We are a war focused clan.  This means upgrading troops that will help you 3 star in war, and focusing on defenses that will help prevent you from being 3 starred, not defenses that help protect you from farming attacks.

The route to helping the clan the most at TH9 is to maximize the increase in your attacking power while minimizing the difficulty in opposing bases that you bring in to war matchups.  This means being very careful and disciplined in adding new defenses.

Summary:

1. Upgrade War Troops, Spells, AQ & BK.
2. Build & Upgrade AD, Teslas, Sweeper, Traps, & Walls.
3. Carefully upgrade troops and defenses to keep offense ahead of defense.

Why?:

1. Defensive buildings and troops add “weight” which results in getting harder opponents in clan match-ups.
2. Upgrading only war troops, and low-weight defenses will allow you to “carry your weight”, 3-starring opponents that are at or above your weight.
3. Watch clashtutor.com/up9 for more details and tips.

First things first. Be ready to start with all of these immediately when you get to th9.

1. Research lab (2.5M Elixir)
2. Clan castle (5M Gold)
3. Spell Factory (1.6M Elixir)

Priorities for elixir. Make sure that you have enough elixir to keep these things going.

1. Lab, Spell factory
2. Loons to 6
3. Army camps
4. Dark spell factory to 3
5. Dark elixir drills
6. Dark Barracks

Priorities for gold. Make sure that you have enough gold to keep these things going.

1. Clan castle
2. Build all new traps and bombs (0 time stuff: new giant bomb, and 2 new seeking air mines)
3. New air defense to 6
4. New tesla to 6

Priorities for DE

1. Build AQ
2. Hogs to 5
3. AQ to 5
4. Other dark troop upgrades based on usage
5. Heroes, Heroes, Heroes.

Research order. There isn’t one correct order like there is at th8.  Upgrade what you use in your war attacks.  But these should probably be your highest priorities:

1. Hogs to 5
2. Loons to 6
3. Hounds to 2
4. Jump to 2
5. Golem to 3
6. Golem to 4
7. Healer to 4
8. Lightning to 6
9. Valks to 3
10. Valks to 4
11. Wizards to 6
12. Heal to 6
13. Baby Dragons to 2

Healers may be needed earlier depending on your queen level.  Lightning may be needed earlier for certain air attacks.

Upgrade to max as fast as you want. This stuff carries either no war weight, or has high benefits relative to its weight.  These things should be your highest priorities.

1. Anything related to resources (all storages, mines, pumps, drills)
2. Bombs and traps (including air bombs, air mines, giant bombs, skeleton traps, small bombs, and springs). Note that one th9 small bomb will kill a th9 wallbreaker. Don’t neglect the small bombs!
3. Any elixir upgrades (army camps, dark barracks, dark spell factory, etc)
4. Air defenses, air sweeper, teslas.
5. Walls

Add slowly. And before you add any, you should have maxed troops for your most common attacks, and be 3 starring mid TH9s when you start this list, and high TH9s as you near the end.  This stuff will start adding to your war weight, but has benefits as well. Try to pace yourself through this list.

1. New archer tower to th8 max level (10)
2. New wizard tower to th8 max level (6)
3. xbows to level 1
4. Archer Towers (6) to 11
5. Cannons (5) to 11
6. Wizard Towers (4) to 7
7. Mortars (4) to 7
8. Bomb tower to 3

Upgrade very slowly. xbow levels are the main driver of your weight at th9.  You should consider and pace every upgrade of your xbows, because each upgrade increases your weight.

1. xbows to level 2
2. xbows to level 3

Balance and pacing. The war match algorithm currently punishes having your offense too far ahead of your defense.  So, while it’s important that you don’t add defenses too quickly, it’s important that you don’t add them too slowly, either.  Our current recommendation for what’s best for the clan is as follows:

1. By the time you have 10/10 heroes, you should have all 4 teslas and all 4 air defenses maxed.
2. Between 10/10 heroes and 15/15 heroes you should look to add your new wizard tower and new archer tower, and get them to max th8 levels.
3. By the time you have 15/15 heroes, you should add your level 1 xbows.
4. By the time you have 25/25 heroes, you should have max th9 defenses (except that still having level 2 xbows is OK).
5. As you go, you should be looking at the weight of the bases you’re routinely 3 starring.  If it’s significantly above your current weight, you should look to add some defensive weight.  If it’s not above your current weight, you should pause your defenses while working on offense, heroes, walls, bombs, and traps..