This is a question I receive frequently:

“I am TH a, currently defenses so-and-so, barch lvl whatever, heroes whatever. Is it ok for me to rush to the next TH?”

Whenever this question comes up, my answer is usually yes because if you can articulate it that way it means you know what is important to mention and probably know your way around the game.

The main question you want the answer to is, “Would I gain much more strength quicker if I upgraded my TH?” If you gain much more strength after upgrading TH, then for sure upgrading is the wiser choice. This is why TH6 and TH8 is mostly skipped because nothing you can do will increase your strength by a significant amount, whereas going to TH7 and TH9 respectively will quickly improve your strength.

The general guide is “If you are below TH9, you are fit to upgrade to the next TH”. Just quickly browse my guides here whatever TH level you are and finish all the first priority upgrades before going to the next TH level.

General TH Guides

For any TH level, maxing lab, army camps, spell factory, cc, barch and some storages would be more than enough to get you to TH9. The reason why you want to rush to TH9 early is because AQ and the grind to max her out. She is the single most important and longest upgrading item in the game, so the earlier you start her, the earlier to finish. That’s why I always comment “A day below TH9 is a day wasted”, and “A day your AQ is awake is a day away from maxing her”.

So below TH9 its very easy, now the harder thing is deciding when to upgrade to TH10 and TH11. I’ll address these individually. For a TH9, there is very little drawbacks for upgrading to TH10 early because loot increases overall. TH9 only has a few offensive upgrades that matter in the endgame though they are good at their own TH level, troops like hogs, dragons, golems become obsolete later on so upgrading to TH10 early would benefit you a lot.

I generally say you’d want 15/15 heroes for TH10 and its because that can screen for good vs not so good players. But if you know your stuff and know how to farm, then you can transition into TH10 much earlier. Furthermore, you can gain a good amount of strength by just dropping both infernos and the new xbow. Counting the dps and hp, just implementing those structures at lvl1 will beat upgrading every defense to maxed TH9 level. TH8 + infernos >> maxed TH9

For upgrading to TH11, the main draw here is the warden, loot doesn’t really increase when you upgrade to TH11. The warden itself can beat every single lab upgrade at TH10 and TH11. Maxed TH9 troops + warden > maxed TH11 troops (not comparing miners or bowlers). This is the problem when SC puts all the emphasis on one thing, lab upgrades are pathetic at TH10 and TH11 and the only strength you gain is from the warden.

This is the only time you need to weigh the benefit vs cost because the added offense doesn’t help much with farming anyway so it might not help your overall progress. You will need to consider when to upgrade TH, so when you feel your strength is not increasing by much then start your TH11 journey. TH11 also doesn’t gain too much defense advantage over TH10 without upgrading all your structures, so that is another consideration.

Hope this will help with making an informed decision of when to upgrade TH. In summary, below TH9 just upgrade and rush; TH9 to TH10 is almost always a good bet to upgrade; TH10 to TH11 needs some analysis and consideration