Updated for Town Hall 18 (October 2026).
Army buildings are the Home Village buildings that create, store, upgrade and equip your attacking force: the Barracks and Dark Barracks, Army Camps, Laboratory, both Spell Factories, the Workshop, Pet House, Blacksmith and Hero Hall. Since 2025 none of them have training costs or wait times, so what matters now is what each building unlocks as you upgrade it. This page explains what each one does and the Town Hall level where you get it.
Army buildings at a glance
All of these are built from the Army tab of the shop with Elixir or Dark Elixir. You get one of each, except the Army Camp, which goes up to four.
| Building | Unlocks at | How many | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Army Camp | TH1 | Up to 4 (from TH7) | Holds your trained troops |
| Barracks | TH1 | 1 | Trains Elixir troops |
| Laboratory | TH3 | 1 | Researches troop, spell and siege machine levels |
| Hero Hall | TH4 | 1 | Upgrades heroes and assigns them to attack or defense |
| Spell Factory | TH5 | 1 | Brews Elixir spells |
| Dark Barracks | TH7 | 1 | Trains Dark Elixir troops |
| Blacksmith | TH8 | 1 | Unlocks and upgrades hero equipment |
| Dark Spell Factory | TH8 | 1 | Brews Dark spells |
| Workshop | TH12 | 1 | Builds siege machines |
| Pet House | TH14 | 1 | Houses and upgrades hero pets |
What each army building does
Barracks
The Barracks is where you train every Elixir troop, from the Barbarian you start with to the late-game units. Each Barracks upgrade unlocks the next troop type, so the Barracks level decides which Elixir troops you can field at all; the Laboratory only raises their levels. When you boost a troop in the Super Sauna, its Super version also appears here for the length of the boost.
Training has cost nothing since June 2022 and takes no time since March 2025, so the Barracks keeps working even while it’s being upgraded. You fill your army up to your housing space and attack. Older guides that tell you to build several Barracks are out of date: the TH15 update in October 2022 merged them into a single Barracks.
Unlocks at: TH1. See the troops hub for every unit it trains.
Dark Barracks
The Dark Barracks trains Dark Elixir troops such as the Minion, Hog Rider, Valkyrie and Golem. It works exactly like the regular Barracks: each level unlocks a new troop, training is free and instant, and boosted Super versions of Dark troops show up here. Like the Barracks, it was consolidated into one building in October 2022. Its newest level, 13, arrived in the June 2026 update.
Unlocks at: TH7, the same Town Hall that unlocks Dark Elixir.
Army Camp
Army Camps hold your trained troops. Every troop takes up housing space (Barbarians, Archers and Goblins take one each, everything else takes more), and your total camp space sets how big an army you can bring. You get one camp at TH1, a second at TH3, a third at TH5 and the fourth at TH7. Upgrades add a little more space each time, and the April 2026 update raised the cap to level 14.
Heroes, pets and siege machines don’t use camp space, and neither do Clan Castle troops. Camps also don’t defend: attackers see them empty, and losing one in a raid has no effect on your army.
Unlocks at: TH1.
Laboratory
The Laboratory upgrades troops, spells and siege machines. Elixir-based units are researched with Elixir and Dark ones with Dark Elixir. Heroes and pets aren’t upgraded here; they use the Hero Hall and Pet House.
Only one research runs at a time. There are two ways to speed things up. From TH9 the free Lab Assistant in the Helper Hut can work on the current research for one hour per 23-hour workday. During “Work for Hire” events, TH7+ players can pay gems for a Goblin Researcher to run a second research alongside the first. Research continues while the Laboratory itself is being upgraded, so there’s no penalty for leveling it.
Unlocks at: TH3.
Spell Factory
The Spell Factory brews Elixir spells such as Rage, Healing and Freeze. Each upgrade unlocks another spell, and each upgrade up to level 5 adds two more spell slots to your army. Brewing is free and instant. You can also request spells from clanmates once your Clan Castle reaches level 4.
Unlocks at: TH5. The spells hub lists every spell and its housing space.
Dark Spell Factory
The Dark Spell Factory brews Dark spells such as Poison, Earthquake, Haste, Skeleton and Bat. It shares one spell capacity with the regular Spell Factory: building it adds a single extra slot, and later upgrades unlock new spells without adding space. The June 2026 update added level 8 alongside the new Angry Spell, which makes troops in its radius drop their targets and charge the nearest defense.
Unlocks at: TH8.
Workshop
The Workshop builds siege machines, the vehicles that carry your Clan Castle troops deep into a base, such as the Wall Wrecker, Battle Blimp and Stone Slammer. Upgrading it unlocks more machine types; the machines themselves are leveled in the Laboratory with Elixir. You can keep several built, but you can only bring one into each battle. The April 2026 update added Workshop level 9 along with the Sky Wagon, a flying siege machine that drops barrels of Clan Castle troops plus extra Minions, a Balloon and a Baby Dragon.
Unlocks at: TH12. Clanmates can donate siege machines once your Clan Castle is level 6.
Pet House
The Pet House stores and upgrades pets, small companions that follow one assigned hero into battle. Each hero can take one pet, and you can swap pairings in the Pet House or the army screen. Pets are upgraded with Dark Elixir one at a time, and a pet that’s upgrading can’t fight. Pets also don’t defend your village. The February 2026 update raised the Pet House to level 12 and added the Greedy Raven pet for TH18.
Unlocks at: TH14.
Blacksmith
The Blacksmith arrived with the TH16 update in December 2023, when the old built-in hero abilities were split into Hero Equipment. Here you unlock and upgrade equipment using three kinds of Ore: Shiny, Glowy and Starry. Each hero takes two pieces of equipment into an attack. Common equipment unlocks as you upgrade the Blacksmith, while Epic equipment comes from events or later from the Trader. Equipment upgrades finish instantly once you have the Ore, and higher Blacksmith levels raise both the equipment level cap and how much Ore you can store. The April 2026 update added Blacksmith level 10.
Unlocks at: TH8. There’s no Blacksmith page on this wiki yet; the heroes hub covers the equipment each hero uses.
Hero Hall
The Hero Hall replaced the separate hero altars with the TH17 update in November 2024. It’s where you upgrade every hero (each upgrade needs a free builder), change hero skins and decide which heroes attack and which defend.
Your Hero Hall level sets how many heroes you can use at once. You start with one hero slot when the hall is built at TH4, and Hero Hall levels 3, 5 and 7 (needing TH9, TH11 and TH13) add one each, for four in total. For defense, each slot becomes a Hero Banner you place on the map, and the hero assigned to it patrols around that spot. Banners start at TH7; at TH4 to TH6 your slot only works on attack. Since June 2026 the Hero Hall also holds the Hero Journey tab (TH7 and up), a reward track that pays out resources, Ore, skins and Epic Equipment as your total hero levels rise.
From TH8 on, the game won’t let you upgrade your Town Hall until the Hero Hall is at the highest level your current Town Hall allows.
Unlocks at: TH4, the same level as the Barbarian King since May 2026. The Archer Queen follows at TH8, the Minion Prince at TH9 and the Dragon Duke at TH15. The Hero Hall page covers every level and which hero each one unlocks.
How army buildings have changed since 2022
A lot of older advice about army buildings no longer applies. These are the changes that matter, oldest first:
- June 2022: training troops, spells and siege machines stopped costing Elixir or Dark Elixir.
- October 2022 (TH15 update): multiple Barracks and Dark Barracks were merged into one of each.
- December 2023 (TH16 update): the Blacksmith was added, and hero abilities became Hero Equipment upgraded with Ore.
- November 2024 (TH17 update): the Hero Hall replaced all hero altars, and Hero Banners now mark where defending heroes patrol.
- March 2025 (“Clash Anytime”): training and hero recovery times were removed entirely, along with the Training Potion and other training boosts. Donating to a clanmate now costs the donor Elixir or Dark Elixir.
- May 2026: the Barbarian King, and so the Hero Hall, moved down to TH4.
- June 2026: the Hero Journey track opened inside the Hero Hall.
Placing army buildings in your base
Because army buildings don’t shoot, they’re mostly filler for your layout, but useful filler. Army Camps are large (4×4) and contain nothing an attacker wants, so leave them outside your walls and use them to slow down troops before they reach your defenses. Walling them in wastes wall pieces you could spend around your defenses.
The Hero Hall has a lot of hitpoints and takes a while to bring down, which makes it a good buffer in front of your core in Ranked bases, where a slow attack can run out of time. Unlike storages, it takes full damage from spells, so an Earthquake Spell or Earthquake Boots aimed at nearby defenses will chip at it too.
Sources: Supercell release notes (Town Hall 15, Town Hall 16, Town Hall 17, Clash Anytime, February 2026, April 2026, May 2026, June 2026) and in-game data.
