Clash of Clans Balloon Unit Guide: Stats, Upgrade Levels, & Strategy

The Balloon follows an unusual path in Clash of Clans. Early on in the game, its primary use is as a gimmicky unit for the campaign, destroying the prearranged bases after you take out the air defense. However, with upgrades and spells, the Balloon becomes one of the strongest units in all of Clash of Clans. It is heavily used by Town Hall 9 players who are pushing for the Champion and Master’s leagues in order to unlock the big gem achievements.

In this guide to the Balloon, we will be covering this units basic information, stats, upgrades and levels, and strategy for using the unit effectively.

Balloon Basic Information, Stats, and Levels

Training Time: 8 minutes
Supply Cost: 5
Movement Speed: 10
Targets: Ground
Preferred Target: Defenses
Barracks Required: Level 6

Level	Damage Per Second	Attack Speed	Damage Per Hit	Hitpoints
1	25	1 attack per 4 seconds	100	150
2	32	1 attack per 4 seconds	128	180
3	48	1 attack per 4 seconds	192	216
4	72	1 attack per 4 seconds	288	280
5	108	1 attack per 4 seconds	432	390
6	162	1 attack per 4 seconds	648	545
Level	Training Cost	Upgrade Cost	Laboratory Level	Town Hall Requirement
1	2000	None	None	4
2	2500	150,000	2	4
3	3000	450,000	4	6
4	3500	1,350,000	5	7
5	4000	2,500,000	6	8
6	4500	6,000,000	7	9

Balloons move very slowly and have moderate health. As the levels increase, the Balloon experiences noticeable health increases that improve its survivability. The slow speed of the Balloon gives it many vulnerabilities. Air Defense towers are a natural Balloon counter, but Wizard Towers often may inflict more overall damage, given Balloons tendency to clump. Air Bombs also can inflict significant damage to the Balloon for the same reason.

CoC Balloon Strategy

Balloons are the first flying unit that players get access to in Clash of Clans. It tends to work best when used in large numbers, as once you destroy all Air Defense and Wizard Towers, there is nothing left to stop the remaining Balloons from going on to clear the rest of the enemy’s base.

Balloons in Farming

The long training time of the Balloon and relatively high cost limit the effectiveness of this unit for farming purposes. At an 8 minute training time for a 5 supply unit, Balloons have amongst the longest training times in the game. Theoretically a Balloon and Minion army at TH9 could be effective at farming Dark Elixir, the amount of time it takes to train is a turn-off.

Balloons From Town Hall 4 to 8

From Town Hall Levels 4 to 8 (Balloon levels 1 to 5), Balloons are not very useful. The only time I would advocate using Balloons is in the campaign missions, where many of the prearranged bases lack air defense towers or have air defense structures that can easily be picked off before you flood in with Balloons.

The problem with Balloons is that they are just too weak at early levels. They take too long to train and cost too much elixir for little payoff. If you want to make a very strong army with no regard to cost or time, there are better combinations. Giants, Healers, Wall Breakers, and Wizards are great at TH6, while Dragons are so much better than Balloons at TH7 and TH8. Given their ineffectiveness and long training time, it is hard to justify using Balloons.

Balloons At Town Hall 9

At Town Hall 9, Balloons suddenly become interesting. Their increase in strength from level 5 to level 6 is perhaps the biggest increase in strength in across any level and unit in all of Clash of Clans. The jump from 108 to 162 DPS and 390 to 545 hitpoints represents a 50% increase in damage and a 40% increase in health. This dramatic increase in strength suddenly makes Balloons viable for use.

The Balloonion Composition

At Town Hall 9, Balloons are popularly paired with Minions for trophy farming and war purposes. The army primarily consists of Balloons, with about 20-30 Minions added on. Some players like to bring along 30 Archers or so to deal with the enemy’s Archer Queen or a Dragon in the enemy’s Clan Castle. Minions can perform this task as well just as easily. Using Minions instead of Archers will reduce training time (given they come out of the Dark Barracks) and increase your compositions strength (as you do not always need the Archers), while adding in some Archers can help you save on Dark Elixir. It just comes down to preference.

This composition is popularly known as Balloonion. The idea is to go in first with Balloons to clear out defensive structures, then let Minions go in and clear out the Town Hall along with other junk buildings left behind. This composition is good for getting 2 star clears at on Town Hall 9 players at high levels without costing too much resources.

The typical spell composition to use is one lightning spell, one healing spell, and two rage spells. Lightning spells are used to take out Clan Castle units, healing spells can help top off your Balloons approaching a deep Wizard tower or that hit a few area of effect air traps. Rage spells are used to help Balloons blow through tightly packed areas of defensive towers.

Deploying Your Balloonion Units

Try to lure out Clan Castle units if you can before going in for your major attack. While Archers can easily be killed with a Lightning Spell, a Dragon in the enemy’s CC will destroy a Balloon-based attack. One of the worst feelings in Clash of Clans is dropping 30 Balloons (an hour training time across 4 Barracks) only to see a Dragon fly out of the Clan Castle.

Typically, players will want to attack the side an enemy’s base that is closest to their Town Hall. If the Town Hall is in the direct center of the base, the idea is to either attack where Wizard Towers are most exposed, or attack in a way that lets you avoid the most Wizard Towers. Wizard Towers are the biggest threat to your units.

When you find the side of the enemy’s base that you want to attack from, drop most of your Balloons in a straight line along that entire side of the enemy’s base. Spreading out your units like this will limit the impact of trap damage. Your Balloons should start to converge into a few big clumps of units as they approach the base, each Balloon going to its closest tower. Keep a few Balloons in your inventory from your initial deployment and then drop those where the clump is lightest.

Use healing spells if you have a large clump of Balloons that takes damage, either from approaching a Wizard Tower or hitting air traps. Note that the best way to take out a Wizard Tower often involves just 1 or 2 Balloons under the effect of a rage spell. A single level 6 Balloon under the effect of a rage spell will destroy a Wizard Tower (and most towers) in one hit.

Typically, your Balloons will not clear all of an enemy’s defensive structures. A successful attack will take out most enemy defensive structures, including those around the enemy’s Town Hall, but not necessarily every tower on the map. This allows you to deploy your Minions, which will clear out the buildings left behind by the Balloons (mines, collectors, storages, Barracks, Army Camps, etc) as well as the Town Hall. The Minions are what will give you the 2 stars from 50% damage and the Town Hall being destroyed.

Balloons as a Clan Castle Unit

Balloons are a great unit to use in the Clan Castle. At low levels, they will often thwart enemy attacks that are all Giant, Goblin, or Barbarian based. Balloons are also great at high levels, given their high health and damage. Given that the Balloon has over 500 health and you can squeeze 6 of them into a TH9′s Clan Castle, you end up with over 3,000 health worth of high damage units. It takes a lot of Archers to blast through these units.

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