Not sure how you found this guide, but this is now obsolete. Use my new guide below:
https://clashguideswithdusk.net/2019/08/12/early-tutorial-th1-4-guide/
Last edited: 29/9/2018
Even numbered THs are boring, because they mostly don’t contain much offensive upgrades. Here, the only notable things are the 3rd barracks and an upgrade to CC. Just skip this TH altogether.
First priority upgrades:
- Barracks lvl1,2. This will help you churn out troops at 50% increased speed. That’s massive especially because you still have TH3 camp space.
Unfortunately, you’ll want to upgrade all barracks to nearly maxed, so you’ll train troops as fast as a Th3. Just leave your barracks at lvl2 unless you have spare builders and time - Clan castle. Being able to store another hog or balloon is huge. Try to upgrade this asap. You might need to upgrade a few storages to afford it
- New walls, spring traps and archer towers; build your new walls with spare gold, don’t need to upgrade them yet. The first level of archer tower is sufficient for now.
- Lab. You should be able to afford this right off the bat. Do this right after unlocking your second archer tower.
- Air defense. You will need to build this before you can upgrade to th5
- Once you have started the air defense, you can upgrade your th. Don’t need to wait for it to complete
Second priority upgrades:
- Max army camps. Only 1 level required with 100k cost. Shouldn’t be too hard because you should be aiming at least 50k loot per raid.
Max barracks. From your level 3 or more barracks, we’re going to try max all 3 of them till lvl6. Frankly lvl5 is sufficient, but since you’ll most likely be capped loot all the time, just do them all. Outdated advice, you don’t need to upgrade barracks anymore until th7+Mortar. Finally you get to unlock this beast… which is useless because only TH5s or strong TH4s would hunt you. That’s why defenses are always the end of my list. You need this to upgrade to th4 in the first place- Storages. You’ll want maxed or nearly maxed storages in TH5. The initial upgrades would cost almost the full amount of resources in your TH4 capped storages.
Third priority upgrades:
- Collectors. You have quite a few levels of collectors here, just do them up till a level you like. I personally left them at lvl4.
- Defenses. Just max defenses as they come, they play almost zero role here. TH5s with their massive 135 camp space (vs your 80) would absolutely decimate you without thought.
- Walls. Their level doesn’t matter, just do what you can afford. Do them in between upgrades and never leave them till the end. This rule applies for all TH levels! Do walls in between upgrades so that you don’t need to leave them till the end.
Farming:
Mass barch with assistance of CC hogs/loons are still the best bet. Just hit any base >50k of your desired loot and you’ll cap your storages easily.
You can find req&leave clans for free maxed giants/loons (Google it)

Recommended stay: 1.5-3 days (just build the air defense and upgrade)
Recommended upgrades: All first priority upgrades

This is actually the end of my 3rd day playing and I’m only a day away from TH5. Good luck people!
Love your guides man. Have been a big help for advice. Question: What do you think is more important at this level to upgrade, a Cannon or Air Defense? I know you don’t like maxing (I have enough gold for TH5 rn), but as a new player to the game, I want to go slow and steady so to not get demolished by town halls. My defense has been abysmal, but I’ve been able to make up for it by raiding.
One last question: You know any good TH4 layouts instead of general advice? Links would be nice if you can, else it’s alright.
Much appreciated!
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1. Defenses are pointless, upgrading them does not give you any benefit. You will be crushed regardless of defense levels. My maxed TH12 which have 100% maxed defenses is getting demolished every single day. Given the choice of cannon vs air defense, I would say town hall is more important.
TH4 base? Don’t bother, base design does not matter until TH9 where you can try to make decent base.
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Love your guides! Big help. I have enough gold for TH5, but want to max out before going to TH5 (I know you aren’t a fan, but I want to take it slow and steady, I’m a new player and getting demolished by TH5’s yet isn’t very appetizing to me as my defense is already abysmal although I’m making up for this with more raiding) . What do you think is more important to upgrade at this level, a Cannon or Air Defense?
Also, you know any good layouts for TH4 (links)?
Would be much appreciated!
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Hey Dusk,
Great guide man, really helpful stuff.
One question I have is why the need to upgrade walls? I’m leaving the defences as level 1 but I see here that you wrote to never leave walls to the end. Whats the reason behind this? Especially if we are leaving defences at the base level.
Thanks in advance.
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Walls only cost gold which you should have a lot of. Almost all your upgrades cost elixir when rushing, so just use your gold to upgrades walls while waiting for your key upgrades. We don’t upgrade defenses because they cost time, not because they cost gold
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Ohhh ok that does make sense. You’ve really thought of everything in this guide haha, thanks for the response.
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