The Best Times to Raid for Elixir During Global Events

What if a single hour of farming could net you more Elixir than two full sessions on a normal day? During Clash of Clans global events, the game’s economy twists in your favor—if you know when to strike. In this guide, we’ll zero in on the precise windows and methods to raid for Elixir when events push player behavior, collector fill rates, and online activity into predictable patterns.

Why timing matters more during events

Global events concentrate player activity: more players log in at the same time, boost collectors, break shields, rush tasks, or empty storages. That means the matchmaking pool and the loot profile of available bases shift hour by hour. When you align your raids with the right event windows, you’ll find:

• More dead bases with stuffed collectors on the outside.
• Easier targets due to mismatched trophy ranges as players focus on tasks.
• Shorter or longer clouds depending on league, which changes your loot-per-hour.
• Lower army costs and faster training when boosts and discounts stack.

This isn’t just about “raid at night.” It’s about understanding how specific events alter the player base and then sliding into the quiet troughs between their peak logins.

The event effect: how global events reshape Elixir availability

Before we target the best times, understand where Elixir sits on a base at any given moment:

• Collectors vs storages: Elixir in collectors is easiest to snipe and correlates with time since last login. Storages reflect spending behavior—during upgrade/discount events, storages drain fast.
• Shields and online status: More players online means more shields or active wraps, reducing targets; fewer players online increases accessible dead bases.
• League dynamics: Star Bonus and Season Challenge tasks encourage brief trophy pushes; this temporarily lifts (or drops) the league distribution of available targets.
• Boost stacking: Collector boosts temporarily accelerate generation; army boosts accelerate attack cycles; together they magnify loot-per-hour if you attack during the right population lull.

Player insight: During event-heavy weekends, my logs typically show a 20–40% increase in Elixir per search when I raid in off-peak windows compared to prime hours, even without changing army composition.

Event-by-event timing blueprint

1. One Gem Resource Boost or cheap collector boosts

What changes:

• Collectors fill significantly faster. Casual players often boost and then log off after a few attacks or upgrades.
• Within 1–3 hours after regional bedtimes, boosted collectors keep filling unattended, creating a flood of dead bases.

Best raid windows:

• Two waves in UTC:
  • 15:00–19:00 UTC: East Asia bedtime overlap; lots of dead bases with external collectors.
  • 07:00–12:00 UTC: North America asleep; strong for TH9–TH13 mid leagues.

How to play it:

• Chain Training Potion or army boost during these windows to maximize attacks per hour.
• Favor cheap, fast armies that can snipe collectors: Barch, GiBarch, Goblin Knife, or Sneaky Goblins if available.
• Drop 100–300 trophies from your normal push league to reduce clouding and widen target variety.

Pro tip: If you can only play one hour, start 30–45 minutes into the window. This lets boosted collectors accrue enough to push more targets into your sweet spot.

2. One Gem Army Boost or Gold Pass boosted weekends

What changes:

• Huge spikes in concurrent attacks. More shields, fewer easy bases.
• Faster training means your attack cycle is shorter; loot per hour can still be high if you avoid prime hours.

Best raid windows:

• 05:00–08:00 UTC and 22:00–01:00 UTC, the edges of EU and NA activity cycles, often deliver better hit rates with less clouding in Crystal–Master.

How to play it:

• Don’t fight the crowd. Farm outside your region’s evening prime time.
• Run two armies: one low-cost collector snipe comp, and one storage cracking comp with a Wall Wrecker or Log Launcher to finish strong targets you can’t skip.

3. Clan Games week

What changes:

• Short, errand-style attacks as players complete tasks, then log off.
• Many casuals hop leagues unintentionally, seeding lower leagues with bases carrying odd loot profiles.

Best raid windows:

• Early mornings local time across major regions. Combine windows:
  • 06:00–12:00 UTC: NA asleep; EU morning; Asia midday lull.
  • If you’re in Asia/Oceania, also try 15:00–18:00 UTC to catch East Asia downtime.

How to play it:

• Trophy target: TH9–TH11 in Gold 1–Crystal 3; TH12–TH16 in low Crystal to Master 3. Adjust by ±200 trophies if clouds appear.
• Filter for dead bases. Skip more aggressively—searches are cheap compared to boosted training cycles.

4. Season reset and Season Bank payout

What changes:

• On the final day, many players log in to spend Season Bank payouts. Storages swing wildly; collectors often get neglected the day after.
• Clouds increase in high leagues near reset.

Best raid windows:

• Day after the season ends: 15:00–19:00 UTC and 07:00–12:00 UTC for dead collector bases.
• Avoid last-day prime time in high leagues; drop to lower Crystal if you’re TH12+ and want steady Elixir.

How to play it:

• Use Season Challenge training and resource reductions to keep net Elixir positive even versus tough bases.
• If you just collected Season Bank, spend first, then farm. Full storages paint a target on you and reduce net gains if you’re forced into heavy defenses.

5. Discount festivals Hammer Jam style events

What changes:

• Players dump storages immediately on day one. Loot seems bad—because it is, temporarily.
• By day two and three, boosted or not, collectors refill while players take breaks.

Best raid windows:

• 24–72 hours after the event starts, outside prime hours: 05:00–08:00 UTC and 15:00–19:00 UTC.

How to play it:

• Focus on collector raids. Your best finds will have strong defenses but full outer collectors.
• Bring a handful of Wall Breakers or Sneaky Goblins to reach tucked collectors behind one layer.

6. Clan War Leagues days

What changes:

• War participants stay online during their planned attack window; fewer available targets in their leagues.
• Non-participants and lower leagues remain fertile.

Best raid windows:

• Raid just after typical war windows close for a region: for NA-heavy clans, try 07:00–10:00 UTC; for EU-heavy clans, 22:00–01:00 UTC; for Asia-heavy clans, 15:00–18:00 UTC.

How to play it:

• If you’re in a high league for CWL, farm with your minis or drop trophies on your main to Crystal where clouds are manageable.
• Use guard smartly. Buying a short guard with gems can save session momentum if you’re on a hot streak.

Time-of-day cheat sheet in UTC

Use these universal windows to target sleeping regions and unattended collectors. Adjust ±1 hour based on your own search times.

• 07:00–12:00 UTC: North America asleep overlap; great for mid-league farming across TH9–TH13.
• 15:00–19:00 UTC: East Asia asleep; excellent for finding dead collector bases.
• 22:00–01:00 UTC: Europe asleep; decent for TH10+ in low Crystal to Master 3.

Pro method: If your session starts lukewarm, rotate to the next window or drop 100 trophies. Small tweaks often unlock a better target pool.

League and trophy guidance for Elixir target density

• Town Hall 7–9: Silver 1 to Gold 2. The density of abandoned bases is high; collectors are often exposed.
• Town Hall 10–12: Gold 1 to Crystal 2. Strikes a balance between dead bases and reasonable clouds.
• Town Hall 13–16: Crystal 2 to Master 3. Drop if clouds exceed two minutes; rise if loot quality drops.

Key idea: Trophy sweet spots shift during events because players hop leagues. If your searches show repeated low-loot storages and no full collectors, adjust league or time window—not just your army.

Armies that turn good timing into great Elixir per hour

• Barch with 4–8 Wall Breakers: Ultra-fast cycles, perfect for external collector snipes. Use Heroes to claim storages only on exceptional targets.
• GiBarch or Giants Archers Goblins: Adds tankiness to reach inner collectors with minimal spell use.
• Sneaky Goblins: If unlocked, they are the most efficient storage snipers. Pair with Invisibility for high-value grabs.
• Baby Drag spam or Electro Titan light comps: For higher THs, a low-spell, low-siege approach that clears shallow bases when collectors and storages are both promising.

Spell discipline: Save spells for raids that exceed your target Elixir threshold. A single skipped Rage across a session often equals one extra raid’s profit.

Boosts, gems, and session crafting during events

• Training Potion: Use it only in the best windows. Stack with an army boost if you’re committing for 60–120 minutes.
• Collector boosts: Activate before your play session if you’ll pop online intermittently to empty them; otherwise, boost and log off so rivals see full collectors when you return.
• Shields and guard: Buying a short guard with a small gem cost during a red-hot window can preserve momentum by preventing surprise defenses.
• Gold Pass boosts: Timing your boosted training during off-peak windows multiplies gains. A reduced training cost plus faster cycles makes even storage-busting armies net Elixir positive.

Action loop for a one-hour event window:

1. Set trophy target and army preset.
2. Pop Training Potion 3–5 minutes into the window to confirm search quality first.
3. Snipe collectors; skip storage-heavy bases unless loot is exceptional.
4. Track loot per search and per minute. If drops off for 8–10 minutes, adjust trophies or pause until the next window.

Data-driven filtering while searching

Use fast checkpoints to avoid burning time:

• External collectors: Look for plump, dark-purple collector tanks and full pumps. If 3–4 are full and accessible, it’s a green light.
• Elixir in storages vs collectors: If storages are bursting but well protected, only commit if your army composition can crack the core without heavy spell spend.
• Town Hall upgrade state: Rushed or mid-upgrade bases are prime during events—players often log off mid-upgrade with weak defenses.
• Clan activity: A recently active clan with donations and war toggles suggests online members; skip if you’re strictly dead-base sniping.

Benchmarks to track in your notebook or notes app:

• Loot per search: average Elixir seen per matchmaking spin.
• Loot taken per minute: total Elixir gained divided by session length.
• Cloud overhead: time to find a viable base. If it exceeds your threshold, drop league or switch window.

Case windows to copy

• Saturday Clan Games mid-cycle

  • Play 06:30–08:00 UTC. Expect lower competition, plenty of Gold 1–Crystal 3 dead bases.
  • Army: Barch with 2 Heals. Save Heroes for unusually rich targets.

• One Gem collector boost day

  • Play 16:00–18:00 UTC. Focus on external collectors; skip heavy storages unless pathing is clean.
  • Army: GiBarch or Sneaky Goblins with 1–2 Wall Breakers and Invisibility as a pocket option.

• Season reset plus one day

  • Play 07:00–09:00 UTC. Many players spent Bank yesterday and logged off; collectors refilled overnight.
  • Army: Mixed Goblins and Archers; minimal spells; rely on Heroes only to secure bonus Elixir storages.

Advanced micro for higher Town Halls

• Siege choice matters: A Wall Wrecker for a quick core channel lets Sneaky Goblins empty storages in seconds without heavy spell cost during a time-limited window.
• Queen charge restraint: Powerful but slow. During peak windows, swap to lighter entries unless the base shows outsized Elixir in core storages.
• Pet and Hero uptime: If you’re farming Elixir, consider using Dark Elixir heavy pet choices and save elixir-hungry spell combos. The goal is positive Elixir delta per raid.

Common mistakes that ruin good timing

• Raiding your local prime time during events: More competitors, more online bases, longer searches.
• Ignoring trophies: Sitting too high inflates clouding and defenses; too low can reduce loot quality. Adjust in increments.
• Over-spending spells: Great timing can’t overcome negative raid economics. Reserve spells for 500k+ Elixir setups or equivalent thresholds for your TH.
• Staying in a dead window: If the first 10 minutes are cold, swap window or league. Sunk-cost stubbornness kills sessions.

Quick reference playbook

• If 1 Gem collector boosts are live: Farm 15:00–19:00 UTC or 07:00–12:00 UTC. Snipe collectors.
• If army boosts are live: Avoid prime time; use 05:00–08:00 UTC or 22:00–01:00 UTC with fast cycles.
• During Clan Games: Early mornings UTC windows; filter dead bases and drop trophies slightly.
• Season reset: Day after payout, hit the Asia and NA sleep overlaps.
• War Leagues: Raid after regional war windows close; dip to Crystal if clouds rise.

Conclusion: Make the event calendar your Elixir calendar

Events don’t just sweeten the game; they concentrate opportunity. By aligning your sessions with sleeping regions, adjusting league to manage clouds, and chaining boosts only during the juiciest windows, you convert the same playtime into dramatically higher Elixir per hour. Treat each event as a predictable tide:

• Collector boosts create fat, unattended targets a few hours after bedtimes.
• Army boosts reward off-peak sessions where you get more attacks per minute.
• Clan Games and Season resets shuffle leagues and habits—farm the aftermath, not the rush.

Track your results, tweak trophies by small steps, and build a repeatable weekly rhythm. Do this, and you’ll feel the difference where it counts: maxed troops sooner, heroes up more often, and upgrades that never stall for lack of Elixir.