Clash Royale August 2026 balance: Spirit nerfs, ability reworks

Supercell announced its August 2026 balance update for Clash Royale, scheduled to arrive with the upcoming season. The update targets Spirit cards, alters Hero and Champion ability cooldowns, applies bug fixes and stat redistributions, and publishes a list of experimental reworks under testing.

Spirits — Fire Spirit, Ice Spirit, Heal Spirit and Electro Spirit — will receive one of two nerf options. Option one reduces hitpoints from 230 to 217. Option two lowers movement speed from Very Fast to Fast. Supercell reported that Spirits appear in 53% of Top 200 decks and 31% of Ranked play this year and asked the community to provide feedback on which option to implement.

Ability changes affect most cooldown-based Hero and Champion abilities. Supercell is updating those abilities so they trigger only once per match, with the Boss Bandit excluded from this change. To offset the adjustment, several Champions will receive buffs: Goblinstein Doctor damage increases from 92 to 135; Little Prince will conserve charged hit speed for 0.3 seconds and Guardienne damage rises from 217 to 232; Mighty Miner base damage moves from 40 to 43 so he defeats Skeletons in two hits at all levels.

The update contains bug fixes and redistributions of stats. Ronin’s first hit time increases from 0.3s to 0.4s to address a timing issue where parry and melee damage could overlap, and his parry will no longer cancel Golden Knight’s dash. X-Bow’s hit speed slows from 0.3s to 0.4s while per-shot damage increases from 43 to 58 and projectile speed rises from 1400 to 1600, a change intended to reduce wasted shots at range and slightly raise overall DPS.

Supercell published a Work in Progress list of experimental changes that may be adjusted before release. Rework tests include Ice Golem changing its third blast from a freeze to a slow and increasing per-blast damage from 38 to 69; Witch Evolution increasing heal per Skeleton from 53 to 122, max hitpoints from 1040 to 1326, and limiting healing to the first Skeleton wave; and Battle Healer gaining damage (148 to 204), a slightly slower hit speed (1.5s to 1.6s), a reduced heal radius (4000 to 3000) and no longer healing itself.

Other experimentals include Goblin Curse adding a 15% enemy slowdown, Goblin Machine receiving faster rocket travel but slower rocket hit speed and modest melee damage increases, Rune Giant gaining hitpoints and losing an interaction that enchanted kamikaze troops, and a Void rework that would convert Void into a 5-Elixir damage spell with roughly doubled damage values per target and to Crown Towers in test numbers.

The WIP list also details nerfs and buffs across Evolution variants and basic cards. Notable nerfs include reduced respawned Hero Goblin count (3 to 2) and faster deploy time (1.3s to 1s), reductions to Archers Evolution power shot damage and Giant Snowball Evolution range, and lower projectile ranges for Bowler and Executioner. Confirmed and experimental buffs include higher damage for Hero Tombstone, eased hit speed slowdown for Minion Horde Evolution, timing and duration adjustments for Princess Evolution’s slow, small damage or attack-speed increases for Goblins and Spear Goblins, and more hitpoints for Suspicious Bush’s Bush Goblin.

Supercell noted the experimental items are subject to change based on gameplay data and player feedback before they go live. Confirmed changes, bug fixes and any finalized reworks will arrive with the August season rollout.