Complete Guide to using the Clash Royale Firecracker: Basic information, best tips for defending and attacking, how to counter her and best decks for her!
Firecracker Guide
The Firecracker is a 3 
Elixir Common card which can be unlocked from Hog Mountain (Arena 10).
She is a long-range troop, having a range of 6 tiles, but her shrapnel from her bazooka can actually reach much longer than that! In fact, she can even damage the Princess towers when at the bridge, not unlike a Magic Archer.
Her HP is quite low, meaning that in most cases Arrows will be able to kill her.
Her splash damage is deadly and can provide huge positive elixir trades.
Her knockback is her special effect, which sometimes makes her unpredictable and tricky to kill with Spells.
However, all this comes with a weakness: how easily she activates the King Tower!
In fact, in 2v2, she hits the King Tower even when there are no other troops around.
Firecracker’s Stats
| Level | Hitpoints | Area Damage | Damage per second |
| 1 | 119 | 25 x5 | 8 x5 |
| 2 | 130 | 27 x5 | 9 x5 |
| 3 | 143 | 30 x5 | 10 x5 |
| 4 | 158 | 33 x5 | 11 x5 |
| 5 | 173 | 36 x5 | 12 x5 |
| 6 | 190 | 40 x5 | 13 x5 |
| 7 | 209 | 44 x5 | 14 x5 |
| 8 | 229 | 48 x5 | 16 x5 |
| 9 | 252 | 53 x5 | 17 x5 |
| 10 | 279 | 58 x5 | 19 x5 |
| 11 | 304 | 64 x5 | 21 x5 |
| 12 | 334 | 70 x5 | 23 x5 |
| 13 | 367 | 77 x5 | 25 x5 |
Useful Firecracker Interactions To Know
▶️ A firecracker can fully counter a P.E.K.K.A. and Mega Knight (Placement: 5 tiles from king tower, 4 tiles from river path).
Place the firecracker right as the troop crosses the bridge.
Keep in mind, this is difficult to time and hence a risky play if you’re out of elixir as a result of a display!
▶️ She can one-shot any unit with the same or less health than Archers (hence, a Firecracker can one-shot an opposing Firecracker/Archers of the same level).
▶️ When facing the Firecracker, you can activate your king tower easily. Placing most troops a few tiles in front of the king tower when the firecracker has walked 2 steps past the bridge will activate the king. However, this requires precise time and some practice!
▶️ A Log one level higher than a Firecracker will kill her.
Best Cards to Use with Firecracker
Best Counters to Firecracker
Firecracker’s Defensive Utility
The Firecracker is, first and foremost, a defensive card.
Keep in mind the fact that your opponent will probably know how to activate the King Tower with her if you are playing above 5300+, most likely, but of course, there will be skilled players below that trophy range!
Therefore, if you are well above that trophy range, be prepared to be at a slight disadvantage because of your opponent’s king being activated.
This is precisely why the Firecracker should never be sent alone.
You may think that you can just cycle the Firecracker in the back like Archers, Bomber, or any slow-ish cheap troop. But this is just a free king activation and a waste of 3 elixir, no matter what your opponent’s deck is!
She should always be played as a reactive card, for example, to counter split Barbarians or any other swarm.
She can gain huge positive elixir trades through staying alive for a long time, because of her very long sight range, shrapnel range, and of course her unique recoil ability.
Her recoil ability also means that it can be difficult for your opponents to target her with a Miner because you can just place something in front easily to block, and the recoil will make it even more difficult.
Keeping the Firecracker alive in any cycle/control deck, decks in which she will most frequently appear in top ladder and containing cards she synergises well with is very important.
Treat her like a Musketeer in 2.6 Hog, or a Princess in Log Bait. Cycling her over and over again would make sense, as she can be an extremely finicky card to deal with if your opponent does not have a hard counter like Arrows or Fireball.
Even so, it is sometimes difficult to predict where the Firecracker will recoil back to, leading to her often evading spells.
She synergises well with Tornado, like many other splash troops, apart from Hunter, because of the huge damage dropoff as distance increases. She can stay in safety near the King Tower while you clump all your troops up.
She can work like a Magic Archer, damaging troops behind the main tank. But unlike a Magic Archer, placement does not matter as much because she doesn’t fire a straight arrow, so you don’t need perfect geometry.
As a result, she synergizes excellently with a tank buster like the Mini Pekka, an incredibly tanky and hard-hitting card for its cost. Because of how easily she is countered, protect the virginity, as SirTag would say! You can’t let that Knight’s sword near her.
Like the Princess, she has an incredibly slow hit speed but her splash damage and range undoubtedly make up for this shortcoming.
When you are using her, make sure not to place her too far away from the attacking troops because she could switch lane easily and end up ignoring the troop. Usually, her very long sight range compensates for this, but just keep this in mind because she can sometimes lose sight of other enemies
As mentioned earlier, she can activate the king tower with a number of different plants.
She can even lure a Mega Knight to the King, with the Firecracker still surviving! However, usually, you wouldn’t be doing this in regular play unless there’s a naked Mega Knight on the field and your opponent is down elixir. It’s incredibly satisfying if you do manage to pull it off and your opponent will be spamming angry emotes as a result!
A cool fact if you didn’t know: The Firecracker can completely dodge the Bowler’s bowling ball.
Firecracker’s Offensive Utility
Although less of an offensive card due to her slow hit speed, she is still a big threat.
Sending a Hog and a Firecracker is a good combo, with the Firecracker’s huge AoE obliterating Skeletons and Minions alike.
She does not work in the same way as a princess – Don’t just plop her at the bridge because she will get a minuscule amount of damage – 385 damage from 1 hit at max level, whereas the Princess will always force elixir from the opponent which you can counter if you’re quick.
Even if there is an Elixir Pump behind the Princess tower which she can splash onto, do not deny one less elixir from your opponent with that one firecracker hit onto the Pump, having just wasted 3 elixir yourself for very little damage!
Also, keep in mind the obvious- that Firecracker can be tricked into hitting the King tower against a smart opponent.
That having been said, the Firecracker, if protected by the likes of an Ice Golem or a Knight, she can chip the tower from the opposite side of the arena, also opening up for yourself a huge area of denial where the opponent cannot play their swarm cards, especially if there are 2 firecrackers on the field which you will ideally want to get down in a cycle deck.
She is good for opposite lane pushes as well, because she can push herself back into the other lane. Although I said earlier that she does not force as much of a response as the Princess, the opponent still will have to spend quite a lot of elixir countering her if they don’t have the proper spells to counter her.
One of the most important things to note when using the Firecracker, if you didn’t already know- NEVER, EVER use her in 2v2 because she will AUTOMATICALLY activate the king.
Not great.
Best Decks with Firecracker
Deck 1: All-New Hog 2.6 w/ Firecracker
Long live the new 2.6! This deck is undoubtedly the most popular Firecracker deck, used extensively on the ladder by top players like Morten and RUBEN. This being said, it is a very high-skill deck to use due to the fragility of most of the cards. Unlike the original 2.6 (still popular!) there is no defensive building. Instead, Mini Pekka takes the role of tank buster, perhaps unsurprisingly so, due to the rampance of Mini Pekka in many meta decks! Firecracker can provide huge value and works similar to the Musketeer in the original 2.6 deck.
Below is gameplay of this deck from Inigo, a Mexican player who has finished as high as 67th in the world with this deck.
Deck 2: RG Firecracker Cycle
This is a very solid deck, hard countering many of the decks in the meta with meta cards of its own, such as Miner WB (Bomb Tower, Log, Skeletons), XBow 2.9 (RG, Earthquake), Hog 2.6 of either type (Bomb Tower, Tornado), Splashyard (Bomb Tower, Log), and EGolem (Bomb Tower, Tornado). Overall, this is a super strong deck, with a focus on defence and then a counterpush with none other than the mighty Royal Giant!
Here’s this deck being played, but with Barb Barrel instead of Log (shouldn’t make too much of a difference.) It isn’t so popular now, but it is definitely still viable.
Deck #3: MK WB Firecracker
This is an extremely good challenge deck, which is a variation on the MK Wall Breakers Spam deck popularised a few months ago. The Firecracker combined with the Mini Pekka, a staple tank killer, plus dual win conditions Miner and Wall Breakers, such a powerful combo and often leaving your opponent at an elixir disadvantage. Mega Knight, of course, is there to clean huge clumps of troops up!
Here’s SirTag using this deck!
Bonus Deck: 1.8 Bandit Firecracker Cycle
The man, the myth, the legend, Bufarete has used this deck on top ladder before, managing to reach 8000 trophies with ease.
Just kidding! DO NOT try this on ladder unless you want to troll!
I hope you guys enjoyed this guide to Firecracker, and make sure to read more about the card.
This is by no means an exhaustive guide!
Firecracker is a great card with a highly interesting and unique mechanic, plus the benefit is that she is a Common card, making her easy to upgrade. Try her out!
