
Ok, got way too boring so I just went ahead and gemmed the town hall, now I’m a TH9! Now the game finally begins, my god it took almost a month

Always start by seeing the value pack and whether it is worth it or not. The TH9 pack gives a lvl1 AQ (worth 40k DE), another free 105k DE (enough for another 3 levels of AQ with some extra), 3mil gold and one lvl2 xbow (worth 7mil gold and 10 days). Its costs about USD20 or AUD31.
Its quite worth it if you can afford it, but if you only want to buy 1-3 packs in your gaming life, this is not the pack. If you pay for the TH9-12 packs, it will come out at $80. Spend where you feel its affordable, but its only the 4th best pack out there.

I didn’t buy the pack, instead I spent the 62.5k DE that I saved up for and built AQ lvl1 and upgraded her immediately to lvl2. It is very important to keep her upgrading, so spend the time to farm for her
It takes on average 25k DE per day to keep AQ upgrading constantly, and more than that for lvl1-5. Farm hard, because she’s worth it. She gets easier and easier as you progress in the game, but the first week of TH9 can be brutal if you are not prepared psychologically. No amount of maxing will make this easier, don’t worry
Since I was impatient and gemmed my TH, I still need to wait another 8 hours before I can upgrade lab, will need to upgrade other things in the mean time.