The December 2020 update for Clash of Clans is now live and introduces a new spell, a new Siege Machine, two new Super Troops and a number of Quality of Life changes.

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

New Spell: Invisibility Spell

A new spell has been introduced, the Invisibility Spell. It requires 1 spell space and is available at Town Hall 11 once the Spell Factory has been upgraded to level 6. When deployed, any troop, hero or defense within its aura will be rendered temporarily invisible. It will affect both air and ground troops, however walls and Siege Machines will be unaffected by it.

This spell can be used to force defenses to retarget, reduce incoming damage to your troops or to help funnel your Heroes to a particular area of a village. Due to it affecting both your troops and the defending buildings, careful placement will be required to avoid any unintended effects!

New Siege Machine: Log Launcher

A new Siege Machine has been added, The Log Launcher. As its name suggests, it launches logs every few seconds that roll forwards damaging walls (with 4x damage bonus) and buildings in their way. The Log Launcher is similar to many of the other Siege Machines, in that it travels towards the Town Hall where it will deploy it’s payload of Clan Castle troops. The Log Launcher has a fixed lifespan of around 30 seconds at which point the Clan Castle troops will be deployed regardless of if it reached the Town Hall or not, similar to the Siege Barracks.

The logs launched will be destroyed after hitting 4 buildings or after 20 tiles. The 20 tile range gives it exceptional reach and can destroy a large number of walls deep within the village you are attacking. Keep in mind that the logs will be headed towards the Town Hall, which can result in premature activation of the Giga Tesla/Giga Inferno, so be prepared for this with your attack strategy.

The Log Launcher is available at TH13, however can be donated to players TH10 and up like with the other Siege Machines.

New Super Troops

This update introduces two new Super Troops: the Super Wizard and the Ice Hound.

Super Wizard

The Super Wizard has a beefed up attack, a fireball that will chain to nearby buildings. It will chain up to 10 times, but only to buildings that are within range of the original target.

The Super Wizard is available at Town Hall 12 once level 9 Wizards have been researched and requires 10 housing space.

Ice Hound

The frosty sibling of the Lava Hound, the Ice Hound is a tanky air unit that prioritises Air Defences. It has increased hit points at the expense of an increased house space of 40 compared to 30 for the Lava Hound. It is similar to the Ice Golem where it slows down the attack rate of its target and freezes the area for a few seconds upon destruction.

Instead of Lava Pups, it unleashes Ice Pups that also slow the attack rate of their target. The Ice Hound is available at TH12 and up once you have a level 5 Lava Hound.

Super Troop Changes

Some changes are being made to how Super Troops are used:

• Super Troop boost duration is being changed from 7 days to 3 days.
• Super Troop boost cost being reduced to 25,000 Dark Elixir for each Super Troop.
• Two Super Troops can be boosted at a time.
• The normal version of a troop can be trained alongside the super variant.

New Magic Item: Super Potion

The Super Potion is a Magic Item that enables you to activate a Super Troop for 3 days without requiring you to pay the 25,000 Dark Elixir activation cost. It will be available as a Clan Games reward, as well as being available from the Trader for 300 gems.

New Levels

The following new levels have been added:

Spell Factory - Level 6

X-Bow - Level 8

Workshop - Level 5

Giant Bomb - Level 7

Air Bomb - Level 8

Royal Champion

Seeking Shield Ability - Level 5

• Damage: 1960
• Health Recovery: 2900
• Number of Targets: 4

Trader Cycle Update

With the introduction of the Super Potion, it has been added to the Trader Cycle for purchase from the Trader. This has resulted in the trader cycle being changed to include it. The new cycle can be seen here:

Quality of Life Changes/Fixes

A number of Quality of Life changes and fixes have been made in this update:

Wars

• When creating a Friendly War, you can now select whether the war will allow 1 or 2 attacks per player.

Balance Changes

Gameplay

• At the end of a battle, if a Hero’s ability remains unused, the Hero will heal the amount of HP they would normally recover from using their ability. This will help reduce the Hero’s downtime, allowing them to be ready much sooner!
• When editing your base, Main Village Wall segments can now be swapped with other Wall segments, just like Buildings and Traps.
• Broken Cannon Carts will retarget after being pushed back if their target is not within range anymore.
• Units will now have more accurate line of sight calculation to help with pathing.
• Lightning Spell will no longer have any effect on the Clan Castle. Like the Elixir and Gold Storage buildings, Lightning Spell will cause no damage to the Clan Castle.

UI

• A new Cosmetics tab has been added to the in-game shop where you can browse and purchase any permanently available cosmetics such as Hero Skins when they become available for Gems.
• The Reward tab of the Season Challenges now has some quick access buttons to allow easier navigation to the earliest unlocked but unclaimed reward.
• When an optional update becomes available that contains an important bug fix, the game will display a message encouraging you to download the update.
• A “View Skin” option has been added when visiting.
• Skin animations are more elaborate when viewed in the wardrobe and simpler animations in other UI elements.

Season Challenges

• You can now opt to receive 5 Gems instead of a Resource reward if your Storages do not have enough space.
• The requirements for some Builder Base tasks in Clan Games and Season Challenges have been reduced in order to bring them more inline with Main Village tasks.

Supercell ID

• Young players are now able to create a Supercell ID for their account by providing the email address of a trusted adult or guardian.

Fixes

• Fixed an issue with hit points rounding after the Grand Warden’s aura ends. This issue would cause Heros to lose their auto ability if they were left with 1HP when the Warden’s aura ended as it would round the HP down to 0.
• Added the 2019 and 2020 Halloween decorations to the Skeleton Run (thank you to redditor /u/whysomuchtalkingtho!)
• Prevent access to the Clan War Leagues screen for normal Clan members if the League data has not been loaded yet, preventing players from spying when using a poor or slow internet connection.
• Removed the exclamation point (!) from the Clan War Leagues button for players who don’t have access to the screen.
• Fixed info screen of Super Archer and Giant Cannon to show damage type as “Area Splash” instead of “Single Target”.
• Fixed a bug in the Builder menu where the menu contents would reset while scrolling.
• HP reduction for Cannon Cart’s Last Stand ability is more accurate by making it update 15 times per second instead of 5 times per second.
• Do not eject low-level Cannon Carts with unlocked Last Stand ability if they’re hit by Giant Cannon.
• Allow editing layouts with the layout editor for TH2 players who manage to access the editor via war screen.
• Fixed visual bug that showed troops as boost in other players’ villages when you have a Power Potion active.
• Fixed Royal Champion shield disappearing too early when activating her ability.
• Fixed visual bug with Royal Champion’s ability so the shield bounce will begin where the previous one ended.
• Increased the brightness of the Grand Warden’s Eternal Tome ability to make it more visible.
• Fixed flawed logic in ranged unit AI where they would attack random Walls.
• Reduced the zig-zag movement of the Wall Wrecker when it has been deployed.
• Improved the targeting logic of ground units allowing units to not only consider the 3 closest targets but also consider extra targets if those are much easier to reach than the first 3.

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.