Clash of Clans Builder Base 2.0 defensive changes explained

While we’re all anxiously awaiting the next major update to Clash of Clans, Supercell has been hard at work on the revamped Builder Base. For the past couple of months, Supercell has been working on Builder Base 2.0, a complete rehaul of the mechanics for your spin-off village.

The goal with Builder Base 2.0 is simply to make it a more enjoyable activity. When Builder Base was first introduced, it was an exciting new island with a different approach to combat and building mechanics. But over time, the side base has gotten stale, especially as it’s grown larger.

Supercell has been very transparent with the changes coming in Builder Base 2.0. A few months ago, they detailed the new approach to Builder Base combat with two key points of emphasis: “fewer stronger troops” and “giving more troops active triggered abilities.”

This week, they provided another update with a focus on the defensive side of Builder Base. Although Builder Halls 1 through 5 will largely stay the same, Builder Hall 6 and beyond will add more depth in the form of a second buildable area.

"You’ll have a second buildable area, it’ll have its own key building “O.T.T.O’s Outpost” and your buildings will be split across the two stages."

Although the Master Builder and O.T.T.O can work anywhere seamlessly  between the new areas, certain builders are restricted to where they can be placed. Supercell explains:

"Non-defenses like the Clocktower can only be placed in a certain stage or, for buildings like Gold Storages (where there are multiple), you are only able to place a certain number in the first stage and the rest in the second."

Ideally, this new setup helps keep Builder Base feeling small as gameplay starts to become a bit too spammy the bigger the bases start to get. By separating your Builder Base into two separate bases, it leads to more tactical defense setups and attack strategies.

Speaking of attacking, when matching in Builder Base as an attacker, you’ll only see the first stage. Based on this, you can pick your army and plan your attack. If you three-star the first stage, the remaining troops who have survived this first attack will move back to your deployment bar and receive a bit of health back. Depending on your own Builder Hall level, you’ll also receive some reinforcements.

You’ll then see your opponent’s second stage and be given the opportunity to swap your reinforcement camps, or any unused camp of troops from the initial army. This adds an additional layer of strategy since you won’t simply be able to just spam all your troops on the first stage anymore. You’ll have to plan more carefully knowing you have limited troops for the second phase of the attack. In the second stage, you can also earn an additional three stars: One for destroying O.T.T.O’s Outpost, one for crossing 150% destruction and one for reaching 200% destruction.

We now have three core ideas fueling the Builder Base 2.0 redesign. There will be fewer but stronger Heroic Troops. There’s a better sense of balance and rewards for attacking and defending, and Builder Base will remain small, but tactical.

At this point, it feels like Supercell has a good sense of how they want Builder Base 2.0 to feel, but are now working on refining and balancing the mechanics. The developer acknowledged this is one of the harder updates they’ve worked on which explains why it has taken so long to release. Supercell still has not confirmed when Builder Base 2.0 will launch, but the Spring update for Clash of Clans is slated to release soon. At this point though, it doesn’t appear Builder Base 2.0 will be ready in time for it.