Hammer Jam 2026: What to Save Before It Starts

That's the whole plan. Everything below is the reasoning, so you can adjust it to your own account.

Hammer Jam is the one event where patience pays twice. The players who get the most from it aren't the ones who spend the most. They're the ones who walked in with the right things saved.

Supercell hasn't announced it yet. I checked the Clash of Clans news page on 27 September 2026, and the latest posts were the Equipment Blast event and the WWE season.

Here's what we do know. Last year's Hammer Jam ran from 1 to 17 November 2025, according to Supercell's own announcement. It opened the November season.

That's a pattern, not a promise. The date could move.

The safe approach is to prepare as if it starts in early November. If it arrives later, you've lost nothing. You've just saved a little longer.

We'll update this page when Supercell confirms the dates. Until then, treat any exact date you see online as a guess.

I read Supercell's announcement for last year's event line by line. Here's what it offered, as of November 2025:

• 50% off time and cost for upgrades.
• Not included: supercharges and crafted defenses.
• Double resource collectors, both capacity and production.
• Meteor obstacles that gave ore when cleared.
• The Goblin Builder and Goblin Researcher returned for the whole of November.

The exclusions matter most. If this year follows the same rules, a supercharge started during Hammer Jam costs exactly what it costs today.

The ore from meteor obstacles matters too. Ore is usually the slowest thing to collect at high town halls, so free ore is worth clearing every obstacle for.

Assume the 2026 rules match until Supercell says otherwise.

A builder potion makes your builders work ten times faster for one hour. Each busy builder gets roughly nine extra hours of work done.

Now halve every upgrade timer. The same nine hours of work now finishes what used to take eighteen.

That's the whole trick. The potion didn't change. The work it skips got twice as valuable.

Research potions work the same way in the lab. A research potion runs the lab at 24 times speed for an hour, so it skips about 23 hours of research. During Hammer Jam, that's closer to 46 hours at normal rates.

So every potion you use in October is a potion you could have used at double value in November. If you can wait, wait.

Magic items that finish an upgrade outright work differently.

A hammer completes an upgrade whatever its timer says. A book finishes one that's already running. Neither cares how long the upgrade was supposed to take.

During Hammer Jam, the timers are cut in half. So a hammer used then skips half as much as the same hammer used a week later.

That doesn't make hammers bad. It makes them better outside the event.

The rule is simple. Use potions during Hammer Jam. Use hammers and books after it, on the longest upgrades you have left.

If you've been holding a hammer for a hero or a long defense, keep holding it through November.

League medals are where this decision gets real. The league shop, as of September 2026, prices the building, fighting and spell hammers at 120 medals each. A builder potion costs 30.

So one hammer costs the same as four builder potions.

Let's count. Four potions with six builders busy give about 216 hours of work. During Hammer Jam that's worth about 432 hours at normal timers.

A hammer only matches that on an upgrade longer than 18 days. Very few upgrades are that long.

That's why so many experienced players switch their medals to potions in the months before the event. Our full guide to spending league medals covers the rest of the shop.

The maths only works if your builders are busy, though. Idle builders waste potions.

Research potions cost 20 medals each in the league shop, so a hammer's price buys six of them.

Six research potions skip about 138 hours of research. During Hammer Jam that's about 276 hours at normal timers.

That's less than the builder potion total. So why bother?

Because the lab is one queue. You have several builders and usually one laboratory, so the lab is where most accounts fall behind. An extra 11 days of research can be the difference between a maxed army and a half finished one.

If your lab is further behind than your buildings, buy research potions first. If your buildings are behind, buy builder potions first.

Check which queue is longer on your own account. That answer beats any general rule.

Heroes are the best thing to upgrade during Hammer Jam.

A hero that's upgrading can't fight. Halving the timer halves the time you spend attacking without that hero. The dark elixir cost drops too, if the 50% cost cut applies as it did last year.

So line up your hero upgrades for the event. Don't start a long hero upgrade in late October if it would still be running when Hammer Jam opens. You'd pay full price and still wait.

Instead, finish short upgrades in October. Walk into November with builders free and dark elixir storage full.

Then start the heroes on day one and use builder potions on them. A hero upgrade finished in a few days instead of a week is the best trade the event offers.

Last year, supercharges and crafted defenses were excluded from the discount.

That means there's no reason to save them for November. If anything, do them now.

Here's the logic. Every builder hour spent on a supercharge in November is a builder hour not spent on a discounted upgrade. So move the full price work into October, and keep November for the half price work.

This matters most at Town Hall 16 and above, where crafted defenses and supercharges fill a lot of builder time.

If you're not sure which crafted defense to start, our crafted defense priority guide ranks them for every town hall.

Finish what you start before the event, though. A half finished supercharge still holds its builder.

There's one group that should skip most of this advice.

If you're at Town Hall 18 and nearly maxed, Hammer Jam may finish your base before it ends. After that, potions have nothing to work on.

For you, hammers are worth more saved. Town Hall 19 is coming, and a hammer used on day one of a new town hall skips one of the longest upgrades in the game. Read what Supercell has confirmed about Town Hall 19 before you decide.

So do the maths on your own base. Count your remaining upgrades. If the event plus your potions will clear them, stop buying potions and hold your medals.

If you still have months of work left, potions are the better buy.

The Goblin Builder and Goblin Researcher came back for the whole of November last year.

A Goblin Builder is an extra builder, so every builder potion you use while he's working speeds up one more upgrade. Seven builders instead of six means a potion does about 17% more work.

The Goblin Researcher helps the lab, which is usually the slower queue.

Both cost gems. So if you're going to buy them, keep some gems in reserve now instead of spending them in October.

We covered how both goblins work in our Resource Fest guide. The same rule applies here. Hire them when your potions and discounts line up, not before.

This is the most common mistake in the weeks before Hammer Jam.

Someone has full storages in late October, gets impatient, and starts a two week upgrade. Hammer Jam opens three days later. That upgrade is locked at full price and full time.

As October runs out, only start upgrades short enough to finish before November.

It feels wasteful to have builders sit idle for a day or two. It isn't. An idle builder for two days costs less than a builder locked on a full price upgrade for two weeks.

Use those last days to fill your storages instead. Collect, raid and clear obstacles. You want everything full when the discount starts.

Here's the whole plan in one place.

• Stop using builder and research potions. Save them for the event.
• Spend league medals on potions, unless you're nearly maxed at Town Hall 18.
• Finish supercharges and crafted defenses now. They weren't discounted last year.
• Hold hammers and books for after the event.
• Keep some gems for the Goblin Builder and Goblin Researcher.
• Plan hero upgrades to start on day one.
• Avoid long upgrades in the last two weeks of October.
• Fill every storage before November.

While you wait, it's a good time to swap in a fresh layout. Our base library has war and farm layouts for every town hall.