Joining a clan is one of the most important things you can do to achieve success in Clash of Clans. As a clan member, you can receive higher-level troops in your Clan Castle that will provide defense against enemy attacks and can also be used offensively when you are attacking goblins or other players.

Although you are safe from attack for the first 72 hours of your village’s creation, after that all bets are off. Your village can be attacked at any time that it doesn’t have a protective shield and you don’t have it running on your Android or iOS device.

There are probably as many theories about village layout as there are Clash of Clan players. Most put the Town Hall in the center, but some put it on the edge of the village, beyond protective walls, and some even stick it in a corner.

You have three days to prepare for the first attack on your village. There’s no need to rush into building up your defenses the first two days, but Day Three is the one where you want to concentrate on making your village safe against invaders.

You begin playing Clash of Clans with just Barbarians, soon add Archers, and then gain Giants. You cannot advance their level until you build a Laboratory (marked Research). You’ll need a lot of elixir to upgrade them.

After going through the tutorial, you will have a Town Hall, a Builder’s Hut, a Gold Mine, an Elixir Collector, Gold Storage, Elixir Storage, Barracks, and a Camp. You will also have a 3-day shield that prevents other players from attacking your village, so there is no need to build walls or other defenses right away.

Clash of Clans is a popular free game for iOS and Android devices. Launched on iOS in August 2012, it has a large international following. The Android version was added in October 2013. Best of all, Supercell is always looking for ways to improve gameplay, so it has improved over time.