Welcome to the Quad Heroes strategy guide!
In the following pages, you will learn a magnificent strategy— one that will greatly impress your clanmates, one that you can reliably 3-star with, one that lets you play with all the new toys that Supercell has been releasing, and one that is little-known outside of a few people…
Let’s begin…
"Quad Heroes" is a multi-phase strategy that includes two hero charges and a big powerful main army. You’ll often deploy your heroes on separate corners of the map, and watch them (hilariously) converge in the core.
See it in action:
If you want more examples, check out my YouTube Channel.
Quad Heroes has three phases*:
Phase 1: Warden Walk + Fireball:
Set up a fireball on a portion of the base. Preemptively destroy a few major defenses before they become an issue, and set up a funnel for the rest of your army.
Phase 2: Queen Walk + Recall
Finesse a queen walk on the perimeter of the base. Scoop up outer buildings and recall her before she gets caught in heavy fire.
Phase 3: King + Ground Smash**
Re-deploy the queen on a far side, and send in your king, royal champion, and smash through the remainder of the base.
*Intermediate clashers should be familiar with the concept of a multi-phase attack. Any strategy that revolves around a queen walk usually has two phases (the queen walk, followed by the main army). Some can have more. Blizzard lalo has three phases (blimp, followed by a hero dive, followed by the lalo).
**"Smash" refers to big, beefy troops moving through the base.
Beginners should focus on one phase at a time, while experienced players can run multiple in parallel.
The flow of the attack (measured in time remaining):
Warden Walk (start to end)
Flame Flinger (first ~1m30s)
Queen Walk + Recall (in the first 1m for ~30s)
Redeployment of Queen (middle to end)
King + Smash + Royal Champion (middle to end)
These are estimates that vary depending on the attack. But hopefully it gives you a sense of what happens when.
Proof that it’s 🔥:
Try it for yourselves. Here’s the army link:
Heroes, equipment, and pets:
Alternatives:
King: Giant Gauntlet / Rage Vial or Giant Gauntlet / Spiky Ball
Royal Champion: Rocket Spear / Seeking Shield + Spirit Fox or Phoenix
Breaking Down The Army:
Phase 1: Warden Walk + Fireball
Fireball (Level 18+)
At level 18, the blast radius is increased from 5 to 6 tiles.
At level 20, a fireball + 2 earthquakes destroys any building except the eagle artillery and town hall.
At level 27, a fireball + 1 earthquake does the same.
Rage Gem (Level 15+)
Increases the warden's damage & attack speed, and buffs the healers.
3 Invisibility Spells
Used to redirect the fireball or protect your heroes.
2 Earthquake Spells
Used in tandem with the fireball to destroy buildings.
Take as many quakes as you need and no more. With a level 20 fireball, I recommend bringing two. With a max fireball, bring one (& swap the other with a freeze or skeleton spell). With the rocket spear, you may even bring three.
Pet Choice on Warden
Angry Jelly works if you want a fast fireball, like in cases where you want to quickly merge the warden with the rest of your army. In this army, we are doing an extended warden charge, so the jelly isn’t as useful. And the Angry Jelly can also put your warden in immediate danger, or brainwash him to walk into enemy heroes or lure clan castle troops.
That’s why I recommend the Electro Owl, Frosty, or Poison Lizard. Most of the time, you can expect your pet to die early, so to prolong its lifespan, we want a ranged pet. Frosty might be slightly better if you’re deploying the warden near an air defense, but Frosty is also my preferred option on the king. Poison Lizard is ok. It only shines when you’re dropping him right on top of an enemy hero. Unicorn would be a great option but it’s better on the queen. Electro Owl is my favorite because it provides a large initial burst of damage and tanking.
Phase 2: Queen Walk + Recall
Healer Puppet (Level 15+)
At level 15, the ability spawns 3 healers.
Frozen Arrow (Level 20+)
At level 20, the queen receives the same DPS boost as a level 17 archer puppet. The slow effect allows her to duel enemy heroes, ricochet cannons, and multi-archer towers.
Pet Choice on Queen
Unicorn is the best pet on the queen. The one exception is if you’re playing without frozen arrow— in which case consider putting Frosty on the queen and Unicorn on the warden.
1 Healer
Used to help the queen survive.
1 Balloon
Used to protect healers by checking for seeking air mines.
2 Super Wall Breakers
Used to grant the queen access to defenses inside a compartment or a second layer.
1 Recall
Used to scoop up the queen after she has gotten enough value.
Used to scoop up healers if one of your heroes dies early.
Used to rescue troops from the town hall explosion + poison.
Phase 3: King + Ground Smash
Spiky Ball (Level 20+)
Used to prevent time-failing by cleaning up buildings near the end.
Vampstache
Gives him extra survivability and tankiness. Pairs nicely with the spiky ball.
Giant Gauntlet (Level 20+)
Used to wipe out a dense cluster of buildings.
Rage Vial
Pairs well with the giant gauntlet.
Pet Choice on King
Frosty is great. Your king will often beat on a wall, and Frosty can slow defenses on the other side. Yak is also great as it can break open those walls and acts as an extra body that can tank a multi-archer tower for a longer time. Diggy might seem like an obvious choice (because of its highly visible stun effect), but your king is often hitting a non-defensive building— so Diggy is underwhelming. Phoenix can shine if you're sending him into heavy fire (eg. a monolith) and expect him to die early. Angry Jelly is also viable when you have a clear idea of where you want him to go, and you want to save funneling troops.
2 Root Riders
Used for tanking and breaking walls, especially for your king, ice golems, and electro titan.
1 Electro Titan
Used as an all-rounder in terms of tankiness and damage.
Used to evaporate ground skellies or enemy clan castle troops.
2 Ice Golems
Used for tanking. It's like bringing an extra freeze spell.
1 Apprentice Warden
Used to keep your troops alive for longer.
Accessory Troops
Haste Vial (Level 12+)
Hog Rider Puppet (Level 15+)
Pairs well with the haste vial.
Use the active ability to save her from single-infernos and monoliths. Hogs + haste + rage spell is a great combo.
Rocket Spear (Level 18+)
At level 18, the number of empowered attacks is increased from 6 to 7.
Seeking Shield (Level 15+)
Pairs well with the rocket spear.
Pet Choice on Royal Champion
Spirit Fox is best with the haste + hog puppet setup.
Phoenix OR Fox can be used with the rocket spear + seeking shield combination.
7 Super Barbarians
Used for funneling, cleanup, and extra support.
1 Druid
Used for healing your smash or heroes.
2 Balloons
Used for damage, cleanup, or testing for seeking air mines.
1 Headhunter
Used to kill enemy heroes, often to speed up the takedown of the enemy king.
Together with super barbarians or an ice golem, can snipe an enemy hero on the edge of the map.
1 Minion
Used for sniping buildings and funneling.
5 Archers
Used for sniping buildings and funneling. During the warden walk, you’ll often have downtime. Use this time to find buildings to snipe. 1 building for 1 housing space is a good bargain!
Used to speed up your warden-walk (for example, if he’s stuck on two hoards of ground skeletons).
1 Barbarian
Used to check for teslas or ground skeletons in front of your warden walk or flame flinger.
1 Overgrowth
Used as a really long freeze or as a funneling tool.
1 Poison
Used to kill enemy clan castle troops.
1 Rage
Used to support your army as necessary.
2 Freeze
Used to support your army as necessary.
Siege Machines
Generally, the Flame Flinger and Siege Barracks are the best sieges with this army. The others are more base-dependent.
Here’s a full tier list:
S Tier (Flame Flinger)
Always look for flame flinger value if the base offers it.
Tips:
Watch out for mortars, ground xbows, and the monolith. They outrange the flame flinger.
Check for traps (!) A tesla can pop up and shorten the flinger’s lifespan by 50% or more. Ground skeleton traps can also be a nuisance. To prevent this, send a troop or two in front of your flinger to check for traps. I like to send a barbarian or even a balloon. Traps that do pop up can be dealt with using archers, super barbarians, or other troops.
Pay attention to enemy heroes. Your flame flinger won’t target them directly. The enemy queen or royal champion may die in the crossfire, but when they don’t, they will quickly take out your flame flinger when it creeps too close to their altars.
Don’t place your flame flinger behind your army, in the path of where the buildings would’ve been taken out anyway. This one seems obvious, but I still see it way too often. You’re basically nullifying the value of the siege machine.
Don’t drop your flinger too late. It’s a slow siege that takes time to work. 1m50s remaining is the latest time you want to drop it.
Spells don’t work on siege machines. Personally I find this very unintuitive. If you see enemy clan castle troops barreling at your flame flinger, an invisibility spell won’t be able to shoo them off.
A Tier (Siege Barracks + Log Launcher)
Personally, I love the Siege Barracks. The two P.E.K.K.As + wizards greatly amplify the power of your smash. Drop it in a corner to clear an entire area or send it behind your smash.
The Log Launcher has two use cases:
Pre-trigger invisibility spell towers, so your army targets directly whatever the spell tower is protecting. Keep in mind the invis tower has the fastest recharge time out of all the spell towers (at 50 seconds), so don’t log too early.
Open up compartments for your smash. Can be useful against bases with multiple layers of walls.
B Tier (Battle Drill + Battle Blimp)
The Battle Drill is niche and preferable when no better options are available. Its stun + defense-targeting pairs well with the royal champion’s haste + hogs equipment.
Its wall-breaking ability can be useful. It’s great at sending clan castle troops deep inside the base. This can be useful if you want- say two root riders to pop out in the core. Finally, the drill can be used to pre-trigger invisibility spell towers in certain situations.
The Battle Blimp doesn’t synergize well with our army, as we don’t bring lava hounds, hardly any loons, and no eternal tome. Therefore it’s hard to protect the blimp, and hard land it in a good place.
C Tier (Stone Slammer)
Like the Battle Blimp, the Stone Slammer doesn’t synergize with our army. It is an air unit in a primarily ground-based attack.
D Tier (Wall Wrecker)
In situations where you’d consider a Wall Wrecker, you’re probably better off with a Log Launcher. It performs roughly the same function but is more powerful.
The only scenario I can think of where I’d prefer a Wall Wrecker is when the town hall is on the edge of the map covered by light defenses and a single layer of wall. Let’s say you want to yeti-bomb the town hall, but there’s a slight chance the blimp might die to two seeking air mines, then a Wall Wrecker may be a more reliable way of delivering yetis to the town hall without the need to expend coco-loons.
Clan Castle Troops
Your siege machine choice will dictate which clan castle troops are best.
Best w/ Flame Flinger (Super Minions, Rocket Loons)
Choose troops that can clean up after your flame flinger expires.
Best w/ Log Launcher (Root Riders)
Choose troops that can bolster your smash after your log launcher dies.
Best w/ Siege Barracks (Super Hogs, Super Minions)
Choose troops that can quickly join your army after your siege barracks pops.
Best w/ Battle Blimp + Battle Drill (Yeti Bomb)
Choose troops that can quickly take out defenses after your blimp / drill dies.
Best w/ Stone Slammer
Choose troops that can continue dealing damage after your stone slammer pops.
Final Note:
Ya I know, the army uses a ton of different troops. But the wonderful thing is you can modify the composition according to your specific troop levels. You can swap super barbarians for baby dragons, root riders for yetis, healers for druids, super wall breakers for normal wall breakers, and so on. The only non-negotiables are the fireball + rage gem and the healer puppet.
For clan war / CWL / esports hits, tailor the army to the base. The most common substitutions include: the number of earthquake spells, the number of wall breakers, and whether or not you need a poison / yeti. And tinker with funneling troops to ensure you have a good setup.
The standard composition will cover a majority of cases.
Here’s a detailed walkthrough of how to execute the strategy.
Before the Attack (Scouting)
Look for these four things (in this order):
Where to fireball
Choose siege machine
Where to queen walk
Where to send in your smash
Note: If you’re in legends league, with ~30 seconds to scout, then focus on the first two. The rest can be decided later on.
1. Where to fireball?
Areas packed with core defenses are best.
Look at this base:
Notice the top-right and bottom-left compartments. They are stacked with defenses. Fireballing here is ideal.
Ok.. What about this base?
Not as obvious as the first one, but if we look closely, we notice a cluster of buildings on the north side. By fireballing the top builder hut, we can blast 2 ricochet cannons, 2 multi-infernos, 2 poison towers, and damage the town hall.
Last one:
A bit tricky, eh?
The base is pretty spread out. It’s hard to fireball more than 2-3 core defenses at once. Here are some options:
They are all viable. But also consider the ease of landing it there. If you have to invest too many spells, either for protecting the warden or redirecting the fireball— then it may be better to go for a safer, but less valuable option.
Generally, these are the best buildings to fireball:
S tier: Enemy Clan Castle
A Tier: Monolith
B Tier: Town Hall / Eagle Artillery / Ricochet Cannon
C Tier: Any “Hero-Killer” spot. These are groups of 3-4 dangerous defenses, including enemy heroes.
We accompany the fireball with an extended warden walk.
By having a long warden walk, we can guarantee to land the fireball consistently in the right place. Also, the grand warden is one of the most powerful units in the game. With a 7-tile range and 498 DPS (at max level w/ equipment), combined with proper healing, the warden can clear 25-50% of the base alone.
To start the warden walk, drop him on ground-mode followed by 5 healers. 9 out of 10 times, you’ll want to use 5 healers. Maybe you can get away with fewer if there are few defenses nearby. But I like to drop 5 anyway in case one dies to a seeking air mine. You may also want to drop a coco-loon* or two.
“Coco-loon” refers to a balloon that floats ahead of your healers to check for air mines. The balloon is intended to die and fall out of the sky like a coco-nut falling out of a tree.
The warden walk is quite similar to a queen walk, though not necessarily easier to execute. Here are some key differences you should know:
The warden has a longer range than the queen (7 vs 5 tiles), and he can hop over walls. This makes his pathing more predictable, he’s safer as he can stay out of range of defenses, and he doesn’t need as many funneling troops.
The warden deals less damage than the queen. Therefore a warden walk takes longer than a queen walk. That's why I recommend the rage gem— it gives him +22% attack speed at max level.
The warden has fewer hitpoints than the queen. He can die very quickly if you're not paying attention. One barrage of eagle artillery fire deals 65% of the warden's health. And the enemy archer queen can solo-kill him.
The warden does not have a second life, unlike the queen who has the invisibility vial.
The warden outranges the enemy barbarian king and royal champion (most of the time), and the enemy queen (some of the time), depending on where the enemy heroes are relative to their altars.
The warden is counterintuitively strong. He can solo-kill a monolith or town hall (the 2 largest defenses) (assuming no other defenses nearby), but put him in range of a multi-archer tower + xbow, and he'll need spell support.
The warden follows large troops. So be careful when placing troops nearby- unless you intend for him to follow. A baby dragon is fine. Super barbarians at a distance is fine. But too close and the healers might transfer over. Minions, archers, and barbarians are fine. Even a yeti is fine (it’s a bit gimmicky, but he won’t follow once his pet has died). He will follow root riders, heroes, and other large troops. The follow range just is a few tiles outside of his circle.
Here are some warden-walk tips specific to this army:
Warden-walk for as long as possible. Generally, we don’t want to merge him into our army. Instead, we want him to extract maximum value as an independent battle machine.
Wait and see where he goes before placing other troops. To ensure the warden stays independent, first see where he’ll likely path towards, so we can place the rest of our troops away from him.
Let the warden handle enemy clan castle troops. Usually, the warden can take out the enemy clan castle troops by himself. Use a poison on whatever comes out. Super minions and/or headhunters are probably the most dangerous combination. You’ll have to be fast on your poison and perhaps even invest a freeze. Stalling troops like the triple ice golem clan castle can actually help us, as it buys us time to think and room to breathe.
Maybe don’t charge the core. You’ll often overgrowth the core anyway. And since you’re only bringing 1 rage, 3 invis, and 2 freeze spells, it’s harder to keep your warden alive if you charge in too deep.
Know your fireball damage. This sounds obvious, but there are a couple of nuances. For example, a level 20 fireball + 2 earthquakes will technically destroy a clan castle— but a single builder hut repair tick will save it. Therefore you may need to adjust your fireball strategy depending on the level.
By now, you’re about 30-60s into the attack. Time to fireball!
Note: There’s no universal time to fireball. Sometimes you’ll fireball instantly, other times you’ll fireball in the last 10 seconds of the attack. But I’ve found 30-60s to be a good benchmark, as it is usually after you’ve cleared out a few defenses and can line up the fireball properly.
Find a specific building to aim at, not a general area. Use your earthquake spells at the same time as when the fireball lands. To target the town hall, you first need to activate it, either at 51% destruction or an earthquake spell. You can also use a skelly + invis spell, or a single skelly if there are few defenses nearby.
Sometimes, you’ll need to hide defenses to aim your fireball properly. Invisibility spells are your friend. They last for ~4 seconds and have a fairly large radius; they can cover defenses as far as 3 tiles apart.
Here’s a crazy example:
We use 2 overgrowth and 4 invisibility spells to guarantee a fireball on the centralized rage tower, wiping out the entire core.
Here’s a tip. If you’re fireballing directly in front of dangerous defenses, then place an invisibility spell before deploying your warden. In this example, we deploy the warden in front of two ricochet cannons and two xbows. Unprotected, he will die in <3 seconds. By pre-placing the invis, we protect our warden and prevent luring enemy clan castle troops.
Here’s an example of what *not* to do:
There are several mistakes here. First, we completely missed the tesla that popped up in front of us. Second, we didn’t protect our warden so he died early. Third, it’s not clear if we would’ve hit our intended target (the invisibility tower), and not the air defenses. Since the game encodes Chebyshev distance (not Euclidean distance), diagonals appear longer than they actually are.
Here’s what I mean:
Although you might think the bomb tower is closer, a fireball would actually target the air defense. You can prove this by counting tiles.
How do I know if my fireball will hit X building? What’s the radius?
Let’s look at an example:
Here we are fireballing the 2x2 rage tower with a smorgasbord of defenses nearby. The orange tiles represent the blast radius. Any defense with at least one tile in the orange will be hit.
This includes the ricochet cannon, eagle, multi-archer tower, and scattershot. Only the air sweeper is completely outside the range.
A copy of the fireball radius graphic will be provided in the “References” section.
2. Choose a Siege Machine
Here is my decision process:
Q1: Is there flame flinger value?
Leothaid has a point system:
Strong defenses like infernos/scatter/multi/rico are worth 3 points. Weak defenses worth 1 point. If you can get 5 points of value, then use the flame flinger.
In this example, the flame flinger gets a ricochet cannon, multi-archer tower, regular archer tower, and air defense. That’s 8 points of value!
When scouting, I like to use the “tactical view” feature. By clicking on one xbow, I can quickly see the range of all xbows. That enables me to quickly see if there’s flame flinger value. If there isn’t such value, then the next thing to look for is…
Q2: Do I need a log launcher?
You might, if there are lots of closed compartments and you’re attacking from the far side of the core.
Here, there are several layers of walls en route to the core, and the town hall itself is enclosed in a small compartment. A log launcher will give our troops access.
If you don’t require a log launcher, then try a siege barracks. It’s hard to go wrong with this one, as the 2 P.E.K.K.As + 11 wizards will grab value no matter what. I like using it to clear a corner of the base to funnel, but you can also send it in behind your smash for the extra power.
The battle drill is really nice at breaking open walls. In the example below, there are 4 layers of walls to reach the core. The drill outperforms the log launcher here— because there is too little runway for the log launcher, so it may die prematurely and be too slow at funneling.
Depending on your clan castle troop, you can also use a Battle Blimp or Stone Slammer. On this base, there’s no flame flinger value (xbow coverage is good), no log launcher value (because we want to fireball the core), and siege barracks and battle drill are pretty mediocre. But a blimp with a yeti-bomb can quickly clear a segment of the base, setting up great pathing for the rest of our heroes.
3. Look for Queen Walk Value
How do you execute the queen walk?
Deploy your queen and instantly activate her ability to summon her three healers. Drop one more healer so that she has four. But don’t drop any more because a recall spell only covers to hero and up to 4 healers. You may also want to send in a coco-loon.
Watch out for air defenses on the perimeter of the map. They can shoot down the healers if you’re not careful. Healers spawn around her, not behind her, so place your queen further back than you would normally. If an air defense is in range no matter what, then wait until she has destroyed the air defense before activating the ability.
Don’t deploy her too close to the warden, or he will follow her. And don’t charge her too deep into the base where she’ll take too much damage. We don’t bring many spells to support her. Ideally you want to use 0 spells during this phase (not including the recall), but I’d say the maximum is 2 spell slots, maybe 3 or 4 (1 rage + 2 invis) if you can get crazy value. Don’t worry if you miss a defense or two. You’ll be able to pick it up in the next phase of the attack.
For beginners, I recommend starting this phase after you’ve confirmed your warden is safe. I often find players rushing both the warden + queen walk at once. This often results in one of their heroes dying as there’s too much to keep track of.
Where should you queen walk?
Here are a few use cases of the queen walk + recall.
Use Case 1: Destroy a Major Defense
The top-left area is light on defenses; only the two enemy heroes threaten our queen. If we bypass them, then we can reach the eagle artillery, netting us a huge advantage. By bringing an ice golem and a few headhunters, we can secure this area easy-peasy.
These examples will also be available in video form in the “Replays” section.
Use Case 2: Make a Funnel
We notice the warden walking upwards toward the right side. Unfortunately, he’s pretty useless there as there are only trash buildings in that area. But if we can get him to path toward the core, then he can pick up a lot more value. So we’ll use our queen + recall to funnel him inward.
Use Case 3: Set up a Flame Flinger
I spot a juicy flame flinger spot on the top-right side, where we can get a ricochet cannon, multi-inferno, multi-archer tower, and a poison tower. That’s crazy value.
However, there’s a mortar behind the wall that may pose a threat. We’ll use our queen + recall to eliminate it. Even though we’re only destroying a few minor buildings in this phase, the value the flame flinger will get will more than make up for it.
Use Case 4: The Power of the Frozen Arrow
Maybe you just want to take out a large section of the base. The frozen arrow makes this very possible. Here, the queen was able to duel the enemy king, royal champion, and multi-archer tower with just the help of 1 invisibility spell. Now that’s value!
Usually, getting perimeter buildings and light defenses is enough. Scoring xbows, scattershots, ricochet cannons, multi-archer towers, or enemy heroes is a luxury.
When do you recall? And why do you recall?
You recall her after she has gotten the foreseen value or when the damage she is receiving exceeds her rate of healing.
Since there’s a spell delay animation, it’s easier to recall her while she's hitting a building vs when she's moving or about to move.
The reason we recall is because we can sneak in 60% of a queen charge before the eagle activates. That is a big deal because once the eagle is on, it becomes much harder to keep your heroes alive. So we’re basically picking up free value. We are also preventing ourselves from time-failing— as a solo-warden walk is often too slow.
Where do you redeploy the queen?
Replaying the queen is fairly straightforward. You can either opt for a second queen walk similar to the first one or send her in with your smash. Take your time when re-deploying her. Once you drop her, she’s usually off on her own, so make sure she heads toward safe spots.
Dual queen walks are a key part of this army. They’ll net you a huge chunk of the base if you choose good spots, and help you avoid the dreaded time-fail.
4. Where to send in your smash
By now, you’re about 1 minute 15 seconds into the attack. You look down at your troop bar and you see a crap ton of troops remaining… Time to send them in!
Note: 1m 30s remaining is the latest time for this stage of your attack. This is also when the eagle artillery should activate (& not before).
Generally, you want to direct your smash away from the warden and toward the core. If the eagle is still up, then that is a great place to begin. Rarely do you want to merge your smash with the warden, unless the warden has already achieved its maximum value. And sometimes you might merge to pull the warden backward out of danger, but that is the exception, not the rule. A good rule of thumb is to attack directly into the heaviest-hitting defense remaining.
Deploy your king, ice golem, root riders, e-titan, and yeti. Don’t place them all on the same tile. Spread them out over a few buildings, but just make sure they converge to the core. Use as many super barbarians as necessary for this to happen.
Sometimes, you want to separate the king from the smash. Usually in cases when he has the Giant Gauntlet + Rage Vial and there is an easy compartment he can clear by himself. If you have the Spiky Ball, then you want him with your main army.
During this time, keep tabs on your warden and queen. You might find yourself pausing in the middle of the smash deployment to place a safety invisibility spell for your queen or warden. That’s alright. No need to rush this part. Just finish when you have the chance.
Overgrowth the town hall. Or if the town hall will fall to one of your heroes, then overgrowth the next largest group of remaining defenses. You can also overgrowth to funnel, redirect your fireball, or save one of your heroes.
Lastly, sit back and watch where your troops go. Use the Giant Gauntlet ability when he’s near enemy heroes or a large group of core defenses. Use the Spiky Ball at the end to clean up the last remaining buildings.
Send up your royal champion to clean up remaining buildings, or behind your smash if you need the extra DPS. You can choose the haste + hogs or spear + shield equipment combo. Both are equally powerful. With the spear, you can snipe a town hall from afar, but you have to be more cognizant of time, as it’s usually slower than the haste + hogs.
Putting it All Together (w/ Video Replays)
I’ve compiled 11 videos for you. There is a mix of replays and live attacks (+2 on hard mode), and I’ve tried to arrange it from the most simple to the most complex, so they’ll build on top of one another. There will be a variety of siege machines, pets, and base layouts, so hopefully you can learn something from each attack.
And if you want more, I’m uploading daily legends attacks on my YouTube, which you can find here.
Enjoy!
Base 1 - Centralized Town Hall + Double Stacked Compartments + Flame Flinger
These types of bases are super easy for Quad Heroes. All you have to do is fireball one of the stacked compartments, and devise a plan for the other. On this base, I noticed there are air xbows positioned near the center. Perfect for a flame flinger.
To finish the base, I will direct my smash at the largest remaining defense (the monolith), and overgrowth the eagle upon entry. If all goes according to plan, then overwhelming force will converge at the town hall.
In the replay, notice how I take out the tesla farm near where I wanted to place my flame flinger. It’s an important step you need to know.
Clan War League | Replay | Normal
Base 2 - Centralized Town Hall + Double Invisibility Towers + Flame Flinger
This base has two stacked invisibility compartments. The one on the perimeter we can fireball; the one in the core we can overgrowth.
Two single inferno islands are pretty scary. We will take extra precaution by dedicating a whole siege machine for one of them, and our smash for the other.
The eagle is exposed on the outside, therefore we can scoop it up with our queen.
Clan War | Replay | Normal
Base 3 - Isolated Town Hall + Log Launcher
This one also has a stacked invisibility compartment on the bottom-right side and an exposed eagle on the top-left.
We’ll do the same thing as base #2 but use a log launcher to punch through to the core. And we’ll use our overgrowth as a funneling tool.
Clan War League | Replay | Normal
Base 4 - Offset Town Hall + Siege Barracks
Town halls near the edge of the base can be easily scooped up by one of our heroes.
We’ll send both our queen and warden to that general area. Hopefully, one of them targets the town hall.
For the top half of the base, we’ll deploy a full-power smash: three heroes (king, redeployed queen, royal champion) + a siege barracks to sweep through the remaining buildings. We’ll use our overgrowth on the largest group of remaining defenses.
Friendly Challenge | Replay | Normal
Base 5 - Godlike Fireball + Double Poison Core + Siege Barracks
At first glance, this base looks awful for Quad Heroes. Multiple single-infernos. A core that is difficult to path to. Well-positioned defenses around the perimeter.
But there’s an absolutely crushing fireball spot (it’s pretty hard to find). Can you spot it?
Answer: It’s on one of the ricochet cannons. Land a fireball here and you will hit the eagle, clan castle, single-inferno, and enemy hero. And you set up an incredible funnel.
Game over.
Esports | Replay | Normal
Base 6 - Ring Base + Battle Drill
This was an attack I performed in the Global Clash Cup (= esports).
I’ll share a post-attack reflection that I shared with a clanmate:
My goal with this attack was to shoot a fireball either onto (1) bottom right multi-inferno or (2) bottom left builder hut (below cc).
Mid-way through the attack I realized I'd have to spend 2 invis spells to target the builder hut so I settled with option 1 (the multi-inferno).
For this strategy, you don't need massive value w/ fireball. (Also why I like it as it's not dependent on fireball). Setting a funnel is good enough.
The eagle can be an annoying defense, as it deals 65% of your warden's hp in one strike. I realized that area was light on defenses, so I sent my queen + recall to pick it up.
Now I had two "plans". If warden walks left, I'd place my queen on the right side. If he walks right, I'd place my queen on the left side.
My king + smash would go straight into the ricochet cannon (the highest hitting remaining defense). RC + drill to set funnel & clear the top compartment. I originally planned to overgrowth the TH + monolith, but noticed my warden in that area, so I opted for a smaller overgrowth instead.
Rest is spell placement. I knew I needed a rage for the warden if he's under fire from an xbow + ricochet cannon. I typically look for flame flinger value, as it's the best siege, but on this base the xbow coverage was good.
Esports | Live | Normal
Base 6 - Isolated Town Hall + Angry Jelly King
Against this base, I opted to use the angry jelly with the king along with a jump spell to clear the left compartment. The reason is because that area has a lot of trash buildings, and I didn’t want to spend 40 housing space to funnel my king.
The rest of the base we can pick off with our heroes. Fireball the bottom. Queen charge the top. Send our smash at whatever is remaining.
Clan War | Live | Normal
Base 8 - Deep Fireball + Sui* Royal Champion + Rocket Spear
*Sui refers to sui-ciding your heroes at the beginning of the attack.
These types of bases are hit or miss. Either you fireball the core and crush the base or miss and get a 1-star.
To guarantee the fireball on the core, first we have to decide which side to fireball from. I chose the top-left because that area has the fewest defenses blocking the core. By picking that side, it means we have to funnel (or hide) both the top and left areas.
We can easily queen walk one of them, and I was thinking about recalling + redeploying her on the other side, but that might consume too much time. Instead, I opt to send my royal champion for the other side. She’ll die, of course, but that’s okay because it’ll set a clear path for our fireball.
Note: We also probably could’ve used two overgrowth spells for the same purpose.
Clan War | Live | Normal
Base 9 - Box Base + Mass Druids
Let’s discuss druids vs healers.
Druids only last for 30 seconds before they turn into bears. So they aren’t great for extended hero charges. Healers last forever, but have less healing power and are prone to seeking air mines.
On this base, I chose to go with druids over healers. This is because I wanted to do a quick fireball followed by a merging of our army. Druids can also tank for our heroes in bear form and are immune to seeking air mines (which there inevitably will be, since we’re diving into the core).
Clan War League | Replay | Normal
Base 10 - Recall Warden + Hard Mode
There are two things I notice on this base:
(1) A flame flinger on the eagle + multi-archer towers is amazing (assuming the two mortars are gone).
(2) The top-right section is ripe for a fireball.
However, I don’t really want to warden-walk the top-right after I fireball. First, the enemy king is right there. Second, the warden will either walk straight into a single-inferno or skirt to the perimeter where he’ll pick up little additional value.
Instead, it’s better to recall him and redeploy him at the bottom, where he’ll walk down a side and clear out an xbow and scattershot. I chose the bottom (not the left) because of where the enemy hero are placed. All else being equal, it’s always better to warden-charge the enemy royal champion (not the archer queen). This is because the royal champion has a lower range, so the warden can usually outrange her without taking damage. More importantly, it frees up your attentional resources as you don’t have to watch your warden as carefully.
Esports | Replay | Hard
Base 11 - Double Rage Core + Double Overgrowth + Hard Mode
The biggest counter to rage tower compartments is the overgrowth spell.
In this attack, I chose to flame flinger one of the side compartments and fireball the monolith + clan castle. I opted not to bring a recall spell, instead merging the warden and queen for an enhanced hero charge. This way, I can bring two overgrowth spells for the core.
Note: One trick with the overgrowth is to wait until the rage tower activates before placing it. That way, its active effect is wasted during the spell duration. A second trick is to slowly uncover the overgrowthed area bit by bit if you have multiple overgrowths. This ensures there’s never too much damage on your troops at any given time.
Esports | Live | Hard
Base Identification + Strengths & Weaknesses
The strength of this army lies its versatility. You can pick apart sparse, dense, box, ring, diamond, invisibility island, rage / poison core, anti-2, anti-3 bases — and optimize your army accordingly.
In terms of weaknesses, I like to think in terms of margin of error. Yes you can triple any base with Quad Heroes, but some bases give you a lower margin of error, meaning you have less leeway for mistakes before your attack results in a fail.
Here is a list of base design aspects that are challenging for Quad Heroes:
Major Counters
Single-Target Infernos
Low Fireball Value
No Flame Flinger Value
Multiple Clusters of “Hero-Killing” Spots*
* A Hero-Killing Spot is a grouping of defenses that requires you to use a spell to get past them. They may be different for your warden vs queen. For example, the enemy archer queen is a Hero-Killing Spot for the warden (but not for the queen), whereas the monolith is a Hero-Killing Spot for the queen (but not for the warden). Other Hero-Killing Spots include: 1 single-inferno, 1 multi-archer tower + 1 xbow, and 1 ricochet cannon + xbow.
Minor Counters
Wall Formations (Closed Compartments + Dead Zones)
Super Minion and/or Headhunter Clan Castle
Tesla Fireball Baits
Centralized Eagle Artillery
Interior Stacked Rage Towers (Assuming No Overgrowth)
Easy bases for Quad Heroes are simply the reverse of everything above. Multi-target infernos won’t out-damage your healing. Centralized air xbows enable flame flinger value. Exterior stacked spell tower compartments are ripe for a fireball. A lurable clan castle with triple ice golems doesn’t pose a threat. Nor does sparse defenses, poorly placed traps, and a wall structure that crumbles after a single wall breaker.
Let’s see some examples.
Easy Base 1
This base has two exterior stacked invisibility compartments. Therefore it is vulnerable to any fireball army.
After we fireball one of the sections, we’ve neutralized a significant portion of the bases’ defensive capabilities. The base can no longer defend, and we can walk our way to a 3-star.
Easy Base 2
The defenses on this base are too spread out to be effective. Anywhere our hero goes, they’ll have (only) one major defense targeting them at a time. Therefore they will never die, and they can walk through the base unscathed.
Now let’s look at some hard bases.
Hard Base 1
This base has 3 single infernos that are relatively hard to reach. If we’re not paying attention, then our heroes can easily die. Also, the xbow coverage is good. The only exposed area is the left side, but that part is obviously baited with traps. The town hall is the best place to fireball, but it’s hard to reach.
Worst of all, there are Hero-Killing Spots littered across the map. This forces you to invest spells on a continual basis.
Hard Base 2:
Again, 3 single infernos, and somehow the xbow coverage is even better than the last one. Normally I can snipe an xbow with a queen walk + recall and deploy a flame flinger afterward, but these xbows are so deep that it’ll probably take too long for it to be worth it. And like the previous base, the best place to fireball is the town hall, but it’s hard to land it there.
Lastly, the wall structure is like a bloody moat! Our troops will likely circle around the core, while being slowed down by poison towers and bombarded by scattershot shells. There is also a decent risk of time-failing if we don’t manage to break open the walls fast enough.
Hard Base 3:
This base is hard for different reasons.
First, even though the xbows are set to air mode, there still isn’t much flame flinger value.
Second, the natural thing to do is warden-charge the town hall. He can take down the monolith + town hall by himself. The problem is what happens afterward. If you count, there are 7 storages on the top side. Add any potential tesla farm, skeleton traps, or tornado traps, and your warden can be stuck on the top side of the map for the entire attack, leaving you with too little firepower for the rest of the base.
The wall structure is also tough as we have to get through three layers of walls to access the core. And once we do so, imagine 3 ice golems pop out of the enemy clan castle and freeze our army for 15 seconds while 3 single infernos are beaming down at them. Not great.
Frequently asked questions
1. I’m failing a lot. How do I find more success?
Well… here are the most common mistakes & how you might avoid them:
You missed your fireball. This is because…
a. You miscalculated the distance.
b. You didn’t funnel your warden properly and he went in the wrong direction.
c. You got baited by a hidden tesla.
d. You were too quick on the trigger. You didn’t wait for the invisibility spell to take effect. Remember the ~1 second spell delay.
e. You didn’t pay attention to your warden. He got low in health and went to auto-ability.
You lost your warden or queen early. This is because…
a. You picked a bad location. You sent your hero into a hero-killing spot.
b. You were late on spell usage (an execution error). Remember the ~1 second spell animation delay.
c. You lost track of your heroes. You multi-tasked too much. You rushed both hero charges at the same time instead of waiting for your warden to be safe before starting your queen walk.
d. You used too many funnel troops early on and activated the eagle artillery. Once the eagle activates, it gets much harder to keep your heroes alive. Tip: If this happens, then start your smash immediately. When the king / queen / warden are the three heroes on the map, then the eagle will always target the king.
You time-failed. This is because…
a. You started your smash too late. Usually ~1m30s remaining the latest time for this phase.
b. You didn’t save cleanup troops. You missed a random building. Make sure to zoom out and look around.
c. You overgrowthed too late. A max level overgrowth lasts for 28 seconds, and afterward you need to give your troops ~20 seconds to finish off the area you covered. ~50 seconds remaining is the latest time you should be using this spell.
2. Can you play this strategy on a tiny phone screen?
Ye.
3. Why super barbs over rocket loons?
Rocket loons have the ability to snipe interior defenses, so they are great at guiding your fireball. This is helpful if you want an ultra-fast fireball. But typically in this army, we can take our time and slowplay the fireball. Here are some other reasons why I prefer super barbs over rocket loons:
They take less housing space (5 vs 8). You’ll need 2 rocket loons or 2 super barbs to snipe an exterior cannon or wizard tower anyway. One takes 16 housing space; the other 10. Every single housing space you save delays the eagle artillery activation.
They can target any building (not just defenses), so they are superior at setting up a funnel for your troops.
They can snipe enemy heroes. For example, 4 super barbs and a headhunter can take down an enemy king on the edge of the base.
But here’s an example where rocket loons are a superior choice.
This part of the base has 2 ground xbows, 2 ricochet cannons, 2 bomb towers, and 4 mortars. In other words— loaded with ground-targeting defenses. Any super barbs will get picked off by the point defenses and xbows. And the wall structure makes it difficult to set up any kind of funnel. Rocket loons, on the other hand, can quickly overpower this ground-based area.
4. Does this strategy work at lower town halls?
Absolutely!
Quad Heroes is even stronger at lower town halls because there are fewer heavy-hitting defenses. With reasonably-leveled equipment, it’s one of the strongest attacks in the game.
Since we don’t have access to root riders below town hall 15, we can swap them with super witches, yetis, or ice golems. You might also consider replacing the overgrowth for a jump spell and bring root riders in the clan castle.
TH12 Army Link: https://link.clashofclans.com/en?action=CopyArmy&army=u6x7-3x5-9x26-1x11-1x58-1x82-1x53-2x66-3x1-1x0-4x4s1x2-2x35-1x9-3x5-1x3-1x10
TH12 Replay:
TH14 Replay:
This is the end… but your beginning…
Good luck!
If you’ve found this guide helpful, please pass it along to a clanmate! Let’s spread the word and make Quad Heroes part of the meta!
References
Fireball Range (2x2)
Fireball Range (3x3)
Fireball Range (4x4)
Fireball Damage Table
Spiky Ball Damage Table
Thanks Leothaid for sparking the initial seeds of the strategy, & Bruce, Kurz, Mike, Godly, Kaito, Blitz, and Leothaid for reviewing drafts of this piece.