User:SussyBaldy

'“Fast melee troop that targets buildings and can jump over the river. He followed the echoing call of "Hog Riderrrrr" all the way through the Arena doors.”'

The Hog Rider is a Rare card that is unlocked from the Spell Valley (Arena 5). He is a quick building-targeting, melee troop with moderately high hitpoints and damage. He appears just like his Clash of Clans counterpart; a man with brown eyebrows, a beard, a mohawk, and a golden body piercing in his left ear who is riding a hog. A Hog Rider card costs 4 Elixir to deploy.

Strategy

 * When he is jumping over the river, he cannot be targeted by any ground attacking units. The Log and Earthquake will fail to damage a Hog Rider while he is jumping. Air troops can still attack him though, and the Inferno Tower and Inferno Dragon will continue to ramp up their damage.
 * When countering Hog Riders, obviously use buildings. But be wary as it the offender would usually play around it with cards such as Earthquake. Air swarms such as Minion Horde can help due to the Hog's usual support tools not countering them.
 * On the offender's side, a powerful move is to accompany him with an Earthquake, obliterating almost every building, and also grounded swarms. To a lesser extent, Lightning could also be used, retaining the same point of almost destroying every building while also crippling troops such as the Wizard or the Hunter.
 * The Log could also be an effective first play as a cycle, but it only kills swarms and sometimes a non-center-placed Tombstone.
 * The Hog Rider can be paired with the Lumberjack as both a swarm bait and damage combo. It is a very fast combo with an extremely high damage output potential, so the defender will likely try to counter it with a swarm. If this happens, the offender should use a spell like Arrows to render the defender poetically defenseless. If they manage to defeat the Lumberjack, the dropped Rage will make the Hog Rider even more dangerous than it normally is.
 * A fast and deadly combination is the Hog Rider and Mini P.E.K.K.A combo. Both units are fast but the Mini P.E.K.K.A does much more damage and does not attack only buildings so the Mini P.E.K.K.A. can deal with troops like the Executioner and Musketeer. However, this combo can be defeated with swarms like Skeleton Army, which will defeat both of them since neither of them can deal area damage. They are also unable to target air troops, so the Minion Horde can stop this easily.
 * A Hog Rider combined with a Goblin Barrel can be awkward for the opponent to defend against. Timing it so that the Hog Rider is tanking the tower shots for the Goblins is the most effective way to deal damage.
 * A Barbarian Barrel can shut this down with minimal Tower damage for a positive Elixir trade, as long as the Goblin Barrel was placed directly on the Tower. Use another card to counter the Hog Rider if it is necessary.
 * His fast move speed can boost forward mini tanks like an Ice Golem in a push. At the same time, he can also function as a tank for lower hitpoint troops such as Goblins as he still has a fair amount of health. However, the Hog Rider struggles with swarms, as they can damage him down and defeat him quickly while obstructing his path. Barbarians in particular can fully counter him without very strict timing on the defender's part, though they are vulnerable to spells. Swarm cards like Skeleton Army, Goblin Gang, and Minion Horde can also very easily counter him.
 * Use this to your advantage by placing a bulky swarm dealer in front of the Hog Rider (eg. Ice Golem, Valkyrie) so that the Hog Rider can transport it to the tower faster and also get protection from swarms.
 * Most cheap swarms complement the Hog Rider well, as they are nearly as fast as him and usually force more than one card out of the opponent's hand.
 * The Hog Rider in conjunction with the Freeze can surprise the opponent and allow the Hog Rider to deal much more damage than anticipated, especially if the opponent's go-to counter is a swarm, or swarms are their only effective counter to him. Skeletons and Bats will immediately be defeated by the spell, while Spear Goblins, Goblins, and Minions will be at low enough health to be defeated by a follow up small spell.
 * Against non-swarm troops, it can deal a lot of damage during the freeze time, but this can allow the opponent to set up a massive counterpush. For this reason, players should either only go for a Hog Rider + Freeze when they have other units backing it up from a counterattack, or if the match is about to end and they need to deal as much damage as possible. The exception to this is an Elixir Collector placed in front of the King's Tower. If a Hog Rider placed at the bridge, he can destroy the Collector for a positive Elixir trade, though the damage from both Princess Towers will usually mean he does not survive to deal any damage to them. However, if the opponent sends in defending troops, it can be an opportunity to gain spell damage value.
 * It is obviously not a good idea to send in a Hog Rider simply to destroy a building, especially if it is the only building targeting unit available, as defeating Crown Towers becomes substantially more difficult. Spells or simply waiting out the lifetime of the building are more effective.
 * When there are buildings placed in the middle to counter the Hog Rider, understanding the placement of the Hog Rider and the type of building placed can help the Hog Rider to bypass certain buildings.
 * Passive buildings such as spawners have a larger hitbox than defensive buildings; which means that if a passive building was placed 3 tiles away from the river in the middle of the opponent's side, then it is impossible for the Hog Rider to bypass that placement as the Hog Rider will get pulled to that building.
 * The Hog Rider can kite Very Fast non-building targeting troops due to his own Very Fast speed and building only targeting if he is placed on the fourth tile from the bridge, slightly into the opposite lane. He can also stall grounded units when placed right at the bridge. He will pull them towards him while deploying, and then be untargetable by them when he jumps over the bridge. After landing, he will pull them back. This can be useful when the player needs to deal damage in the same lane they are defending. It will also help separate troops behind a tank in a large push.
 * A very powerful combo is the Hog Rider, the Musketeer, and the Valkyrie, typically referred to as the Trifecta. The Musketeer will defend against most troops, while the Valkyrie can protect her and the Hog Rider from swarms or high damage units. The Hog Rider is used to deal damage to the tower. However, this is for a whopping 12 Elixir.
 * This can be effectively countered by Lightning, one-shotting the Musketeer and severely damaging both the Valkyrie and Hog Rider. The Minion Horde is also effective, but the enemy can Zap them and the Musketeer will one-shot them all. Even if the Musketeer is defeated, the Hog Rider and Valkyrie will have enough time to severely damage the Tower. P.E.K.K.A can hard counter this strategy allowing relatively low damage and being able to start a counterpush for a 5 elixir advantage.
 * The Hog Rider should be placed behind the Valkyrie to give it a boost so that it stays in front of the Hog Rider, protecting it.
 * Pairing the Hog Rider with the Balloon can deal devastating damage. If executed properly, the Hog Rider will act as a tank while the Balloon threatens to deal massive damage. The Hog Rider can also destroy any buildings attempting to slow down the combo. However, this combo is very vulnerable to swarms and anti-air cards as neither of the troops target anything but buildings. Additionally, they are easy to separate, due to the disparity in move speeds. Alternatively, the Hog Rider and the Balloon can be played in different lanes to spread the opponent's defenses thin. However, a building or Tornado can bring them back together for an easier defense.
 * A solid play is to deploy the Hog Rider at the bridge as soon as the match starts or when you reach 10 elixir which is safer. If the opponent does not react fast enough or has a bad starting hand, the Hog Rider will deal a significant amount of damage to the Princess Tower. This can also allow the player to quickly scout the opponent's deck if they happen to react to him fast enough.
 * A Hunter can kill the Hog Rider in 2 hits if placed right on top of it. However, if the opponent places something in front of the Hog Rider, the Hunter's splash will transfer overkill damage to said card.
 * A good placement and timing with Guards and The Log will fully counter the Hog Rider, canceling all Hog hits.
 * In a deck with several low-cost cards, it might be worth it to simply send the Hog Rider against one building. These decks, called "cycle decks", shuffle their card rotation quick enough, that they will arrive to their next Hog Rider before the next Hog counter arrives in the opponent's card rotation.
 * Defensive buildings have a smaller hitbox than a passive building, which means if that if a defensive building was placed three tiles away from the river in the middle of the opponent's side, a Hog Rider placed at the very left or right side of the Arena may be able to bypass it due to its smaller hitbox.
 * If the player has a building already placed down in the center of the arena, and the opponent tries to bypass it with a Hog Rider at the edge of the arena, they can use certain air troops to push the Hog Rider towards the building as it jumps over the river, effectively denying the bypass attempt. They must be already hovering over the correct placement, as very quick reflexes are required to correctly perform this technique.
 * For Bats, Skeleton Dragons, and Minion Horde, they should be placed right in front of the Hog Rider as soon as it is deployed.
 * For Minions, Skeleton Barrel, Mega Minion, Flying Machine, Electro Dragon, Baby Dragon, Inferno Dragon, Balloon, and Lava Hound, stagger the above placement one tile to the right if the Hog Rider is placed on the left side of the arena, and vice versa.
 * They can also use ground troops to achieve the same result. Something like an Ice Golem deployed at the Hog Rider’s landing spot will obstruct his path and force him to go around the unit, which causes him to be closer to the building instead of the Crown Tower.
 * A Tornado placed on the second tile front of the player's King's Tower and staggered two tiles towards the Princess Tower will activate it without any damage dealt to the Princess Tower, helping them in defending future pushes. This can also be a method of mitigating all damage dealt to a Princess Tower, but doing this more than three times may result in the King's Tower's health being low enough to be targeted directly, opening up the possible threat of a back door three crown. A better alternative is to pull the Hog away from the Princess Tower into the attacking range of all three Crown Towers, which will negate all damage as long as none of them are already distracted.
 * A Fisherman timed perfectly can pull a Hog Rider without it dealing damage, activating the King's Tower. When it has already been activated, put the Fisherman closer to the river rather than the King's Tower so the Hog Rider will be pulled to a safer location for you.
 * Using a Log to predict a Skeleton Army or even a Goblin Gang will let your Hog Rider keep most if not all of its HP and your opponent may not answer in time, letting your Hog Rider connect to the tower.
 * Using a Rocket on a Hog Rider is sometimes a good play, especially if you do not have a good response in hand or if you can clip something else along with the Hog Rider.

History

 * The Hog Rider card was added with Clash Royale's soft launch on 4/1/2016.
 * On 29/2/2016, the March 2016 Update, decreased the sight range of the Hog Rider.
 * On 3/5/2016, the May 2016 Update, increased the Rare card level cap to 11 (from 10).
 * On 21/6/2016, a Balance Update, decreased the Hog Rider's damage by 6%.
 * On 22/11/2017, a maintenance break, temporarily removed the Hog Rider from the Touchdown mode.
 * On 12/12/2017, the Electrifying Update, decreased the Hog Rider’s hit speed to 1.6 seconds (from 1.5 seconds) and delayed his first attack by 0.1 seconds.
 * On 20/6/2018, the Summer Update, moved the Arena to unlock the Hog Rider from P.E.K.K.A's Playhouse (Arena 4) to Goblin Stadium (Arena 1).
 * On 5/9/2018, the September 2018 Update, changed it so that Rare cards start at level 3 and end at level 13 (from 1 to 11).
 * The 2021 Quarter 2 Update moved the Arena to unlock the Hog Rider from Goblin Stadium (Arena 1) to Spell Valley (Arena 5).
 * On 27/10/21, the 2021 Quarter 3 Update added the level 14 Hog Rider.