Our Strategy Guide/Stealing Dark Elixir

==Introduction==
Dark Elixir is a rare resource, and it is hard to obtain in steady and consistent amounts. Dark Elixir Drills help, but even with multiple drills, there is really only one way to obtain large quantities of Dark Elixir quickly, and that is to steal it.
==Stealing Dark Elixir==
As a Dark Elixir Storage is not obtainable until a player has constructed a Town Hall of at least level 7, a certain amount of Trophies is generally needed to be able to attain this resource in large quantities.
*At around 1,100 Trophies you will begin to regularly find players with below 100 Dark Elixir.
*Players near 1,500 Trophies will typically have a Dark Elixir Storage with 100~500 Dark Elixir.
*At Trophy levels above 2,000, essentially every player will have an upgraded Dark Elixir Storage with more than 500 Dark Elixir.
The general rule is the higher the Trophy count, the higher the gain. Of course, with higher Trophies comes more powerful enemies that can steal your resources, so be careful!
=== Preferred Army Compositions : ===
Dark Elixir Storages are usually placed near or at the core of every single Town Hall 7-9 base you probably find. With a cored storage comes a more powerful army rather than using typical farming strategies such as Barch and GiBarch. These armies ranged from farming(Storages) to war like compositions.
For Town Hall 7s, options are limited and so does walls surrounding the Dark Elixir Storage. Wall Breakers and Giants and Healing Spells will be a staple since you will need to have your dps troops survive until they reach the core so using Wall Breakers to bust in, tanks to soak up the damage and the Healing Spells to have them hold on longer is needed, DPS troops can generally be Archers and Wizards if you don't mind waiting longer to train them. TH7s can also use war like attacks such as Balloonion, Dragloon, and Mass Dragons, these are very expensive yet guarantees the Dark Elixir is stolen.
For TH8s, there's a wider array of choices ranging from Giant+Healer, GiWiz and GiWiPe. Mass Dragons, GoWiPe and GoVaPe for war attacks. The Earthquake Spell is also unlocked at this level making it easier to reach the core, Rage Spells will make their debut as well to speed things up. The same principles applied to TH7s will also apply for TH8s. I guess that there's no need for further explanation since by this stage, a player should have known the general fundamentals of their attacks.
For TH9s it gets a bit better, options such as Queen Walk and using Jump Spells make it much easier. In this stage, farming attacks can prove useful such as GiBarch because of the Jump Spell with the combination of Healing Spells and a Rage Spell. At this stage, war like compositions such as GoWiPe, GoWiWi and Lavaloonion are almost unstoppable.
The rule of thumb is being able to have tanks and dps troops whilst being able to penetrate through the walls is the core of what makes up a good army for farming Dark Elixir.
====Understanding Trophy Leagues====
Silver II-Gold III is where the majority of dead bases are found, within this range Dark Elixir is scarce apart from full Dark Elixir Drills of TH8s and 9s who have them maxed out. This however isn't quite enough to satisfy your needs.
Gold II-Gold I is where lots of active TH8s and 9s are chilling to farm. They have a moderate amount of Dark Elixir; Dead bases are still able to be found.
Crystal III-Crystal I is generally the most abundant range for Dark Elixir due to the activity and at the same time, the league bonus and Star Bonus increasing. At this range, war like attacks cannot be avoided as bases do tend to get harder.
=== Finding Suitable Targets Easily : ===
A free and often very effective way of finding enemies with large amounts of Dark Elixir is by using your battle log. If you have had a player attack you that has a Dark Elixir Drill, you can check to see exactly how much of the resource they have and then attack them via the "Revenge" feature. However, keep in mind that you can only receive up to 3,000 Dark Elixir. Follow this link for more details on how much Dark Elixir will be available in a particular battle.
Another benefit of using the battle log for finding Dark Elixir is the fact that you can examine any Dark Elixir Drills that the player may have as well. Although the drills have a much smaller capacity than the storages, 75% of the uncollected Dark Elixir in a drill may be stolen (up to 2,250 in a fully-upgraded drill at maximum capacity).
One thing to keep a particularly sharp eye out for in your battle log is attacks by a single high-level unit, especially if that unit is level 6. These bases are usually very well-developed Town Hall level 9 bases with a highly upgraded Dark Elixir Storage and several Dark Elixir Drills. Attacking these bases when seeking multiplayer matches can be dangerous, as it opens you up for a "Revenge" attack that will likely result in a 3-star loss; however, in this case they have attacked you first, and their massive store of Dark Elixir is free for the taking without fear of reprisal.
Prior to the July 2015 Update, Storage Buildings were susceptible to spell damage. However, Clashers can still loot a lot of Dark Elixir if they snipe down drills. The main strategy will be to scan through targets in multiplayer battle for targets with fully-filled drills. You can use swarms of Tier 1 troops to get to them if they are exposed. This strategy won't fit everyone, and it heavily depends whether or not a clasher wants trade off their elixir and trophies for Dark Elixir.
There are also people who wait for a maintenance break and boost their Spell Factories. Since the bases are left alone in the past few hours, they are likely to have Dark Elixir that is free to raid.
==Protecting Dark Elixir==
Now that you have been successful in acquiring some Dark Elixir, you'll want to ensure that no one can take what you've rightfully stolen, right? Well, you'll have to create a base design where the Dark Elixir Storage and Town Hall are almost untouchable. Technically 100% protection is impossible as there are strategies to 100% destroy any base in the game, but you can at put in effort to try and reduce the ability of others from damaging the storages. Doing a TH7 base in this fashion is extremely hard as such bases require 3 layers. The purpose of these bases are to make the tanking troops wrap around the base which leaves the DPS troops exposed allowing the core defenses to kill them with no problem.
These three layers namely:
*Outer Layer - This usually consists the majority of defenses with the exception of vital defenses such as X-Bows, Inferno Towers, Hidden Tesla's and 1-2 Air Defenses.
*Moat Layer - Should consist most of the Storages, traps (exception of spring traps as they belong to the Outer Layer) Heroes and the Town Hall.
*Core - This consists of the defenses exempted from the Outer Layer, Clan Castle, maybe some Gold and Elixir Storages and probably the Dark Elixir Storage.
**Some Tier 1 like X-Bow, Inferno Tower, Eagle Artillery,Scattershot,etc.
(Note different bases can have another layer, or the buildings in different layers.
You can also gain more Dark Elixir by upgrading your Dark Elixir Drill (the maximum level depends on what Town Hall you are on).
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