Barbarian (2024)

For its Builder Base counterpart, see Raged Barbarian.

For its Clan Capital counterpart, see Barbarian/Clan Capital.

For a similar Hero, see Barbarian King.

Skins

Summary

• The Barbarian is the first Elixir Troop unlocked in the Barracks. He is a single-target melee troop.
• He appears as a male kilt-clad warrior with an angry, battle-ready expression, hungry for destruction. He has close-cropped blond hair and a long, yellow horseshoe mustache. In battle, he wields a sword which he uses to attack.
• Barbarians have no preferred target when attacking; they will simply attack the closest building. However, if they become aware of enemy Clan Castle troops, Heroes, or Skeleton Trap skeletons (either by being attacked themselves or by being near another friendly troop under attack), and can fight back against them, they will leave their previously targeted building and instead engage the enemy troops. Once all of the nearby enemy troops are defeated, the Barbarians will proceed to attack the nearest structure.

Strategies

Offensive Strategy

• Barbarians are commonly used in Barch (Barbarian + Archer) and GoBarch (Goblin + Barbarian + Archer), two basic attack strategies where they are paired with Archers and/or Goblins. In Barch, Barbarians will tank for Archers, allowing for them to deal damage from a distance, and aim to achieve 50% or just destroy exposed Resource buildings. In GoBarch, the Barbarians will tank for the Archers as they destroy the buildings inside the first layer of Walls as the Goblins destroy all the exposed resource buildings. The quick training of Barch and GoBarch relative to other army compositions makes it a good farming strategy at all levels. However, this strategy is extremely weak to splash defenses.
• Barbarians can also be used as a filler troop at higher levels, they can also block your troops from being attacked by single-target Inferno Towers and can be a distraction. However, Skeleton Spells are generally better for this purpose.
• Large hordes of Barbarians are very effective as they will quickly destroy anything in their path. This is balanced by the fact that the Barbarians are not very effective under heavy fire from splash damaging buildings. As such, players sometimes spread Barbarians to avoid them all being picked off in one group by a Mortar, Wizard Tower or Bomb Tower, as they all deal splash damage.
• Besides doing splash damage, the Mortar also knocks back any Barbarians it strikes by 2 tiles (sometimes this can even change the Barbarians' target if it moves them closer to another building).
• Players can use Barbarians (or any similarly expendable troops like Archers) first to test what troops are in the defending player's Clan Castle, where any traps are, and where any Hidden Teslas are.
  • However, if the Clan Castle is centralized such that its trigger area is behind Walls, Barbarians will be less viable for the purpose of triggering it, and other units that can more easily bypass Walls and target defenses (such as Balloons or Hog Riders) are recommended instead.
• Barbarians can act as a "poor man's" distracting troop in a similar fashion to Giants; while they have far less health individually, a group of five Barbarians (the same housing requirement as one Giant) has approximately 75% of the health as a similar-level Giant (up to level 5) while doing nearly 4 times the damage. Note that this strategy is far less effective if splash damage defenses (e.g. Bomb Tower, Wizard Tower, and Mortar) are in the area, as they will damage all Barbarians at once and destroy them relatively quickly.
• They are good to take out lone buildings, like Builder's Huts placed far away to prevent full destruction, since they have good damage, and can often destroy these buildings and can even be used to take on storages outside.
• If a Mortar is exposed and otherwise undefended, a single Barbarian can easily destroy it as Mortars cannot target troops which are 4 tiles or closer of them, but make sure that the mortar isn't covered by other defenses, or else the Barbarian could die early!

Defensive Strategy

• In the Clan Castle, they are capable of soaking up a decent amount of damage, delaying attackers and allowing your fixed defenses to take care of the rest and having a great many, due to their minuscule housing space of 1.
  • However, since the introduction of the Poison Spell, low-HP units such as the Barbarian are significantly less effective inside Clan Castles.
• Barbarians are very vulnerable to splash-damaging defenses. Protect your Mortars, if there are Giants, separate them from the Barbarians with their predictable pathing and then use Bombs to cripple them at low TH levels, and in higher Town Hall levels, place Mortars near the edge of the base, allowing their range to cover all of your outside buildings.
• Barbarians are somewhat tanky for their housing space. If possible, use their melee pathing to separate them from what is most likely Archer backups.

Upgrade Differences

The Barbarian undergoes significant visual changes at all levels except for levels 2 and 4.

• Initially, the Barbarian appears to be a short, muscular man wearing a brown kilt with a leather belt and a steel shield-shaped buckle. He also has spiked wristbands on both arms, as well as a short claymore in his right hand. He wears a pair of leather sandals on his feet.
  • At level 3, the Barbarian gains a brown leather headband with an emblem on the center, and a bigger, longer claymore.
  • At level 5, the Barbarian’s headband is replaced with a horned helmet and his claymore turns into bronze.
  • At level 6, the Barbarian wields a dark iron claymore and sports a mightier horned helmet of a dark gray color and gray horns pointing downward, similar to that of the Masters League symbol. All accouterments (kilt, belt, wristbands, and sandals) turn a darker shade of brown as well.
  • At level 7, the Barbarian's dark claymore is replaced with a lighter-gray one that appears to be molten on each edge, and his horned helmet gains a gold accent along with gold horns. The spiked bracelets on his wrists turn black, and the spikes become gold. His belt buckle also becomes brass-colored.
  • At level 8, the Barbarian uses a new helmet with larger horns pointing upwards and fur on its front. His bracelets are now solid bands of metal and bronze.
  • At level 9, the Barbarian's helmet gets deprived of its brown fur and turns into a metal one that has a purple tint. His armbands gain gold plating, and the horns on his helmet are now larger.
  • At level 10, the Barbarian gets a new helmet with a golden cross on his helmet that covers his eyes. His helmets appear to be shorter with a golden tint transitioning to white at the tip.
  • At level 11, the Barbarian once again gains a new helmet that appears to be smaller and that appears to have an even more massive gold plate than the previous one, a small triangle made of metal is right in the middle of this gold plate. The Barbarian even seems to gain armor for his mustache. The Barbarian gains a black fur coat that is reinforced by gold armor. His kilt also seems to get even darker.
  • At level 12, the Barbarian's helmet horns are gone, and have been replaced with two pointy thorns. The gold triangle on top of his helmet is now a rhombus-shaped green leaf symbol surrounded with a white trim, which is also seen on many buildings corresponding to the nature theme of Town Hall level 16. The helmet also has white trims. The Barbarian's tunic and kilt return and replace the fur coat from before. His belt is now gold and the triangle symbol on his belt buckle is replaced with a gold spike. His shoulders gain two pauldrons with grey trims and a gold plate in the center.

• Barbarians spawned by the Champion King, Beat King, Ice King, Lunar King, Summer King, Pixel King or Magic King have different appearances to other Barbarians, independent of Barbarian level:
  • Barbarians spawned by the Champion King wear a full-face steel helmet with wing-like appendages. Their armbands are similar to those of level 9 Barbarians and they wield flaming swords just like the Champion King does.
  • Barbarians spawned by the Beat King wear a purple hat matching the one worn by the Beat King. Their arm-bands are most similar to those of level 10 Barbarians, however the highlights on both the arm-bands and on the belt are a teal blue. They wield neon purple swords that resemble glow-sticks or light up wands.
  • Barbarians spawned by the Ice King wear an ice crown. They wear white crystal shoulder pads. His bracers are more similar to those of level 11 barbarians, however, they appear to be longer and to be made of blue ice. They wield a sword with a shorter blade and a longer, blue hilt. Their kilts turn blue and their belt buckles are shaped like a blue diamond.
  • Barbarians spawned by the Lunar King wear a steel helmet that vaguely resembles that of a level 8 Barbarians, minus the leather part. His bracers are similar to those of level 8 Barbarians, however being black with white edges. Their kilts turn golden and their belts turn blue with gold buckles. Their eyebrows and mustaches turn white and change shape. And they wield almost entirely golden double-pronged swords.
  • Barbarians spawned by the Summer King wear a crown shaped like their respective King's and wear a round swimming mask. Their kilts turn red and their belts turn white, without a buckle. Their bracers are in the form of ropes exactly like those of their respective King.
  • Barbarians spawned by the Pixel King look like a pixelated, low-poly version of the level 1 Barbarians.
  • Barbarians spawned by the Magic King look exactly like level 1 Barbarians. However, their hair and mustache turn white and shiny. They also appear to have bright eyes and no irises or pupils. Their kilts turn purple and their belts turn a darker shade of red, without a buckle. Despite looking like level 1 Barbarians, the swords they wield more closely resemble those of level 2 Barbarians, and being entirely white and shiny.

Statistics

Statistic Modifiers

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Gold Pass modifiers

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Preferred Target	Attack Type	Housing Space	Movement Speed	Attack Speed	Barracks Level Required	Range
None	Melee (GroundOnly)	1	16	1s	1	0.4 tiles

Training Time of Barbarians
Barracks available	Barracks upgrading
5s	10s

Level	Damage per Second	Damage per Attack	Hitpoints	Research Cost	Research Time	Laboratory Level Required
1	8	8	45	N/A	N/A	N/A
2	11	11	54	20,000	2h	1
3	14	14	65	60,000	5h	3
4	18	18	85	200,000	12h	5
5	23	23	105	650,000	1d	6
6	26	26	125	1,400,000	1d 12h	7
7	30	30	160	2,100,000	1d 18h	8
8	34	34	205	2,800,000	2d	9
9	38	38	230	5,000,000	3d	10
10	42	42	250	8,500,000	5d	12
11	45	45	270	12,000,000	6d	13
12	48	48	290	18,000,000	13d	14

Super Troop Boost

Super Troop	Boost Cost	Barbarian Level Required
Super Barbarian	25,000	8

History

Patch	Type	Description
August 2, 2012		The Barbarian was in the original release of the game, with 5 levels.
September 19, 2012	Update	The Barbarian at levels 3-4 and 5 now have upgrade differences. The upgraded Barbarian now has pink asterisks on its icon that represents its level.
February 5, 2013	Update	Added the level 6 Barbarian.
January 29, 2014	Update	Added Hero abilities, which allowed the Barbarian King to summon Barbarians with his Iron Fist ability.
September 16, 2014	Update	Added level 7 Barbarian.
July 1, 2015	Update	Increased training cost at levels 4-7. Level 4: 80 -> 100 Level 5: 100 -> 150 Level 6: 150 -> 200 Level 7: 200 -> 250
December 19, 2016	Update	Gave the Barbarian a significant change in his icon and info.
March 5, 2018	Update	Barbarian troops that aren't spawned by the Barbarian King no longer get affected from the King's rage effect.
June 11, 2018	Update	Added level 8 Barbarian. Reduced the upgrade time at levels 6 and 7. Level 6: 10d -> 7d Level 7: 14d -> 9d
June 26, 2018	Balance Changes	Reduced upgrade time at levels 4-7. Level 4: 3d -> 2d Level 5: 5d -> 3d 12h Level 6: 7d -> 4d 12h Level 7: 8d -> 7d 12h
February 22, 2019	Balance Changes	Increased Barbarian's hitpoints at levels 7 and 8. Level 7: 125 -> 145 Level 8: 140 -> 205
April 2, 2019	Update	Reduced upgrade time at levels 5-8.
March 30, 2020	Update	Added level 9 Barbarian. Added the Super Barbarian Super troop, which can be boosted when Barbarians are upgraded to level 8. Reduced upgrade cost at levels 5-8.
October 12, 2020	Update	Added the ability for certain Hero Skins to spawn skinned versions of troops.
April 12, 2021	Update	Added the level 10 Barbarian. Reduced the upgrade costs and times for level 2-9 Barbarians. Reduced the training cost of level 1/2 Barbarians. Level 1: 25 -> 15 Level 2: 40 -> 30
December 9, 2021	Update	Reduced the upgrade costs and times for level 2-9 Barbarians. Increased the hitpoints of level 4-7 Barbarians: Level 4: 78 -> 85 Level 5: 95 -> 105 Level 6: 110 -> 125 Level 7: 145 -> 160
October 10, 2022	Update	Added the level 11 Barbarian.
December 12, 2023	Update	Added the level 12 Barbarian. Reduced the upgrade times for: Level 7: 2d 12h -> 2d Level 8: 3d -> 2d 12h Level 9: 6d -> 3d 12h Level 10: 13d -> 6d Level 11: 14d -> 12d

Gallery

Trivia

• The word "Barbarian" comes from "barbaros", which is the Greek word for uncivilized. Dating back to the ancient Greek times, the Greeks referred to non-Greek people as barbarians because the language they spoke sounded to Greeks like gibberish represented by the sounds "bar..bar..;".
• When you tap on an Army Camp, all the Barbarians stationed there will briefly raise their sword.
• You can have a maximum of 320 Barbarians at one time in a complete set of fully upgraded Army Camps. This number increases to 370 if you include the 50 that can fit into a fully upgraded Clan Castle. On the battlefield, you can clone an additional 168 Barbarians with four fully upgraded Clone Spells (three from the regular spell inventory and one from a level 10 or higher Clan Castle), and summon an additional 44 through a Barbarian King equipped with a maximum-level Barbarian Puppet, for a total of 582 Barbarians.
• The level 6 Barbarian's helmet greatly resembles the iron helmet from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which is one of the most iconic helmets in the game. It is also the one worn by the Last Dragonborn in Skyrim's trailer.
  • This is reused in Clash Royale as a card called Elite Barbarians. The normal Barbarians in Clash Royale are based on the level 1-2 Barbarian in Clash of Clans.
  • Elite Barbarians upgraded with Star Points resembles the level 7 Barbarian in Clash of Clans.
• The Barbarian bears more than a passing resemblance to Hulk Hogan and Abraham Ford from The Walking Dead TV series.
• The Barbarian is the trademarked logo and the app icon for Clash of Clans.
• Despite being a troop in Clash games, the Barbarian is also featured in non-Clash games. More specifically:
  • The Barbarian is featured as a pin in Brawl Stars.
  • The Barbarian, along with the Archer, Goblin, Healer, Dragon, and P.E.K.K.A, were featured as a monster in Puzzles and Dragons, in a dungeon called Clash of Clans Dungeon.
    • The monster called CoC Barbarian resembles the level 1 Barbarian in Clash of Clans. Another monster called the CoC Rage Barbarian resembles the level 6 Barbarian in Clash of Clans.
  • The Barbarian is one of seven troops featured as a character in Squad Busters. The others are the Archer, Goblin, Wizard, Hog Rider, Witch, and Miner.
    • The Classic Evolution form in Squad Busters resembles the level 1 Barbarian in Clash of Clans.
  • The Barbarian's Super form in Squad Busters resembles the Super Barbarian in Clash of Clans, except that the ring is golden in color, which holds his brown kilt.
    • The Classic and Super form ability icons resemble the face of the level 6 Barbarian in Clash of Clans.
    • The Sunburn Barbarian, a MEGA Unit based on the Barbarian in Squad Busters, resembles the Summer Barbarian in Clash of Clans, except that his trunks and sandals are green, he doesn't wear a crown, his shades are brown, he doesn't have wristbands, and he holds an umbrella instead of a sword.
• It is said that Barbarians cannot function without their swords. This is referenced a few times:
  • The Duelist Decoration in Clash Royale saying "Swords. Barbarians don't enter the Arena without them!"
  • The Raged Barbarian description which says "Why is he so angry, speedy, and vicious? Nobody's brave enough to ask. Maybe it's because he can't find his sword?"
  • In Clash Royale, a Loading Screen Hint says to not feed the Barbarian after midnight. This is a reference to the film Gremlins.
  • In the Clash-A-Rama! episode "Ballad of the Barbarian", a Barbarian was depressed because he lost his sword.
• Supercell held a contest on July 2014 to see who could draw the best art of Barbarian's summer vacation. The winners of this contest were Mark from Engineers Clans, Jasus71, and Chao*64.
• If the Barbarian is at level 6, his idle animation will change. Instead of holding a sword with both of his hands, he holds his sword with one hand, and both of his arms go down.
• An event lasted from January 29, 2015 to 5 February 5, 2015, during which the Barbarian's training speed was 5 times faster, along with the Dragon.
• On July 4, 2017, level 1 Barbarians could be seen working on buildings in place of Builders in the Home Village owing to the latter's departure. A week later, on July 8, 2017, their role was then taken over by the Giants.

Comparisons

• The Barbarian is 1 of 14 troops in the Home Village that originated from Clash of Clans and appears in Clash Royale, the others being the Archer, Giant, Goblin, Wall Breaker, Balloon, Wizard, P.E.K.K.A, Minion, Hog Rider, Valkyrie, Golem, Witch, Lava Hound, and Bowler.
• The Barbarian is 1 of 7 troops in the Home Village that originated from Clash of Clans and appears in Clash Quest, the others being the Archer, Giant, Goblin, Wizard, P.E.K.K.A, and Minion.
• The Barbarian is 1 of 6 troops in the Home Village that originated from Clash of Clans and appears in Clash Mini, the others being the Archer, Wizard, P.E.K.K.A, Valkyrie, and Bowler.
• Barbarians along with Archers, Miners, and Hog Riders are the only 4 troops not based on fiction or legend/myth. The P.E.K.K.A may be based on fiction but it is currently unknown.
• The Barbarian is currently the troop with the most skins, with a total of 4 skins.
• The Barbarian is 1 of the 13 units to appear in a Scenery, the others being the Goblin, Balloon, Hog Rider, Barbarian King, P.E.K.K.A, Baby Dragon, Skeleton, Archer Queen, Grand Warden, Dragon Rider, Cannon Cart, and the Party Wizard. In its case, it appears in the 9th Clashiversary Scenery.
• The Barbarian, Archer, Giant, Goblin, Wall Breaker, Balloon, Wizard, Healer, Dragon and P.E.K.K.A are the oldest units in the game.
• The Barbarian, Archer, Wall Breaker and P.E.K.K.A are the first units to appear in a loading screen image.