Clash Royale - What You Need to Know About Clan Wars II

Well, it seems we picked a good time to jump back into Clash Royale. Not only was the game still familiar and easy enough to slip back into, but we got enough lead time to climb the ranks to Legendary Arena just before the game dropped Clan Wars 2 on everyone.

Clan Wars 2 completely reshapes what being in a clan in Clash Royale means and the different gameplay options it grants. It's a big shift for the game as a whole, but it mostly feels like it's one for the better. Read on below to learn about what Clan Wars 2 is all about.

No pressure to join

The first thing to note about Clan Wars 2 is that it still very much feels like an add-on to the core Clash Royale experience. If you're still happy playing the ranked ladder, 2v2, and other event modes, there's nothing about Clan Wars 2 that is so wildly different in terms of gameplay that you'll feel like you're missing out.

In fact, I'd recommend avoiding Clan Wars 2 unless you feel particularly competitive in terms of your skill and card level. My experience with them thus far stacks up some pretty stiff competition that can feel demoralizing unless you're a really dedicated player.

Clan Wars 2 overview

Ok, so now to what it's all about: Clan Wars 2 is an evolution of the traditional Clan War, where teams of players come together and play a series of matches to see who can stack up the most wins and earn rewards. In the old Clan Wars, it was just about as simple as that: Players made decks, fought each other, and the team that racked up the most wins at the end got the sweetest prizes.

This is mostly true of Clan Wars 2, but with a visual overhaul and some more variety sprinkled throughout. In the new Clan Wars, each clan is represented by a ship floating down a river. As players complete matches, they earn rewards that pushes their boat forward, and the clan that earns the most rewards the fastest sails their way to a nice chest of rewards.

How to earn rewards

There are a variety of things you can do to help your clan in Clan Wars 2. You can engage in standard battles against other clan members, play a best of three duel mode, or even attack other clan ships in a new PvE mode. Participating in any of these can grant rewards to push your ship forward, but you have to be strategic about what modes you choose to engage in.

This is because Clan Wars 2 has a new deck system where players must build up to four decks with no duplicate cards as their tools for these modes. That means you can't just use the same old deck archetypes (or even high tier cards) across matches anymore. Once you've used a deck for Clan War activity, it goes on a 16 hour cooldown, so there's no way to just build one deck and keep reusing it, either.

Attacking and defending the boats

The most novel part of the new Clan Wars is the ship combat, which is essentially a flipped version of a tower defense mode. For your own clan, you put up cards to compose a defense that other clans can attack to damage your boat, and they do the same. If you attack an opposing boat, you have to fight through and destroy high-powered towers that AI spawns defenses for. If your clan busts through all of a clan's defenses, their boat gets trashed and their progress down the river is halted until they can repair their boat.

Boat repairs are the most passive aspect of Clan Wars 2, where clan members can activate their clan deck cooldowns to help fill a meter to repair the ship. This creates a somewhat strategic element to Clan Wars, where you might want to save some decks in the event that your ship gets busted so that you can try to contribute to a speedy recovery effort.

Rewards

Once a Clan War has concluded, it's time to reap those rewards. In Clan Wars 2, every clan earns a reward of some kind, regardless of where they placed in the boat race. For the first place winners though, they earn a guaranteed Legendary card, along with whatever comes in their reward chest.

In terms of progression, Clan Wars 2 is a great thing to participate in to maximize your gold and card earnings, though it does take some investment. Regular play and participation in your clan is key to make sure you don't get kicked from the team and make meaningful progress in the week-long race down the river.

Obviously, Clan Wars 2 isn't for everyone. But, for those looking for something to shake up the core Clash Royale experience, it's a great new addition that's fun to dig into.