Andrew Lai's Strategy Guide/Ch.1-Basics

Hi there! This will be the first stop of my series of strategy guides: the guide to the basics. This guide is probably for low-level players, but also suitable for every other levels.
You should have known these components of gameplay already, but still I'm going to discuss about them...
==IMPORTANT: Clasher's vocabs==
Before beginning, you should know some, if not all, of the words that you might not know before when you continues reading...
# Th/ Town Hall: the core of your villiage
# HP/ Hitpoints: The unit of "health"
# DPS/ Damage Per Second: The unit of damage
==Resources==
These are the currencies used in CoC, or simply the stuffs used to buy things. You gain them by either generating, stealing or buying them with gems.
===1.GOLD: The defensive resource===
First I'll talk about gold. Its amount is shown on the top right corner. They are golden coins but that doesn't matters (:P). What matters is the usage: Upgrading Defenses. Large amount of gold is required for buying and upgrading defenses such as Mortars/cannons etc. and also for Town Hall upgrading. PROTECT THEM WITH ALL COSTS because the're important to achieve any goals!
How to get…
#Raiding
#Producing
#Clearing Christmas trees (If you have~)
#Buy w/ gems
===2.ELIXIR: The offensive resource===
Elixir looks like purple water and is what you'll need for training troops for raiding others.The amount is shown below the gold amount. Basically it's much like gold, but not as easy to steal as you already spent some on troops which reduces the profit from raiding. Also PROTECT THEM WELL as you cannot raid without elixir!
How to get…
#Raiding
#Producing
#Clearing Halloween headstones (If you have~)
#Collecting Tombstones (20 each)
#Buy w/ gems
===3.DARK ELIXIR: The powerful offensive resource===
Dark elixir (or "DE") is unlocked at TH7 and is the most hard-earned resource and used solely for stronger troops namely "Dark Elixir troops" plus to summon heroes with DE. KEEP THEM SAFE from raiders!
How to get…
#Raiding
#Producing (Very slow)
#Collecting Dark Tombstones (1 each)
#Buy w/ gems
==Premium currency: GEMS==
This is a special and magical resource, which you can use to...
* Buy other resources
* Speed up works
* Hire builders (max is 5)
* Boost resource generating buildings/ barracks
They cannot be stolen, and you can get them by...
* Buy them with real-life money
* Clearing obstacles (0-6 gems each, while gem boxes gives 25)
* Claiming achievement rewards
* Reward of the top clan tournament
==Trophies==
You'll find that you get something after a successful raid/defense-- that's trophies, or simply "cups". They serve no offensive/defensive use, but determines your strength and what level of opponents you are matched with. You win them if you win; you lose them if you... lose.
Higher trophy amount also gives you more bonus loot from raiding!
What happens if your enemies are too strong? Don't panic, it's common when you win too much. Simply lower your trophy amount, which I'll talk later~
==Town Hall and Farming==
Here's the main part of this Guide: all about why and how you should farm!
First let me talk a bit about your town hall (abbrev: TH).
===Town Hall===
You should know these about the town hall:
# It's the main building of the game
# It's upgraded with A LOT of gold. Each upgrades unlocks more and maybe new buildings. There are 10 different levels
# When your TH is destroyed, you lose a defense
...
Hold on a second. No.3 is the main point and I'll start introduce farming from this point.
===Farming===
This is a widely used method used by mid to high level players. They put their TH outside their main part in order to attract attackers that aims for trophies.
You may ask," Why? They will lose when the TH is destroyed? Are they crazy?!"
No they aren't! If they lose only with the town hall destroyed, they...
* Only lose 1000 gold and elixir, which is very little
* A free 12 hours shield which protects them from being raided
Also, they can concentrate more defenses on the resource storages in this way!
This no longer works in the current version.
See? farming is a very nice method to try at mid level! (I am a farmer too~)
==Rushing Th==
Rushing th generally means that a player upgrades his/her th BEFORE upgrading all other buildings to a sufficient level.
I STRONGLY DISCOURAGE YOU TO RUSH TH. Why? Consider the following points...
#If you rush th, you get new defenses, but your overall defense level is very low. Therefore, your total damage output is often weaker than a maxed base.
#You get less resources from lower th lv enemies. A th10 raiding a th8 will get 50% of the available loot only, so you earn less.
#You'll get matched up with much stronger opponents. In multiplayer battle you'll find players of ±1 th level of you, so while you are a th9 with lv3 troops, you'll probably find those strong th9s with lv3 x-bows and lv10 walls. Also you'll find yourself defenseless against those max troops from th10 raiders.
#It's harder (and slower) to build than to destroy indeed. You may take MONTHS or even YEARS (in some extreme cases) to rebuild a decent base if you rushed th too much.
I rushed from th6 to 7, and I still regret my decision. It almost took me 2 months to have a decent th7 and after really hard work I'm at last maxed out...
That's why I never persuade people to rush th. Everytime I saw a rushed th guy, I feel sorry for him/her and 100% 'them afterwards. ;-)
Here I conclude my first guide! Thanks for reading, and hopefully my next guide can help you!