Minions

Level 1 & 2	Level 3 & 4	Level 5	Level 6

Introduction :

The Minion is a fast, cheap and relatively weak ranged flying troop. Its appearance is that of a gargoyle with large horns, stubby wings and large hands with sharp vicious claws that are covered in dark elixir .It is made of dark elixir and is trained in the dark barracks

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The Minion's method of attack is actually spitting dark elixir.Because it is a flying troop, it cannot be attacked by canons, mortars, or x-bows with ground setting.

The minion is very vulnerable to air defenses & air bombs, while the seeking air mine cannot target the minion..

The minion has the lowest health of the dark troops and does the least damage per second, it has the fastest training time and requires the least housing space. 

 A interesting mathematical fact is using a per housing space basis as the parameter measured, the minion has the highest DPS of all dark elixir troops.

The Minion is the fastest flying unit, and one of the fastest troops overall along with the goblin.

The Minion is the first, and so far only, dark elixir troop that can be upgraded to level 6 in the lab.

Defensive Strategy :

It is helpful to place the air bombs near storage's & your town hall. 

Placement of air defenses, wizard towers, x-bows, and archer towers will put a quick end to the easily killed minion masses that some players use from time to time and just make for strong air defense practice in general.

Minions, although individually weak, are very powerful in large numbers.

Protect archer towers & air defenses with a wizard towers which do devastating splash damage to hordes of minions.

If your attacker plans on deploying a large number of minions, they will typically use the technique of first deploying singular minions strategically  to set off your air bombs. The counter to this attack strategy is to make sure the trigger radius of each air bomb is at least behind the first row of defended buildings; this will help ensure that the single minions will be destroyed by other defenses before they can trigger the air bombs

Minions are useful in the clan castles, but rarely used,  as they can attack both ground & air troops for a decent amount of damage when higher levels & can only be hit by dragons, archers, wizards, witches and of course other minions :).

Offensive Strategy :

Minions are relatively inexpensive and take up only 2 housing spaces, making them well suited to use in a group rush strategy

 A useful technique is to carry a small number of minions (approx. 10) to selectively attack buildings that are defended by ground defenses : mortars, canon, x-bow set ground mode.

A large group of minions can be destroyed by a single air bomb; therefore a good strategy is to deploy them one at a time in different locations to set off the air bombs, and then follow up by deploying large groups of minions. 

Another useful attack technique for 50% kills  is using giants as a distraction when using minions to attack other buildings is a good idea since the giants will attack the defensive buildings and keep them occupied while the minions attack all the outside buildings achieving at least 50% damage.

Giants can be used to destroy an air defense, they will not occupy the air defenses targeting attention while it is being attacked and the air defense will still shoot at the minions.

A exceptionally useful technique  in the single player campaign, since there is no time limitations, is to simply destroy air defenses/archer towers/and wizard towers then deploy a few or even a single minion which will proceed to destroy all remaining structures...but be careful that you don't time out due to inactivity. Avoid by deploying  multiple minions over time, move screen etc. etc.

Statistics :

Preferred Target	Attack Type	Housing Space	Training Time	Movement Speed	Attack Speed	Dark Barracks Level Required	Range
None	Ground & Air	2	45s	32	1s	1	2.75 tiles

Level	Damage per Second	Hit Points	Training Cost	Research Cost	Lab Level Required	Research Time
1	35	55	6	N/A	N/A	N/A
2	38	60	7	10,000	5	5 days
3	42	66	8	20,000	6	6 days
4	46	72	9	30,000	6	7 days
5	50	78	10	40,000	7	10 days
6	54	84	11	100,000	8	14 days