How to farm dark elixir in Clash of Clans

Why dark elixir takes so long

Gold and elixir are everywhere: mines, collectors, big storages. Dark elixir isn’t. It’s only produced by drills and kept in a single storage, and each base holds much less of it than of the other two resources.

At the same time, it pays for a lot from mid game onward: part of the hero upgrades, dark troops, pets, dark spell research in the laboratory and activating super troops. Each super troop costs 25,000 dark elixir to activate, lasts 3 days and you can have up to 3 active at the same time. That’s why so many players feel their village moves fast in everything except what depends on it.

The good news: since everyone has little, small choices while searching add up to a big difference by the end of the day.

Where dark elixir sits in an enemy base

On the search screen, look first at where the resource is, not just how much there is. It can be in two places:

• In the dark elixir storage: almost always in the middle of the base, near the Town Hall, surrounded by walls and defenses. To reach it, your attack has to go deep.
• In the drills: spread around the base, sometimes on the edge. In villages of players who stopped playing, they stay full for days.

A base with all its dark elixir in easy to reach drills pays far more per effort than one with the same number locked in the core. It’s worth training your eye to tell them apart.

Inactive bases usually have collectors and drills that look full, and lots of resources outside the storages. They are the best targets for farming any resource.

Set a minimum and stick to it

The biggest farming mistake is attacking the first so-so base that shows up. Each Next costs a little gold, but a bad attack spends a whole battle to bring back almost nothing.

Pick a minimum dark elixir amount to attack and skip everything below it. Start with a value you find within a few minutes of searching and adjust: if it takes too long to find one, lower it a bit; if you find them fast, raise it.

Don’t forget the rest. A base with little dark elixir but lots of gold and elixir can be worth it if you need those too. Ideally, have a minimum for each resource and attack when any of them pays off.

How to attack with dark elixir in mind

• Full drills on the edge: fast troops that grab what’s outside the walls are enough. Some players also bring lightning spells to hit full collectors or drills; how much that pays depends on the base.
• Storage in the core: needs an army that breaks in, with troops that soak damage and something to open the walls. Only worth it when the storage is really full.
• Dead base: any light army spread around the base gets a lot, because almost everything is in the collectors.

If you’re not sure which army to bring at your Town Hall, see the farming army by Town Hall guide.

Trophies and Ranked Battle

Since 2025, normal attacks no longer give trophies. The race for trophies moved to Ranked Battle, which is separate from farming.

For farmers this makes things simpler: normal attacks are for bringing resources home, and there’s no point thinking about trophy ranges. What changes the result is the base you pick and the minimum you stick to. Try a minimum for a few days and compare how much you earned per hour of play; if you change everything without measuring, you never learn what works.

Other sources besides attacking

• Your own drills, which are worth keeping upgraded.
• Your village’s loot cart. Don’t forget to open it.
• The Star Bonus.

None of them replaces farming, but together they help close the gap to your next upgrade.

Don’t waste what you gathered

Anything over your storage capacity is lost. Before a long farming session, have a big upgrade planned to spend what comes in, and keep your storage upgraded so more fits.

Order matters too: starting a hero upgrade before you go farm leaves your storage emptier and less attractive to whoever attacks you.

Where Pyloot fits in

All of this is patience: search, compare, skip, attack, repeat. Pyloot does that part for you on your PC. You set the minimum gold, elixir and dark elixir, it skips bases below them, attacks with the army you left in the bar and takes breaks at the times you choose.

Pyloot’s default army is Super Goblins with Lightning, and the bot uses the lightning on collectors. For it, dark elixir isn’t the main focus of farming; it comes in along with the rest of the loot. It also collects the loot cart.

It doesn’t change how much dark elixir the game gives, and using a bot is against Supercell’s rules, so there is a risk of a ban. What it does is apply your criteria all night long, without getting tired.