TH9 Upgrade Priority 2026: What to Upgrade First

That's the whole order. Offense first, because a stronger army farms every later upgrade faster.

Town Hall 9 adds a lot at once, including a new hero. The rest of this guide sorts it all, with every cost as of October 2026.

I pulled the Town Hall table from the community wiki and lined up the Town Hall 8 and 9 rows. Here's what changes:

You also get one more Archer Tower, Air Defense, Wizard Tower, Air Sweeper and Hidden Tesla.

That's the biggest jump in the early game. So the order matters more here than almost anywhere else.

The lab is the slowest queue you own. It researches one thing at a time.

Laboratory level 7 opens the research levels for Town Hall 9. Until it's built, your army fights at Town Hall 8 strength.

Start it on the day you upgrade, and keep it busy every hour after that.

Research the troops you really attack with. If you plan to switch armies at Town Hall 9, research the new army first, so it's ready when the buildings are.

If you've unlocked the Lab Assistant at the Helper Hut, keep him working too.

An idle lab day is gone for good.

This is the headline upgrade of Town Hall 9.

Hero Hall level 3 unlocks the Minion Prince, a flying hero. The wiki lists it at 2,300,000 Elixir and 3 days.

It does more than add a hero. I checked Supercell's Town Hall 17 update notes, which introduced the Hero Hall. They say maximum hero levels depend on the level of the Hero Hall, and that the Minion Prince is available from Town Hall 9.

So until Hero Hall 3 is built, your King and Queen stay at their old caps too.

Build it right after the lab. Hero levels are the longest grind in the game, and every day they can't level is a day you never get back.

When the Prince arrives, the Minion Prince equipment guide shows which pieces to use.

The X-Bow is the big new defense at Town Hall 9. You get two, and they go up to level 3.

Place both the moment you upgrade. A level 1 X-Bow still fires, and an empty plot does nothing.

X-Bows fire fast and far. You can also set each one to hit ground only, or ground and air.

That choice matters. Ground mode reaches further, which helps against ground armies. Air and ground mode covers you against Lava Hounds and Balloons, the classic Town Hall 9 air army.

Put them deep in your base, where they cover the core. Then level them before the older defenses.

Army Camp level 7 sounds dull. It isn't.

Every camp you upgrade adds space to every attack after that. A defense helps only when someone attacks you. A camp helps in every battle you start.

That's why camps come right after the lab and the Hero Hall.

Upgrade them one at a time, so you never lose too much army space at once. Losing a camp's space in the middle of war week costs more than the upgrade saves.

Once they're done, move to the troop buildings. Only one matters right away, and it depends on how you attack.

Town Hall 9 opens several new troops and spells. Build the ones your army uses first.

The wiki lists these costs:

For air attacks, take Dark Barracks 6 first. Lava Hounds soak Air Defense fire so Balloons can do the damage.

For ground attacks, take Spell Factory 4 first. Freeze stops a defense cold, and Jump opens a path over walls.

Unsure? Take the Spell Factory. It's the cheapest, and Freeze helps almost any army.

Blacksmith level 2 unlocks the Giant Arrow for the Archer Queen.

The wiki lists it at 1,200,000 Gold and 1 day, the cheapest upgrade in this guide. It also raises the equipment caps to level 9 for common pieces and level 12 for epic ones.

That makes it easy to slot in whenever a builder frees up.

Ore is the real limit, not the building. Spend it on the two or three pieces you equip in every attack, and leave the rest.

The Archer Queen equipment guide explains where the Giant Arrow fits next to her other pieces.

After the X-Bows, upgrade by how much damage a building does.

Air defense comes first at this level, because the classic Town Hall 9 attack comes from the air. You get a fourth Air Defense, a second Air Sweeper, and Air Defenses reach level 7.

Then the splash defenses. Wizard Towers reach level 7, and you get a fourth one. The Bomb Tower goes to level 3.

Cannons and Archer Towers come last. Both reach level 11, and you get one more Archer Tower. They're single target, and you own many, so each upgrade moves your defense only a little.

Place every new building on day one. Then use spare builders on cheap upgrades, so none of them sits idle.

Traps are quick and cheap, so they fit between big upgrades.

Town Hall 9 adds a fourth Giant Bomb and two more Seeking Air Mines. Bombs reach level 6, Spring Traps and Air Bombs level 4, and Skeleton Traps level 3.

Seeking Air Mines are worth placing with care. They hit one air unit hard, which makes them a strong answer to Lava Hounds near your Air Defenses.

Don't plan a whole week around traps, though. A trap level rarely decides an attack the way an X-Bow does.

And rearm them after every defense, or they'll sit empty when the next attack comes.

You get 25 more wall pieces, for 250 in total. Walls can now reach level 10, two levels higher than before.

Walls are where spare loot goes. When every builder is busy and your storages are close to full, put the extra into walls before it overflows.

Wall Rings help here. They upgrade a piece without a builder, so save them for levels you'd struggle to afford.

Don't let walls jump ahead of anything above, though. Higher walls never make up for an idle lab or a missing Minion Prince.

If you want a layout that uses the new pieces well, the base library has current Town Hall 9 layouts with copy links.

Not until your heroes and main army sit close to Town Hall 9's caps.

The hard rules are simple. Every building must be placed, and the Hero Hall must be at level 3.

The soft rule matters more. Your heroes arrive at Town Hall 10 at the level they left with. Any gap you carry up grows against stronger bases.

Defenses can lag a little. Offense shouldn't.

When you're ready, our TH10 upgrade priority guide picks up from here, starting with the Inferno Towers.