MagmaHound's Strategy Guides/A General Guide To Upgrading Order

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Hello , this is a "short" guide to upgrading order. This applies to all TH levels, actually, so yeah. I will be explaining why you upgrade in that order.
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I'm no longer maintaining these guides, these guides were written back in 2015 so much of the information here will be outdated.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, there have been three more Town Hall levels since I wrote this guide, and so there's a lot that could be added to update it nowadays. 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.
== So What do I Upgrade First? ==
Note: This order assumes that you have a maxed TH prior to getting a new TH.
=== Defenses ===
# Your new traps. They don't take any time to build, so why not do it now.
# Your newly unlocked defenses. Although it might take up to week until they function in your village they do work immediately in your War Bases, as level 1 defenses.
# Your new defenses at your Town Hall level. Upgrade them to the level that was the maximum for the previous TH level. The reason is because you should balance your defenses and whatnot. It is better to have, for example all level 8 Cannons than having one level 10 Cannon and the rest all level 5 and 6.
# Your Inferno Towers, if you have them. They are extremely intimidating, although expensive, but if you can farm the 6+ million gold needed to upgrade them then do so.
# Your X-Bows. Although it might be overrated they are extremely long-range defenses, capable of covering almost the entire base when set on ground, and still covers a lot even on ground and air mode. That means any farmer will have to deal with the X-Bow until it is destroyed. Don't fret, it has a great amount of HP, so it'll take a while before it goes down.
# Your splash defenses, namely Wizard Tower and Mortar. You don't want to let your enemies easily farm you with Barch or any Tier 1 composition. They do damage multiple targets despite their relatively low DPS.
# Air Defenses. They are a great intimidating factor to air attackers, and those with Giant-Healer attacks. They are the second most likely defense to be zapped by Lightning Spells before the raid starts (with the first being the Mortar) so leveling them up might give the extra HP needed to survive lower-level/less perfectly placed Lightning Spells. Do upgrade these alongside your splash defenses, and perhaps overlapping the last one or two upgrades with point defenses.
# Hidden Teslas. A great surprise to the attacker, although expensive, they are cheaper than most defenses at higher levels, because their price is near-linear. Plus, they deal the highest constant DPS in the game.
# Air Sweepers. They seem like they may not do much however at higher levels they are a great counter to air attacks. A high-level Air Sweeper pointing in a direction will most likely scare away air attacks from that direction.
# Archer Towers. They are a great point defense in every way, in terms of range and its ability to attack air. However they are quite expensive and take a bit of time to finish, but it's worth the wait. Just imagine the Archer Tower raining heckfire and abomination down on the enemies below.
# Cannons. They are a decent point defense and relatively cheap to upgrade, but they are incapable of attacking air and have slightly less range than Archer Towers. At most levels the Cannon will be on par with a similar-level Archer Tower, but it can be outshone by high-level Teslas and ATs.
# Your Walls. Without them at a decent level your base will look ridiculous. Do them while you have the excess resources for them and after you have maxed your defenses.
# Your Traps. There's not much to them, but they are surprises. You can work on some of these while you are working of defenses to keep builders busy.
=== Army / Offense Buildings===
#New Army Camps and Barracks/Dark Barracks. If you want to remain competitive against other players of your TH level do build your new Army Camp if you have one. Your new Barracks, although they only train so much they do help out in reducing your army's training time.
#Your Laboratory. Upgrading the Lab means you get to unlock new levels of troops, to be able to deal with other people of your new TH level.
#Your Archer Queen, if you are a new TH9. Farm the 40K DE needed for the AQ if you haven't half-filled the DE storage when you left TH8. She is a great addition to your offense even at level 1 so definitely get her.
#Army Camps, if there's an upgrade for them. More space in your Army Camps mean you have more troops to farm or war with.
#Clan Castle, to hold more troops and thus more space via your Clan.
#Spell Factory, it'll be a pain in your back but the extra spell slot is worth it even if you do not intend to regularly use the unlocked spell.
#Max out one Barracks and Dark Barracks for your TH level first, but be sure to have at least one more Barracks of a level it is upgrading from so you don't lose the ability to train a troop (especially at high levels) for days. Example: If you are getting one Barracks to level 9 be sure to have at least one Barracks level 8 because you won't be able to train Healers for 4 days otherwise.
#If you are TH8 or TH9 Heroes are a big priority. Aim to get your BK maxed ASAP at TH8 and to get your Heroes as high of a level as possible at TH9. For TH9s get your AQ up to at least level 10, then work on your Heroes 5 levels at a time (e.g. BK to 15, AQ to 15, BK to 20, etc. or vice versa) for ability upgrades.
#For TH7 aim to get your Barbarian King at this point, and upgrade him to level 5 as soon as possible for his ability.
#Max out your remaining Barracks and Dark Barracks for your TH level, it's not that important but it does cut down the time spent upgrading Barracks at the next TH level.
===Laboratory Troops===
There are multiple paths you can take for this one.
====Farming Path====
#Archer, popular troop for both farming and donations.
#Barbarian, for the Barch composition and other well-known farming comps.
#Giant, great tank especially at level 6+ and its use in storage farming comps.
#Goblin, for BAG or BAG-based strategies, and farming in general.
#Wall Breaker, assists well in storage comps and for dealing with collectors behind walls.
#Minion, for both Loonion and BAM, two popular strats, one for storages and one for GPH farming
#Balloon, for Balloonion strategies used for storage farming / farming off TH8s
#Hog Rider, for CC lure in storage comps
#Heal Spell, useful for support in storage raids, especially with Giants
#Poison Spell, useful to eliminate pesky Clan Castle troops
#Rage Spell, alternative for storage raids
#Lightning Spell, for extra percentage when farming loot bonuses and to destroy Mortars when used in pairs
From here it's up to you to decide what comes next.
====War/Trophy Pushing Path====
=====TH7-TH8=====
#Dragon, extremely powerful troop at this level
#Wizard, great DPS increase at this level (90 --> 170)
#Giant, for any GiWiPe or Giant-Healer/GiWi/GiWiHe, versatile at this level
#Healer, for GiWiHe/Giant-Healer
#Wall Breaker, for any ground-based attack
#Rage Spell, standard for TH8 Dragons and ground attacks.
#Balloon, for Balloonion, pretty uncommon but deadly if used correctly
#Minion, for Balloonion, see 7
#Hog Rider, to decimate players of equal TH level. Level 2/4 Hogs are near-unstoppable if used correctly, but beware of time which can lead to potential 99% 1-stars.
#Healing Spell, for Hogs and Giant-based comps, and support in TH8 Dragon raids.
#P.E.K.K.A, for GO-WIPE.
#Golems, for GO-WIPE.
#Poison Spell for easy elimination of Clan Castle troops.
#Lightning Spell, for TH7 that are using Drags or perhaps Loonion. Not that important because 3x level 4 Lightning (unlocked at TH5) can destroy a max AD.
=====TH9-TH10=====
#Balloon, for Balloonion/Lavaloonion/Quatrolavaloonion/Holowiwi
#Minion, for Balloonion/Lavaloonion/Quatrolavaloonion
#P.E.K.K.A for GO-WIPE/GO-WIWIPE
#Golems for GO-WIPE/GO-WIWIPE
#Witches for GO-WIWI/GO-WIWIPE
#Lava Hounds, although powerful with the famous Lavaloonion/Quatrolavaloonion is not a great priority because it still works great at level 1
#Freeze Spell for TH10 attacking in general
#Haste Spell for any attacks involving Balloons. Yes, they speed them up real good
#Jump Spell for GO-WIPE attacking
#Wizards because the jump in stats is not that high
The rest is up to your discretion.
===Economy/Resource Buildings===
#Build your new collectors/storages. They only take a minute of your time so why not?
#For TH7, the Dark Elixir Storage so that you can start working on the Barbarian King ASAP.
#The Dark Elixir Drill, it's an important priority at TH7-9 for helping you get DE while you are away. When maxed at TH7/8 it generates 1080 DE each per day and when maxed at TH9 it generates 2400 DE each per day.
#Upgrade your new Gold Mines and Elixir Collectors first, they will catchup quickly, taking at most a few days to repay the investment of Gold/Elixir and time. Upgrade them to at least level 5, you'll be able to get a lot from it overnight as a result.
#Upgrading your Dark Elixir Storage is a good idea, because it increases the hitpoints which allows you to lose less DE every time it is partially destroyed. Plus, you'll need the level 2 upgrade to work on your Barbarian King upgrades and the level 3 upgrade to work on your Archer Queen.
#Upgrading your Elixir Storages to maximum are not very much of a priority at TH7 due to the Elixir upgrades costing at most 2 million, but do so at TH8 because the most Elixir upgrade at that level is 6 million (level 3 P.E.K.K.A), 1000 short of the maximum storage capacity at TH8. Plus, maxing your TH8 storages allows you to prepare for level 6 Archers, Giants and Balloons when you reach TH9.
#Maxing your Gold Storages at TH8 or below is not a priority due to the fact that the most expensive Gold upgrade at that level is 3 million (level 6 Hidden Tesla and level 9 Town Hall). Do max it at TH9 because you need the storage space for the level 3 X-Bow.
#Work on your Gold Mines and Elixir Collectors while your builders are free. It's not a fundamental thing if you can farm your upgrades easily, but hey, they do give passive income while you're away, just like the Dark Elixir Drill.
==Conclusion==
There's not much else to say, I guess. Despite whatever is written here, you have the complete freedom to do whatever you want with your base, because it is your base and nobody else is supposed to dictate what you farm for next except yourself. Go ahead and upgrade your Cannons first if you want, you have all the reason to do so.
I hope this guide was simply a reference to what you should upgrade first as to benefit your base the most throughout your journey through whatever TH level you went through. :P