Headhunter (2024)

Level 1	Level 2	Level 3

Summary

• The Headhunter is the twelfth Dark Elixir Troop unlocked once the Dark Barracks is upgraded to level 9, which requires Town Hall level 12. She is a fast ground troop that prioritizes Heroes instead of attacking defenses, resources, or other buildings.
• Headhunters prioritize Heroes above all other targets, and will bypass all other types of enemy buildings and troops while any enemy Heroes remain on the battlefield. This is true even if they are under attack by enemy Clan Castle troops or Skeleton Trap skeletons. Note that the defending Grand Warden is considered a defense and not a Hero.
  Once all enemy Heroes are knocked out, Headhunters become like any other troop with no preferred target; they will attack the nearest building to them regardless of type, and will turn and attack enemy units if they become aware of any nearby and can fight back against them.
• The Headhunter's attacks have a Poison Spell effect, which temporarily slows down troops and heroes that are attacked. The poison doesn't affect buildings and doesn't deal damage by itself.
  • The Headhunter's abilities do not apply to a defending Grand Warden since he is considered as a building.
• Headhunters can bypass Walls to reach any targets behind them.
• The Headhunter shares the same movement speed with Goblins, Sneaky Goblins, Minions, and Miners.

Strategies

Offensive Strategy

• Since Headhunters can jump over Walls, you do not need to support her with a Jump Spell or Earthquake Spell. You can send them with the main army of a hybrid, as they can take out the enemy heroes instead of something else.
• Due to Headhunters being able to jump over Walls, they can be used to lure out an enemy Clan Castle provided that an enemy hero is nearby. This may require more than one Headhunter (or protection from a meat shield such as a Giant) due to their low hitpoints.
• If all enemy heroes are down, they will alternatively target enemy Clan Castle troops. This is useful on bases that already have their heroes down, either because they are regenerating or being upgraded.
  • However, this is quite rare as the heroes are commonly well protected enough to either force the activation of a Clan Castle or require too much time to individually kill all of them.
• Sneaking in a Headhunter or two during a Queen Walk/Charge can gain massive value as long as it doesn't get targeted by defenses, saving Poison Spells or Freeze Spells used against heroes.
  • This is extremely effective when the Archer Queen runs into the enemy Barbarian King. This can save the Archer Queen from using her Royal Cloak ability, which can be used in a later part of the attack.
  • You can also sneak one in during a Sui Hero Dive, where the planned objectives are near or include an enemy hero to save some health of the hero, allowing the hero to get more value.
• If a defending Hero needs to go down to execute the strategy you're doing, but your main army will not deal with that Hero, you can send a group of Headhunters combined with the Grand Warden's Eternal Tome ability to make the Headhunters immune to all of the damage that they would take getting to that Hero, effectively making them powerful Hero killers.
  • You'll still have to be careful with possible Spring Trap placements which would otherwise bounce off your Headhunters.
• Headhunters are not good for clearing traps, since if you place one and there is a trap there, the trap will not activate until the Headhunter moves to the trigger range.

Defensive Strategy

• As defending Clan Castle troops, Headhunters are effective against attackers' Heroes, including the Grand Warden, regardless of whether the Hero is set to Ground or Air mode. Even if no Heroes are present, the Headhunters's ability to poison attacking troops make it a valuable unit on defense.
• Spring Traps, if properly placed, can bounce off Headhunters, preventing them from reaching the defending heroes.
• Headhunters are amazing troops to defend against a Queen Charge. Their extremely high damage and slowing poison forces the Archer Queen's ability every time, even while under Poison Spells. If the attacker doesn't respond fast enough with spells such as Lightning Spell or Freeze Spell, Headhunters can easily take out the Archer Queen, even through her ability.
• Defensive Headhunters are great counters to an attacker's Siege Machines (with the exception of the Siege Barracks) Their poison effect will make Siege Machines move and attack slower, rendering their main functions next-to-useless.
• Headhunters will jump over Walls and dive straight for the hero. Putting your Heroes closer to the core of your base will force the Headhunters to go away from most possible tanks and get targeted themselves.
• Headhunters are most often sneaked under cover from other troops so that they do not die easily. Multi-target Inferno Towers and Scattershots are effective countermeasures to prevent them from reaching and damaging your heroes.
  • Against Headhunters that are protected by a Grand Warden's ability, they can be countered by stalling their movement. This can be achieved by the use of a Tornado Trap, though one should consider whether protecting Heroes is worth using their only Tornado Trap for. An alternative for Town Hall 15 players would be to use a Poison Spell Tower, which while less effective, is more versatile and potentially reusable.

Upgrade Differences

The Headhunter undergoes visual changes at level 1 and 3.

• Initially, the Headhunter is a woman wearing a purple-and-black robe, which covers her entire body. Her face is covered in darkness, except for the eyes which are black with a yellow-orange sclera.
  • At level 2, the part of the robe covering the face gains a silver trim. She also gains a poison symbol on her robe's back.
  • At level 3, the trim turns to gold, as well as appearing on the start of her gloves. Her symbol on the back of her robe also turns gold.

Statistics

Statistic Modifiers

Input values into these modifiers below to modify the statistics in the tables below accordingly

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See Also

Electro Dragon

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Gold Pass modifiers

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Preferred Target	Attack Type	Housing Space	Movement Speed	Attack Speed	Dark Barracks Level Required	Range
Heroes (x4 Damage)	Single Target	6	32	0.6s	9	3 tiles

Training Time of Headhunters
Dark Barracks available	Dark Barracks upgrading
1m	2m

Level	Damage per Second	Damage per Hit	DPS on Heroes	Speed Decrease	Attack Rate Decrease	Hitpoints	Research Cost	Research Time	Laboratory Level Required
1	105	63	420	40%	55%	360	N/A	N/A	N/A
2	115	69	460	42%	60%	400	115,000	9d	10
3	125	75	500	44%	65%	440	145,000	10d	11

History

January 29, 2013		greenTerrtleTran suggested adding a troop with a poison attack.
February 5, 2013		clashofclans2013 suggested adding an assassin.
February 27, 2013		Rogrider suggested adding a Dark Troop that targets heroes.
June 21, 2020		Announced the Headhunter, with 3 levels.
Patch	Type	Description
June 22, 2020	Update	Added the Headhunter.
October 12, 2020	Update	Fixed an issue of shrinking characters when targeted by the Headhunter.
April 12, 2021	Update	Fixed minor inaccuracy from Headhunter poison timer.
April 29, 2021	Balance Changes	Reduced Headhunter’s DPS at all levels. Level 1: 108 -> 105 Level 2: 120 -> 115 Level 3: 132 -> 125
June 15, 2021	Update	Added Season Challenges and Clan Games task associated with the Headhunter, "Heads Will Roll".
June 27, 2022	Update	The Headhunter no longer require Dark Elixir to train, same goes with every troops in Home Village.

Gallery

Trivia

• You can have a maximum of 53 Headhunters at one time in a complete set of fully upgraded Army Camps. This number increases to 61 if you include the 8 that can fit into a fully upgraded Clan Castle. On the battlefield, you can clone an additional 28 Headhunters with four fully upgraded Clone Spells (three from the regular spell inventory and one from a level 10 or higher Clan Castle), for a total of 89 Headhunters.
  • However, since Headhunters are ineffective against buildings, this is generally not an advisable practice. You won't need that many of them anyway.
• In the developer Livestream, the Headhunter was responsible for stalking for Heroes, as stated by TV Royale, but the original suspects were the Bandit from Clash Royale and Tara from Brawl Stars.
• It may be assumed that Headhunters are the Wizards' responsible for brewing Dark Elixir Spells or at least the Poison Spells.
• The Headhunter is one of the few troops to have upgrade differences at each level, the others being the Dragon, P.E.K.K.A, Yeti, Dragon Rider and Electro Titan.
• In the trailer, her third card had the Clash of Clans logo. In her in-game artwork, she only appears to wield two cards, and in battle, she only appears to use sword cards (needs confirmation). In the level 9 Dark Barracks (the only other place where cards can be seen), three cards are present; two sword cards and one crown card.
• The Headhunter, the Dragon Rider and Electro Titan are the troops in Home Village with the least amount of levels, excluding Super Troops.
• She is one of the three troops that has three preferred target stages (unless there are no Clan Castle Troops, in which case she has 2), the others being the Lava Hound and the Ice Hound.
• One of her cards has a Hero crown on it, which is fitting seeing as she is the only unit that prefers to target Heroes.
• The Headhunter, along with the Dragon, Yeti, Dragon Rider, Electro Titan, Apprentice Warden, Root Rider, and Druid, are the only Home Village troops not to appear in Clash Royale, excluding Super Troops (with the exception of the Inferno Dragon).

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