production will be so low it will be hard to raid. It is easiest to just pull 1 builder at this point and have this builder always upgrading Barracks. It will take about 3 weeks to max out all 4 Barracks, but it is worth it.
When this builder finishes upgrading all of the regular Barracks, have this builder start on the Dark Barracks. When the Dark Barracks is finished, have this same builder upgrade it to level 2.
Note: Only upgrade the Barracks as you have the spare Elixir. Upgrading units at the Laboratory still takes precedence.
Task #7 (Final). Upgrade existing defensive structures and add additional structures as resources build.
By this point, upgrade priority is not terribly important. Slowly work on maxing out your existing defensive towers. I recommend trying not to upgrade more than 1 Mortar or more than 1 Air Defense at once; upgrading both Air Defense towers or multiple Mortars will leave your base vulnerable to certain attacks.
As your Elixir builds, you can start on the Dark Barracks and upgrade it to level 2. This is a very low priority building as I do not recommend spending Dark Elixir at this level on anything other than the Barbarian King. Speaking of the Barbarian King, the altar should be placed as soon as you get enough Dark Elixir. The king should be upgraded immediately each time you reach the Dark Elixir requirements for the next level.
Walls should be upgraded as your resources build. Never let your resources fully max out; if this is happening, you should be spending some resources on walls as you go along to keep your resources from being wasted.
Your base should be mostly maxed out before moving on to Town Hall 8. The exceptions are Gold Mines, Elixir Collectors, the Barbarian King, and all research that requires Dark Elixir. These do not need to be maxed out in order to move onto Town Hall 8. It is much easier to get Dark Elixir at TH8 as opposed to TH7; you can max out your Barbarian King at TH8 much more readily than TH7. Even at TH8, you will not max our your Dark Elixir research before moving on to TH9.