Obstacles/Builder Base (2024)

For the Obstacles in the Home Village, see Obstacles/Home Village.

For the Obstacles in the Clan Capital, see Decorations/Clan Capital.

Summary

• Obstacles are structures that obstruct the placement of a village's Buildings.
• While a player can still build villages without being hindered by obstacles (by building around them or choosing a relatively clear location), it is significantly harder to do so at higher levels. To free up space for buildings to be placed, the player must either remove the obstacles with a Builder or relocate it elsewhere with a Shovel of Obstacles.
• If a Shovel of Obstacles is used on an obstacle, that obstacle will be permanently movable like any other building. The obstacle can also be stashed in Village Edit Mode similar to Decorations. The obstacle can also be removed normally afterwards, though this does not provide further compensation beyond the standard rewards for removal.
• You can't place buildings on obstacles (apart from the Tall Grass).
• If you accidentally set a Builder to remove an obstacle, you can cancel it if the button is tapped before the Builder is finished.
• Canceling the removal of an obstacle will refund you 100% of the resources spent, compared to the 50% refund on all other upgrades.
• Your village can have a maximum of 45 obstacles at one time - if this limit is reached or exceeded, regular obstacles will no longer spawn until obstacles are removed. Gem Boxes and holiday-themed obstacles ignore this limit when spawning and can spawn even if more than 45 obstacles are present on the village.
  • Obstacles stashed in Village Edit Mode will still count towards this limit.
• There is an achievement called "Nice and Tidy" which gives players Experience and Gems for removing 10/50/500 obstacles.
• Troops can be spawned beside and/or on top of obstacles that are not 3x3 in size.
• You must have a Builder Hall level 3 in order to remove obstacles in the Builder Base.
• Obstacles in the Builder Base respawn in a similar fashion to Obstacles in the Home Village. While trees (and variants), groves and grass will respawn over time if the obstacle limit isn't reached, mushrooms, rocks and stones will not respawn.
• Many obstacles in stage 1 of the Builder Base also appear in the Home Village.

Undecorated Obstacles

• Each obstacle that is removed can contain anywhere from 0 to 6 Gems.
• There are two cycles governing the number of Gems you receive by removing obstacles in your Builder Base. These cycles are identical and all occur concurrently and are independent of each other, including those for Obstacles in the Home Village. This means that clearing an obstacle advances only one of the below cycles and has no effect on the position of the other cycles. These cycles follow the pattern 6, 0, 4, 5, 1, 3, 2, 0, 0, 5, 1, 0, 3, 4, 0, 0, 5, 0, 1, 0.
  • The first cycle governs the number of Gems you receive from the original obstacles in the Builder Base (i.e. the obstacles that are spawned when you first enter the Builder Base). It advances when you remove such an obstacle in the Builder Base.
  • The second cycle governs the number of Gems you receive from spawned obstacles in the Builder Base (i.e. obstacles that spawned sometime after you enter the Builder Base). It advances when you remove such an obstacle in the Builder Base. However, three of the original Builder Base obstacles are considered spawned. The three Builder Base Obstacles that count as spawned are all stone obstacles and the information was made public by Darian on the now closed Supercell Forum.
• On average, each obstacle cleared has 2 Gems.
• Each obstacle will only spawn in a certain stage, but can be moved to either stage using the Shovel of Obstacles. Tall Grass can spawn in either stage, based on the location of its spawning obstacles (the Old/Ancient Barbarian Statues or other Tall Grass).

Vegetation

• All Vegetation except the Mushroom respawns at a rate of one item per eight hours, except if all the spaces in your village are totally filled.
• An obstacle will only spawn if there is a 1-tile buffer zone between the spaces in which it will spawn and another building or obstacle.
• The Tall Grass is the only Builder Base Obstacle that doesn't require a free Master Builder to remove, can't be moved by the Shovel of Obstacles, and will never yield Gems. You can either remove it with 50 or for free by placing a building on it, and the removal will be instantaneous. The latter method can be done without a Builder Hall level 3.
  • Removing the Tall Grass with 50 counts towards the Nice and Tidy Achievement and the Gardening Exercise Clan Quest, but placing a building on it for free won't count.
  • In the Village Edit Mode however, Tall Grass can be removed using Elixir, but cannot be removed by placing buildings on top of it.
• The Old Barbarian Statue will spawn Tall Grasses by its side. The same goes for the Ancient Barbarian Statue decoration. If neither of these is present, any remaining Tall Grass can still spawn beside nearby Tall Grass, but if all the Tall Grass are cleared too, then Tall Grass will not respawn until the Ancient Barbarian Statue is bought.

Obstacle	Size	Removal Cost	Removal Time	Experience Gained	Respawn Weight	Spawning Stage
Tall Grass (1)	1x1	50 1	Instant	N/A	3%2	1
Tall Grass (2)	1x1	50 1	Instant	N/A	3%2	1
Mushroom	2x2	100	10s	3	0%	1
Tree Stump	2x2	500	10s	3	20%	1
Trunk	2x2	1,000	10s	3	20%	1
Small Tree	2x2	2,000	10s	3	20%	1
Tree	2x2	2,000	10s	3	30%	1
Big Tree	2x2	10,000	10s	3	10%	1
Grove	3x3	20,000	1m	7	20%	1
Small Root	2x2	15,000	10s	3	?	2
Small Root	2x2	15,000	10s	3	?	2
Small Root	2x2	15,000	10s	3	?	2
Small Root	2x2	20,000	10s	3	?	2
Root	2x2	30,000	10s	3	?	2
Root	2x2	30,000	10s	3	?	2
Large Root	3x3	80,000	1m	7	?	2

¹ Can be removed for free by placing a building on top of it; see above for more details.

² Tall Grass only respawns if at least one of the following is present: other neighboring Tall Grass, the Old Barbarian Statue obstacle, or the Ancient Barbarian Statue decoration.

Ponds

Ponds are similar to vegetation in that they respawn once removed, but cost Builder Gold instead. They naturally appear in Stage 2.

Obstacle	Size	Removal Cost	Removal Time	Experience Gained	Respawn Weight	Spawning Stage
Large Pond	3x3	60,000	45s	6	?	2
Large Pond	3x3	60,000	45s	6	?	2
Overgrown Pond	3x3	90,000	1m	7	?	2

Rocks

Just like in the Home Village, rocks do not respawn once they are removed.

Obstacle	Size	Removal Cost	Removal Time	Experience Gained	Spawning Stage
Stone (Small 1)	2x2	500	10s	3	1
Stone (Small 2)	2x2	500	10s	3	1
Stone (Small 3)	2x2	500	10s	3	1
Stone (Small 4)	2x2	500	10s	3	1
Stone (Small 5)	2x2	500	10s	3	1
Stone (Small 6)	2x2	500	10s	3	1
Stone (Small Pillar)	2x2	500	10s	3	1
Stone (Pillar)	2x2	10,000	15s	3	1
Stone (Large)	3x3	20,000	15s	3	1
Old Barbarian Statue	3x3	200,000	1m	7	1
Stone (Small, Stage 2)	2x2	25,000	15s	3	2
Stone (Small, Stage 2)	2x2	15,000	15s	3	2
Stone (Small, Stage 2)	2x2	15,000	15s	3	2
Stone (Small, Stage 2)	2x2	10,000	15s	3	2
Stone (Pillar, Stage 2)	2x2	40,000	30s	5	2

Special Event Obstacles

• These obstacles only appear for a limited time, and are usually created to commemorate holidays. After the period in which they spawn ends, players can continue to keep these obstacles.
• Note that all special obstacles ignore the one-tile buffer zone rule that governs where normal vegetation can spawn. They can spawn in any 2x2 empty space within your village, though they tend toward spawning close to the outer edges of the field.

Lunar New Year Obstacles

Obstacle	Size	Removal Cost	Removal Time	Removal Reward	Respawn Weight
Glowy Lantern (2019)	2x2	1,000	5s	75,000 and 2	N/A

Immovable Obstacles

These Obstacles cannot be made moveable by the Shovel of Obstacles and are immediately removed when tapped.

Obstacle	Size	Removal Benefit	Removal Type	Spawning Event
Tombstone	1x1	20	All Tombstones are cleared upon being tapped.	Several tombstones appear at the start of the Builder Base tutorial, but are never seen afterwards.

Trivia

• Aside from the Gem Box, the Spike-y Cactus (from the Home Village) and the Glowy Lantern are the only obstacles that give a different resource than the one used to remove it.
• The Glowy Lantern is currently the only special event obstacle to have spawned in the Builder Base.

Icon Descriptions

	Tapping this icon removes this obstacle using Gold, if you have enough Gold and a free Master Builder or O.T.T.O. This icon only appears if the obstacle is in the Builder Base and requires Gold to remove.
	Tapping this icon removes this obstacle using Elixir, if you have enough Elixir and a free Master Builder or O.T.T.O. This icon only appears if the obstacle is in the Builder Base and requires Elixir to remove.
	Tapping this icon, which is displayed while the selected obstacle is being removed, cancels the removal of this obstacle and refunds the full cost.
	Tapping this icon allows this Obstacle to be permanently movable, at the cost of one Shovel of Obstacles. This icon is only shown if you have at least one Shovel of Obstacles.