Pass Royale

Clash Royale recently released a big update (July 1st), the biggest one since the introduction of Trophy Road. They’ve added Pass Royale, a paid feature that adds some extra perks such as unlimited entries for challenges, tower skins, and the ability to schedule chest openings. The first season of Pass Royale lasts for 35 days and each day you can unlock both the regular Crown Chest and an extra item. If you’re not a paid user (costs $5 to unlock this), you only get the regular Crown Chests.

So is Pass Royale really worth it? Here is a list of the Pass Royale perks you get in Season 1 (The Flood):

• When unlocking: You get unlimited entries for extra challenges, a tower skin, free strikes for Pass Royale chests and nevertheless the ability to queue chests to be opened automatically.
• Day 1: An exclusive fish emote
• Day 2: 2,000 gold
• Day 3: A gold chest, with at least 8 rare cards and around 120 common cards
• Day 4: Strikes for pass royale chests (i.e. you can change a card you received)
• Day 5: Epic chest with 18 epic cards
• Day 6: 2,000 gold
• Day 7: A gold chest, with at least 8 rare cards and around 120 common cards
• Day 8: Strikes for pass royale chests (i.e. you can change a card you received)
• Day 9: Common trade token
• Day 10: A chest, with at least 35 rare cards
• Day 11: Strikes for pass royale chests
• Day 12: A gold chest, with at least 8 rare cards and around 120 common cards
• Day 13: 3,000 gold
• Day 14: Rare trade token
• Day 15: A chest, with at least 18 epic cards
• Day 16: 3,000 gold
• Day 17: A gold chest, with at least 8 rare cards and around 120 common cards
• Day 18: Strikes for pass royale chests
• Day 19: 5,000 gold
• Day 20: A chest, with at least 35 rare cards
• Day 21: Epic trade token
• Day 22: A gold chest, with at least 8 rare cards and around 120 common cards
• Day 23: Strikes for pass royale chests
• Day 24: 5,000 gold
• Day 25: A chest, with 18 epic cards
• Day 26: A gold chest, with at least 8 rare cards and around 120 common cards
• Day 27: 5,000 gold
• Day 28: Strikes for pass royale chests
• Day 29: A chest, with at least 35 rare cards
• Day 30: A unique shark tank tower skin
• Day 31: 5,000 gold
• Day 32: A chest, with 18 epic cards
• Day 33: Legendary trade token
• Day 34: 10,000 gold
• Day 34: Legendary chest

So in terms of cards and gold this season you can get an extra 40,000 gold, 153 rare cards and 54 epic cards (which can be changed with strikes), plus one legendary. Obviously there are extra perks you get from unlimited tries at challenges, which are quite impressive. Not too keen on seeing the new tower skins, but I guess some players like those.

Once you’ve paid, you unlock the perks for that tier by winning crowns. You have to destroy 10 towers to unlock the tier for that day. Oh and tiers stack up, even if you don’t play for one day, you still get the crown chests for that.

For free-to-play users, this update brings a bit of extra stuff too:

• you still get 1 crown chest per day, but during the week-end you get 2 crown chests per day
• at the end of the Pass Royale season, free players also get 1 legendary chest

Obviously doesn’t compare to what paid users get, but still that’s something more than before.

The introduction of Pass Royale is just one part of the July update. The other important part is a new legendary card.

The Fisherman

They were teasing a new card a while back, but now we can also see it in action and also play with it. The Fisherman is exactly what it sounds, a grumpy man with a fish in one hand and an anchor in another. What makes it legendary though? The ability to throw the anchor and pull the enemy next to him, or if he’s close to a tower he can pull himself next to the tower. And then he uses the fish to hit. You can see it in action in the official Clash Royale video below:

Here are his stats:

• Level 9. Hitpoints: 800 | Damage: 190 | Damage/sec: 126
• Level 10. Hitpoints: 880 | Damage: 209 | Damage/sec: 139
• Level 11. Hitpoints: 968 | Damage: 229 | Damage/sec: 152
• Level 12. Hitpoints: 1064 | Damage: 252 | Damage/sec: 168
• Level 13. Hitpoints: 1168 | Damage: 277 | Damage/sec: 184

Obviously you have to understand how is it best to use it. For instance, if you place it in front of an incoming PEKA you’re in trouble, as it will actually pull it closer to where you are and if you’re next to the tower it might be game over. Same goes for tower challenging troops (i.e. Giant, Royal Giant, Giant Goblin, …). The best use would be to have it act as a tornado, actually pulling away troops from the tower.

Fisherman Challenges

With the introduction of a new card comes new challenges. They’ve started 2 challenges:

• Fisherman’s Catch Challenge. A 9-step challenge where you get to play with a deck of your choice, but there will be a breakable cage in the middle of the arena that unlocks the Fisherman. Level 9 cap for all troops.
• Fisherman Draft Challenge. This one is a 15-step challenge where you play in draft mode (pick 4 cards and get 4 from your adversary). One of you will have the Fisherman to play with. If you get to 9 wins you will receive the Fisherman legendary, and at 15 wins you get a unique emote. Other steps include gold and chests.

As far as tips for these challenges, I’d say practice a lot, especially in draft mode. And these challenges last for 3 days, usually most skillful players start playing right away, so I’d recommend playing in the last day of the challenge, as you have a chance to play against less knowledgeable players. The good part for Pass Royale clients is that you get unlimited tries for these challenges. So even if you lose 3 times, you can restart playing the challenge until you reach your win goal.

Balance updates

They’ve also modified the stats for some cards, and as a Royal Giant player I can only say that I’m happy to see the Inferno Tower being hit in the worst way. Here are the card changes:

• Cannon Cart. Damage: -17% | Range: +10% (5 -> 5.5) | Hit Speed: +17% (1.2sec -> 1.0sec) | Hitpoints/Shield: +1.5% ; basically it hits faster and from a longer distance, but not as powerful as before.
• Cannon. Damage: +32% | Hit Speed: -25% (0.8sec -> 1sec).
• Giant Snowball. Radius: Reduced 3.0 -> 2.5
• Inferno Tower. Lifetime: -25% (40s -> 30s)
• Goblin Cage. Lifetime: +33% (15s -> 20s) | Goblin Brawler: Damage +25%

I still don’t get it why they’ve done that to the Inferno Tower, as most players are complaining that the Royal Giant is too powerful when maxed out and doesn’t have lots of counters. But again, I’m not sad about it.

New Arena & Game Modes

There’s a new arena to play in, the Fisherman’s Float which is basically a ship with lots of pirates watching the game and cheering from time to time.

2 new Game Modes to play as well:

• Take to the Skies is a new game mode they introduced, where you can only play with air troops as the battleground is flooded. A challenge for this will follow I’m sure, guess it’s time to test the Lavaloon decks again.
• Fisherman’s Catch is another game mode. It sits in the middle of the Arena in a cage and will join the side of whoever destroys his shield first.

Other Changes:

• In Trophy Road you can now choose a random pick instead of a pre-selected card.
• Goblin Cage is now unlockable at 3750 Trophies
• Draft Mode rework: a building-targeting troop is guaranteed for each player, to make the game more balanced. Re-arranges to some cards to eliminate direct counters and they’ve also removed some cards (i.e. I haven’t seen the Mega Knight).
• Quests can now be completed in any game mode, so if you’re more of a 2v2 player now you can unlock quest prizes by only playing in 2v2. Great change in my opinion.
• There are no more base rewards for losing a challenge. If you lose, you don’t get any extra rewards.