Hog Rider Buff October 2026: Are Hogs Back at TH18?

The buff is part of the October 2026 balance changes, posted on 17 October.

I read Supercell's post and pulled today's hog stats from the fan wiki. This page puts the two together.

All numbers here are as of October 2026.

Supercell grouped the Hog Rider with the Miner and the P.E.K.K.A. Each one shows up in fewer than 3% of attacks.

Their three star rates sit between 20% and 35%. The average for every attack in the same data is 53%.

Super Hog Rider and Super Miner barely get picked either.

Those rates come from one slice of the game. Supercell used TH18 attacks on TH18 bases in Clan Wars and CWL, over the four weeks before the post.

The buff also fits a wider goal. Supercell teased this year that it wants old troops to matter again, which we covered in our post on old troops at Town Hall 19.

The hog change is short.

1. 1Hog Rider gets more HP.
2. 2Super Hog Rider gets more HP.

That's all Supercell listed for them in its balance changes post. The post doesn't mention damage, speed or housing space for either troop.

It also doesn't limit the hog boost to max levels. The Miner change in the same post does say max levels.

The post itself gives no new HP numbers. The fan wiki already lists them, and the next two tables use them. Treat them as the wiki's figures until you see them in game.

Here are the top levels from the fan wiki, with the new HP it lists for the update.

The boost starts at level 8, which goes from 810 to 870. Supercell lists no damage change. The biggest jump is at level 15, with 200 more HP, about 11%.

A Hog Rider takes 5 housing space. It moves at speed 24 and hits once per second.

It targets defenses first and jumps over walls of any level. That's why hogs need no Wall Breakers, but it's also why they walk straight into the same traps every time.

The Super Hog Rider is a boosted Hog Rider. You need a level 10 Hog Rider to boost it.

It takes 12 housing space, more than double a regular hog.

I compared the two tables at level 15. After the buff, a Super Hog Rider has 550 more HP than a regular hog, for 7 more housing space. The regular hog gains more this time, 200 HP against 150.

It has one trick. When it's defeated, the Super Rider falls off the Super Hog and both keep fighting. The Super Hog still targets defenses and jumps walls. The Super Rider is slower, attacks anything on the ground and does double damage to walls.

Hogs don't lose because they hit too softly. They lose because they die on the way.

The fan wiki lists the classic weak spots of a hog rush:

1. 1Giant Bombs.
2. 2Skeleton Traps.
3. 3Defending Clan Castle troops.
4. 4Enemy heroes.

All four get worse at higher Town Halls. A pack of hogs walks the same path from defense to defense, so one well placed bomb can hit most of them at once.

More HP helps with exactly that. A hog that survives a bomb keeps hitting defenses. A hog that dies to it does nothing.

That's why HP makes more sense than damage here.

Hog Miner, also called Hybrid, mixes Hog Riders with Miners. The wiki says it works from Town Hall 10 and up.

Both troops get past walls on their own. Hogs jump them and Miners dig under them.

That makes the October changes interesting for this army. The Miner and Super Miner also get more HP at max levels. The fan wiki lists the Miner's top two levels, 11 and 12, at 100 more HP each, for 1,850 and 2,150. So a maxed Hybrid army gets a boost on both halves.

Nobody can say yet whether that's enough at TH18. The new numbers are known, but there are no war results with them yet.

But if you used to run Hybrid and dropped it, this is the update to try it again.

The two do different jobs.

Regular hogs work in a mass army. You bring many of them and send them around the base in groups.

Super Hogs are tougher per troop. The wiki notes they hold up better against splash damage from Bomb Towers and Scattershots. That makes them useful in Queen Charges, where a few sturdy troops back up the Queen.

They cost more space and a boost, though. You also need a level 7 Clan Castle to hold one there.

Our super troops tier list ranks the Super Hog Rider against the other boosts.

It depends on what your lab is doing. Here's what the top two hog levels cost today.

That's a lot of lab time for a troop you may not use.

A simple rule:

1. 1If you already attack with hogs, push them up. The buff adds HP at every level from 8 up.
2. 2If you don't, test them first in friendly challenges at your current level.
3. 3If your lab has a war troop waiting, finish that first.

Our TH18 Dark Elixir spending order shows where hogs fit.

Probably a little, if hogs come back.

Bases built against Ruin Witch and Dragon Duke may not guard well against hogs. A hog army needs traps on the path between defenses, not deep in the core.

So watch your defense log after the update. If more hog attacks show up, look at three things in the replays.

1. 1Where your Giant Bombs sit.
2. 2Whether hogs reach your Clan Castle early.
3. 3Which defense they reach first.

The Ruin Witch nerf in the same update also matters here. Spring Traps can now launch Ruin Knights, so trap spots may move for that reason too.

A friendly challenge costs nothing, so start there.

Pick two or three TH18 layouts with different trap setups. Run one hog army and one army you already use on the same base. Compare the stars and the percentage.

Run it again after the update goes live. If the hog result jumps, the buff did its job.

If you need layouts to test on, browse TH18 war bases and save a few with strong Giant Bomb spots. Those tell you the most about whether hogs survive now.

Some things are still open.

Supercell's post didn't include the new HP values. The ones on this page come from the fan wiki, so check them in game once the update is live.

Nobody has war results with the new numbers yet either. Supercell's usage rates come from the four weeks before the change.

It also says it'll keep watching attacks and adjust again if needed. A troop under 3% usage could jump after a buff. If it jumps too far, another change is possible.

So don't rebuild your whole war plan around hogs this week. Test them, compare the results, and decide once you have a few wars of your own.