Clash Royale: 5 Best Counters for Balloon

General Strategy: How to Counter Balloon

Before we get into my top 5 counter picks, let’s talk strategy.

Countering Balloon can be difficult to do, but not with the right cards.

Balloon is a flying/air troop, which means it can only be targeted by other troops/buildings that can target in the air. It moves slowly until it gets to its destination, at which point it stops and begins dropping bombs onto whatever building or tower it’s over. These bombs can take out a tower in just a few hits, so it requires an answer.

The best way to counter Balloon is using a combination of buildings to distract/damage it and air-targeting troops to take it out. The best buildings for taking out Balloon are the ones which both target air and either have tons of HP (to tank more Balloon hits) or does enough damage to actually take out its large health pool.

Balloon is an easy card to counter assuming you have the right cards in your deck. A good balance of air-targeting cards is really all you need, so let’s take a look at which of those are the best!

#5 Minion Horde

Minion Horde is simply six flying Minions which will do everything they can to take out a Balloon. Since there are so many of them, they’ll almost always be able to take out the Balloon before its gets anywhere near your tower. Swarms are the best way to take out really high-HP troops, but they do come with the risk of being easily countered themselves. Arrows, Fireball, over-leveled Zap, and most other spells are able to counter Minion Horde pretty easily. It’s definitely worth using, but be careful when doing so.

#4 Bats

Air defense is always important, so having a cheap troop like this (2 Elixir) that can actually counter Balloon is amazing. All you have to do is drop the group of Bats on top of the Balloon as soon as it crosses the river and they’ll usually be able to take it out before it makes it to the tower. Of course, since Bats are so cheap they’re also easy to counter. Even the cheaper spells like Zap or Snowball can one-shot Bats, so you’ll have to use them carefully. But for a cheap counter, you really can’t go wrong here.

#3 Mega Minion

Mega Minion gets forgot about sometimes, but he’s a really strong mid-cost (3 Elixir) troop that can help greatly with taking out Balloons. Even if all you have to defend is a Mega Minion, he’ll be able to hold his own and do enough damage to take out the Balloon fairly quickly. Mega Minion is also really good for taking out many other threats as well, and since he’s so cheap you can reliably cycle back around and cast him again if your opponent is spamming threats. He’s also particularly good against the Lavaloon (Lava Hound + Balloon) decks if you end up against those a lot.

#2 Fireball

Despite only being a spell, Fireball actually does a really good job of countering Balloon thanks to its knockback. Fireball’s damage itself is pretty good here, but the knockback allows your towers and other troops/buildings essential time to take out the Balloon. Since it moves so slowly, that amount of time can make a huge difference. Plus, it’s also a great way to take out other support troops your opponent might have played beside the Balloon, which is always a huge bonus and a great way to turn a game around.

#1 Inferno Tower

If you want to counter a Balloon (or really any high-HP threat), Inferno Tower is the best option. Since Inferno Tower is a building with a high health pool, it’s able to take a hit from Balloon and survive. Plus, this high HP allows Inferno Tower to build up its damage-over-time and destroy the Balloon. There isn’t much to say about Inferno Tower’s strength here, other than that it’s the best building to use when trying to counter a Balloon. Unless, that is, if your opponent has Electro Dragon, which many Balloon decks do. That makes it harder to use scaling damage, but it’s still possible. Just have a Fireball ready if needed.