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Season 85 starts on July 6th, 2026, and the balance changes go live shortly after. The count this time: six nerfs, one rework, four buffs. A normal patch on paper. Then you notice that every single hero card is on the nerf list, and it starts to look less like tuning and more like a statement.
Full changes first, then my take on what Supercell is actually doing here.
The nerfs
Evolved Executioner
- Close quarters range: 3.5 tiles → 2.5 tiles (-29%)
- Close quarters damage: 268 → 240 (-10%)
The evo’s whole identity was punishing anything that got near it. Losing a full tile of range means troops now have to be practically hugging him before the bonus kicks in, and the bonus itself hits softer. He is still fine at ranged work. The close range terror is mostly gone.
Hero Magic Archer
- Ability range: 15.5 tiles → 13.5 tiles (-13%)
- Teleport distance: 5.0 tiles → 3.5 tiles (-30%)
- Decoy HP: 627 → 271 (-57%)
Three nerfs on one card. The decoy losing more than half its health is the one that matters. It used to buy real time on defense, and now it barely survives a sneeze. The shorter teleport also means fewer of those infuriating escapes where he blinks out of a spell you predicted perfectly.
Hero Balloon
- Skeletrooper landing damage: 256 → 204 (-20%)
- Skeletrooper hit speed: 1.11 → 0.91 hits per second (-18%)
Both changes hit the skeletroopers rather than the balloon itself. They land softer and they swing slower. Supercell apparently decided the passengers were doing too much of the work.
Hero Knight
- Shield HP: 768 → 512 (-33%)
One line, big number. That is a third of his free health gone, and shield cards live and die on breakpoints, so expect this to matter more than a single stat suggests.
Hero Goblins
- Deploy time: 1.0 seconds → 1.3 seconds (+30%)
0.3 seconds sounds like nothing until you use them defensively. Every reactive play just got worse, and against fast win conditions that delay will cost you towers.
Miner
- Tower damage: 48 → 40 (-17%)
Yes, again. More on this below, because I have thoughts.
The rework
Hero Tombstone
- Tomb Queen HP: 3,379 → 4,044 (+20%)
- Tomb Queen spawn speed: 0.4 → 0.0 spawns per second (-100%)
- Ability cost: 6 elixir → 5 elixir (-17%)
Read that middle line twice. The Tomb Queen no longer spawns anything at all. In exchange she gets 20% more HP and costs a full elixir less. Calling this a rework is generous. It is a different card wearing the same skin. If you ran her for the body, you might come out ahead. If you ran her for the spawn pressure, you got robbed.
The buffs
- Ram Rider: HP 1,697 → 1,766 (+4%)
- Baby Dragon: damage 161 → 168 (+4%)
- P.E.K.K.A: damage 816 → 842 (+3%)
- Electro Giant: HP 3,855 → 3,952 (+3%)
Small numbers, but look at who got them. Four old cards that every free to play player already owns. P.E.K.K.A and Electro Giant getting help in the same patch where every hero gets kneecapped is not subtle.
My take: why nerf all four heroes at once?
Heroes mostly come through paid routes like passes and shop offers. If you are free to play (F2P), getting them takes forever. If you pay to win (P2W), you have them week one. And for months they have been everywhere on ladder.
Meanwhile the game has been bleeding players, at least going by every community thread this year, and the loudest complaint is always the same: the strongest cards sit behind a paywall, so ladder feels rigged for anyone not spending. Nerfing all four of the most used heroes in a single patch, while buffing four ancient free cards in the same breath, reads like a deliberate course correction. Supercell wants F2P players back, and this is the cheapest way to say sorry without refunding anyone.
They have not said any of this out loud, obviously. But you do not hit every hero at once by accident.
The Miner nerf nobody asked for
Tower damage from 48 to 40. The Miner has been nerfed so many times over the years that “Miner nerf” is basically its own genre of patch note, and nobody was calling this card overpowered right now.
So why? My honest guess: because it works. Reddit melts down, YouTubers get a week of content out of it, and Clash Royale trends without Supercell spending a cent on marketing. Maybe I am wrong and some spreadsheet said chip damage was 2% too efficient. But after this many rounds of it, the stunt theory feels at least as plausible as the balance one.
What happens next
Changes go live shortly after Season 85 kicks off on July 6th. If you have been sitting on a P.E.K.K.A or Electro Giant deck, this is your season. If you paid for heroes, well, you funded the apology tour.
Real rebalancing or damage control? Tell me what you think in the comments.
