Farming Armies: Barch, Goblins and What Actually Matters Now
Updated: 18 September 2026 · By the Goblins Farm team
A farming army used to be defined by what it cost. Troops are free to train now, so that definition is dead, and a lot of farming advice still online is quietly wrong because of it. What a farming army is for today is taking exposed loot fast enough that you can do it many times without getting bored.
Most farming guides you will find, including ones written recently, still price armies in elixir. That stopped being true when Supercell removed troop training costs: nothing you put in an army camp costs anything, and there is no training queue to wait out. Resources now go into laboratory research instead, which is permanent.
What survives from the old advice is the conclusion, for a different reason. A heavy army still cannot take more loot than the base is offering, and it still tempts you into attacks you should have skipped. So you bring the army that strips exposed collectors quickly, and you stop thinking about what it is worth.
Step by step
- Start with barch
Barbarians and Archers, roughly balanced. Barbarians engage first and absorb damage, Archers shoot over walls at collectors from behind. It deploys quickly, spreads well and works at nearly every Town Hall, which is what makes it durable advice long after the elixir argument for it disappeared.
- Add Goblins for collector-heavy bases
Goblins deal bonus damage to resource buildings and move fast. Against a base with full mines on the perimeter, a goblin-heavy army strips it in seconds. Be aware they will run into the core once the outer collectors are gone.
- Deploy in a spread line, never a stack
This is the single most common execution error. Troops dropped on one tile die to one splash shell. Spread along the side you are attacking so more of them engage buildings and fewer die at once.
- Send Barbarians a beat before Archers
Let the Barbarians take the first shots, then drop Archers behind them. Same rhythm as a Giant push, at a fraction of the cost.
- Do not chase the core
If the loot is in the storages behind walls, that is not a barch target. Skip it. Surface armies farm surfaces, and the base after this one is free to look at.
- Go straight back in
There is no training wait, so the next search can start the moment the attack ends. What limits your attacks per hour is how long you spend admiring the last one.
When to move on from surface armies
Change the composition when the loot you need stops being on the outside. Dark elixir in particular usually sits in drills inside the base, which cheap surface armies cannot reach reliably, so dark elixir farming often justifies a slightly more expensive setup. See farming dark elixir.
Otherwise, simple wins. No army makes a poor base richer, and since none of them cost anything, the only thing a heavier army buys you is time spent, which is the one resource farming actually consumes.
Frequently asked
What is barch in Clash of Clans?
A farming army of mostly Barbarians and Archers. Barbarians absorb the first damage while Archers shoot over walls at collectors. It was originally popular because it was cheap; troops are free to train now, so what keeps it in use is that it deploys fast and strips exposed collectors with no fuss.
Should I use Goblins for farming?
On bases with plenty of exposed collectors, yes, since Goblins move fast and deal bonus damage to resource buildings. Be aware they target resource buildings specifically, so once the outer collectors are gone they will run into the core after the storages and die.
Keep reading
This page is part of the free Clash of Clans wiki we maintain at Goblins Farm. We also build a farming bot for the game; the reference material here stands on its own and does not require it.
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.