The December 2019 update for Clash of Clans is live and introduces Town Hall 13, the Royal Champion (new hero), the Scattershot (new defense), the Yeti (new troop), the Siege Barracks (new Siege Machine) and a number of new levels for existing troops and structures.

This post will summarise what has been added/changed in once place, however full patch notes can be viewed here:

Town Hall 13

Town Hall 13 has been hinted throughout 2019 as coming at the end of the year and the Clash of Clans team hasn’t disappointed us. This Town Hall update follows the same pattern as previous ones, bringing in a new flagship defense (the Scattershot), a new hero (the Royal Champion) and a new troop (the Yeti).

New Items

The following structures/changes are unlocked:

• The Giga Tesla is upgraded to the Giga Inferno
• 2 x NEW: Scattershot
• 1 x NEW: Royal Champion
• 1 x Bomb
• 1 x Seeking Air Mine

Hero Levels

New hero levels available:

• Barbarian King - Levels 66 - 70
• Archer Queen - Levels 66 - 70
• Grand Warden - Levels 41 - 50

New abilities are available at each level that is a multiple of 5 as usual.

Structure Levels

The following structures have received new levels:

• Eagle Artillery - Level 4
• Inferno Tower - Level 7
• Wizard Tower - Level 12
• X-Bow - Level 7
• Air Defense - Level 11
• Hidden Tesla - Level 11
• Cannon - Level 18
• Workshop - Level 4
• Barracks - Level 14
• Dark Elixir Storage - Level 8
• Gold Storage - Level 14
• Elixir Storage - Level 14
• Clan Castle - Level 9
• Laboratory - Level 11

Trap Levels

The following traps have received new levels:

• Seeking Air Mine - Level 4
• Giant Bomb - Level 6
• Air Bomb - Level 7
• Bomb - Level 9

Troop Levels

The following troops have received new levels:

• Wall Breaker - Level 9
• Balloon - Level 9
• Dragon - Level 8
• Miner - Level 7
• Electro Dragon - Level 4
• Hog Rider - Level 10
• Bowler - Level 5
• Healer - Level 6

Spell Levels

The following spells have received new levels:

• Heal - Level 8
• Jump - Level 4
• Skeleton - Level 7

The Giga Inferno

The Giga Inferno builds further on the Giga Tesla available at Town Hall 12 by changing it from a large Hidden Tesla weapon to a multi target Inferno Tower on steroids. Just like the Giga Tesla, the Giga Inferno has 5 levels. The Giga Inferno at level 1 retains the same damage, number of targets and damage upon destruction as a level 5 Giga Tesla, however the additional levels increase the damage further.

Once upgraded to level 3, as well as dealing a large amount of damage on destruction, the area around the Town Hall is covered in frost. This has a slowing effect, similar to the attack of an Ice Golem. It is possible to use the Grand Warden’s Eternal Tome ability to protect your troops from the destruction damage from the Town Hall, however the troops will still be affected by the frost and be slowed down. At level 3, the slow duration is 4 seconds, however this increases to 6 and 8 seconds at levels 4 and 5 respectively.

The Royal Champion

Following the tradition of a new hero at each odd numbered Town Hall level, Town Hall 13 brings us the Royal Champion. She is an offensive hero that prioritises targets defenses by throwing spears at them. She is able to jump over walls, so can move quickly taking out defenses as she goes. Her special ability (unlocked at level 5 and improved every 5 levels) is her Seeking Shield. When activated, she throws it and it targets the nearest 4 defenses, damaging them. There is no range limit and if there are no defenses left, it will target whatever else remains standing. She can attack both ground and air targets and is upgraded using dark elixir. With the release of Town Hall 13, she can be upgraded to level 20.

The Scattershot

The flagship defense introduced with Town Hall 13 is the Scattershot. This is a giant catapult/trebuchet that launches a bundle of rocks at its target. Upon the projectile hitting its target, it separates and spreads creating a cone of damage in the direction it was launched, damaging other troops within a 4 tile range. This can quickly clear out large groups of troops with low to medium hitpoints. It is capable of attacking both ground and air targets, however just like a Wizard tower, if the primary target is ground based, air based targets within range won’t be damaged and vice versa.

The Yeti

A new elixir troop is available at Town Hall 12, the Yeti. A fairly tanky troop with HP comparable to a low level P.E.K.K.A. He requires 18 housing space and doesn’t have any target preferences, attacking the nearest target. On his back he carries Yetimites that will attack when he is being damaged, as well as being deployed enmass when his hitpoints reach 0. Yetimites can hop over walls and target defenses, with a 4x damage bonus. The Yeti can be unlocked by upgrading a Barracks to level 14.

The Siege Barracks

A new Siege Machine is available at Town Hall 13 once you have upgraded the Workshop to level 4. Unlike the previous Siege Machines, the Siege Barracks is static and can be dropped onto the edge of the village you are attacking. It initially deploys a P.E.K.K.A and then deploys Wizards one by one. These troops are in addition to your regular Clan Castle troops. The HP of the Siege Barracks gradually depletes over 30 seconds until it reaches 0, at which point the Clan Castle troops are deployed. As with other Siege Machines, you can choose to deploy your Clan Castle troops earlier by tapping on the Siege Barracks icon when it has already been deployed.

Quality of Life Improvements

The update brings a number of Quality of Life improvements as follows:

Gameplay

• Heroes will now automatically try and save themselves and use their Ability if they take damage that would kill them and the ability is available to be used. Advanced players can disable this feature in More Settings.

Village

• Resized Army Camps and Siege Workshop to 4x4 and Laboratory to 3x3 to free some space in the Village

UI

• Village preview in profile is back! Tap the Town Hall Icon in the profile.
• When choosing war members you can now see Clan mate's town hall levels in all war types (as long as they have logged in since the update)
• When signing up for War League if you close and re-open the choose members screen it will remember your previously selected war size.
• You can upgrade multiple walls as long as you currently have enough resources to upgrade them all. Previously this was capped at your storage limit even if they were overfilled.

Skins & Decorations

• Decorations can now be placed on the outer edges of the map.
• It is no longer necessary to place decorations in every layout. For example, it's possible to have a decoration only in the Home Village layout but not in the War Base layout.
• Warden shoot effect starts closer to the staff than stomach

Clan Perks

• Reaching clan level 8 now enables clan members to donate 2 spells instead of 1
• All existing troop donation limits have been increased by 1

Troops

• Level 8 P.E.K.K.A has new graphics

Balancing

There has also been some balancing changes:

Buildings and Traps

• Increased storage capacity of level 13 Gold Storages and Elixir Storages by 500000
• Increased Multi Mortar damage by 10% across the board in Home Village
• Reduced Spring Trap ejected housing space (Level 1: 15 to 10, Level 2: 16 to 12, Level 3: 17 to 14, Level 4: 18 to 16, Level 5: 19 to 18)

Spells

• Change Skeleton spawning frequency to 1 skeleton per second after the initial spawns for all Skeleton spell levels
• Increase cost of Haste spell level 2-5 from 85/90/95/100 to 100/120/140/160

Fixes

• Fix bug which adds wrong tag (HV instead of WB) to the layout link when sharing layout from purchased war layout slot.
• Affects at least the text of clan chat entry
• Fix for a crash caused by broken deep links for layout sharing
• Fix bug in the case where if any wall is destroyed all units who are attacking wall will retarget immediately. Now they will retarget only after finishing their hit
• Fixes issues with Battle Machine and P.E.K.K.A attacking walls and doing no damage in Builder Base
• Force retarget for Grand Warden if he's attacking a wall and his group has died
• Improve attack position evaluation by checking if the target is reachable before reaching the path end which should improve AI of many ground troops, but especially Battle Machine.

Clan recruitment improvements

• Added ability for Clans to set a minimum Town Hall level requirement to join (similar to Trophy requirements)
• Prompt players if they still want to receive invites after they've rejected a number of invites
• Added possibility to toggle receiving invitations on in the Clan search screen
• Added Clan badges to the "Find new members" list
• Added "View Clan" button to Clan invitations
• Added notification bubble when player has received maximum amount of clan invitations
• Ongoing improvements to both suggested Clan and member models

Clash Ninja Upgrade Tracker

If you are looking for a tool to show you remaining upgrade for your village and help you plan your upgrade order, check out the Clash Ninja Upgrade Tracker.