THE BASICS

The Night Witch is a Builder Base troop unlocked at Builder Barracks level 8 for the cost of the (500,000 Elixir) Builder Barracks upgrade. She has similar charistericts to her close cousin the Witch from the Home Village. She behaves in a similar way although the environments that the 2 troops operate in are much different. Where the witch spawns hordes of Skeletons to help her attack the enemy base, the Night Witch spawn hordes of Bats to assist her. Bats (see below) are very weak single target melee air troops that use great numbers to overwhelm the bases defenses. Night Witches have behave like most of the other Builder Base troops and have no preferred target when attacking they attack the closest building to them.  Once they see enemy Guard Post troops they will  engage the enemy troops.. Once all troops are defeated, they will attack the nearest building from where ever they have ended up during their attack of the enemy troops. The Night Witch is a single target ranged attacker themselves. Their attack looks almost identical to the Witches attack with similar effectiveness, weak by themselves buy decent when in groups of 6-8 troops.

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COST

The Night Witch has a fairly hefty cost associated to her. Level 2 starts at 600,000 Elixir nd she maxes out at 3.7 Million at level 16. Although it's hard to find current info on any item (troop or defense) War Weight (and even though we have kept ours up there is a good chance that the actual weight now varies quite a bit, which would explain why everyone else has dropped this stat from their sites) it's a safe bet that the Night Witch is still one of the heaviest troops in the builder base. We have her maxed out at 60,000! That’s 15X the Boxer Giant and 75X the Raged Barbarian.. This could be another factor in the reconditioning of the associated War Weight to these troops… we all know how strong the Raged Barbarians really are. What does the War Weight have to do with your troop upgrades, especially when we can not currently go to "War" with the Builder Base troops? That "weight" is a way they measure how good your base is in comparison to everyone else's and it’s a factor in all matchups both war and normal raids. The further you upgrade troops like the Night Witch the more difficult opponents you will have to deal with.

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THE  BAT SWARM ABILITY

The Night Witch is the only Builder Base troop that receiver their 1st ability at level 4 (not 2 like the rest) this should give you some idea of just how effective the ability is. Many players get her ability mixed up with her "special ability" The Night Witch has the Ability to summon Bats but her Special Ability is the Bat Swarm. The Bat Swarm allows the Night Witch to transform into a swarm of 4-8 Bats once all of her hit points are depleted, consider it her type of death damage. This ability is very effective because the Night Witch is most vulnerable to ground only defenses (the air/ ground defenses are usually distracted by the Bats) so if for example a Cannon destroys the Night Witch once she dies and turns into the Bat Swarm the Bats will have a tendency to fly directly to the Cannon, which can not defend itself against the airborne Bats. This is the double edged sword of the Night Witch in comparison to the Home Village Witch. The Witch produces Skeletons that will help protect the Witch from the ground defense where the Night Witch's Bats can not protect the Night Witch from the ground defenses… but the Night Witch's special ability Bat Swarm can quickly overrun all of the ground only defenses. This makes the use of the Night Witch a tricky one. 

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THE SCOUT

When deciding to use the Night Witch or not there are several big factors that need to be identified during the pre-attack scout. 1st and most importantly you are looking for the air targeting defenses and where they are. The best bases to use the Night Witch on are bases that have the majority of the air targeting defenses on one side of the base. This may seem like it would never happen but overpowering one side of the base with ground and the other side with air defenses and then trapping the "air side" with ground based traps is a technique that's been adopted from the Home Village and proven to work quite well. In the Night Witch's case this is when she is most useful. Advanced players will attack from the side that’s heavy on the Air Defenses in hopes to push through that side of the base and be left with mostly ground defenses for the Bats to swarm over and plow through. Be careful of bases that have both the Multi Mortar and the Scorcher in the core of the base. The Scorcher does a great job protecting the Multi Mortar from the Bats and the Multi Mortar can pummel the Night Witches with just a couple of well placed volleys of mortar shells. Last should go without saying but it needs to be mentioned. The Air Bombs do splash damage and will wipe out hordes of Bats at one time. Look out for bases that have the Air Bombs mixed in with the Scorcher and Multi Mortar in the core of the base.. They will be the hardest bases to attack using the Night Witch.

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      EASE OF USE

The Night Witch is a very difficult troop to use. In lower levels she is nearly impossible to use without a lot of support from other troops. Once you can max out the Night Witch things start to change and the advantage begins to lean towards the Night Witch. Night Witches work best in large numbers so as a maxed troop you can fill all of your camps with Night Witches nad use the Hero to tank for them. You will want to start the attack in whichever corner is farthest from the base. You need to give the Night Witches time to build up the Bat swarm. They are especially vulnerable to the Mega Mines so be sure to start the attack with the Battle Machine in the same corner. As the Battle Machine makes his way towards the base the Night Witches can be spawned all at once and simply follow the Battle Machine to the base safely. The Night Witches are ranged troops and will be content with running around the outside of the walls (which is not the worst thing that can happen). The key to success will be to keep the Night Witches away from the Cannons and Double Cannons and to keep the Multi Mortar focused on the Battle Machine. Those 3 defenses are the Night Witch killers for the most part. More to come as soon as I have the Night Witch maxed out…

DEFENSE

There are a couple of good strategies for Night Witch defense. 1st off for the best Night Witch defense you will want to build your entire base towards one specific corner. Night Witches need the build up time for the Bats and attackers will usually try to start the attack from the furthest corner from the base. By building in the bottom corner (for example) you can be confident that attackers will start from the top of the screen and work their way down towards the base. Now you can set up your defenses in the best possible way vs the Night Witches. Next, be sure to set all of the Mines on air and place them around the outer walls (if you set up the base on bottom like in our example you will place the Mines along the top side walls. This will cut back on the initial swarm of Bats that the Night Witches will have built up on their way to the base. Next give the Battle Machine a fairly easy way to push inside the outer walls, leaving many of the outer trash buildings for the Night Witches to take out. If you can design a base that will "influence" the Battle Machine to enter the base you can place a Mega Mine between one of the outer buildings and with a little luck take out the entire Night Witch army in one swift blow. Separating the Battle Machine or any tanking troop from the Night Witch and setting the Mega Mine trap in the most probable areas for the Night Witch will be one of the best ways to defend against them. Finally be sure to place all of the air targeting defense in a uniform and spread out formation. A good method for this is to mentally split up your base into 4 sections and be sure to have the same amount of air targeting defenses in all 4 quadrants. You DO NOT want the Night Witches to take out the 1st half of your base and have 1 air targeting defenses to overcome in the second half.. You will be handing the Night Witch attacker the 3 star every attack.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

The Night Witch is an elite troop in the Builder Base. I believe she should be 1 of 3 attacks that all players should try to master along with the mass Baby Dragon attack and the GiaBarch attack. They are hard troops to learn  but very rewarding once you do. Many elite attackers have developed a hybrid Night Witch/ Boxer Giant attack that is hard to overcome on defense. The Boxer Giants along with the Hero provide ample tanking and allow the Night Witch to spawn up hordes of Bats that have already proven to be swift and cunning killers from the sky. The Night Witch is a heavy troops and if you max her out you will have to fight many tough opponents so make sure you are ready for a fight when you decide to hit the upgrade button on the Night Witch!