Town Hall 15 Guide: Monolith, Spell Towers and Upgrades

What changes at Town Hall 15

The Monolith is a slow-firing, single-target defense that adds damage based on the target's maximum health. That makes it deadly against Heroes, Root Riders, Golems and other tanks, and weak against swarms. It has an 11-tile range, which matches the Flame Flinger and the Royal Champion's Rocket Spear, and it is built and upgraded with Dark Elixir instead of Gold.

You also get two Spell Towers. Instead of firing projectiles, each one casts a spell in its area when attackers come near. A new Spell Tower can only cast Rage, which boosts nearby defenses and defending units. Later levels add Poison, which damages and slows attackers, Invisibility, which hides nearby buildings and defenders once something in range is attacked, and Earthquake, which deals percentage damage to ground troops. You choose the spell per tower.

Hero Hall 9 unlocks the Dragon Duke, a flying Hero who attacks at melee range and defends from a Hero Banner like the others. The slot count stays at four, so you now pick four of six Heroes. Hero Hall 9 caps the King and Queen at 90, the Minion Prince at 70, the Warden at 65, the Royal Champion at 40 and the Dragon Duke at 10.

The Pet House goes up to level 8, adding Frosty, Diggy, Poison Lizard and Phoenix. Offense gains the Root Rider, the Furnace (a stationary unit that spawns Firemites for one minute), the Battle Drill siege machine, the Revive Spell, which brings a knocked-out Hero back, and the Angry Spell, which makes troops inside it target defenses for a while. Blacksmith 8 adds the Haste Vial equipment and raises Epic equipment to level 24.

Upgrade priority

TH15 adds three new defenses, a Hero and four pets at once, so the bottleneck is builders and Dark Elixir. The Monolith and the Dragon Duke both use Dark Elixir, as do pets, so decide early which of them you fund first.

1. Laboratory, then Hero Hall 9 for the Dragon Duke. The Hero Hall level that unlocks a new Hero has to be reached before you can move to the next Town Hall, so it is never wasted.
2. Spell Towers and Monolith. The Spell Towers are cheap to place and add value at level one; the Monolith changes how Hero dives and Root Riders play against you.
3. Clan Castle, Army Camps and the Spell Factory, which unlocks the Revive Spell.
4. Your main attack in the Laboratory. If you plan to use Root Riders, research them and the spells they need first.
5. Pet House levels for the pets your attack uses, then Heroes in the order your army relies on them.
6. Scattershots, Eagle Artillery, Inferno Towers and the Giga Inferno.
7. Other defenses, traps and walls.

How to choose a base at TH15

For war and Clan War League, start with the Monolith. It should sit near the center, with splash defenses around it so swarms cannot overwhelm it while it is aiming at a Hero. A Monolith close to the edge can be outranged by a Flame Flinger or picked off early by a Royal Champion with Rocket Spear.

Next, check what each Spell Tower covers and which spell the base intends. Rage around the Town Hall, Eagle Artillery and Inferno Towers multiplies their damage; Poison near Hero entry points slows Queen and Royal Champion dives; Invisibility around key defenses makes troops lose their targets. Two Spell Towers covering the same small area waste coverage, so look for bases that spread them.

Air armies are common at TH15, so Air Defenses should not line up on one path, and Seeking Air Mines should sit near the defenses Balloons and Dragons will reach first. The Dragon Duke on defense is strong against ground troops that cannot hit air, so his banner belongs near the core.

The Town Hall still carries the Giga Inferno, with more hitpoints, damage and a stronger poison death bomb than at TH14. It only wakes when the Town Hall takes damage or the attack reaches 51%, and the Eagle Artillery still waits for 200 housing space of deployments, so a base that places both in the core forces attackers to deal with two late-activating threats at once.

For Ranked Battles, pick the war layout you trust: snapshot rules keep traps armed and Heroes defending even while they upgrade. For farming in normal battles, a separate layout that protects storages is fine.

Common attack strategies at TH15

Root Rider armies are the big new ground option. Root Riders are tanky, target defenses and are hard to stop with walls, so attackers often pair them with a Royal Champion or Queen to clear a path and Healing or Overgrowth spells to keep them alive. The Monolith is the main counter: a Root Rider has a lot of health, and the Monolith's damage scales with it. Earthquake Spell Towers and Giant Bombs also hurt them.

Air attacks with Dragons, Dragon Riders and Balloons, often with Lava Hounds in front, remain common. The Dragon Duke adds another air threat; he gains power when no other air units are nearby, so attackers like to send him alone on one side. Spread Air Defenses and Seeking Air Mines near the edges he is likely to enter make that harder.

The Angry Spell lets attackers point troops that normally hit anything, such as Super Archers or Dragons, at defenses for a while. Bases with defenses mixed among non-defensive buildings, rather than defenses grouped in a single ring, reduce how much one Angry Spell can achieve.

Farming and resources at TH15

Dark Elixir is the hardest resource at TH15 because the Monolith, Dragon Duke, pets and Dark troops all need it. Farm in normal Multiplayer Battles with armies that reach the Dark Elixir Storage, and use your daily Star Bonus. The Town Hall itself holds 3,000,000 Gold, 3,000,000 Elixir and 30,000 Dark Elixir, so keep it protected in a farming layout.

Gold has fewer big sinks once defenses are queued, so walls take up the slack. Wall Rings no longer need a free builder, so spend them as you get them.

Mistakes to avoid

• Leaving the Monolith on the edge where a Flame Flinger or Rocket Spear can outrange it.
• Setting both Spell Towers to the same spell over the same small area.
• Spending all Dark Elixir on the Dragon Duke before the Monolith and the pets your attack needs.
• Upgrading every new pet at once. Only one pet can upgrade at a time.
• Using a Root Rider army without planning for the Monolith and Giant Bombs.
• Copying a TH14 layout. It will not account for the Monolith or Spell Tower coverage.