Updated for Town Hall 18 (October 2026).
The Dark Elixir Storage holds your Dark Elixir, the purple resource you start earning at Town Hall 7. You only ever get one, so its level sets most of your Dark Elixir cap. At Town Hall 18 it goes to level 13 and holds 450,000; with the 50,000 your Town Hall holds, your total Dark Elixir cap is 500,000.
What the Dark Elixir Storage does
It unlocks at Town Hall 7 alongside the Dark Elixir Drill, which produces the resource. Your Town Hall stores a little Dark Elixir too, but the storage carries nearly all of it. A few rules worth knowing:
- It keeps working while it upgrades, like every other storage, so you never lose capacity mid-upgrade.
- Spells cannot damage it. Since July 2015 no storage takes spell damage, which ended the old trick of dropping Lightning Spells on Dark Elixir. Earthquake Spells are the exception.
- If you win Dark Elixir with no room to put it, the extra is lost (it still counts toward the Heroic Heist achievement).
- It is a 3×3 building.
Where you can spend Dark Elixir
- Hero upgrades, except the Grand Warden, plus pet upgrades in the Pet House.
- Dark troop research in the Laboratory.
- Building and upgrading the Monolith.
- Boosting a Super Troop for 3 days (25,000 Dark Elixir) at the Super Sauna.
- Donating Dark troops and spells to clanmates, since donations started costing the donor in March 2025.
- Crafting Capital Gold in the Forge from Town Hall 13.
Dark Elixir Storage levels and stats
Upgrades cost Elixir.
| Level | Town Hall | Capacity | Hitpoints | Cost (Elixir) | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 | 10,000 | 2,000 | 250,000 | 8h |
| 2 | 7 | 17,500 | 2,200 | 500,000 | 16h |
| 3 | 8 | 40,000 | 2,400 | 1,000,000 | 1d |
| 4 | 8 | 75,000 | 2,600 | 1,500,000 | 1d 12h |
| 5 | 9 | 140,000 | 2,900 | 2,000,000 | 1d 16h |
| 6 | 9 | 180,000 | 3,200 | 2,400,000 | 2d |
| 7 | 12 | 220,000 | 3,500 | 3,800,000 | 3d |
| 8 | 13 | 280,000 | 3,800 | 5,400,000 | 3d 12h |
| 9 | 14 | 330,000 | 4,100 | 6,600,000 | 4d |
| 10 | 15 | 360,000 | 4,300 | 8,000,000 | 4d 12h |
| 11 | 16 | 390,000 | 4,500 | 10,000,000 | 5d |
| 12 | 17 | 420,000 | 4,700 | 16,000,000 | 7d |
| 13 | 18 | 450,000 | 4,800 | 25,000,000 | 13d |
Check your upcoming hero and research costs before skipping a storage level. If the next upgrade you want costs more than your cap, you cannot start it no matter how much you farm.
How much Dark Elixir attackers can take
In regular Battles, a raider can take a share of what is in your storage, capped by your Town Hall level. Ranked Battles use a different loot system.
| Town Hall | Share lootable | Max lootable from storage |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | 6% | 1,200 |
| 8 | 6% | 2,400 |
| 9 | 5% | 4,750 |
| 10 | 5% | 5,000 |
| 11 | 5% | 5,500 |
| 12 | 5% | 6,000 |
| 13 | 5% | 7,500 |
| 14 | 5% | 8,750 |
| 15 | 5% | 9,250 |
| 16 | 5% | 9,500 |
| 17 | 5% | 9,750 |
| 18 | 5% | 10,000 |
So a Town Hall 18 player holding 200,000 or more Dark Elixir loses at most 10,000 to a single raid, before loot penalties or bonuses. Dark Elixir is also split between the storage and your Town Hall, roughly 4 to 1 at low totals, with the storage taking more as the total grows.
Defending your Dark Elixir
Because it is scarce, most players put the storage near the center of the base, behind walls and inside the range of several defenses. A higher-level storage also helps on its own: loot comes out in proportion to damage dealt, so more hitpoints means less Dark Elixir per hit and more time for your defenses to work. The Loot Cart returns 10% of what a raider takes.
When attacking, tap the enemy storage before you start to see how much is inside. The storage’s fill level can mislead you: with such a large cap, a storage holding tens of thousands of Dark Elixir can still look almost empty.
Recent changes
- October 10, 2022: level 10 added; level 9 cheaper; several upgrade times cut.
- December 12, 2023: level 11 added.
- November 25, 2024: level 12 added.
- February 10, 2025: capacity raised at levels 10-12 (level 12 from 370,000 to 420,000).
- November 17, 2025: level 13 added with Town Hall 18; level 12 upgrade time cut from 15 to 9 days.
Dark Elixir Storage FAQ
What is the max Dark Elixir Storage level?
Level 13 at Town Hall 18, holding 450,000 Dark Elixir.
Can you have more than one Dark Elixir Storage?
No. Every Town Hall from 7 to 18 gets exactly one.
What is Dark Elixir used for in Clash of Clans?
Mainly heroes, pets and Dark troop research, plus the Monolith, Super Troop boosts, Dark donations and Forge crafting.
Sources: Supercell release notes (Supercell, Clash Anytime notes) and in-game data.
