Clash of Clans

To begin, I would not be a position to post this thread were it not for the tireless efforts of those who have gone before me and shared their knowledge. Chief Pat, first and always. Flammy. Simon Tay. Nixon. Landon. Hurley.The incorrigible, Godson. Many others. And of course, Daddy… Thank you all for your excellent work and noble sharing.Dark Farming is, as you probably guessed, farming for Dark Elixir.Not everybody likes or cares for DE. Maybe they don’t like the Dark Troops, or they find the level needed to upgrade the Heroes daunting. However there are some good reasons for having some on hand. For me, I want it to max out my Heroes between upgrades. I’m not a “gemmer” and so all of my upgrades come from farming for the resources and waiting through long upgrades. I don’t mind, I’m in no hurry. I’m at about 2/3 through TH 7 and loving it. Also, and I‘m not judging, but I have the stance of being a purist, or “gamer” and the gems I earn go to builder huts. I’m about a month away from getting the 4th…Also by raiding for DE it gives you something else to raid for other than Gold and Elixir. There is no point in having full storages when your builders are going to be occupied for a few days. Everyone is just going (to try) to take your resources from you before you can spend it. At this point in the game,thanks to Chief Pat, I can pretty easily raid for the resos I need for upgrade as my builders near completion. Yes you can time your builds so that they are staggered and you can free up a builder in a timely manner. However if you are following the advice of those that know more than I do, you need to max everything out before upgrading your TH. I’ve left a few walls to upgrade during the TH upgrade. And I’ll work on the Tesla’s during that time too, but I still foresee having full storages towards the end of my upgrade and nothing left to spend it on.Enter Dark Farming.With DF you’re not concerned with raiding for G&E , so it doesn’t accumulate. Sure you get some by happenstance, but it’s certainly not the focus. My style is Hybrid Dark Farming. I’m amassing DE and trying to maintain a trophy count where it allows me to find the sweet, unctuous, blackness; which I have found (so far) to be in the league Gold III (1300+ Trophies. G3 starts at 1400 but you stay in that league until you drop below 1300).Also if you are getting a ton of G& E *and* DE, folks with higher THs will rain 3 stars down upon you, eager to steal everything. Often, if the only thing worth raiding is DE, lower THs will just pass you by or at most Lightning Spell you. Remember that half of base defense is about resource management. You get attacked much less if your base doesn’t attract attention.So enough of the “Why”. I have either convinced you or I haven’t. So let’s take a look at the “How”.When I’m Dark farming I have a three part strategy: 1) Get it. 2) Keep it. and 3) Maintain trophies in the 1300 to 1450 range.Getting it.When Dark Farming, I build what I call Flammy’s Army; named after the You Tube clasher who’s has put out a ton of informative CoC videos. 8 Giants and 8 Wall Breakers; and 50 Barbarians, 50 Archers and the rest Goblins, all of which are lvl 4. And two lightening spells. (When my Spell Factory’s upgraded to lvl 3 , I’ll take 3…) And then I strike with surgical precision.I also pack a lot of patience; because not only will you be trolling through a lot of bases to find a suitable target, but you will be finding some VERY tempting bases that attacking will just delay your DE goals.Which leads to the next thing required, which is speed. Dark Farming demands celerity as leaving it sitting in your storages once it starts to pile up, is sure to attract those who covet it. Get it. Keep it. Spend it. Think of it as a mission.When trolling, I look for a few different base types.1) Bases with embedded Town Halls but with a ton of DE in their storages; enough that it is worth Lightning striking and taking the trophy loss. By “ton”, I mean DE storages with 1000 + DE. A couple Lightening strikes can generate 300-400 DE. Easy as pie.These are awesome but less common. Also those spells take a while to regenerate, so you need other tactics if you’re going raid over and over.2) Bases with THs on the outside.Some have a bunch in embedded storages and/or drills. Enough worth using your army to go get. You might not get all of it but you will get more than Lightning Spells will generate.Others with exposed