You can attack to gain resources only three times in 24 hours in the Builder Base, and since the attacking represents the main way players acquire resources, progression is slowed to a crawl. While you may still attack for practice or to rank up the trophy count, resource collection is ultimately stopped until the timer resets. To bypass this attack cap with gems, players will need to spend the equivalent of $2 worth of premium currency, a hefty price for only three more attacks. This hefty price is a heavy handed way of telling players that, while the new expansion is fun, the real game is back at the old village. However, it’s inelegant to

What might have been a more elegant solution was sticking with the Clash Royale model - where even after the player has hit the maximum amount of chest rewards for winning, they are still earning a small amount soft currency for each win. In this way, it still limits the progression of the most engaged players, while not punishing players for engaging in the core loop. Additionally, there are other rewards for continued play - such as the daily Crown Chest, as well as arena tournaments and Clan Chests events.

This solution not elegant, and gives off a very pay-for-play vibe, something that midcore players are highly sensitive to. Additionally, you can tell that Supercell was very conscious of not letting players get too far ahead of the content, since players are not able to purchase an extra builder in the Builder Base. Regardless, this feature makes the new Builder Base appear as only a mini game, despite it’s innovative combat design.

The Ugly: What’s the Point?

The execution and launch strategy of the Builder Base is ultimately a harbinger of declining performance of Clash of Clans. After five years, their most dedicated players have run out of things to do within their base.

The update alienates these engaged users. The years of invested time and money into Clan bases becomes moot after this update, which could have been avoided if there was meaningful shared progress or resources between the two bases. There was ample opportunity to make the two experiences more interconnected, but instead the Builder Base was released as sequel to Clash of Clans, inside of itself.

Secondly, Supercell will be at a crossroads if this new attack system becomes the more desirable experience. Which base will become the default experience for new users after installing? Will they need to prioritize building features for one base over the other? As far as esports can be concerned, isn’t it strange to have players compete in what is essentially a mini-game within another product?

One might look and see that Clash has shown signs of strong revenue after the release of this update. Yet, this is to be expected after any large content drop, and when the dust settles, players are left with two distinct games with no clear direction on the importance of either.

Lastly, this format changeup is something we have seen before. A couple of years after its release, Hearthstone changed up the competitive structure by creating the Standard format of play, only allowing cards from the most recent sets to be played. This format similarly alienated the invested playerbase - and Hearthstone struggled to maintain their user base and fell from the top charts on mobile. They have since had to invest in re-engagement features to gain back users. While it is difficult to attribute the drop in revenues to strictly the Standard format addition, from a design perspective, those who spent money and invested in older cards would feel frustrated, and may be hesitant to spend again in the future.