Clash of Clans Hero Equipment Guide

Hero Equipment arrived in Clash of Clans in December 2023 and quickly became the most important upgrade decision in the game. Each of your six heroes carries exactly two pieces into battle, and you can swap them freely between attacks at no cost. From Town Hall 13 onward those two choices matter more than the hero's raw level — the right pair can more than double a hero's impact, while the wrong pair quietly wastes a slot.

Pieces come in two rarities. Common equipment maxes at Level 18 and unlocks through the Blacksmith as you level the building. Epic equipment maxes at Level 27 and only comes from special events, the season shop or event chests — so you can own a powerful Epic at a low Town Hall, but its level stays capped by your Blacksmith until you progress. Everything is upgraded at the Blacksmith with three Ore types, and managing those Ores is the real strategy layer most players get wrong.

S-tier equipment is meta-defining and deserves your first Ore; A-tier is strong and worth upgrading once your S-tier is handled; B and C tier are situational; F-tier should never be pushed past its default level. Crucially, rarity is not power — Common pieces like Eternal Tome, Giant Arrow and Dark Orb sit in S-tier, while the Epic Lavaloon Puppet is rated F.

Barbarian King — the original tank, now an aggressive wall-breaker. Spiky Ball shreds compartments with a bouncing projectile; pair it with Earthquake Boots for damage plus wall-cracking in any army.

Archer Queen — the strongest hero in the meta, and her loadout is the single biggest performance multiplier in the game. Action Figure (an 18,000-HP decoy) with Magic Mirror is the #1 war combo; Monolith Arrow + Giant Arrow is the current Queen Charge meta.

Grand Warden — buffs the whole army, not himself. His Common Eternal Tome grants ~8 seconds of full immunity (enough to walk troops through an Eagle Artillery) and pairs with Healing Tome, or a Level 24+ Fireball for ground smashes.

Royal Champion — a fragile single-target sniper who lives and dies by her Epics. Electro Boots clear Skeleton Traps and pulse passive damage, while Rocket Spear out-ranges the Scattershot so she destroys it untouched.

Minion Prince — a glass-cannon support hero. His Common Dark Orb slows every defense it hits by 50%, and Dark Crown stacks a damage-and-health buff as nearby allies fall.

Dragon Duke — the newest hero, flying and wall-ignoring. Fire Heart is mandatory survivability (150 HP/second plus a defeat explosion) and Stun Blaster disables whole defense clusters for 7.5 seconds.

Knowing when to stop is as important as knowing what to upgrade. Most Epic pieces hit their performance plateau at Level 18, where the Starry Ore cost begins to outweigh the gain — the clear exception is Action Figure, which is worth pushing to Level 21. Common equipment is comfortable at Level 15, with Level 18 a free bonus whenever you have spare Glowy Ore. The Grand Warden's Fireball is the one piece you should hold until Level 24, since it's underwhelming below that threshold.

Use this guide for the big picture, then open the per-hero pages above for the exact tier list, best combinations and Town-Hall-by-Town-Hall upgrade path for your roster. And if you're optimising spells alongside equipment, the ZapQuake calculator tells you exactly how many Lightning and Earthquake spells each defense needs.