Summary
Clash Royaleis one of Supercell’s most popular games, where you collect cards and build a deck full of eccentric characters. It’s a fast-paced card game where you drop your troops into the arena and watch them fight your opponent. The key is to build a deck that works well against other players and have your own cards synergize with each other in such a way as to always have an upper hand in the game.
With Evolutions, the meta is constantly shifting, and new evolutions are released every month with players eager to try them out. Although some evolutions are hardly playable, like the Ice spirit and the Valkyrie, it’s best to use your hard-earned evolutions shards on the top-ranked ones.
Updated on August 01, 2025, by Umair Malik:More evolutions are being released every season, and they’ve been added to this list. Some balance changes every now and then on Supercell’s part have also altered the meta as of late, and their placements have also been updated.
20Ice Spirit
Ice Spirit is another one-elixir evolution that was already one of the best cards in the game prior to receiving an evolution. The great thing about one-elixir cards is that they can be cycled really quickly, so you’re able to achieve the evolution in no time at all, but unlike the skeletons, the ice spirit evolution is widely considered to be underpowered.
The evolution basically does the same freeze as the ice spirit but repeats it three times in a radius that can slow down any push easily. It can be really easily countered though, which is why it’s left out of the evolution slot for something better like the firecracker.
19Valkyrie
One of the most interesting evolutions in concept that falls off in terms of practicality is the Valkyrie evolution. The Valkyrie is one of the most used cards in mid-ladderusually used alongside a support card, because of how versatile it can be, able to counter swarms and distract tanks like the Mega Knight.
With the evolution, you get a tornado for each swing the Valkyrie does, which means it can easily stop troops from getting to the tower if placed correctly. But since the tornado pushes troops towards her, she dies fairly quickly, even quicker than a regular Valkyrie, despite the health increase. It hasn’t seen much play beyond mid-ladder because of this and the Knight Evolution is better in every way.
18Battle Ram
The Battle Ram by itself is seen in very few decks in the meta these days, and because Pekka Bridge Spam has fallen out of popularity, the Battle Ram is in a very confused state.
On one hand, it’s a very overpowered evolution, able to keep ramming into your opponent’s tower till it loses its first health bar, and then spawn two evolved Barbarians as backup. On the other hand, the lack of synergy with other cards has made it too situational to be considered a good evolution.
17Royal Giant
The Royal Giant is one of the few win conditions with an evolution, and though the six-elixir card looks to be too expensive and too easy to counter with swarm cards, that all changes with the evolution.
The cannon recoils and pushes any melee troop that your opponent drops back, making it close to impossible for swarm cards to take out the Royal giant without it dealing significant damage first. It also has only one cycle before it evolves, meaning it’s easy to have it constantly on the battlefield, though ranged cards or defensive buildings like the inferno tower still counter it easily.
16Wall Breakers
The Wall Breakers are an evolution that was nerfed before it was even released, and the card has had a big impact on the meta even in its weakened state. With this evolution,it’s no longer easy to counter the Wall Breakers, since there are two stages of the troop now which can damage any other troop attacking the Wall Breakers as well.
They even do more damage and are tough to take down without a defensive building, which will always be a negative elixir trade. The only thing holding them back from being ranked higher is that they can be really tough to cycle to on time because the two evolution cycle just doesn’t work well with win conditions like this one.
15Barbarians
The Barbarians are and always will be one of the best defensive cards in the game, only being held back by the five-elixir cost of placing them. The evolved Barbarians massively improved on their versatility by giving them the opportunity to be played offensively.
God forbid they reach the tower and start raging, they will have the highest damage per second of any troop, higher than the seven-elixir Pekka even. The Evolved Barbarians are just a great and extremely versatile card to have in your deck and work in almost any situation, making them a jack of all trades and even master of some.In a game like Clash Royale, Evolved Barbarians might seem overpowered but are actually super balanced because of their vulnerability to splash damage.
14Zap
The Zap evolution was added alongside the Tesla, and they’re sort of similar in theme and in mechanics. Since the use rate of the Zap tanked in the recent meta, Supercell gave it a much-needed evolution that has boosted its use rate in top ladder.
The Zap evolution has two cycles, but since it’s such a cheap card, you’re able to get to it very soon. It does almost the same amount of damage as a fireball and is essentially three zaps in one with a growing radius for each Zap. It’s great for taking out fireballies and large swarms quickly, making it slightly overpowered for just two elixir.
13Bats
Bats are the skeletons of the sky and are a brilliant counter to Lavaloon decks that can easily take out a Balloon very quickly. For just two elixir, they’re a great addition to have, with their main weakness being that they’re easily killed by every spell and can also be one-shot by the princess tower.
But the evolution eliminates that weakness by giving them more health while also having them heal up and increase their max health each time they hit an enemy. This works well in cycle decks andespecially double evolution decksthat capitalize on spamming troops and evos as fast as possible.
12Mortar
The Mortar is another win condition that has an overpowered evolution that’s balanced by the fact that it has two cycles before reaching its evolved form. The Mortar itself has a mixed history, from being one of the most hated cards in the game to being just alright.
With the evolution, there’s much more strategy to playing the Mortar, since the additional launch of the goblin can be good defensively and amazing if it lands on the princess towers. It’s essentially a Mortar and a Goblin Drill in a four-elixir package that can be countered easily but,if played skillfully, can win you games.
11Goblin Giant
One of the more decent evolutions, Goblin Giantused to dominate the meta until it was finally balanced by Supercell. The evolution is one of the few evolutions that is graced once a year on a win condition card and has a single cycle till it evolves.
When the evolved Goblin Giant is below half HP, it’ll keep spawning Goblins to back up itself and it’s actually really useful. With so many Goblin-themed troops coming to Clash Royale, it’s nice to have a dedicated win condition that feels balanced, even with its evolution.
