Clash Royale

Gameplay

In Clash Royale, players are ranked by their level, trophies, and/or arena. The maximum level is thirteen, while there are ten arenas (excluding training camp) in total in the game. A player wins a battle by destroying more towers than the opponent, or by destroying the opponent's "King's Tower", which grants an automatic three "crown" victory. At the start of each game, both players are given a "hand" of four cards from a "deck" of eight cards chosen by the player. Cards can be used to attack and defend. To play the cards, the player must have enough "elixir", one elixir automatically being replenished every 2.8 seconds (during double elixir 1.4 seconds). Once a card is placed, a new card from the deck is drawn to the hand.

As a free-to-play game, Clash Royale offers players the ability to purchase "gems" in the card shop using real-world money. "Gems" can be used to purchase chests, cards, and gold from the shop. When a player wins a multiplayer battle, he or she must obtain a "chest", which takes a certain amount of time to open depending on the rarity of the chest. Chests take a certain amount of time to unlock: Silver Chests take 3 hours to unlock, Golden Chests take 8 hours, Giant, Magical and Epic Chests take 12 hours, while Super Magical and Legendary Chests take 24 hours. Gems may be used to speed up unlocking or can be used to purchase a chest. Chests contain cards and gold, while free chests and crown chests contain gems. Different levels of chest contain different numbers or types of cards. When the player has a certain number of a troop's cards, they can upgrade it to increase its statistics. A player can hold a maximum of 4 chests at one time; to open up chest slots a chest will need to be opened. Free chests are also given to the player once every 4 hours, and only two of these can be stored. Every 24 hours, the player also has the chance to win a Crown Chest by claiming 10 "crowns" from battle victories. Crown chests stack twice. Both the Free and Crown Chests unlock instantly.

Players battle through 10 arenas (excluding Training Camp) each requiring a certain amount of trophies. Players may also form clans. Clan members may engage in "friendly battles" with one another, the outcome of which does not affect trophies or chests but does however, contribute to the 'practice with friends' achievement. The "friendly battle" feature allows for live spectating from other clanmates. Clan members may also donate or request cards from one another.

In July 2016, Supercell introduced a new "Tournament" feature. The feature is unlocked at level 8. Tournaments can only be created by using gems, but anyone may join. Based on tournament performance, players are rewarded with tournament chests. As well as tournaments, there are two types of Victory Challenges in which the goal is to win 12 times while losing no more than two times. A Grand Challenge costs 100 gems to enter, and a Classic Challenge costs 10. Completing (or getting 12 wins) a Classic Challenge gives you 2000 gold and 100 cards, and a Grand Challenge will reward you 22,000 gold and 1,100 cards. Supercell has also added various event challenges, for limited periods of time, that add special features to the battles, or allow players to receive special cards.

Release

The game was soft-launched in Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Finland and New Zealand for iOS platforms on January 4, 2016. The game was soft-launched on Android for those same countries on February 16, 2016 in the form of an Android application package. Both platforms received a global release on March 2, 2016.

Upon its release, Clash Royale became the most downloaded and top-grossing app on the U.S. iOS App Store.

Reception

Clash Royale mainly received positive reviews, with TouchArcade's Eli Hodapp calling it "absolutely phenomenal" in his five-star review. Pocket Gamer's Harry Slater gave the game a score of 9/10, summing up "It's an incredible amount of rewarding fun, it's nail-biting at times, and there's content here that will keep you busy for weeks if not months." Writing for Geek.com, James Plafke criticized "Clash Royale for being genuinely fun—more so than Clash of Clans—while the developer chronically interrupts the player from enjoying it." Clash Royale has received a very positive response from its players, with an average score of 4.5 out of 5 on the Google Play Store and an average score of 4 out of 5 on the Apple App Store. The game has been widely criticized for its business model in which it attempts to encourage players to purchase in-game currency out of anger.