Clash of Clans May 2026 Balance Changes, Ore Economy & CWL Modifier

The air is changing in Clash of Clans — literally. Supercell has dropped State of Gameplay Part 2, and this one doesn't just list nerfs and buffs. For the first time, the dev team has committed to explaining why they're making each change, not just what's changing. That shift in communication style alone is worth celebrating. But the actual numbers? They're going to shake up the meta in a big way heading into the next update.

Here's a full breakdown of every change, what it means in practice, and how you should be adjusting your attack and defense strategies right now.

 

CWL Modifier Adjustments: Temporary Fix 

Before we get to the big balance changes, Supercell addressed an issue that's been affecting top-level Clan War League play since the new Titan tiers launched.

When Titan League and Legend League were introduced, every top clan had been sitting in Champion I. Now that they're finally climbing through Titan, Supercell noticed the modifier environment wasn't well-calibrated for where those clans actually are. So they're applying a temporary fix:

League	Modifier Setup Applied
Titan III & Titan II	Legend II modifiers
Titan I & Legend League	Legend I modifiers

This is likely a temporary solution while Supercell gathers more performance data from high-level wars.The goal is simple: keep competitive wars difficult enough that rankings actually matter.That lines up with the developer's new balancing philosophy — maintaining “healthy competition across the ladder” rather than allowing perfect wars to become normal.

 

May 2026 Balance Changes: Full Breakdown

This round of changes has a clear overarching theme: the air meta has been too dominant, and ground strategies need room to breathe. Supercell is hitting air attacks from multiple angles simultaneously — weakening offensive tools, nerfing air troops, and significantly buffing defenses that struggled against air.

Giant Arrow — Specialization Over Raw Power

What's changing: The Giant Arrow now deals 2x damage to Air Defenses but has lower base damage against all other targets.

Item Level	TH	Old Damage	New Damage
ALL	1–18	1x vs Air Defense	2x vs Air Defense
Level 9	TH9	1,200	1,100
Level 12	TH10	1,500	1,200
Level 15	TH12	1,750	1,350
Level 18	TH14+	2,000	1,500

Why this matters: The recurring problem with Giant Arrow was that Supercell had to keep buffing its damage every time a new Air Defense level was added at TH18. The side effect: lower Town Hall players experienced an increasingly overpowered piece of equipment that one-shotted buildings it had no business destroying.

The new design makes Giant Arrow a specialist tool — superb for clearing Air Defenses (its signature role), but less of a catch-all nuke against everything else. Its Air Defense damage is still enough to one-shot them at max level, so functionally this won't change how you use it at TH18. But at TH9–12, the collateral damage to other buildings will drop noticeably.

Dragon Duke

The Dragon Duke has been one of the most entertaining additions to Clash of Clans in recent memory. The problem: it's been a bit too entertaining for defenders to watch it shred through their bases unchecked. Supercell is addressing this through three separate adjustments.

① Rocket Backpack

Item Level	Town Hall	Old Penetrating Damage	New Penetrating Damage
Level 21	TH14	1,925	1,875
Level 27	TH16+	2,200	2,150

Small but intentional — Supercell says they're monitoring impact and will act again if needed.

② Fire Heart

Fire Heart is getting its DPS trimmed at nearly every level for TH15+ players, along with its regeneration stat:

Item Level	TH	Old Regen	New Regen
Level 15	15+	155	140
Level 18	15+	175	150

DPS reductions are applied across levels 2–17 as well (level 1 is unchanged). The most significant example: Level 5 drops from 18 DPS to 12 DPS — a 33% reduction. These numbers compound when you consider CWL modifiers.

③ Dragon Duke Passive — Trap Damage Reduction

Town Hall	Old Trap Damage Reduction	New Trap Damage Reduction
TH15–18	50%	40%

Dragon Duke's passive ability makes him take less damage from traps during his enraged phase. That reduction is being pulled back from 50% to 40%. Traps like Giant Bombs, Spring Traps, and seeking air mines will now take a larger chunk out of him.

 

Lava Launcher

If you've tried running a ground attack at TH18 CWL recently, you already know: the Lava Launcher is oppressive. Its combination of massive range and relentless lava pool damage made Warden charge attacks and hero dives feel significantly weaker than they should. That stops now.

DPS Reductions

Level	Old DPS	New DPS
1	80	72
5	95	90
10	125	115

Attack Range Reductions

Level	Old Range	New Range
2	1,200	1,150
5	1,500	1,300
10	2,000	1,600

Pool Damage Reductions

Level	Old Pool DMG	New Pool DMG
1	26	21
5	31	25
10	40	32

The range nerf is particularly significant — a max-level Lava Launcher dropping from 2,000 to 1,600 range means ground troops can now approach from angles that were previously suicidal. This is the single biggest defensive change in this update for ground strategy viability.

Air Bombs & Roaster

While weakening air offense, Supercell is also making air-targeting defenses much more dangerous. Both Air Bombs and the Roaster are receiving substantial buffs — these aren't token improvements.

Air Bombs

Stat	Old Value	New Value
Attack Range (all levels)	900	1,100
Attack Speed Level 1	3,800	3,400
Attack Speed Level 10	2,000	1,600

Faster fire rate and longer reach means Air Bombs will now actually threaten dragons before they can delete the defense.

Roaster 

Stat	Old Value	New Value
Attack Speed (all levels)	1,800	1,500
Damage Radius (all levels)	120	150
Damage Level 1	50	85 (+70%)
Damage Level 10	95	135 (+42%)
Burst Count Level 1	6	8
Burst Count Level 10	15	17

The Roaster essentially gets a complete overhaul — faster, wider, harder hitting, and with more projectiles per burst. If you've been sleeping on the Roaster as a crafted defense, it's time to reconsider.

Sky Wagon

The Sky Wagon has become an automatic inclusion in nearly every air attack, primarily because of the air swarm it provides to protect main dragons. Supercell wants it to remain a strong option — just not an automatic one.

Nerfs applied across all levels:

Level	TH	Old Attack Count	New Attack Count
1	16	5	4
3	17	6	5
4	18	6	5

Each Sky Wagon also loses one Minion from its spawn count, and all spawned units drop one upgrade level across the board (Minion, Loon, and Baby Dragon each step down one level).

The swarm will still be present, but the troops inside will be easier to clear, and the barrel count reduction means fewer total shots fired per deployment.

Dragon Rider

Dragon Rider:

Stat	Old Value	New Value
HP	6,200	5,900
DPS	520	500

These are specifically targeting the TH18 Dragon Rider, which has been the backbone of the current dominant air strategy alongside Inferno Dragons.

 

What's Coming Next: New Content & Ore Economy Overhaul

The balance changes are only part of the story. Supercell also previewed what the design team is actively building toward — and it connects directly to two of the community's biggest pain points: a stagnant meta and an inaccessible Ore economy.

On the content side, three things are in the pipeline:

• A new Event Troop — no details yet, but event troops typically shake up attack compositions for their duration and can signal the direction the meta is heading
• New gameplay content described as something that could "change the flow of attacks in an unexpected way" — deliberately vague, but the wording suggests a mechanic shift rather than just a stat addition
• A monolithic new Epic Equipment — the word "monolithic" is doing a lot of work here; expect something substantial rather than a utility piece

All of this is aimed at keeping the meta evolving naturally — not the jarring full flip-flop Supercell tried during the TH18 launch, but a steady push that gives players new tools to explore without invalidating existing ones.

On the Ore economy, Supercell directly addressed the elephant in the room: the current system has become a barrier for returning and newer players trying to catch up on Epic Equipment. The team says they've been deliberately cautious about introducing a catch-up mechanic — they don't want veterans who invested time and resources into upgrading equipment to feel like that effort was wasted. But they now say they've found a fair solution and will reveal it in the next Clash On video, with the mechanic itself arriving in the following update.

The phrasing — "make it easier to level up and try more Epic Equipment" — hints at two possible directions: reduced upgrade costs for older equipment, and potentially a tryout mode similar to Super Troops, where players can test a piece of Epic Equipment at max level before committing Ore or Gems. Hold off on any major Ore spending until after that announcement.

 

Summary 

May 2026 is one of Clash of Clans' most deliberately designed balance patches in recent memory. Supercell isn't just tweaking numbers — they're pulling the air meta back from dominance on multiple fronts simultaneously. More new content — a troop, a mechanic, and a monolithic Epic Equipment — is also in the pipeline. The meta isn't being flipped; it's being rebalanced. Pay attention to how your attack and defense setups perform in the first week, because Supercell has made clear they'll keep adjusting based on the data.