Root Rider

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"This earth warrior is so in tune with nature she doesn’t need to walk herself. Riding into battle on top a tough tree root which can smash through walls and slam defenses into dust."
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Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
==Summary==
*The Root Rider is the seventeenth Elixir Troop unlocked in the Barracks when it has been upgraded to level 17, which requires Town Hall level 15.
*The Root Rider rides atop a mobile tree root to battle. She is a defense-targeting troop with high hitpoints but low damage and slow speed. The Root Rider is also capable of destroying s very quickly, riding over them with her root.
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*The Root Rider's movement speed is sufficiently slow enough that Walls will be destroyed as she passes through them normally. However, if one uses a or Haste Spell on the Root Rider, it can be seen that she actually ignores Walls and does not have to destroy them.
*Defensive Root Riders will not damage the defending village's own Walls.
==Strategies==
===Offensive Strategy===
*Root Riders have high hitpoints and can quickly break open for other attackers to take advantage, which makes them excellent alternatives to Golems or other tank units.
**Do note that since the Root Rider pathing ignores Walls, she may fail to destroy Walls fully if she crosses over them extremely quickly with a or Haste Spell. However, this is not an issue if the defense she is targeting is situated directly behind the Walls, as those will be broken while she stays on the defense, which can help with funneling other troops inside the base. Earthquake Spells can help if this issue arises, however, it shouldn't be an issue if you are using multiple Root Riders in groups.
**Their pathing is similar to troops that ignore walls such as the Miner and the Hog Rider.
*There are different interactions when the Root Riders break Walls of different levels:
**At levels 1-10, Walls will be instantly destroyed when she moves over them;
**At levels 11-12, Walls are able to survive the wall damage of Root Riders, but will still be destroyed easily, at 0.4s;
**At level 13, Walls are able to survive only about 0.8s from the Root Rider.
**At level 14, Walls will survive for 1.2s; and
**At levels 15-17, the Walls are able to survive for 1.6s.
*Consider the Root Rider as a Mountain Golem: just like him, she has moderate damage, slow speed and a slow attack rate. However, while the Mountain Golem is able to break Walls instantly, the Root Rider needs time to destroy them. The Root Rider's damage is comparable to that of a Wizard of relative levels.
*The Root Rider's utilities can be heavily exploited by Heroes, Valkyries and Witches; the combination makes for an especially crushing attack. Valkyries and the Heroes benefit from the openings afforded by the Root Riders' wall-breaking, while Witches and their Skeletons gain access similarly and can also protect Root Riders in return.
*An Apprentice Warden is useful to pair with Root Riders as he can buff the Root Riders' already high hitpoints.
*Skeleton Spells are used to distract single-targeting s and Monoliths, preventing them from being targeted. If used on the Poison Spell Tower with no defenses which counter Skeleton Spells, the defensive Spell will be wasted if the defense drops its spell, forcing the Poison Spell Tower to recharge.
*The Root Rider can replace the Golem in certain armies, since she has a lower housing cost and has the ability to break walls, deals slightly more damage, attacks slightly faster, and is overall much more versatile and easier to use at higher Town Halls for the Dark Elixir used on the Golem.
*She can also be useful for Clan Wars at lower Town Hall levels, because of her low housing space at 20, allowing her to be used at levels as low as Town Hall 6. Her very high hitpoints for those levels allows her to be great in a variety of armies in lower levels, as her tanking ability far outmatches everything accessible at those levels.
**In fact, a level 1 Root Rider can fully destroy a maxed Town Hall 6, so long as there are no Clan Castle troops, especially a Dragon or Baby Dragon or other troops which can overwhelm the Root Rider, such as the Witch.
===Defensive Strategy===
*Place defenses in a way to minimise the Root Rider's capabilities of wall-breaking; for example, having multiple large compartments of defenses. Non-defensive buildings with high hitpoints, such as resource storages, can help in this regard.
**Destroying Root Riders also help, so remember to protect the single-targeting Inferno Towers and Monoliths, especially when they are distracted by Skeleton Spells by using multi-targeting and AoE defenses such as Multi-Archer Towers and Wizard Towers. 
*Poison Spell Towers or the Poison explosion from an exploding Giga Inferno Town Hall can slow down Root Rider attacks, giving the defenses a chance to destroy them.
**However, if the Poison Spell Tower deploys its spell to the Skeletons spawned from the Skeleton Spell or other troops if the defense doesn't have splash-damage defenses surrounding it, the defensive spell will be useless.
*Ice Golems, when defeated, freeze Root Riders for a while, slowing down the attack. If the base is creatively made to counter Root Riders, with the Clan Castle having Ice Golems, the attacker can potentially suffer a time fail.
*Root Riders boast good hitpoints for their housing space, comparable to P.E.K.K.As and Golems while taking less housing space; in a max-level Clan Castle, she leaves enough room for other potent defenders, such as a Lava Hound to maximize stalling potential. However, Root Riders do not have any notable advantages beyond this (being a slow-attacking single-target unit incapable of hitting air units), so she can be passed over for other defensive units.
==Upgrade Differences==
The Root Rider undergoes significant visual changes at all levels.
*Initially, the Root Rider is a woman with green clothes, with vines which appear to look like snakes, and has reddish-brown hair and yellow headbands. She rides a brown giant root which appears to protrude from the ground.
**At level 2, her hair changes into a color of yellow, her headbands and clothes turn pink, and her giant root gains thorns.
**At level 3, her hair changes into crimson red, and her clothes turn blue. However, her headbands revert to the color she had at level 1. Her root changes to a teal-like color; its thorns get bigger, and slightly curves.
==Statistics==
Preferred Target	Attack Type 	 	Movement Speed	Attack Speed	Attack Speed vs. Walls	Range 	Barracks Level Required
Defenses 	Single Target (Ground only)	20	12 	2.2s 	0.4s 	1 tile	17
Training Time of Root Rider	Training Time of Root Rider
Barracks available 	Barracks upgrading
3m 40s 	7m 20s
Level	Damage per Second	Damage per Hit	Wall Damage per Second	Wall Damage per Hit	Hitpoints	Research Cost	Research Time	Laboratory Level Required
1 	95 	209 	10,000 	4,000 	6,200 	N/A 	N/A 	N/A
2 	105 	231 	10,000 	4,000 	6,350 	19,000,000 	12d 	13
3 	115 	253 	10,000 	4,000 	6,500 	22,000,000 	14d 	14
==History==
Patch 	Type 	Description
December 9, 2023 	Sneak Peek 	Announced the Root Rider.
December 12, 2023	Update 	The Root Rider was added with three levels.
February 27, 2024	Update 	
*Decreased Root Rider's hitpoints at all levels.
**Level 1: 7,200 → 6,650 
**Level 2: 7,600 → 7,050 
**Level 3: 8,000 → 7,400
March 26, 2024 	Balance Changes	
*Decreased Root Rider's damage at all levels.
**Level 1: 210 → 190 
** Level 2: 230 → 210 
** Level 3: 250 → 230 
*Decreased Root Rider's hitpoints at all levels. 
**Level 1: 6,650 → 6,300 
** Level 2: 7,050 → 6,650 
**Level 3: 7,400 → 7,000
June 3, 2024 	Balance Changes	
*Decreased Root Rider's damage at all levels.
**Level 1: 190 → 95 
**Level 2: 210 → 105 
**Level 3: 230 → 115 
* Decreased Root Rider's hitpoints at all levels.
**Level 1: 6,300 → 6,200 
**Level 2: 6,650 → 6,350 
**Level 3: 7,000 → 6,500
 
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
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*Her ability to destroy walls has been inspired by the Mountain Golem's Crush ability, which destroys walls instantly upon contact, though for the Root Rider's, she will take more than a second to do the same. However, for multiple Root Riders, when they are close to each other, the effect can stack, destroying Walls in less than a second.
*Even though the root she's riding in her info image has thorns, the root won't actually grow thorns unless the Root Rider is level 2.
*The Root Rider's attack speed is faster than the Mountain Golem's, with the former taking 2.2 seconds, while the latter takes 3 seconds to land an attack.
*The Root Rider is one of several troops with the fewest amount of levels. The others are the Dragon Rider, Headhunter, and Druid.
*She was nerfed 3 times in updates.
*Even if the Root Rider is stuck on Walls while the Tornado Trap is active, the Root Rider will still destroy them.
**With luck, the ground troops will then get access to more compartments of the base, allowing them to get more value.
Category:Troops
Category:Ground Troops
Category:Elixir Troops
Category:Home Village