Lava Hound

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"These fiery beasts can't resist chasing after Air Defenses, providing excellent protection for other troops. Once destroyed, they erupt into many smaller, weaker menaces."
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Level 1 & 2	Level 3	Level 4	Level 5	Level 6
==Summary==
*The Lava Hound is the sixth Dark Elixir Troop unlocked in the Dark Barracks when it has been upgraded to level 6, which requires Town Hall level 9. It is a high-hitpoint aerial tank with low damage and moderate speed.
*The Lava Hound is a fiery, canine beast with a pair of small wings. It is encased with multiple hardened rock plates over its body and lava flows through every seam.
*When defeated, the Lava Hound explodes, inflicting a small amount of damage in the area while spawning numerous Lava Pups, which will continue to attack nearby targets.
*
==Strategies==
===Offensive Strategy===
*Lava Hounds have high health and are essentially the aerial equivalent of the Golem. They can be used to protect Dragons, Minions, Healers and Balloons, much like how Golems can protect a group of Wizards or Witches. Due to their priority against Air Defenses, they can easily occupy them while other troops decimate the base - they deal little damage on their own, and almost always require support from something else.
**However, it is not a good idea to use s with them as they cannot activate their Tantrum ability while near other aerial allies.
*Be sure to keep it away from single-targeting s, which can kill it with ease.
**However, it may also be helpful if the Lava Hound pops on top of the Inferno Tower since the Lava Pups can distract the single-target Inferno for some time.
**It is a good idea to bring a Freeze Spell if a single-target Inferno Tower is present, since the tower will go down easily if frozen and then bombarded with attacks from allied troops.
**Against a multi-target Inferno Tower, Lava Hounds will be fine, but the Lava Pups and a large number of allied units that come after it will be decimated, so keep an eye out for them too.
*Do not use too many Lava Hounds, as they are extremely weak offensive units and will be destroyed before they do too much damage to your enemy, even given their prodigious hitpoints.
*The Lava Hound can tank for Battle Blimp, especially if the latter is filled with units such as Super Archers, Sneaky Goblins, or Balloons, therefore improving the Blimp's survivability.
**However, Seeking Mines, if placed far enough from Air Defenses to be triggered by Lava Hounds, will severely damage the Battle Blimp, if not destroy it prematurely, which may result in a one-star or a loss of a battle.
*Lava Hounds may make high-level Giant-Healer strategies more viable, but they are still one or the weakest strategies at TH9+. This is because Giants hold the least hitpoints for any tank and unlike the Barbarian King, they do not have a hero ability to get them out of a big doom-circle. Besides, they are intended to absorb fire from anti-air defenses, making ground attackers pointless anyway.
* It is advisable to have a Clone Spell ready in Lava Hound attacks. Clone the support troops to drastically increase the Lava Hound's effectiveness as it holds off air defenses while other units destroy the buildings. A Rage/Haste Spell can be even better since most of the units that work well with Lava Hound tend to move slowly.
*It is best to strategically place them around several defenses so they can absorb enemy fire better.
*While Dragons work well with Lava Hounds, you need to watch out for Seeking Air Mines since they are incredibly effective against strong individuals.
===Defensive Strategy===
*Spreading your Air Defenses out is a good idea. This forces attackers to keep their air troops near the Lava Hounds for protection, making Air Bombs and Wizard Towers more effective. Also have Seeking Air Mines close near your Air Defenses so they will be more likely to be triggered by Lava Hounds.
**However, this will not work if your opponent somehow manages to destroy too many air defenses, such as by using Lightning Spells, Earthquake Spells, and/or the Archer Queen’s Giant Arrow.
*Be sure to use at least one single-targeting Inferno Tower, which will destroy a Lava Hound with ease, just like they destroy Golems with ease.
*Lava Hounds are a great choice as a Clan Castle troop for Clan Castle level 5 or higher, particularly at higher leagues. While it does virtually no damage on its own, its tremendous hitpoints allow it to soak up a lot of damage from the attacker while the defenses fire upon it, and upon dying, it breaks down into many Lava Pups which can deal a good amount of damage to the attackers. Poison Spells are not as always effective against the Lava Pups, because they often scatter too far apart to be caught by a single Poison Spell, which gives the Lava Hound some stalling potential on defense.
**However, the Lava Hound will only be deployed if there are ground units such as the Barbarian King near the trigger range of the Clan Castle, since it cannot target aerial units.
==Upgrade Differences==
The Lava Hound undergoes significant visual changes at all levels except for level 2.
*Initially, the Lava Hound is a large, winged, dog-like creature with a body made of rock. On its body are cracks filled with lava.
**At level 3, the spikes on its back turn into a lava color. Its eyes also become larger and more orange. The lava under the skin of the forearms also disappears, and its wings grow in size as well as its body. Its glow changes a bit.
**At level 4, the lava on its body turns deep red.
**At level 5, the spikes on its back turn dark brown. The wings are now bronze-colored.
**At level 6, the spikes on its back turn dark red, along with the wings.
==Statistics==
Preferred Target	Attack Type 	 	Movement Speed	Attack Speed	Dark Barracks Level Required	Range
Air Defense 	Melee (Ground Only)	30	20 	2s 	6 	1 tile
Training Time of Lava Hounds	Training Time of Lava Hounds
Dark Barracks available 	Dark Barracks upgrading
5m 	10m
Level	Damage per Second	Damage per Hit	Damage Upon Death	Lava Pups Spawned (After Death)	Lava Pups Spawned (After Death)	Hitpoints	Research Cost	Research Time	Laboratory Level Required
Level	Damage per Second	Damage per Hit	Damage Upon Death	On Offense 	On Defense 	Hitpoints	Research Cost	Research Time	Laboratory Level Required
1 	10 	20 	100 	8 	8 	6,100 	N/A 	N/A 	N/A
2 	12 	24 	150 	10 	9 	6,500 	28,000 	2d 12h 	7
3 	14 	28 	200 	12 	10 	6,800 	43,000 	3d 12h 	8
4 	16 	32 	250 	14 	11 	7,200 	85,000 	5d 	9
5 	18 	36 	300 	16 	12 	7,600 	120,000 	7d 	10
6 	20 	40 	350 	18 	13 	8,000 	160,000 	8d 	11
Super Troop Boost
Super Troop	Boost Cost	Lava Hound Level Required
Ice Hound 	25,000 	5
==History==
Patch 	Type 	Description
September 11, 2014	Sneak Peek 	Announced the Lava Hound in the sneak peek, with 3 levels.
September 16, 2014	Update 	Added the Lava Hound.
September 9, 2015 	Update 	Lava Hounds no longer attack flying troops, even as a defending Clan Castle troop.
December 19, 2015 	Optional Update	Fixed a crash when fighting Lava Hounds near the edge of the map.
May 4, 2016 	Balance Changes	Reduced Lava Hound's training time from 45 minutes to 15 minutes.
May 18, 2016 	Sneak Peek 	Announced the level 4 Lava Hound.
May 24, 2016 	Update 	Added the level 4 Lava Hound.
December 19, 2016 	Update 	Changed Lava Hound's icon and info image.
December 18, 2017 	Update 	
*Increased hitpoints at levels 1-3.
**Level 1: 5,700 -> 6,100 
**Level 2: 6,200 -> 6,500 
**Level 3: 6,700 -> 6,800
June 8, 2018 	Sneak Peek 	Announced the level 5 Lava Hound.
June 11, 2018 	Update 	Added the level 5 Lava Hound.
June 26, 2018 	Balance Changes	
*Reduced Lava Hound's upgrade times at level 2-4.
**Level 2: 10d -> 6d 12h 
**Level 3: 12d -> 8d 
**Level 4: 14d -> 11d 12h
October 23, 2018 	Update 	Reduced Gem donation cost of Lava Hound from 30 to 20 Gems.
December 9, 2019 	Update 	Decreased the explosion upon death radius from 5 tiles to 3.5 tiles.
March 30, 2020 	Update 	Fixed flawed graphics offset for Lava Hound.
June 18, 2020 	Sneak Peek 	Announced the level 6 Lava Hound.
June 22, 2020 	Update 	Added the level 6 Lava Hound.
October 12, 2020 	Update 	
*Reduced upgrade costs at level 2 and 4.
**Level 2: 60,000 -> 50,000 
**Level 4: 150,000 -> 125,000 
*Reduced upgrade times at level 2-4.
**Level 2: 6d 12h -> 5d 
**Level 3: 8d -> 6d 12h 
**Level 4: 11d 12h -> 9d
April 12, 2021 	Update 	Lava Hounds no longer permanently forget about targeting Air Defenses if all the remaining Air Defenses are invisible when they're targeting.
==Gallery==
Avatar Lava Hound.png|Lava Hound's avatar
Lava Hound Animation.gif|Lava Hound flying animation
Lava hound.jpg
Gallery Lava Hound1.png
==Trivia==
*The Sneak Peek picture of the Lava Hound features its head, bearing the words "I smell fireworks...".
**This alludes to the fact that Air Defenses' warheads are quite literally fireworks.
*
**However, because they have insufficient amount of DPS, having that many Lava Hounds would not be a practical move, and will result in a time fail, especially at higher Town Hall levels.
*The Lava Hound bears a strong resemblance to Korath from Backyard Monsters at level 5 and 6 in particular.
*The Lava Hound is 1 of 9 troops to be featured as a monster in the game Squad Busters. The others are the Wall Breaker, P.E.K.K.A, Minion, Golem, Skeleton, Bowler, Baby Dragon, Ice Golem, and Yeti.
*The Lava Hound is confirmed to be a male in "The Last Lava Pup" where a guy asked the storyteller if the Lava Pup's dad was gone too. It also says that the Lava Hound is the father of the Lava Pups.
*The Lava Hound is often compared to the Golem due to its similar statistics and concept (e.g. they both have a lot of health but low damage, take 30 housing space, and once defeated, they do death damage and spawn subtroops to continue the fight).
**However, their main difference is the amount of subtroops they can spawn.
*When tapping on an , all Lava Hounds stationed there will briefly turn away from the screen.
*Although the Lava Hound shoots fireballs, it cannot inflict area damage.
*Unlike its counterpart in Clash Royale, the stats of the Lava Pups do not increase when the Lava Hound is upgraded. Instead, their amount increases.
*The level 5 Lava Hound has been enlarged in size as of 2018 and has become the largest troop in the game (tied with Heroes).
===Comparisons===
*The level 6 Lava Hound has the second highest hitpoints among all regular troops; (the first one being the level 11 Golem) however, it has lower DPS per housing space (about 0.67) than any other regular troop (excluding the Healer, Unicorn and Druid in his human form, which do not deal any damage), even lower than the level 1 Golem at 1.27 DPS per housing space. When troops at maximum level are compared, it has the second lowest DPS per housing space of all troops, with only the Ice Hound having the lowest DPS per housing space (0.375 at max level).
*It is one of the five troops that has three preferred target stages, the others being the Headhunter (if Heroes and Clan Castle troops are present), Broom Witch, and the Ice Hound.
**The Lava Hound and the Ice Hound are the only troops that have a specific preferred target. In their case, they prioritize Air Defenses.
*The Lava Hound, Ice Hound, Healer, Balloon, and Rocket Balloon are the only air troops in the Home Village that can only target things on the ground.
Category:Troops
Category:Dark Elixir Troops
Category:Air Troops
Category:Home Village
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