MagmaHound's Strategy Guides/Crystal League Farming for TH8s

__NOEDITSECTION__
Hi, I'm MagmaHound, this is my first guide, and it's about farming in Crystal League at TH8.NOTE: This guide may not apply to you, especially if you are not a TH8. :P
Author's note: I'm no longer maintaining these guides, these guides were written back in 2015 so much of the information here will be outdated. For example, since the end of 2015, the change to the looting/shield system means that kicking the Town Hall outside is not very viable anymore in terms of farming. I personally wouldn't mind anyone fixing broken image links and spelling errors on any of these guides, but if you'd like to majorly rewrite the guide, please tell me on my wall.
== Why Farm in Crystal League? ==
* The loot bonus. Crystal League is the lowest league where you find DE in your loot bonus. Crystal 3 provides 35k each in gold and elixir and 100 DE per win. Snipe a TH, and that's free DE. Compared to its neighbor Gold 1 (14k each, no DE) that's a big 150% increase in loot bonus, the biggest percentage increase from league to league in the game.
* There ain't many raids there owing to the fact that people are desperate for your TH. As maintaining trophies is not a very easy thing to do in Crystal League (snipes are rare, but not impossible to find), putting your TH outside, 100% unprotected is the best way to go, which will be explained later. Compared to Gold League where you get farmed by TH9s very often, in Crystal you will get sniped at least 70% of the time, even if you have 6 million in your storages or full DE.
* To get the collector raids that reside in Gold 1 without getting farmed by the TH9 that lie there. According to this link regarding Clash of Clans matchmaking, you can be attacked by Crystal 2s but people from the 1800s range won't ever see you. Unlike Gold League where you have to mainly rely on storage raiding, Crystal League farming can be done with mostly collector raids.
* For the Dark Elixir. It is no doubt that with the loot bonus in effect that you'll profit in DE, and for the fact that DE is more abundant in higher leagues.
== When Do I Farm in Crystal League? ==
Because TH7s and below will get steamrolled, I highly do not recommend going to Crystal if you are a premie TH8, do so only when you are a mid-TH8 and maxed all your splash defenses, all 4 mortars, 3 wiz towers, you name it.
If you are asking for a specific time, you should farm when not many Clashers are online, i.e. at night and they are sleeping. Do your farming in sessions, because you will usually get raided within 5-15 minutes and that kind of time won't be enough for you to even train a Barch army.
== Where Do I Farm in Crystal League? ==
All three Crystal Leagues work great, but Crystal 3 is where it is easiest to maintain trophies, and find collector raids. Thus this guide assumes you, the TH8, is farming in Crystal 3.
== The Types of Crystal Leaguers ==
I figure I should introduce you to the types of Crystal Leaguers because Crystal is one diverse place.
* Town Hall 7s and below, aka "The Snipers". Assuming you are not a premie TH8, these guys should not be a threat to you at all, unless you leave your storages semi-exposed. Like the nickname I gave to these guys, they'll almost always snipe you, mostly to get to Crystal, then drop back down to Silver or Gold 3 straight away. Hence you have a time frame of at most one day to revenge them (if you want to) for cups, since they probably won't be offering you much loot anyways.
* Town Hall 8, aka "The Companions". If you are a late TH8 these guys will not bother you much, mainly sniping you. However beware that a maxed/experienced TH8 can still steal quite a bit of your resources but that's very rare. Not that common, but not that rare, not that hostile to you so not that bothering.
* Town Hall 9, aka "The Predators". These guys are your main enemy while farming no matter what league you are in. Unlike the TH9s in Gold 3/2 that are only capable of stealing 1 or 2 storages, these TH9s are actually capable of 3-starring your base. These guys are the main reason you shouldn't be in Crystal as a premie/early TH8. Beware sniping them, as they could easily revenge you for at least 40 trophies (although we are farming, trophies are kinda important, you'll see later).
* Town Hall 10, aka "The Semi-Friendlies". Admit it, TH10s are your friends in Crystal League. Even though they are always capable of 3-starring your base (unless they're really premie), the losses you suffer won't be as devastating as TH9s. Plus, owing to the 50% loot penalty, they won't be raiding your base anyways.
* Trophy Hunters, aka "Cup Hunters". These players just want to push to Champions no matter what their Town Hall level is. If they are TH7 or below, be glad they probably just sniped you. If not, expect to lose at least 30 trophies...
In case you can't tell apart the Town Halls from each other (like, how?), go find out what they look like here.
== Base Setup for Farming Crystal League ==
Generally, because you want to get as many resources as possible (or else why are you in Crystal or reading this), try to protect both gold and elixir if you can. As I mentioned earlier, TH7s or even TH6s could drop their full army and get any semi-exposed storage. It doesn't matter whether it is embarrassing to you or not, what matters is that you will have failed to protect your storages. I mean, come on, if a TH6 can steal from your storages, so can a TH9.
I would generally advise you not to use a vault farming base, any well-planned TH9 attack could simply barge into your core. Also, if goblins from TH8s show up next to your storages backed by a heal spell and a rage spell at the same time, it's over, you lost 300k.
Obviously, as you are farming, you should put your Town Hall outside of the walls. NOT like the people who put a layer of walls between the TH and you.
DO NOT protect your TH with Teslas. It will only serve as an indication that you might be cup hunting. And there will be so many frustrated TH6/7s sniping to Crystal who lost trophies because of your shiny Teslas, Mortars, CC troops, etc. Plus, many TH9s and 10s will only hate you more, and steal as much as they can without giving you a 40% shield, all the while stunning your BK and killing off the CC troops.
Instead, decorate your TH, and leave it 100% unprotected. It does the exact opposite, giving a guarantee to the snipers, that your TH is 100% unprotected, and they snipe in peace. They will be closer to Crystal, you lose 1000 Gold /1000 Elixir, both you and the sniper are happy. For then.
If you can build your own decent base, do so. Common layouts like The Ball or Pokeball or Tesla Theme Park have been well figured out by your predators, the TH9, and they will easily 3-star you when they see you. It is said that your best defense is to build a base no one has seen before, and that is the horrible truth up here in Crystal League.
But if you can't, find an uncommon base. There are still loads of bases out there for you made by lesser-known people who don't even have a defense log to prove themselves, don't be scared to be a guinea pig for them, and try it out.
But remember, there is no one perfect base, a max TH9 can still wipe you clean. But the whole point of farming bases is to minimize losses. Remember, losing 2 storages is better than losing all 3 of them, you're 100k better off. :-)
== How To Farm in Crystal League? ==
=== Gold ===
There is not one best way to farm gold in Crystal League. Even though people have said it time and time again, "Barch/BAM is the best way to farm gold", and although that's true, it's up to you whether you want to farm from TH8/TH9 collectors, or TH7/TH8 storages. Obviously, I would farm the former, so I guess I just contradicted myself. Boo wheee.
Anyways, I would suggest going for bases where you can take at least 150,000 gold. You do not have to win, but try to win if you can, because of the loot bonus. Farm normally with whatever you are using.
If you have been nexting for quite a bit, you can always lower your take to 115,000 gold on a base you can 1-star, that way you make 150k because 115k+35k=150k.
If you are really that desperate (or farming with boosted BAM), 65,000 gold on a base you can 1-star gives you 6-digits in gold.
After that, I don't really know what to say, just kamikaze like a Wall Breaker on the next collector/storage base you find.
=== Elixir ===
Because your army uses Elixir (or DE somehow), farming Elixir isn't all that easy, because you need to watch your expenses. Thus BAM is one of your cheapest choices, unless you have a boatload of DE and decide to go on an all DE troop raid (Not recommended because you only have 2 Dark Barracks, and that leads to inefficiency)
Again, like gold, farm normally, winning if possible. It's not like there's a special rule like "You lose if the Cannon hits your Barbarian" or something. Again the take should be 150,000 elixir.
If you've been nexting for a while feel free to drop the amount you take, but try to win that raid.
If you are nexting over 100,000 worth of gold and you are on the verge of complaining like the TH10s on forums, stress down by asking one of your clanmates to share a replay of him getting 0% with mass Dragons, all Wall Breakers, whatever.
=== Dark Elixir ===
You have three choices with this one.
# Raid TH8/TH9 DE Storages worth at least 1,000 or something with a specially built army. My way of doing it, only because there are a lot of people with over 1,000 Dark Elixir.
# Find the coveted TH10 with full max drills - rare, but worth a whopping 4,050 Dark Elixir!
# Zap 'em all. Why not annoy some TH9s and TH10s, :D
People say that you shouldn't farm DE with Dark Elixir troops, but that is entirely up to you. Whether you want to farm DE with Minions or not is up to you.
== Maintaining your Trophies ==
It is no doubt that you will be demoted to Gold 1 if you fall below the count of 1900 trophies. And with demotion that marks the end of Crystal League Farming for you. :(
Thus, you will have to do all you need just to stay above 1900 trophies. This means you have to be cautious when you are nearing the 1900 mark.
Fortunately for you, sniping Town Halls are your easy way out. This is the reason to stay in Crystal 3; it is hard to maintain trophies, and exposed THs are available for you if you need the cups. In Crystal 2 or 1, outside THs are nearly impossible to find, or just take a lotta time. That means there in Crystal 2 or 1 you need to win most of your raids, something not easy to do with TH8 troops, since whatever you encounter there (in Crystal 2 or 1) is TH9 and TH10.
The problem is to figure out when to snipe, and when to not to, because searching for snipes means that you may skip big loot raids entirely (Yes, there are raids worth over 1 million in Crystal).
So the general idea is to snipe THs only when you need to. Generally, you won't need to snipe THs if you are above 1940 trophies because you won't drop out of Crystal if you lose a revenge raid against a Silver. But once you fall below about 1930, you'll need to snipe THs because once you lose one of those collector raids from Gold 2 you are gone.
Before you end your session, try to stay above the 1960 mark, so you won't drop out of Crystal in case someone from Bronze League 3-stars you.
Before a league season ends, snipe as high as you can, so that you won't end up stuck in Gold 1 when the next league season starts, forcing you to snipe for up to an hour to continue your Crystal journey.
== Too Long; Didn't Read ==
Just in case you scrolled down too much, seeing the amount of text.
* Farm in Crystal 3 because of the loot bonus, DE, collectors and because you get sniped a lot.
* Farm in Crystal only when you are a mid-TH8 or later.
* TH1-8 and 10 are your friends, TH9 is not.
* Leave your TH 100% unprotected and decorated.
* Try to use an uncommon base layout.
* Farm normally, but watch out for your trophy count.
* Farm in sessions.
* Snipe THs when you are below 1930 to avoid dropping out of Crystal, and snipe to 1960 trophies before your session ends.