TH18 Upgrade Order: What to Upgrade First in 2026

That's the plan. The last line is what makes Town Hall 18 different from every level before it.

This is the current top town hall, so the usual advice to finish and move up doesn't apply yet. The real question is how to spend the months before Town Hall 19 arrives.

I read the Town Hall 18 release notes again to build this list, and a few of its rules change the order.

Here's what the Town Hall 18 release notes introduced in November 2025:

• Guardians. Two unlock, Smasher and Longshot. Only one defends at a time, and they can't be used in attacks.
• Smasher. A melee Guardian with splash damage against ground and air. It rages when the Town Hall falls and leaves rage behind when defeated.
• Longshot. A ranged Guardian with splash damage against ground and air. It explodes when defeated.
• Super Wizard Tower. Merge two Wizard Towers and the wizard on top can chain his attack to up to 15 nearby enemies.
• Revenge Tower. It gains power and hitpoints as your buildings fall, at 5, 20 and 40 destroyed.

None of it helps your attack. That shapes everything below.

Town Hall 18 adds new defenses and no new offense. That makes the case for offense first even stronger.

Your attack wins stars. Your defense only reduces the stars you give away. At the top town hall, where most war bases are well built, the attacker who hits harder wins.

So start the Laboratory the day you arrive and keep it busy every hour. Then start your main war hero.

Stagger your heroes. A hero that's upgrading can't fight, and war days don't wait. Keep your best war hero available when your clan needs it.

Our TH18 equipment guide covers which pieces to level on the heroes you pick.

You unlock two Guardians and only one defends at a time. So you pick one and put your builders behind it.

Smasher is the brawler. It fights up close with splash damage, and it rages when your Town Hall falls. That suits a base built to punish the attacker after the core breaks.

Longshot fights from range with splash damage and explodes when defeated. That suits a base where attackers have to cross open ground to reach it.

There's no official best choice. Look at your war log. If attackers reach your core easily, Smasher punishes the late part of the attack. If they chip the edges first, Longshot hits them earlier.

Then commit. Levelling both halves your progress on each.

The release notes add a rule that changes your planning. Guardian upgrades need a free builder, and a Guardian can't defend while it's upgrading.

That's a big deal in war. If your Guardian is upgrading on war day, your base defends without it.

So time Guardian upgrades around your clan's war schedule. Start them right after a war ends, not right before one begins.

During Clan War League, think twice before starting a long Guardian upgrade at all. A base missing its Guardian gives away more stars across seven days.

The same logic applies to heroes on defense. Anything that defends and can go offline for an upgrade needs a schedule.

These two are the new building upgrades most worth your builders after the Guardian.

The Super Wizard Tower merges two Wizard Towers. Its wizard chains attacks to up to 15 enemies nearby. That hits swarms and packs of support troops hard.

The Revenge Tower gets stronger as your base falls. The notes say it gains power and hitpoints when 5, 20 and 40 buildings are destroyed. So it's at its best late in an attack, when the attacker has spent spells and heroes.

Place both where attackers must pass through. A strong tower in a corner nobody visits wins nothing.

The base library shows where good Town Hall 18 layouts put them, which saves you a lot of trial and error.

Between the lab, the heroes and the new defenses, don't forget the buildings that grow your army.

The Clan Castle holds reinforcements from your clan. The army camps hold your housing space. Both help every attack you make, from the moment they finish.

That's why they go ahead of old defenses. A defense level helps against some attacks. A bigger army helps on all of them.

The spell factories come next if they have levels waiting. One extra spell slot can change a whole attack plan.

Barracks come last. Only upgrade them if a new level unlocks a troop you'll actually train.

I checked the August 2026 update notes, and they added supercharge levels at Town Hall 18 for the Builder's Hut and the Monolith.

Supercharges extend a maxed building beyond its normal cap. That makes them a late game upgrade by design.

So leave them until your normal upgrades are done. A supercharge on a maxed building is worth less than a normal level on a building that's behind.

There's a timing detail too. Supercharges weren't included in last year's Hammer Jam discount. If you plan to supercharge, do it before the event and keep your builders free for discounted work.

Our Hammer Jam preparation guide explains that timing in detail.

The same August update added Diggy levels 11 to 15 at Town Hall 18.

That's the pet news most Town Hall 18 players will feel. If Diggy follows one of your main heroes, those five levels are worth planning for.

If he doesn't, don't chase them. A pet only helps when it's on a hero you use.

The rule for pets stays the same at every town hall. Level the pet on your main war hero first. Keep it close to the hero's level. Spend the rest of your dark elixir on the heroes themselves.

Dark elixir is the tightest resource here. Our dark elixir spending order for TH18 ranks heroes, pets, supercharges and dark troops.

Walls at the top town hall are a long project. The good news is they got easier this year.

Since the August 2026 update, wall rings don't need a free builder. You can ring a wall while every builder is busy.

So use rings as soon as you have them. There's no trade off with building upgrades anymore.

For gold and elixir, keep walls as your overflow sink. When storages are nearly full and every builder is working, spend the extra on walls instead of letting it cap.

Don't prioritise walls over offense or your Guardian. A stronger wall rarely changes a war result at this level.

This is the advice that only applies at the top town hall.

If you're nearly maxed, you're about to run out of useful upgrades. Town Hall 19 hasn't launched yet, so there's nowhere to go next.

That changes how you should treat magic items. A hammer or book used now finishes an upgrade you'd have finished anyway. The same hammer used on day one of Town Hall 19 skips one of the longest upgrades in the game.

So stop using hammers and books on your last few upgrades. Let builder time finish them instead.

The same goes for league medals. If you'll max before the next town hall arrives, buy hammers with them, not potions, and hold those hammers.

Here's the order in three phases.

Month one. Laboratory, main war hero, Clan Castle and army camps. Pick your Guardian and start its first level right after a war ends.

Month two. Second hero, the Super Wizard Tower merge and the Revenge Tower. Keep the lab busy.

Month three. Your remaining defenses by war log priority, then supercharges on anything already maxed.

Wall rings go on walls whenever you have them, all three months.

If you're already near the end of this list, switch to the hold plan above. Keep your magic items for the next town hall.