Clash Royale update history

This is a list of all Clash Royale patches and updates since the game was released in March 2016. I will update this post every time there is a new update to Clash Royale. It’s good to have a list of all the patch notes for Clash Royale here so that people can check what has happened to the game since the deck guide they are looking at was written.

Huge updates for Clash Royale doesn’t happen too often, and every time a huge update happens I go over most of my deck guides an update them as necessary. Moving forward I will also make an update to this guide whenever there is a major update to Clash Royale. The newest patch notes and my opinions about them will be found first.

May 18. balance update.

This patch was mainly focused on the royal giant and freeze as well as a couple of other buffs.

Royal Giant: Damage decreased by 4%
- They felt his damage was a bit too high, I agree, and I think they will lower it even more in another update soon.
Freeze: Duration decreased by 1sec
- This was a huge decease, but it was necessary. The combination of hog rider and freeze was simply too strong.
Furnace: Elixir cost decreased to 4 (from 5), hitpoints decreased by 14% and lifetime decreased to 40sec (from 50sec)
- Almost noone is using this building, so the change was important for sure. The problem is that noone is using it after the update either.
Fire Spirits: Area Damage radius increased by 25%
- This is a fine change as well.
Guards hitpoints and damage increased by 8%
- Guards are not used much, and that’s the same still, their damage is a bit too low.
Miner: Hitpoints increased by 6%
- Doesn’t really change much in my opinion. The hit points is not what matters the most, it is the damage that is important.
Lava Hound: Hitpoints increased by 3%
- Increases the people using this card.
Lava Pups: Hitpoints increased by 9%
- I think this is fine, the lava hound is not that hard to deal with even after this buff.
Elixir Collector: Hitpoints decreased by 9%
- This is the most popular card in Clash Royale currently. I understand they want to make it weaker cause of that. Lowering the hit points make it worse for stopping hog riders and similar troops.
Knight: Hitpoints increased by 10%
- I still don’t see the knight used much, maybe they have to buff him even more?
Bomber: Damage increased by 10%
- Another nice buff, hopefully we will see more bombers soon.
Cannon: Hitpoints decreased by 5%
- Another totally understandable change. The cannon has been way too strong in distracting and stopping tower killing troops from doing damage to your tower.
Tesla: Hitpoints increased by 5%
- The tesla has been nerfed in several patches. I guess they felt they had nerfed it too much.
Golem & Golemite: Hitpoints increased by 5%
- The golem can be very hard to deal with. Especially for new players it is almost impossible to stop a golem from a stronger player. I don’t like this change at all.
Witch: Damage increased by 10%
- Nice to see another buff to the witch. She is not played much at all at higher arena levels.
Skeletons (affects Tombstone, Skeleton Army, Witch, Skeletons): Hitpoints and damage increased by 5%
- This is good, only the skeleton card is used a lot at the moment.
Tombstone: Hitpoints increased by 10%
- Maybe this can compete with cannon again now.
Card Upgrade XP: Fixed for Epic and Legendary Cards
- No opinion about this, I have not really paid much attention to xp for upgrades.

Overall a lot of changes in this patch.

May 3. huge update.

This is the biggest update SuperCell has made to Clash Royale since the launch. A lot of exciting stuff happened which the biggest one being the six new cards.

The new cards:

New Common Card: Fire Spirits
New Rare Card: Furnace
New Epic Card: Guards
New Legendary Cards: Lava Hound, Miner, Sparky

The new rewards:

You now receive gold for each win.
Crown Chest now contains twice as much!
Super Magical Chest drop chance has been doubled.
Giant and Magical Chests drop chance has been increased as well.
Clan donations increased as you reach higher levels, this is really nice!
Legendary cards can now be available in the in game store once you hit arena 8.
You can now have 1 million gold stored in your account.

More game changes:

You can copy decks from profiles you are watching.
You can now see legendary card info.
You can watch friendly battles live and throw confetti!
TV Royale has been updated to show battles from any arena.
A lot of new clan badges have been added.
Card shop has been changed, the price now increase in a linear fashion and the first card is cheaper than before.
A 20 minute cooldown between kicking clan members have been added.
New tournament rules have been added.
- Card levels now cap at 1, 4, 7 and 9 in friendly matches.
New max card levels.
- The cap of the cards has been changed to 5, 8, 11 and 13.

Card balance changes:

Mortar: Deployment time increased to 5sec (from 3sec), damage decreased by 10%
- This is awesome, we will see a lot less mortar use after this. Mortar players are really boring to play against for sure.
Bomb Tower: Lifetime decreased to 40sec (from 60sec)
- The bomb tower was way too hard to deal with for newer players. Decreasing the lifetime to 40 seconds should make this a little easier.
Elixir Collector: Hitpoints decreased by 20%
- This is a huge hitpoints decrease! I agree with it however as it is way to strong currently.
Cannon: Hitpoints decreased by 11%
- This is another necessary hitpoints decrease. The cannon gave way too much value for only 3 elixir.
Royal Giant: Range increased by 1
- This change is huge. Increasing the range by one might not seem like a lot, but it really is. With this change the royal giant is able to stand near the bridge and shoot down your opponents tower.
Mirror: Common and Rare Cards mirrored 1 level higher
- This boosts the mirror a bit and I think that’s good. I don’t see it used much these days.
Valkyrie: Will be affected by pushback (e.g. when hit by Fireball)
- This was needed, she should be affected by that as well.
Mini P.E.K.K.A: Will be affected by pushback (e.g. when hit by Fireball)
- Same thing with the mini pekka, it should be affected by the fireball.

March 23. balance update.

This was a pretty big balance update, and it is most famous for the X-Bow nerf. Up until this point the X-Bow had been a very popular and for many, a very annoying, card in Clash Royale. This patch made the X-Bow a lot worse and we haven’t seen much X-Bow use after this patch.

X-Bow: Range decreased to 12 (from 13)
- Yes, great great change, the X-Bow is so annoying! It leads to really boring gameplay and a lot of top players have complained about this card with good reason.
Tesla: Hit speed decreased to 0.8sec (from 0.7sec), lifetime decreased to 40sec (from 60sec)
- Up until this point the tesla has been one of the most popular cards in Clash Royale. After this change the usage has gone down a lot. I think the change was fine. The tesla is still usable but not as powerful as before.
Cannon: Lifetime decreased to 30sec (from 40sec)
- This is one of the first cannon nerfs with more to come. The cannon was way to strong at this point and it had to be changed.
Princess: Hitpoints decreased by 10%
- This change was made to enable arrows to take out a princes.
Ice Wizard: Damage increased by 5%
- This made the ice wizard even stronger. It is actually a really good card if you know how to play it.
Prince: Charge speed decreased by 13%
- The prince was way too strong with his high charge speed. This has lowered usage of the prince a bit, but it is still a very strong card.
Dark Prince: Charge speed decreased by 13%
- They did the same change with the dark prince. The two princes has to move at the same speed, they use the same breed of horse after all.
Valkyrie: Hitpoints and damage increased by 10%
- One of the first valkyrie buffs, this is one step of the way to turn her into a really good card.
Royal Giant: Damage increased by 20%
- This is a huge damage increase. Unfortunately it is not enough to make the card popular. An even bigger buff will come in a newer update.
Giant: Damage increased by 5%
- The giant needed a bit more damage to be a decent choice among top players.
Rage: Gives 40% movement and attack speed boost (from 35%), duration decreased by 20%
- Rage needed a buff as it was not used much at all. Even now, two months later, rage is one of the least used cards in Clash Royale. I see a new buff to rage coming real soon.
Poison: Damage increased by 5%
- This was a nice change and it increased the usage of poison quite a bit, without making it overpowered.
Mirror: Legendary Cards mirrored 1 level lower
- Mirror was mirroring legendary cards a bit too high level, this was a needed change I think as well.
Three Musketeers: Cost decreased to 9 (from 10)
- This turned the three musketeers from never being used to being used in quite a few decks. I think 9 elixir is the right cost for this card.
Archers: Quicker initial attack (like Spear Goblins)
- The archers turned into an awesome card after this change. It make sense though, there is no reason why they should take longer time to fire than the goblins.
Balloon: Hitpoints increased by 5%
- The balloon still is not use a lot at the top even after this change. There might be another buff coming soon.
Witch: Damage increased by 5%
- The witch needs even more buffs than this to become a viable choice among top players. At lower arena levels she is a good choice though.

I decided not to write about any older patches here, if you’d like to see that please let me know. Also let me know if I have forgotten about any recent patches here.