Flammy's Strategy Guides/Matchmaking Guide: Trophies, Experience, and Town Hall Level

==Flammy's Strategy Guides: Table of Contents==
==Welcome==
This page is part of Flammy's Strategy Guides. Check it out for links to my other guides as well as notes about editing and reproducing my content. I also produce Clash of Clans videos on YouTube, including a Let's Play (basically a playthough/walkthrough) that starts at Town Hall level 4, so if you're looking for more help and advice, I hope to see you over there.
==What are Trophies, Experience, and Town Hall Level?==
Trophies are the golden cups on the top left of your interface, just below your name, level, and experience bar. You get Trophies for winning multiplayer battles, either offensively or defensively. When attacking, if you get at least one star (50% of base destroyed or Town Hall destroyed) you will gain Trophies. If you do not get at least one star, you will lose Trophies. The amount depends on your relative Trophy counts (you vs your opponent). Getting one star results in getting ⅓ of the number of Trophies listed on the top left when attacking a base (just below the enemy resource count). Getting two stars means getting ⅔ of this amount, and getting 3 stars means you get the full amount. For one and two stars the count is rounded down.
Experience is gained for completing buildings. The amount varies non-linearly depending on the time it takes to complete and the resources it takes to complete (more expensive and slower = more Experience). The exact amount of Experience can be seen in blue text when a construction completes (similar animation to when collecting gold or elixir, the number is shown). Note: you do NOT get experience for upgrading Walls, researching units, placing Decorations, or buying Traps. You also get a small amount of experience for removing natural decorations (Obstacles) and destroying enemy Town Halls (amount dependant on your relative Town Hall levels).
Levels are gained by earning more Experience. Level is ONLY good for getting a summary for how much someone has played and does not have any real meaning for multiplayer. You can appear ‘weaker’ by keeping your level low by under-investing in resource collectors and not collecting Achievements (which give Experience along with their Gem reward).
Upgrading the Town Hall results in unlocking more buildings and new buildings. Town Hall level does affect multiplayer in two ways: the amount of resources that are available to raid, and the available troops and defenses each side can muster to the battle.
==How does Matchmaking work?==
Matchmaking is based entirely on Trophies.
Level and experience don’t matter. Town Hall level doesn’t matter (in terms of finding a match). Period. Town Hall level matters now. I took this screenshot a while back when I had about 600 Trophies. I was also level 40 or so as you can see from my large Army. Think TheDominator stands much of a chance?
Why is this a problem? Because each player can intentionally gain or lose Trophies as they desire, essentially giving them control over how hard they want their opponents to be. This means that a level 7 TH can come and ruin your day if they feel like it, just because they ditched some Trophies and ended up at the same Trophy count as you.
The recent patch (2.111, “Winter Update”) made it so you can only find matches who are worth 15-35 trophies if you three star them (note that this is not the same as “within 35 Trophies of you”). This restricts you to a rather small group of players that are currently similar Trophy counts as you.
===OMG! I just got attacked by someone XX levels higher than me!===
Yeah. That is why this system sucks. It's not based on levels. Matchmaking is now based on Town Hall level but you may still be unevenly matched.
==Taking Advantage of the Trophy System==
You can take advantage of the system now that you know how it works. Below are a few ideas.
==Abusing the system: Intentionally ditching trophies==
As I mentioned, you can intentionally ditch Trophies. You do this by attacking with a single unit or hero, again and again. Each time you ‘lose’ and in the process lose some Trophies.
As your Trophy count falls, you will find yourself in a progressively less competitive environment. Those who view your base will often be of lower level. Even if they are also a high level player, they will know there are easier matches out there, so they are more likely to skip you unless you have a ton of resources or some other reason to make it worth their time.
==Abusing the system even harder: Farming==
Some players take ditching Trophies to a whole new level: the farmers. These people drop to very few Trophies (<100 or <300) then attack other farmers for gold. The basic idea is: 1) stay at a low level so you don’t get attacked by people 3-starring you, and  2) raid other farmers and build up using natural income.
Note: There was an attempt to create a farming community before in which members voluntarily left their resources exposed. I am fairly sure this has fallen apart but if anyone has current information post it below or PM me and I’ll edit.
There are still a few people leaving their storages outside, but mainly only low levels; it's very rare, about 1 in 1000 villages or so. It's fairly common in gold league and below. Farming war alliances do exist, such as the FWA.
[Reader edit: While raiding, I have found a base with the resources lined neatly outside the base. Most likely the player had quit the game, but this may be a hint of "farming."]
One thing that I DO use really low Trophy counts for is boosting up my successful defenses to get the third level of the “Unbreakable” achievement. The second level is worth 50 gems and the third is worth 100. (At 200-300 trophies I get attacked 10+ times an hour, mostly from people lowering their trophy count, all resulting in wins)
==Conclusion==
Thanks for reading my guide. You can find more of my guides at Flammy's Strategy Guides. Check it out for links to my other guides as well as notes about editing and reproducing my content. I also produce Clash of Clans videos on YouTube, including a Let's Play (basically a playthough) starting at Town Hall level 4. Thanks again for reading, and hope to see you on my YouTube Channel.
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