Clash of Clans update Sneak Peek #2: Shield, Village Guard, and Personal Break

Supercell's two week journey of sneak peeks for the upcoming Clash of Clans update continued today with a deeper look at the revamped shield system. Yesterday, Supercell laid out the groundwork for the new shield system, and today they are talking about two more systems related — Village Guard and Personal Breaks.

As you're probably aware, with the new shield system, you'll be able to attack more and when you want by being able to attack through shield. However, Supercell explains "to make this system truly work for Clashers as it should, we must think about 'online time' as well as shield time."

To that end, the update will introduce Village Guard, "a new, short-term way to prevent attacks on your village while your shield is down." Here are the details:

• While Village Guard is active, your village acts as if you are online, even if you close the game or get disconnected
• Players can freely attack through Village Guard with no penalty
• Free Village Guard time activates automatically when shields expire, from 15 minutes to 3 hours long based on League
• 2 hours of extra Village Guard can be bought for 10 gems every day in the shop, when your shield is down (23 hour cooldown)
• Active Village Guard can be dismissed at any time
• Buying a Shield from the Shop will dismiss active Village Guard

"Think of the Village Guard like giving your device to your little brother to keep you online – except that the Village Guard won't embarrass you in Clan chat and spend all your gems," Supercell explains. "If you ever need to step away from your device for a small period of time, the Village Guard stands ready to watch over things until you get back, even if you close the game. The Village Guard will also help players get back to the game even if they are a few minutes late after their shield expires, and will let top-level players play completely free of the stress of an unintentional disconnect due to inactivity. 'Anyone There?' Yes! The Village Guard!"

Additionally, the Personal Break system will place a time limit on how long you can stay online without a shield until the game decides it's time for you to defend. At that point, you'll be kicked offline for a few minutes to allow attackers a chance to attack you.

The Personal Break system will also be undergoing some changes, detailed below:

• A player is forced offline for 6 minutes after 3 hours of cumulative online time (or Village Guard time) without shield
• This Personal Break 3-hour limit is only reset after getting a shield, or in some special cases covered below
• Buying the 2-hour Village Guard from the Shop will extend a player's current Personal Break 3-hour limit by 2 hours
• The Personal Break 3-hour limit for online players is paused during server maintenance, but not reset

Having both Shield and Village Guard may seem like overkill, but Supercell says they are inteded to be used in different ways. "Village Guard is intended to support active play time, while Shield is intended to provide opportunities for downtime from the game," the developer explains. A side by side comparison of the two can be found below:

Village Guard will be granted for free to plays in two instances:

After a shield expires to prevent being attacked immediately. The amount of Village Guard awarded is based on your League:

• Champion I League players and below get a free 15-minute Village Guard when their shield expires
• Titan III League players get a free 1-hour Village Guard when their shield expires
• Titan II League players get a free 2-hour Village Guard when their shield expires
• Titan I and Legend League players get a free 3-hour Village Guard when their shield expires

After defending a weak attack. As discussed in yesterday's post, the goal with the new shield system is to provide it more reliably should you have a layout "that invokes fair attacks." Although 30% destruction is now the lowest threshold to get a shield, an automatic 15-minute Village Guard period will activiate after attacks that cause less than 30% destruction. This will give shieldless defenders a chance to rearm traps, reload defenses, and request defending troops. This defense will extend the Personal Break 3-hour limit by 15 minutes, but will not reset it unless the Mercy Rule (explained below) kicks in.

• Every defense that results in a shield will reset the defender's Personal Break 3-hour limit
• Every defense that DOESN’T result in a shield will instead result in a 15-minute extension of the defender's Personal Break 3-hour limit and Village Guard time
• Every 6-minute Personal Break kickout period that doesn't result in ANY defense will also result in a 15-minute extension of the defender's Personal Break 3-hour limit and Village Guard time
• "Mercy Rule" – The 3rd consecutive 15-minute extension will instead fully reset the Personal Break 3-hour limit and trigger the automatic Village Guard based on League
• If an offline player is not attacked for 3 hours, their Personal Break 3-hour limit is reset, though no Village Guard is awarded

This seemingly wraps up the changes to Clash of Clans' shield system, but the update promises plenty of more changes to loot, League Bonuses, and Trophy offers that will be covered in the next post. Supercell didn't say when that next post will be, but check back as we continue to analyze this massive update for Clash of Clans.

[Supercell]