Clash Royale: Best Evolutions, Ranked

What are Evolutions in Clash Royale?

Evolutions were added to Clash Royale in early 2023 and have had a major impact on the game. Unlike Legendary, Champion, and Hero cards, Evolutions exist in their own bubble since they aren’t actual cards.

Instead, evolutions are “upgrades” to the base version of the card they’re tied to. So, for example, the Firecracker evolution is not a new card; it’s an upgrade to the pre-existing Firecracker card that gives it seriously improved abilities.

The catch to this is that you have to “cycle” the card before activating the evolution in-game. That means that during each match, you’ll need to play the card a set amount of times (the cycle cost) before you get the evolved version.

For example, again, let’s look at Firecracker. Firecracker has a cycle cost of 2, so you’ll need to play it twice before you get an evolved one. Then after you cast it, you’ll have to do the cycle cost again. It’s a good way of keeping the evolved cards’ power in check, and it’s not too annoying once you get used to it.

Evolutions can take normal cards and make them much, much stronger, but they’re not easy to get. Let’s next take a look at how to get card evolutions in Clash Royale.

How to Get Evolution Shards & Cards

The process to unlock evolutions has been a source of controversy for Clash Royale for years. Since they’re so powerful, the price quickly becomes a point of contention. Evolutions have undeniably pushed Clash Royale more into the “pay 2 win” direction than I’d personally like, but it was already going that way before that anyway. If you want to unlock evolution cards, you’re usually going to have to spend money on either the Diamond Pass or purchase them from the shop.

Generally speaking, you have two methods to acquire an evolution (one at a time). The first is to buy the season pass during that evolution’s season. You’ll almost always get an evolution as a part of any season’s pass (unless a Hero card is featured that season instead), so that’s the quickest and easiest way to go about it. If you don’t get it the first season, though, you can still buy evolution shards (or earn them on rare occasions for free). You’ll need 6 evolution shards to make an evolution, and you can get them in the shop fairly often for around $10-15 USD total (they often sell them 3 at a time to make this process even more annoying).

How to Get Evolutions as F2P

If you don’t want to spend money, you can take a longer route to get a free evolution. Wild Shards are a currency which you can exchange for a single Evolution Shard. However, this isn’t exactly a quick process as Supercell isn’t fond of giving things away for free. You’ll get a free evo shard from time to time, but I wouldn’t expect to get many.

Ranking Every Evolution in Clash Royale (Tier List)

Note: Only S-tier is in order from best to worst within its own tier (A-D are in random order)

Just like with everything in these games, we’re here to rank each evolution! Most evolutions are at least decent, as it’s hard for any bonus feature to be “bad.” However, some come pretty close. Here are all the evolutions in Clash Royale in classic tier list form.

• S-Tier: Royal Giant, Baby Dragon, Royal Recruits, Snowball
• A-Tier: Battle Ram, Goblin Cage, Royal Ghost, Zap, Mortar, Wall Breakers, Bomber, Cannon, Mega Knight, Inferno Dragon, Witch, Skeleton Barrel, Hog Riders
• B-Tier: Goblin Drill, Skeletons, Knight, Archers, Valkyrie, Tesla, Goblin Giant, Musketeer, Hunter, Furnace, Skeleton Army
• C-Tier: Firecracker, Bats, Wizard, P.E.K.K.A., Electro Dragon, Lumberjack, Executioner, Goblin Barrel
• D-Tier: Barbarians, Dart Goblin, Ice Spirit

The Worst (D-Tier)

Before we get into the best evolutions, I want to quickly take a look at the worst and what makes them so bad. Barbarians are probably the best of the worst here, but they’re nothing special. Their evo upgrade gives them slightly more HP and lets them gain attack speed each time they attack. So if you use them to counter a tank they’re quite effective, but they’re too easy to counter to be a good source of DPS against towers. They’re basically a worse Royal Hogs.

Dart Goblin itself isn’t bad (in fact the base version is very powerful), but I just don’t feel like the evo upgrade adds enough to use. His evo upgrade makes his shots leave a poison cloud behind, but the damage is very lacking. It’s just painfully underwhelming. Then Ice Spirit comes in last, simply because it usually feels irrelevant. The evo upgrade makes Ice Spirit apply its AOE freeze a second time after a few seconds. It’s not that great, but for 1 elixir, what can you really expect?

#7 Goblin Cage

• Evo Effect: The Cage pulls in a nearby enemy and holds them inside until they either die or the cage expires.

Goblin Cage is one of the best evolutions for defensive purposes. Its ability to pull an enemy into the cage allows you to effectively counter any troop, as long as you have the evolved cage ready to go. It’s really strong against tanks and fast threats like Hog Rider or Battle Ram. While not as flashy as some other evolutions, Goblin Cage is perfect for defending and making a strong counter push afterwards.

#6 Wall Breakers

• Evo Effect: Wall Breakers continue running towards their target if their barrel is destroyed.

The evolved Wall Breakers are essentially just an entirely better version of them. With the evolution, it’s much harder to stop the Wall Breakers before they reach a tower. They have the ability to drop their barrels and continue sprinting forward after taking damage, so they’re more resilient to spells then before. They still lose to other buildings which can distract them or most troops, but Logs, Arrows, etc. will be no problem with this evolution.

#5 Royal Ghost

• Evo Effect: Royal Ghost summons two Soldiers to guard him when he becomes visible.

Royal Ghost’s evolution has been haunting the battlefield ever since its release. Originally I was going to put him at S-tier, but since the recent nerfs have brought him down to a more reasonable level, the top of A-tier seems right. Royal Ghost’s evo upgrade gives him two Soldiers who guard him and join in with his attacks, dealing a ton of damage. It’s a great upgrade since it doesn’t change the way you play the Royal Ghost; it just empowers him. He does more damage and is harder to fight. What isn’t to like there?

#4 Giant Snowball

• Evo Effect: Giant Snowball rolls when it lands and picks up enemies hit, stunning them and dropping them where it ends.

Snowball is already a powerful card since it can counter low-HP threats, but the evo upgrade makes it incredibly powerful. Instead of just using it to counter Goblin Barrels and Wall Breakers, now it can be used offensively. The evolved version rolls when it lands and picks up all the enemies it hits, dropping them at the back and stunning them. This lets you clear the way for your threats to hit towers more easily, or defend your own. It’s great with Hog Rider decks and similar ones where attacking constantly matters, but it’s also strong in general decks as a defensive card.

#3 Royal Recruits

• Evo Effect: Royal Recruits charge forward after their shields are broken.

Royal Recruits are just a fantastic card. They cover the entire battlefield, so they’re perfect for defending against any ground threat. They chip away at tanks, distract single-targeting troops, and make big counter-pushes afterwards. They’re the perfect defenders. The evo upgrade lets them do a Prince-like charge forwards whenever their shield is broken. This gives them more offensive power, making the counter-pushes much faster. It’s an all-round bonus, so it’d be hard not to put at S-tier.

#2 Baby Dragon

• Evo Effect: Baby Dragon’s attacks speed up friendly troops and slow down enemies.

Evo Baby Dragon is arguably the best support troop in the entire game, including Champions and Heroes as well. The upgrade is exactly what you’d want. Whenever Baby Dragon attacks, he speeds up nearby allies and slows down enemies. This makes him perfect for supporting any slow-moving troop (so most tanks). With something like Royal Giant or Golem, Evo Baby Dragon is absolutely fantastic.

#1 Royal Giant

• Evo Effect: Royal Giant’s attacks create an AOE shock-wave which damages nearby ground troops.

The Royal Giant is easily the best evolution in Clash Royale. By himself he was already one of the top win cons in the game since he does so much damage with each shot, guaranteeing strong tower damage as long as he doesn’t get hard countered. But the evo upgrade puts him over the top. With the evo, each shot does AOE damage around Royal Giant as well. This makes it very hard to counter Royal Giant, as you can’t really use ground troops at all. And you definitely can’t use swarms. This leaves higher-HP troops like Mini P.E.K.K.A. and strong buildings like Inferno Tower as the only counters for evolved Royal Giant. Not bad at all.

Join the High Ground

That concludes our ranking of every evolution in Clash Royale. Evolutions have changed Clash Royale in a significant way, so it pays off to be aware of which ones are worth seeking out.

Let us know which evolutions are your favorite in the comments below, and make sure to subscribe to the High Ground for the latest on all of your favorite games!

Happy gaming!