Updated for Town Hall 18 (October 2026).
Guardians are Town Hall 18’s defenders: troop-like units that stand on top of your Town Hall and jump down to fight when attackers come close. There are three (Smasher, Longshot and Logger), only one defends at a time, and each has five levels. They replace the Town Hall weapon, so a Town Hall 18 has no Inferno Artillery or any other built-in gun.
What Guardians replace
From Town Hall 12 to 17 the Town Hall carried a weapon. At Town Hall 17 that weapon was the Inferno Artillery, made by merging the Town Hall with the Eagle Artillery. Upgrading to Town Hall 18 removes the weapon entirely, and the Town Hall stops being a defensive building. The Guardians are not a merge of older defenses. They are a new kind of unit that Supercell describes as a Town Hall weapon with legs.
The Giga Bomb trap, which used to be the Town Hall’s death bomb, stays at Town Hall 18 as its own trap.
How Guardians work
- Only one Guardian defends at a time. You pick it from a menu opened with a button on the Town Hall, and the others sit out.
- Before the battle the selected Guardian stands on top of the Town Hall. When an attacker enters its trigger range it jumps down, fights, and patrols an area around the Town Hall. Tap the Guardian in your village to see its patrol route.
- Guardians cannot be taken into attacks.
- Each Guardian upgrade ties up a free Builder for 7 to 13 days. While a Guardian is upgrading, its previous level still defends in Ranked battles, Clan Wars and Clan War League.
- Guardians always come out of the Town Hall, so where you place your Town Hall decides where your Guardian fights.
How they differ from heroes
Guardians look and move like heroes, but the game treats them as defending troops. That has a few practical effects:
- Headhunters do not go after them first. They only target a Guardian once no defending heroes are left.
- Defensive rage from a Rage Spell Tower or defending Super Valkyries works on them at full strength, where heroes get a reduced boost.
- Defending Healers heal them at the normal troop rate.
- They have no housing space, so killing one gives the Minion Prince‘s Dark Crown nothing.
- Poison works on them at reduced strength (see the change log below). Guardians still on the Town Hall roof and not yet triggered are not affected.
- A frozen Guardian on the roof will not activate until the freeze wears off.
The three Guardians at a glance
| Guardian | Style | Range | Attack speed | Max level DPS | Max level hitpoints | Ability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smasher | Melee club, splash | 1.25 tiles | 1.8s | 700 | 16,000 | Rages if the Town Hall falls; leaves a Rage Spell when defeated |
| Longshot | Long-range bolts, splash | 11 tiles | 1.8s | 450 | 11,000 | Explodes for 1,000 damage when defeated |
| Logger | Rolling logs, pierce and knockback | 7 tiles | 2.5s | 350 | 12,000 | Knocks back every unit a log hits |
All three hit both ground and air. Smasher and Longshot unlock when you reach Town Hall 18, with Longshot selected by default. The Logger was added on April 27, 2026.
Guardian upgrade costs
The three Guardians share the same upgrade prices and times. Level 1 is free when the Guardian unlocks. Costs are in Elixir.
| Level | Cost (Elixir) | Upgrade time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Free | None |
| 2 | 18,000,000 | 7d |
| 3 | 22,000,000 | 9d |
| 4 | 26,000,000 | 11d |
| 5 | 28,000,000 | 13d |
Maxing one Guardian costs 94,000,000 Elixir and 40 days of Builder time. Since only one defends at a time, most players finish their main Guardian before touching the others.
Smasher
The Smasher is the tank. He walks up to attackers and swings a spiked club that deals splash damage in a 2.5-tile circle, and he is big enough to hit flying troops too. He has the most hitpoints and the highest damage of the three, but his swings are slow, so a crowd of mid-health troops such as Valkyries can surround him and wear him down.
His ability, Sore Loser, works twice. If the Town Hall is destroyed while he is alive, he rages for the rest of the fight with 60% more damage and movement speed. When he dies, he leaves a defensive Rage Spell on the spot that boosts nearby defenses and defending units the same way a Rage Spell Tower does. He drops that rage whether or not he was already raging.
| Level | Damage per second | Damage per hit | Hitpoints |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 500 | 900 | 12,000 |
| 2 | 550 | 990 | 13,000 |
| 3 | 600 | 1,080 | 14,000 |
| 4 | 650 | 1,170 | 15,000 |
| 5 | 700 | 1,260 | 16,000 |
He notices attackers from 14 tiles and looks for targets within 12 (both raised in January 2026). He moves at speed 20, faster than the other two.
Longshot
Longshot stays back and fires explosive bolts from her head at up to 11 tiles. That outranges the Flame Flinger siege machine, and her bolts can catch a Royal Champion mid-charge. Each bolt splashes in a 1-tile circle, but since February 2026 the splash only hits the kind of unit the bolt struck, ground or air. Her attacks are as slow as the Smasher’s, so swarms can still overwhelm her if nothing protects her.
Her ability, Final Blow, makes her explode when she dies, dealing 1,000 damage to every attacking unit within 3.5 tiles, ground and air. The blast does not knock troops back. If the Town Hall is destroyed before any attacker reaches her, she jumps down on her own, which often happens when an attacker takes out the Town Hall early with spells and hero abilities.
| Level | Damage per second | Damage per hit | Hitpoints | Death damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 330 | 594 | 7,000 | 1,000 |
| 2 | 360 | 648 | 8,000 | 1,000 |
| 3 | 390 | 702 | 9,000 | 1,000 |
| 4 | 420 | 756 | 10,000 | 1,000 |
| 5 | 450 | 810 | 11,000 | 1,000 |
She notices attackers from 19 tiles and patrols out to 17. Her range, search radius, alert radius and splash were all trimmed in January 2026.
Logger
The Logger throws heavy logs that keep rolling after the first hit, damaging and pushing back every unit in their path, ground and air together. Small troops that die to one log, like Barbarians, Archers, Goblins, Wall Breakers and Wizards, get swept away. Larger troops survive but get shoved back, which breaks up smash attacks that rely on Healers flying behind the army. He has the lowest damage of the three and the slowest attack (one log every 2.5 seconds), and his hitpoints sit between Longshot’s and the Smasher’s.
| Level | Damage per second | Damage per hit | Hitpoints | Roll distance after first hit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 230 | 575 | 8,000 | 5 tiles |
| 2 | 260 | 650 | 9,000 | 5 tiles |
| 3 | 290 | 725 | 10,000 | 5 tiles |
| 4 | 320 | 800 | 11,000 | 6 tiles |
| 5 | 350 | 875 | 12,000 | 6 tiles |
The July 2026 balance update cut the roll distance by two tiles and raised the push from 1 tile to 1.5. Supercell’s stated reason was that the Logger controlled too much space from too far away.
Which Guardian should you use?
There is no single right pick, and you can switch whenever you like. Some general guidelines:
- Use the Smasher if your Town Hall is near the edge of the base or inside a compartment that attackers must walk through. He hits the hardest, his death rage helps every defense around him, and a Revenge Tower sitting in that rage gets much more dangerous.
- Use Longshot if your Town Hall is in the core. Her range lets her fire on the army long before it reaches her, and an Invisibility or Rage Spell Tower near the Town Hall keeps her alive longer. Her death blast pairs well with nearby traps like the Giga Bomb and Spring Traps.
- Use the Logger against ground armies and Healer-supported pushes. The knockback scatters troops that need to stay together, and splash defenses like Scattershots, Firespitters and Bomb Towers near him clean up what he pushes around.
Whichever you choose, protect it with splash or multi-target defenses. All three attack slowly, so a swarm that reaches them unopposed is the most common way they die.
How to attack against Guardians
- Check which Guardian is selected when you scout. It changes how you should handle the Town Hall.
- Freeze it. A Freeze Spell stops any Guardian from attacking, and a frozen Guardian on the roof will not jump down until it thaws.
- Give it a decoy. The Totem Spell pulls a Guardian’s attacks away from your army. Do not drop a Totem while Longshot is mid-jump over a wall, because she keeps her current target.
- Block the damage. The Invisibility Spell hides your troops from it, and the Ice Block Spell soaks hits. Against the Logger, remember that rolling logs can still catch an invisible Healer behind the first target.
- Skip Headhunters for this job. They ignore Guardians while any defending hero is alive. Poison now works, but at reduced strength.
- Against the Smasher, decide when the Town Hall goes down. Kill him first and you only have to keep your army out of his rage puddle. Take the Town Hall first and he rages for the rest of the battle.
- Against Longshot, keep high-value units out of her 3.5-tile death blast when she is about to fall. The Grand Warden’s Eternal Tome covers the moment she explodes. Keep your Flame Flinger away from her side of the base unless something tanks for it.
- Against the Logger, spread your Healers and keep small troops out of his lane. Since July 2026 his logs roll shorter, so staying a few tiles to the side of his target is safer than it used to be.
Guardian changes
- November 17, 2025: Guardians added with the Town Hall 18 update, replacing the Town Hall weapon. Smasher and Longshot available, five levels each.
- January 12, 2026: Longshot’s attack range cut from 12 to 11 tiles, with smaller search and alert radiuses and a splash radius cut from 1.5 to 1 tile. Smasher’s search range raised from 10 to 12 tiles and alert range from 12 to 14 tiles.
- February 23, 2026: Poison Spells began affecting Guardians with a reduced slow. Longshot’s splash fixed to hit only ground or only air, matching the unit she struck.
- April 27, 2026: the Logger added as a third Guardian. Poison changed so it applies only 30% of its effect to Guardians. Guardians no longer activate while frozen. Legend-tier battle modifiers began boosting Guardian hitpoints and damage, up to +20% in Legend I.
- July 2026: the Logger’s roll distance cut by two tiles at every level and his push raised from 1 to 1.5 tiles.
Guardians FAQ
Can you use more than one Guardian at a time?
No. Only the selected Guardian defends. You can change the selection from the Town Hall at any time.
Does Town Hall 18 still have a weapon?
No. The Inferno Artillery is removed at Town Hall 18 and Guardians defend instead. The Town Hall is no longer a defensive building.
Can a Guardian defend while it is upgrading?
Not in regular multiplayer defenses. In Ranked battles, Clan Wars and Clan War League, its previous level still defends.
What is the max Guardian level?
Level 5 for each Guardian. A max Smasher has 16,000 hitpoints and 700 damage per second.
For everything else that changes at this level, read the Town Hall 18 guide and the max levels table.
Sources: Supercell: Town Hall 18 update (Nov 2025), January Balance Changes (Jan 2026), February 2026 update, Sound of Clash update (Apr 2026), July Balance Update (Jul 2026); in-game data.
