How Long Does It Actually Take to Max Clash of Clans? We Added Up the Game Files

Updated: 16 September 2026 · Goblins Farm

Everybody has a number for this and almost nobody says where it came from. So we added it up from the game's own files: every building level, every research, every hero level, every pet. The total is larger than most players expect, and the shape of it is more interesting than the size.

How we counted

Every figure below is summed from the same game files the wiki tables are built from, not from a community spreadsheet. For each building we took the number you are allowed to place at Town Hall 18, multiplied it by the cost and build time of every level up to the highest one Town Hall 18 permits, and added the lot together. Research, hero levels and pet levels were summed the same way.

Two honest limits before the numbers. First, these are raw timers: no books, no hammers, no potions, no Gold Pass discount, no event boosts. Second, build time is reported in builder-days, because five builders working in parallel finish 3,463 builder-days of work in roughly 693 calendar days. Research is different — there is one laboratory, so lab days are calendar days.

How we source these numbers covers where the files come from and what is deliberately left blank.

The village: 3,463 builder-days and 15.4 billion gold

Placing and maxing every building and trap a Town Hall 18 village is allowed to hold comes to 7,691 individual upgrades, 3,463 builder-days, 15.38 billion gold, 1.60 billion elixir and 2.37 million dark elixir.

With five builders' huts — the most the files let you place — that is about 693 days of wall-to-wall building, assuming a builder is never idle for a second, which for a real account it will be.

The single most important line in that total is walls. A Town Hall 18 village holds 325 wall segments, each costing 34,491,000 gold to reach level 19. That is 11.2 billion gold, or 73% of every gold coin the village will ever need, spent on something that takes no builder time at all.

The laboratory: 2,476 days, and it cannot be parallelised

Taking every troop, siege machine and spell to the maximum level Town Hall 18 allows is 427 research upgrades costing 2.61 billion elixir and 18.6 million dark elixir.

It also takes 2,476 days of laboratory time. Just under seven years. There is one laboratory, research runs one at a time, and unlike building there is no way to buy your way around that with more builders.

Split out: troops and siege machines are 1,792 days across 313 researches, spells are 684 days across 114.

Nobody maxes the whole lab, and nobody should. What this number really tells you is that research choice is the highest-stakes decision you make repeatedly. A wasted fortnight in the lab is a fortnight you do not get back, which is why the advice to research what you actually attack with, rather than what is cheapest, is worth more than it sounds.

Heroes: 1,789 days and 57.5 million dark elixir

Six heroes, 474 levels between them at Town Hall 18:

• Barbarian King — 109 levels, 403 days, 15.16M dark elixir
• Archer Queen — 109 levels, 403 days, 15.16M dark elixir
• Minion Prince — 94 levels, 360 days, 12.36M dark elixir
• Grand Warden — 84 levels, 302 days, 990.7M elixir and no dark elixir at all
• Royal Champion — 54 levels, 201 days, 9.17M dark elixir
• Dragon Duke — 24 levels, 119 days, 5.64M dark elixir

The Grand Warden being the one hero funded entirely by elixir is worth remembering: he is the hero you can push while your dark elixir is committed elsewhere.

Pets: another 743 days

Twelve pets, 138 upgrades, 743 days and 22.8 million dark elixir. The Pet House runs on its own track, so those days do not compete with the laboratory, but the dark elixir absolutely competes with your heroes.

The total, and the resource that actually gates it

Adding the four tracks together for a complete Town Hall 18 account:

• About 15.4 billion gold
• About 5.2 billion elixir
• About 101 million dark elixir
• 8,730 separate upgrades

Now put that dark elixir figure against the storage it has to pass through. A Town Hall 18 Dark Elixir Storage holds 50,000. To spend 101 million you must fill and empty that storage roughly 2,000 times.

That is the real shape of the late game, and it is why dark elixir is the resource that decides how fast an account moves. Gold and elixir arrive in quantities that eventually embarrass you. Dark elixir never does.

What actually shortens this

The 6,700-plus days of timers above are the price with no tools used. Real accounts do much better, and the levers are known:

• Magic items, used on the longest timer available rather than the most convenient one. A Book of Heroes on a 14-day upgrade is worth seven times the same book on a two-day one. See magic items.
• The Gold Pass, whose cost and time reductions apply to everything you start that month — which is only worth anything if you are actually upgrading constantly. Our take: is the Gold Pass worth it.
• Never having an idle builder, which sounds trivial and is the single largest difference between two accounts of the same age.
• Not rushing, because loot available to you is set by the Town Hall you attack, not the one you own. Rushing costs more than it saves.

So how long, in years?

For a player who logs in twice a day, keeps builders busy, keeps the lab running and keeps a hero upgrading, a realistic path from a fresh account to a genuinely maxed Town Hall 18 is several years, not several months, and the laboratory's seven years of raw research time is the reason the honest answer is not shorter.

The useful conclusion is not to despair at the total. It is that the total is dominated by things that run whether you are watching or not. An account that never has an idle builder, an empty lab or a hero sitting at home will beat an account that plays twice as many hours but leaves those three slots empty. That is the whole game, and it is why the upgrade order question matters more than attack skill for most players.

Frequently asked

How long does it take to max Town Hall 18?

Summed from the game files with no magic items or Gold Pass discounts, a full Town Hall 18 account is about 3,463 builder-days of construction, 2,476 days of laboratory research, 1,789 days of hero upgrades and 743 days of pet upgrades, costing roughly 15.4 billion gold, 5.2 billion elixir and 101 million dark elixir.

What is the most expensive thing in Clash of Clans?

Walls, by a wide margin. A Town Hall 18 village holds 325 wall segments at 34,491,000 gold each to reach level 19, which is 11.2 billion gold — about 73% of all the gold a maxed village needs.

Why does maxing the laboratory take so long?

Because there is only one laboratory and research runs one upgrade at a time. Building can be parallelised across five builders; research cannot be parallelised at all, so the 2,476 days of research are 2,476 calendar days.

Which resource runs out first in the late game?

Dark elixir. Heroes, pets and dark troop research need about 101 million of it, and a Town Hall 18 storage only holds 50,000 at a time, so it has to pass through your storage roughly 2,000 times.

Keep reading

Dark elixir Upgrade priority What to upgrade next How we source the numbers in this wiki

Goblins Farm is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or specifically approved by Supercell. Clash of Clans is a trademark of Supercell Oy. This material is unofficial fan content produced under Supercell's Fan Content Policy. Game values change with every update; always verify in-game before committing an upgrade.