Hello everybody! It’s NebulaNoodle again, with my TENTH guide!
I’ve celebrated by making an awesome guide all about my favorite win condition, the Balloon.
Since the early arenas, when I obtained it, I used it in Giant-Loon to push to Arena 7 and been a frequent Balloon Cycle user all my life. I recently upgraded this card to get my FIRST lvl 5 epic! Hope you enjoy!
Basics
| Hit Speed | Speed | Deploy Time | Range | Target | Cost |
| 3 sec | Medium | 1 sec | Melee | Buildings | 5 |
| Level | Hitpoints | Damage per Hit | Damage per second | Death Damage |
| 1 | 1,050 | 600 | 200 | 205 |
| 2 | 1,155 | 660 | 220 | 225 |
| 3 | 1,270 | 726 | 242 | 248 |
| 4 | 1,396 | 798 | 266 | 272 |
| 5 | 1,533 | 876 | 292 | 299 |
| 6 | 1,680 | 960 | 320 | 328 |
| 7 | 1,848 | 1,056 | 352 | 360 |
| 8 | 2,026 | 1,158 | 386 | 395 |
The Balloon is a building-targeting flying troop, which deals huge damage with each hit, but has a slow hit speed.
The Death Bomb, when dropped, can kill Goblins, Princesses, Skeletons (obviously), Minions, and bring most glass cannons to half health.
The Balloon is not extremely tanky, and can be taken out by most glass cannons, therefore, the Balloon should be used with a tank, either in a fast paced or slow paced deck.
Strategies
It’s clearly a win condition, and completely useless for defense (except for last-minute kiting for a clutch win, I guess.
As I mentioned before, the Balloon works best with a tank, but you could potentially have a Balloon Rage or Balloon Freeze deck with no tank.
You can use the Balloon as a main win condition, where you should have heavy protection for the Balloon or a fast cycle, or as a secondary win condition or threat card.
Non-damaging spell cards like Clone are extremely deadly if used properly with the Balloon.
Even if the Balloon doesn’t make it to the tower, the two death bombs will deal immense damage!
And if the cloned Balloon and real Balloon both hit the towers, they can take out a tower in a matter of seconds.
When going against Balloon, always be prepared for a pre-placed spell.
Know their cycle and know if you can cycle to your counters. Always have sufficient air defense!
Best Counters to Balloon
Just watch out for spells, especially if you use Minion Horde as your main Balloon defense.
Always have another reliable air defense in your deck!
Most Effective Two-Card Synergies
This is a really good punishing combo, often seen in fast-paced Miner Balloon decks by the pros.
The Ice Golem’s frost nova brings Minions’ health down to zap range, which also is extremely helpful.
A very effective strategy.
Fire Spirits bring down glass cannons to pretty low health and also deal great damage to the crown towers.
Again, a punishing strategy.
How could I forget this? The days of LavaLoon dominance are gone but this remains a viable (and nostalgic) combo.
Simple, right? Balloon behind Lava Hound, and get ready with your Arrows/Lightning.
A simple combo, often seen in the lower arenas because they are both flying units and many people aren’t prepared in terms of air defense.
Try this behind a Lava Hound in the higher arenas for a deadly combo no one can ignore!
An extremely good combo.
This combo forces your opponent to split up their defenses or suffer lots of damage from either troop.
Here’s an advanced tactic: If your opponent counters your Balloon every time, learn from your mistakes.
Right when the opponent’s air defense is about to go for your Balloon, send in the Miner to distract the troop and allow your Balloon to travel unscathed!
Get the Arrows ready for Minions or glass cannons!!
A pre-fired (overleveled) Fireball burns Glass Cannons to the ground before they spawn.
Make sure you know their counters before trying this.
Extremely aggressive, high risk, high reward!
One of the best punishing combs in my opinion- when the Lumberjack dies he drops a rage spell, elevating the Balloon’s threat level.
Best in 2v2 or ladder pushing. Very fun deck to play with.
Effective in the lower arenas but also in the higher arenas!
A simple tank strategy.
The Mega Knight just wrecks everything which is killing the Balloon, and has a retargeting ability.
Giant+Mega Knight+Balloon is just way too OP when combined with spells.
Best Decks with Balloon
Classic LavaLoon (by Ash)
The original and best LavaLoon!
There’s Fireball to eliminate Minions and Glass Cannons, Minions to distract, and Goblin Gang as arrow bait so the Pups can deal damage.
Only use the Zap to reset the Inferno Dragon/Tower onto another target.
Mega Knight Balloon Miner (by Surgical Goblin)
This is a very counterpushing orientated deck, containing the Zap and Gang to complement the Miner, and three tanks for the Balloon: Ice Golem, Miner, and Mega Knight!
An extremely good deck with solid defense and attack. A classic fast paced deck.
Miner Balloon (by CLASHwithSHANE)
A 2.8 Balloon Deck, fast paced! Minimal air defense so tower trading is advised against air-based decks.
Keep the Balloon as a surprise card!
PEKKA Balloon (by Chief Pat)
A deck that has the ability to ‘Rocket‘ you to the top! (Get it)?
An interesting off-meta deck that I tried, and ended up getting three crown after three crown in 2v2’s!
Do give it a shot.
GiantLoon (by WhiteLlama67)
A revamped GiantLoon deck, with Furnace for pressure and solid counterpushing ability.
A very pressuring deck! Go check out his guide!
2.5 Loon (by me!)
My deck! Extremely quick cycle, great in 2v2s.
More of a fun deck, but certainly viable.
Try replacing Miner with Fire Spirits, the defense ability becomes stronger.
Miner Balloon Skeleton Barrel (by Regeneration)
Another quick cycle Balloon deck, with the rookie Skeleton Barrel!
It has incredible synergies and your opponent needs to react fast, and it punishes opponents very well for spending lots of elixir.
This one rocks! Check out the guide too!
Best/Worst Matchup for Balloon Decks
Best
Golem decks.
Decks such as Miner Balloon and MK Loon punish extremely well against Golem, and have a fast enough cycle to defend very effectively.
Should be easy wins!
Worst:
Siege decks.
Decks like LavaLoon have very little ground distraction and often the Balloon will get shot down before it reaches the siege weapon.
Facing Mortar is also tricky, they have a fast cycle and usually a strong tank, and rocket to take out your Balloon.
Some Tips for you!
When facing Balloon, a well placed Tombstone or Cannon can shut down the Balloon completely.
Another tip when facing Balloon with a building is to know its sight range.
Hold down your building until you see the red exclamation mark. A properly placed Inferno Tower can take out a Balloon without the Balloon hitting the IT. This applies with all building targeting troops.
A tip when using Balloon, especially for new players: NEVER SEND IT ALONE!
It is pretty squishy and can be easily taken out with the proper units. Make sure to send in a tank. The Balloon is a very versatile card, being able to fit in slow beatdown decks (LavaLoon) or fast-paced, aggressive ones (Miner Balloon).
The Balloon is also a very good surprise card to use in double elixir!
Where is Balloon’s place in this meta?
I don’t see Balloon decks too much in the ladder, if I do, it’s mostly LumberLoon or some weird insanely heavy GolemLoon deck.
On TV Royale, you don’t see much Balloon either with the pros. But in challenges I’ve kept on facing Balloon decks.
The LavaLoon usage rate has waned, the glory days are over, I say!
Miner MK Balloon is still a prevalent and deadly combo, and Balloon Cycle is one of my favorite combos.
I don’t feel like Balloon should be getting a major buff or nerf, but I feel like the bomb timer at 3s is too long; at 2s it would be able to damage slightly faster troops.
I haven’t heard complaints about it.
What do you guys think about it? Is Balloon a balanced card? Yes or No?
Videos:
What do you guys think about the Balloon’s future? Leave a comment below!
That’s it guys, hope you enjoyed this Balloon guide, and I hope if you hated Balloon before and thought it was a no-skill free damage card, you have converted!
I put lots of effort into this so please drop a line in the comments about how you thought.
Thank you guys for everything! PCE <3
