Clash of Clans for Beginners: Your First Week
Updated: 18 September 2026 · By the Goblins Farm team
Clash of Clans is generous to new players and unforgiving of a few specific early habits. This walks through the first week in the order that matters, and explains which advice you will read elsewhere is genuinely important and which is noise.
The good news: nothing you do in the first week is unrecoverable. The one exception is gems, which are genuinely scarce and genuinely wasted by beginners. Everything else can be fixed by playing.
What this page talks about
Step by step
- Follow the tutorial, then stop following it
The in-game tutorial teaches the interface correctly. Once it ends, its suggestions become less useful, because it optimises for engagement rather than for your progress. From that point, use the order below.
- Join a clan today, not later
This is the highest-value action available to a new account, and most players delay it. Clan donations give you troops you have not unlocked, in every attack, for free. Build the Clan Castle as soon as it appears, join any active clan, and request troops before every attack. If the clan is dead, leave and join another; there are thousands.
- Keep every builder busy
An idle builder is the only resource in the game you can waste without noticing. Even a cheap, boring upgrade beats an empty builder. Check this every time you log in, before anything else.
- Build army camps before defences
More troops per attack improves every attack you will make at this level. A new cannon improves one defence. Camps first, every time.
- Start the laboratory early
Research applies permanently to every future copy of a troop. It is the most compounding investment in the game and it costs nothing but a timer you were not using.
- Spend your loot before you log off
Resources in storage can be stolen. Resources in an upgrade cannot. Get into the habit now, while the amounts are small, and it will be automatic later when they are not.
- Do not spend gems
Save them. The best purchase in the game is additional builders, and that is what your gems are for. Gems spent skipping a two-minute timer are gone forever.
The two mistakes that actually matter
Everything else is recoverable. These two are expensive:
- Spending gems on timers. Free accounts accumulate gems slowly. Every gem spent on a short timer is a fraction of a builder you will not have. Builders compound over the entire life of the account.
- Rushing the Town Hall. The upgrade button being available does not mean you should press it. Moving up with weak troops and heroes puts you against opponents you cannot beat, and digging out takes months. See how not to rush.
What to ignore
You will read a lot of advice about optimal trophy ranges, war weight and base layouts copied from screenshots. None of it matters in your first week. Join a clan, keep builders busy, do not spend gems. That is the whole list.
Frequently asked
What should I do first in Clash of Clans?
Join a clan. Clan donations give you troops you have not unlocked yet, in every attack, at no cost, and it is the single largest boost available to a new account. Build the Clan Castle as soon as it appears and request troops before every attack.
Should I spend gems in Clash of Clans?
Save them toward additional builders, which is the best purchase in the game. Gems spent skipping short timers are permanently gone and produce almost nothing, while an extra builder compounds across the entire life of the account.
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.