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RoyaleAPI
Season 42 Clashmas (December 2022)
Celebrate the holiday seasons with 8 new emotes, 4 tower skins, 28 banner items and more!
update season
Come celebrate Clashmas with Clash Royale this holiday season — with 8 new emotes, 4 new tower skins and 28 brand new banner items! 🎁 Most of the goodies can be found in Pass Royale and the shop, but there are many freebies also!
Season 42 begins on Monday, December 5th, 2022.
Balance changes will be applied via a maintenance break on Wednesday, December 7th, 2022. Don’t know what’s in it? Check out the current work-in-progress balance changes — you have until Friday at 8am UTC to give your feedback before they are locked in for good.
Update 2022-12-05: Balance Changes will be live on Wednesday, December 7th, 2022 (instead of Tuesday).
Table of Contents
- Video Preview
- Arena
- Tower Skins
- Clashmas Cake (Pass Royale)
- Nutcracker (Shop)
- Clashmas Tree (Shop)
- Clashmas Sweater (Free)
- Emotes
- Fire Spirit: Coal Naughty
- Fire Spirit: Coal Nice
- Hog: Gingerbread
- Hog: Reindeer Fly
- Hog Rider: Santa Sack
- Hog Rider: Santa Snowball
- King: Pixelized Laugh
- Valkyrie: Tree Cut
- Free Magic Item
- Boosted Cards
- Giant Snowball
- Hog Rider
- Ice Spirit
- Banner Items
- High Chance
- Heal Spirit with Reindeer Gift Wrap
- Ice Spirit with Snowflakes
- Rare
- Goblin Barrel
- Minion Horde
- Sparky Shot
- Extremely Rare
- King Nutcracker
- Santa Prince
- Giant Skeleton Snow Globe
- Shop (IAP: In-App Purchases)
- Chibi Hog Rider Santa Gift
- Chibi Hog Rider Santa Sled
- Clashmas Goblin
- Clashmas Hog Rider Santa
- Gift Adventure
- Show Ride Hog Rider
- Challenges and Global Tournaments
- December 5-10: Let it Snow Challenge
- December 10-14: Royal Tournament (Normal)
- December 13-18: Daily Challenges
- December 19-25: Santa Hog Rider Challenge
- December 24-28: Royal Tournament (Rage)
- December 26 - January 1: Mega Draft Challenge
- Pick Order
- Tip
- Rules + Rewards
- Party Modes
- Triple Draft - December 5-11
- Royal Delivery Drop - December 12-18
- Elixir Capture - December 19-25
- 2v2 Sudden Death - December 26 - January 2
- Loading Screen
- Path of Legends Config Changes (Extra!)
- Extra steps in League 7-9
- Path of Legends Emote
- Matchmaking
- How matchmaking works
Video Preview
Our video serves as a great introduction to everything you’ll see in the upcoming season. Check it out first before reading!
Arena
Battles in December will take place in the Clashmas Arena.
Tower Skins
Four tower skins are available this season — all designed to pair harmoniously with the Clashmas arena. 🎁 One of them is free to all players!
Clashmas Cake (Pass Royale)
It’s a traditional Clashmas cake made with mixed dried fruit and icing, decorated with Clashmas ornaments. Looks like someone was hungry and ate a chunk of the Princess Tower already. 🙈
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Clashmas Cake tower skin set. Pass Royale at Tier 10. |
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Clashmas Cake King Tower. |
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Clashmas Cake Princess Tower. |
Nutcracker (Shop)
A Clashmas holiday tradition — The Nutcracker is an 1892 two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Nutcracker dolls are decorative wooden nutcracker figurines most commonly made to resemble a toy soldier. In German tradition, the dolls are symbols of good luck, frightening away malevolent spirits.
This is one of my favorite tower skins of the season — the Princess Towers comes with winding gear that moves, and gifts keep coming at the backside of the King Tower! It’s one of those rare skins where the spotlight is given to the player who can only see the back.
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Nutcracker tower skin set. In-App Purchase. |
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Nutcracker King Tower. |
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Nutcracker Princess Tower. |
Clashmas Tree (Shop)
Ah — the Clashmas Tree. The most common types of real Christmas trees are firs, spruces, and pines. The ones that come in Clashmas are made in pixels, but still decorated with festive lights and stars. The ladder going up the Princess Tower is made of a giant candy cane! …Better not eat it all on the way up. 😆
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Clashmas Tree tower skin set. In-App Purchase. |
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Clashmas Tree King Tower. |
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Clashmas Tree Princess Tower. |
Clashmas Sweater (Free)
Another Clashmas tradition — the Clashmas sweater is themed with a Clashmas or winter-style design. They are often knitted.
One could say that this tradition has achieved meme status in recent years — it’s a modern tradition now for many people trying to find the most outrageous and ridiculous designs and to remember the annual festivities wearing them in their holiday photos. In fact, “ugly christmas sweater” has become a trending popular term to search for on Google.
This tower skin will be free to all players, and you can collect it at Tier 1 on the free track of Pass Royale. Although it’s free, it’s also one of my favorites for this season. The King Tower comes with a carefully knitted face of Hog Rider with festive red hair. I can feel the coziness even in the arena.
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Clashmas Sweater tower skin set. Free track of Pass Royale at Tier 1. |
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Clashmas Sweater King Tower. |
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Clashmas Sweater Princess Tower. |
Emotes
There will be eight new emotes this season. 😱
Fire Spirit: Coal Naughty
Fire Spirit springs to live. He was naughty this year and his fire dies out. This comes as a pair with Fire Spirit Coal Nice emote. One of them will be free, and the other will be available at the shop. Which one you’ll get for free depends on your luck — it’s picked randomly.
Fire Spirit: Coal Nice
A Clashmas gift arrives, and a piece of coal jumps out, which turns into a fiery Fire Spirit. This comes as a pair with Fire Spirit Coal Naughty emote. One of them will be free, and the other will be available at the shop. Which one you’ll get for free depends on your luck — it’s picked randomly.
Hog: Gingerbread
A Hog with reindeer antlers hat is holding a King-shaped gingerbread figure, and chows down on it. Yum, the King tastes great!
This is one of my favorite emotes of this season — it’s hilarious! Unlock this at Tier 20 of Pass Royale.
Hog: Reindeer Fly
A Hog as reindeer flying in the air. Very festive — though I have no idea how to emote with this properly in battles. Any ideas? Let me know in the comment section.
Get this at the shop.
Hog Rider: Santa Sack
Santa Hog Rider sticks his hand into the sack and pulls out a Hammer. Unlock this emote at the Santa Hog Rider Challenge from December 19 to 25.
Hog Rider: Santa Snowball
Hog Rider is having a pleasant moment, but immediately gets hit by a Giant Snowball, followed by many other ones which eventually cover his face.
Unlock this on the Path of Legends when you get to League 4: Master I. 🏆 League 1-3 has Level 11 caps so this should be achievable by most players.
Pro tip for new players: getting XPs by upgrading cards is the most efficient before Card Level 11, so it’s a good idea to upgrade most cards to Level 11. Just watch out for your Gold in case you’re saving for some expensive Level 14 upgrades later.
King: Pixelized Laugh
The 8-bit emote collection returns with a Thug Life King edition. Available of purchase at the shop. (In-App Purchase)
Valkyrie: Tree Cut
A Valkyrie cuts down the Clashmas tree with her axe. Available as a challenge reward of the 2v2 challenge during the Daily Challenges running from December 13-18.
Free Magic Item
A lot of you have been waiting for this for the whole year — a Legendary Book of Cards will be up for grabs at Tier 35 on the free track of Pass Royale.
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A Legendary Book of Cards at Tier 35 on the free track of Pass Royale. |
Boosted Cards
Three cards will be boosted in December — all of them will be boosted together. Use our site to find the best decks that utilize these cards.
Giant Snowball
Best Decks with Giant Snowball
Hog Rider
Ice Spirit
Banner Items
Twenty-Eight (28) brand new banner items will be available this season. Sixteen (16) will come in your Banner Box, with an additional twelve (12) available for purchase at the shop.
High Chance
Heal Spirit with Reindeer Gift Wrap
Ice Spirit with Snowflakes
Rare
Goblin Barrel
Minion Horde
Sparky Shot
Extremely Rare
King Nutcracker
Santa Prince
Giant Skeleton Snow Globe
Shop (IAP: In-App Purchases)
Chibi Hog Rider Santa Gift
Many players enjoy the Chibi series of skin from previous season, and they’re making a return.
Chibi, also known as super deformation, or S.D. is a style of caricature originating in Japan, and common in anime and manga where characters are drawn in an exaggerated way, typically small and chubby with stubby limbs, oversized heads, and minimal detail.
…aka kawaii or cute!
Chibi Hog Rider Santa Sled
Clashmas Goblin
Clashmas Hog Rider Santa
Gift Adventure
Show Ride Hog Rider
Challenges and Global Tournaments
December 5-10: Let it Snow Challenge
We don’t have a lot of info about this. BUT if I had to guess, it’d be a challenge where Giant Snowballs randomly fall from the sky. Let’s see if I’m right next week, or add a comment below and tell me what you think it’ll be!
December 10-14: Royal Tournament (Normal)
Global tournament played as regular battles. You know what this is.
December 13-18: Daily Challenges
A challenge will happen every day. Each will require one win and will give one reward per challenge. Here are the game modes:
- Triple Elixir
- Draft
- Touchdown
- Sudden Death
- Mirror Battle
- 2v2
December 19-25: Santa Hog Rider Challenge
Santa Hog Rider is here! He will leave a series of gifts in his path, which your troops can collect for various buffs!
This is a fun challenge played with a special super troop — but it’s Clashmas so he won’t be Super Hog Rider but Santa Hog Rider instead.
Santa Hog Rider will be a Legendary troop that costs 5 elixir. As he runs through the arena, he will leave behind a series of gifts.
So what’s in these gifts? When your troops walk pass through them, spells pop up from the gift boxes and aid in your battle. Four types of spells are possible: Clone, Heal, Rage and Invisibility!
During playtesting, we’ve found that the spells from these gifts could stack on top of each other — quickly turning the tide of battles even when you’ve only got a few units left.
This is an 8-win casual challenge, and you’ll win the Hog Rider: Santa Sack emote when you have completed it.
This challenge is a lot of fun and I can’t wait to play it when it’s live!
December 24-28: Royal Tournament (Rage)
Global Tournament returns in Rage mode.
December 26 - January 1: Mega Draft Challenge
Take turns with your opponent drafting from an open selection of cards, then battle it out!
If you’ve missed our previous coverage of this challenge, Mega Draft Challenge is a new game mode. It was originally scheduled for the November season, but Supercell decided to change it up and run it in December instead.
When the game starts, the game gives a random selection of 36 cards. Players must take turn picking cards to create their own deck.
Both players can see the card pool, and each card can only be picked once.
There is a deep level of strategies at play here — do you pick the cards you want, or do you take away cards that your opponent would want?
Pick Order
The pick order is not just a simple back and forth, but goes something like this: after the first player picked, the second player will pick two cards, continued by the first player picking another two cards, until the end.
Let’s say the blue player is 🔵 and the red player is 🔴, the order is something like this:
🔵🔴🔴🔵🔵🔴🔴🔵🔵🔴🔴🔵🔵🔴🔴🔵
So basically every player picks two cards every turn, with the first player picking one card in the beginning and one card at the very end.
Tip
- Since every deck can only contain a single Champion, if your opponent has already picked a Champion, there’s no need to pick that Champion until the very end.
Rules + Rewards
Casual play!
Party Modes
Triple Draft - December 5-11
Draft your 8-card deck, picking from 3 choices at a time. See the card category breakdown on our site.
Royal Delivery Drop - December 12-18
Did someone order some destruction? A Royal Delivery barrage rains down on the Arena, delivering damage and Royal Recruits!
Elixir Capture - December 19-25
Destroy the central Elixir Storage to gain Elixir, and use troops to collect Elixir on the bridges! Use this to your advantage to win!
2v2 Sudden Death - December 26 - January 2
The first player to take a tower... WINS!
Loading Screen
The December season will come with a new loading screen.
An Archer is opening gifts, as a Barbarian holding a Mini Barbarian toy runs towards the arena. The King is seen passing out gifts to everyone, and the Miner jumps up in excitement. High up in the sky, a Hog Rider rides a sleigh pulled by Hogs with reindeer antlers. A towering Clashmas tree decorated with ornaments shines brightly in a distant. Far back in a distant, a festive palace decorated in Nutcracker paint sits calmly on the top of the hill. Its windows are all lit up, implying lots of fun parties inside.
Path of Legends Config Changes (Extra!)
November is the first full season of Path of Legends. Based on live game data and your feedback, Supercell has decided to make some changes — mostly because many players find it to be too easy, with many vocal players highlighting especially how easy it is to reach the Ultimate Champion league (League 10).
Some changes are coming next season. Max — Clash Royale’s community manager — has already tweeted about these yesterday. We’ve summarized the changes he has mentioned and provided some more details.
Note: a last-minute change has removed the extra divisions for League 1 and League 3 that Max had mentioned in his tweeet.
Extra steps in League 7-9
League 7, 8 and 9 will now have 2 extra steps. Specifically:
| # | League | Before | After |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | Champion | 6 | 8 |
| 8 | Grand Champion | 7 | 9 |
| 9 | Royal Champion | 9 | 11 |
This change is intended to make it a little bit harder for players who want to grind to the top league.
Pro tip: since it will get harder to get to Ultimate Champion next season, if you want that exclusive King: Emperor emote, you’ll want to do it now!
As of November 30, there are 1.46% of Path of Legends players in Ultimate Champion. In contrast, the test season in October consists of 0.3% of PoL players only.
Path of Legends Emote
An emote will be added to League 4 (Master 1). For the December season, it will be the Hog Rider: Santa Snowball emote. This will serve as seasonal content for players and encourage more players to play this very fair ranked mode. Leagues 1-3 all have Level 11 cap as well as many Gold Steps, so it should be reachable by less hardcore players.
Matchmaking
Matchmaking times and methods will be changed for League 10 Ultimate Champion. Search range for Rating difference will be decreased from 300 to 150, and the time to search for an opponent will be increased from 60 seconds to 90 seconds.
| Before | After | |
|---|---|---|
| Max rating diff | 300 | 150 |
| Max time | 60 sec | 90 sec |
How matchmaking works
If you don’t understand how matchmaking works, here’s a quick summary.
When you hit the Battle button in Clash Royale, the game server will try to match you against other opponents who are similar to your rating. To get the fairest matches, the game will try to find someone with the same rating as yours.
Depending on the number of players who are looking for a match in your rating range, it might not find anyone immediately. So over time, it will slowly expand the range of ratings (difference from your rating) until it has reached a limit.
For example, let’s say you have 2000 rating. The game will first try to look for someone who is also 2000. If it can’t find anyone, it will gradually look at 2001 and 1999 (+/- 1), then 2002 and 1998 (+/- 2), etc. The search range increases over time, but will eventually stops expanding when it reaches +/- 150 (1850 to 2150) at 90 seconds.
When the limit is reached, it will still keep on searching for opponents, just that the range won’t expand anymore. It’s also important to note that even during range expansion, the game will still try to match you against players closest to your rating. It’s just that a larger range means more potential candidates to choose from.
I know that this is somewhat nerdy. 🤓 I have implemented matchmaking before so I can tell you how it works in general terms. There are obviously a lot more implementation details behind the scene, but hopefully this greatly simplified explanation would still be helpful!
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