Loot Penalty

I find it very disturbing that SuperCell does not inform people that there is a loot penalty. There are way too many bases where people only upgrade the Town Hall and then give up because 'there is no loot available'.

What is the loot penalty? 

 To put it in simple terms, it restricts (or boosts in some cases) the amount of available loot one can take from another base. Here is a simple breakdown of the percentages.

Town Hall Level Difference	Bonus / Penalty
+3 or more	200%
+2	150%
+1	110%
0	100%
-1	90%
-2	50%
-3	25%
-4 or less	5%

What does this mean?

To clarify this chart, I will share an example scenario.

Lets say that I am currently a Town Hall Level 7. I've just recently gotten to Town Hall 7, but I've managed to upgrade a few defenses and I'm tired of the same old items and I want a dragon and tesla now! So, I'm debating whether I should upgrade my Town Hall to level 8. While I'm thinking about it, I decide to raid a few bases and get some loot.

The first base I come across consists of:

Town Hall	Level 7
Available Gold:	200,000
Available Elixir	200,000
Available Dark Elixir	1,000

Since I'm Town Hall 7, all of this loot is available to me! Great, this should be an easy win assuming I have the proper army!

If I had already upgraded to Town Hall 8, the following loot would be available to me:

Town Hall	Level 7
Available Gold:	180,000
Available Elixir	180,000
Available Dark Elixir	900

Slightly less, but not too bad! This means there is slightly less loot available to me which doesn't seem like much. But keep in mind that my defenses are subpar and he can attack me for 110% of what I have available in my base! He can take more than what I could take from him!

Lets ignore that and say, well I want my X-Bows now! So instead of patiently upgrading our defenses we breeze right on through Town Hall 7 & 8 and go straight to Town Hall 9. Lets see what the available loot is of that same base.

Town Hall	Level 7
Available Gold:	100,000
Available Elixir	100,000
Available Dark Elixir	500

This is dramatically less! Not only that, but if they have a maxed out Town Hall 7, they can likely strike back and take way more loot.150% of my available loot to be precise! Assuming I had the same available loot as they did, they could take away

Town Hall	Level 9
Available Gold:	300,000
Available Elixir	300,000
Available Dark Elixir	1,500

They have the chance to take away 200,000 more gold and elixir than I was able to take from them!

This is why you see so many abandoned Town Hall 8s & 9s! It is because they do not realize there is a loot penalty! This greatly affects how enjoyable the game is in the long term. Sure, it is fun temporarily to get those new defenses, but if you want to play for more than that short term excitement, you need to think before upgrading your Town Hall.

I highly suggest maxing out your bases starting at Town Hall 7! I encourage starting at Town Hall 6, but it is necessary to do at Town Hall 7 unless you  want to play a long game of catch up later.

Hint: Most people end up quitting within a few months of upgrading their bases prematurely. It is because they can't find any loot! That and they can't defend against others who are at the same Town Hall level as they are.

Posted by zero_tolerance

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